Stagnant

Date = 30/12/2017
Day 40 (Expedition) Day 46 (Antarctica)
Location = No man’s land
Coordinates  – S86 51.931’, W93 19.887’
Altitude = 2249m
Temperature =  -24C
Wind speed / direction = 3-8 knot E, White out
Windchill = – 25C
Distance travelled = 0km
Distance remaining = 848km

Jean cooking up a storm in a storm! Starting to get little tired of our menu after 40 days but mustn’t grumble…

Starting to get a bit bored here still tent bound in miserable conditions. Forecast for tomorrow has slipped a bit giving us the fear that we could get marooned out here in no man’s land.

Our 120+kg loads and the 15+cm of soft snow mean we really need SE wind at least 10 knots to hold our heading out of here for 127km further. If we get pushed down wind we will end up in crevassed terrain and even more unfavourable wind streams.

We also need to be able to see at least 1km. ideally some sun.

After the next 127km we join the classic South Pole – Hercules Inlet route and make a 40 degree turn north, which means we will be able to harness weaker winds from much more Easterly directions.  So sooner or later we need a good session or two to kill these 127 kilometres and then we should start to make more consistent progress. Hopefully the S winds will return eventually!

We are still a week ahead of schedule but we have only covered 220km in 8 days which is half our estimation.

It’s really been all or nothing so far for phase 4. We still have 22 days of supplies so no major stress. Just be nice to have another couple of big sessions to remind us why we came and that we are going to get home eventually!

Please keep your comments coming in, great to know people are reading this stuff. Feeling a little uninspired so throw us any questions?

[Leo]

[Spectre Admin] I’ve reminding the team of the unanswered questions from the previous comments on the blog – hopefully that will keep them occupied for a bit – but please add some more.

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