Justin Packshaw - Reflections

What a trip! I don’t know why but I was rather complacent about us heading down to Antarctica and retracing the last two degrees of Scott’s epic trip back in 1911/12. I just thought that we would arrive, get stuck in and achieve our aim without too many dramas. How foolish I was. Antarctica in any guise is a formidable arena to do anything in, let alone ski 140 miles into the Pole with three wounded soldiers. She is a powerful and dangerous adversary to take on and complacency is not a wise starting point. Don’t get me wrong, we all trained and prepared very thoroughly and no one more than our inspirational boys from the Royal Dragoon Guards (RDG) – Adam, Robbie and Webby who were in thoroughbred nik. What with the historical link with Lawrence Oates and his Regiment (RDG) and the 100^th anniversary of the race to be first to conquer the Pole, we had left few stone unturned in our planning.

As one would imagine there was great excitement as we touched down on the 88^th latitude to start our trip proper. A thought must be shared for the pilots who are quite amazing and talented - flying there is a skilled art and one needs a lot of experience and big cajonas.  Anyway no sooner had the two Twin-Otter planes dropped us and all our clobber in the middle of nowhere, they were back in the sky on-route back to Union Glacier, our last umbilical cord with semi-civilisation flying away from us at 180 knots. We all gazed at each other and then the penny dropped, we were alone, standing on top of 3000 metres of ice where not a single living organism is able to survive, nothing; no bacteria, no animals, no indigenous people. Nada! Man, oh man, this was the real deal.

So this is how we set off; ten beating hearts, ten whirling minds and ten bellies full of emotional excitement and trepidation heading south as we retraced the footsteps of legends from another era. A proper baptism of fire it was too, as we found ourselves trudging into a nasty headwind, tricky sastrugi and pulling uncooperative sledges! Home felt a long way away but home we had to make it. The Antarctic plateau is vast and many forget that it is at 9,000 feet so one also has to tackle the altitude as well as an average temperature around -30^oC. Day one and our team suddenly realised that this was not going to be a stroll in the park.

I won’t go through the next three weeks as I know that it has all been wonderfully highlighted previously in our blog. Suffice to say, that it was full of everything one might imagine that that magnificent continent could throw at us and yes she does have sharp teeth. Very.

The team was nothing short of brilliant; humour was never far from anything as we came to grips with functioning effectively and efficiently in a very alien environment. The boys had to contend with much as they were all carrying terrible wounds inflicted whilst on operational tour in Afghanistan all of which played up on the trip. They never complained or shirked any responsibility throughout. Inspirational one and all.

Day by day we etched the miles away until we were suddenly standing at the famous sphere at the bottom of the world, all hardships forgotten. Total elation washing over us; a vast blanket of relief, satisfaction, pride and love for the whole team. It had been a proper slog but we had pulled through together as a group and done it. The only sadness was that Malcolm Walker and Peter Scott were not with us.

All in all it was an unusual expedition; unusual in that at every stage from its inception to actually carrying it out, everything came together and the project was met with bright minds and helpful hands. Lucky really.

There were many hands who helped make this happen and I’d just like to mention some of the key ones here:

•    HRH The Prince of Wales for offering his support to the expedition.
•    Malcolm Walker and all his Iceland team for sponsoring the expedition and raising so much money during the Iceland charity Week.
•    Keith Hann and Alan Wight for sterling work on the website and creative content.
•    Frederik Paulsen for all his support and generosity.
•    Peter Scott for much and all the resources offered up via ENGINE. Especially Matt Williams, Sacha Deshmukh, Alex Miller, Warren Cowen and Tanya Rodwell.
•    Major General Richard Nugee, Colonel Ian Horn, Major (Retd) Graham Cook at Army HQ for authorising us to take the three soldiers with us.
•    Major General Patrick Cordingley, Brigadier Johnny Torrens-Spence,  Colonel Jamie Piggott and all the brave men and women serving with the Royal Dragoon Guards for loaning us the three boys. Quis separabit.
•    All our sponsors including DHL, Nordic Life, Bergans, Brynje and Julbo. Your support was invaluable and we could not have had better kit.
•    Ed Parker and his team at ‘Walking with the Wounded’ and Nick Fox and the team at ‘Alzheimers Research UK’.
•    John Witherow, Margaret Drisscol, Jim Gillespie, Ray Wells and the rest of the team at The Sunday Times for supporting the expedition and our charities.
•    Adam, Robbie and Webby for your tenacity, stoicism and great humour. You have been the highest ambassadors for the British Army, the Royal Dragoon Guards and made your team mates proud to have done this journey with you.
•    The rest of the team - no better collection of individuals could one find.
•    Our families and friends for holding the fort and babies in most cases, whilst we were away. None of this would be possible without you and you were in our thoughts every step of the way.
•    Everyone who has kindly donated to these incredible charities. Every penny helps and all your contributions will make a significant difference. Sincere thanks from us all.

