Category: Key challenges
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- Berkner Island (3)
- Crevasses (1)
- Expedition News (4)
- General (2)
- Key challenges (9)
- Sastrugi (3)
- The Route (4)
- Training (19)
- Whiteouts (3)
The risks, and how we de-risk them
The risk, and what we’re doing about it. Crevasses The route was re-planned metre by metre with ALE’s experts, cutting our expected time on or near…
Fuelling the crossing
We’ll each burn up to 8,000 calories a day (Ben probably closer to 8,000, Erica closer to 7,000) — and can only carry and realistically eat…
What has been the hardest part so far?
None of it has been easy. I am not a naturally confident (or particularly good) skier, especially downhill. The cold has mostly been manageable, but there…
What are the main risks?
Crevasses are the main risk. We hope never to need what we have learnt during crevasse-rescue training, but we will rope together whenever there’s poor visibility…
Today was a hard day
Today was a hard day. It started off with really steep hills, when we tried skiing up alone, even zig zagging, our sleds dragged us back…
Night and day
So we have less than two years until our planned journey. Sounds like a long time? Definitely isn’t! Plenty to do in the meantime, and much…
Sastrugi (part 2!)
Why Are Sastrugi a Problem for Antarctic Expeditions… Coming back to the subject of sastrugi (just because it gives Ben nightmares!)… These aren’t soft snow ridges.…
Whiteouts (part 2)
Where we will be most likely affected by whiteouts Whiteouts can and do occur anywhere in Antarctica, and at any time. You just need some dense…
Whiteouts (part 1)
It’s like you’re skiing blindfolded… Like travelling in a pure white sphere. You don’t know how far you’re going or where you’re moving to. You can’t…
Sastrugi
In this series of posts, we go into what sastrugi are, how and why they form, and why they can be truly horrific for expeditions! What…