Day 18
S83 10' 49.08", W80 34' 57.00"
///cuddle.rebroadcast.psychoanalysts
Day 18 sees the team cross South 83 degrees, which is great progress. Martin talks more about the history of the Adaptive Grand Slam
“Good evening everyone. It’s day 18 on the Adaptive Antarctica, Adaptive Grand Slam expedition blog.
We had about a 15-knot headwind today and that dropped down to around five at times, and then back up to around 15. So a bit of wind, but it wasn’t too bad. Good visibility and decent conditions underfoot, although we still hit patches where it gets quite icy, and I’m still slipping forward a fair amount. The biggest challenge today to be honest was my arm, my paralysed arm. It was giving me a bit of pain. Basically, the best way of describing it is it’s like having a five or six kilogramme dumbbell or kettlebell in your hand all day. So it’s just a deadweight. So it keeps on pulling down on that side. Although it’s in a sling, it still kind of drains. So that was playing with my mind a bit. Irritating me, and every time I thought about that, I thought, well ‘think about the amount of amputees we’ve got on the Adaptive Grand Slam team, and had on past expeditions; and you’ve got two legs. So get a grip. Face the direction of travel, and keep moving forward.’ Simple as that.
So we chugged on, and we managed 14.6 nautical miles today. We’ve crossed South 83 degrees now, and we’re bearing down on South 84 degrees; which we hope to hit in four days’ time. So that’s another good milestone passed.
A little bit more about the Adaptive Grand Slam. When I first started doing the mountain expeditions, it was kind of essential, if we were going to start taking people with disabilities, that we had a duty of care to make sure that we’re preparing people properly. And thankfully, through a legend of the mountaineering world, a guy called Russell Bryce, I met another legend called Harry Taylor. And Harry became our lead guide on the Adaptive Grand Slam expeditions. And with mountain guiding, it’s really important that you get people that know what they’re doing, but also they’ve got the right level of empathy, to be able to deal with people who’ve got additional challenges when it comes to learning to mountain climb. And Harry had that in spades. As well as a real good manner and a real good way of teaching, and adapting and improvising in order for us to facilitate climbing with our disabilities.
Harry also went on to help us finance some of the expeditions; bringing in some friends, clients, which we now call supporters on some of our trips, which helps finance taking some of the injured guys for free. So a thank you, and a shout out to Harry Taylor tonight, and his fantastic wife Cathy, who have become good friends over the years. Thank you for all your help and support over the years, and also to Stephan Clegg, Clark Woodward and John Wigg, three other mountain guides. Look them all up. These four guys have achieved some amazing things in the mountaineering world, and have always been there to help. And have prepared us thoroughly for each one of our mountaineering expeditions to date, and long may it continue. Hope to see you all again at some point in the future.
Thank you for listening in gang. And stay safe. Goodnight for now.”
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