It has been an outstanding trip and experience and David and I are already hatching a plan for the next one so watch this space ………

We've Arrived!

Good news! The team made it to the South Pole at 12:20am UK time this morning. It's been a hell of an adventure with lots of highs and lows, but everyone is feeling good and in high spirits.

The team are flying back to the Union Glacier this afternoon, and will have more from them later.

Matthew Pinsent - Hitting Our Stride

Twelve days in and it feels like we’re finally hitting our stride. Our bodies have adjusted to the altitude and the worst seems to be behind us.

We’re covering a daily average of 11 nautical miles and if the weather holds out – and that’s a big if – we aim to reach the South Pole on Monday.

This does mean 10 hours on skis each day, and to do that you need huge mental strength. Webby has taken to putting Snoopy on the end of his skis and spends hours talking to him.

It turns out that Webby’s a big fan of Steve Redgrave and considers me very lucky to have competed with him over the course of my career. I told him that I always preferred Garfield to Snoopy.

To get through those long hours you do find yourself daydreaming, but you can’t do this for too long - being here is a privilege and you must remember that, especially in the presence of the soldiers. Walking with them really is a humbling experience and people should do all they can to support Walking with the Wounded and all the fine work that they do.

David Hempleman-Adams - Timekeeping

Every year I say never again. The problem is that I have a very short memory and after each trip only remember the good times!

Last year when I did this we had perfect weather with beautiful bright sunshine. This year conditions are much harder.

This has caused a bit of panic in the camp that we won’t actually make it to the Pole on time. In fact we’re on schedule and are increasing the miles we walk each day. Eventually we should be making it up to eight hours of walking.

The team is well, although a few have a touch of wind burn as souvenirs.

When we do finish each day we fall into the tent as quickly and efficiently as possible, as we are all absolutely exhausted. And I must say that the walking wounded make me feel humble at the end of every day.

Malcolm Walker - All the gear, no idea

Out here it really is all about the kit – you must have the right tools to do the job. And we’re very lucky that our generous sponsors have given us some amazing clobber – everything from brilliant base layers to mega warm heavy duty jackets to lovely warm socks.

I have customized my kit just a little bit though by wearing an extra layer on my feet – a state of the art Iceland carrier bag. Of course it must be Iceland, a Sainsbury’s or Tesco bag is no good as they’re just too thin!

The only problem really is face covering – any millimetre of exposed skin will get frost burn and we’ve all experienced it a little in some form. And any gap in the goggles makes it impossible to see, which is proving tricky!

The remaining kit is of ‘vintage’ standard as it all seems to have come straight from Hempy’s warehouse. His collection of prehistoric skis are the usual low-budget Hempy fare, although most of us have already given up on them, as we find walking much easier.

Our evenings are mainly spent fighting for territory in the tent. The sleeping bags are as warm as toast but anything you put down near them automatically seems to go missing! I have to say, my OCD could easily be cured out here – especially after witnessing the hygiene and cleanliness of these men I’m with!

The food in particular is inedible – 8,000 calories burned per day but very little can be forced in.

As usual, we’ll be leaving the tent at 10am exactly. Packing up in bulky clothing is difficult to say the least, and our mitts make doing up zips almost impossible. You’d much rather struggle along though than take the gloves off for a few seconds – those circumstances aren’t worth thinking about!