Day 13
S81 57' 20.88", W80 18' 58.32"
///cruncher.retails.routinely
The team approaches 82 degrees south. Louis give some insight into the highly-specialised, and highly-personalised kit.
“Hi good evening everyone, it’s Lou reporting in from day 13 of the expedition.
We got lucky again with the weather; glorious sunshine, brilliant visibility, great surface and very light winds. So we made the most of it, and we achieved over 12 nautical miles. So that was really good going. And we’re just short now of crossing South 82 degrees. Probably fairly early tomorrow morning, mid-morning, we should cross into 82, which will be another great milestone.
I’m going to talk about the skins that we have on the skis out here; for those that are unaware of how we get grip. We put this synthetic-type fur that goes on the base of the ski, and as you slide the ski forwards, the fibres all fold flat, so you get a bit of forward glide. And as you pull the ski backwards, to try and move the pulk forwards, it grips the snow. So a bit like stroking a cat - when you stroke it the right way, it’s nice and smooth, if you do it the wrong way, all the fur comes up. So it grips the snow. And when we first started the expedition, we had full-length skins on, which cover the whole base of the ski, because obviously the pulks were at their heaviest, and we had quite a bit of steep climbing to do as well, to get from the Ronne ice shelf, just onto the continent. And now we’ve levelled out a bit and the pulks are a bit lighter, we’ve now switched. Martin’s are... probably 2/3 of the bottom of his ski is still covered with the skins because he needs a bit more grip because he’s only got the one arm to stabilise himself with. I’ve reduced mine right down to a half skin now, so I’ve got a bit more glide, but a bit less grip. It’s kind of working quite well, where the terrain has levelled out. So that’s the skins we’re currently on. And hopefully we’ll eventually get Martin on a half skin as well, which will make life a little easier.
And just to finish off, I just wanted to do a shout out to my daughter Amy, who’s serving in the Royal Air Force. Her and her boyfriend, Pit Bitch Mitch, are both based up at RAF Cosford and are listening in to these calls. So a shout out to you guys and I hope you’re enjoying following the expedition.
That’s all for this evening.
Onwards.”
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