Day 34
S79 45' 39.60", W82 51' 24.84"
///mushed.hyperlinks.devolve
Kit prep day for the team at UG, and they make a plan to test Martin's Achilles tomorrow.
“Hi good evening everyone, it’s Lou reporting in on day 34 of the expedition.
We’re using the time well, while we’re here back in Union Glacier with Martin getting his treatment and his recovery, which is all going really well. I’ve used the time to service all of our expedition equipment; I’ve been servicing our two MSR expedition stoves – taking those apart, and just checking all those, getting all that ready. We’ve spent the time repackaging our food, so we packed eight days of expedition food now, ready for when we redeploy, which will be more than sufficient for the last degree we’re going to do. That’s 60 nautical miles to the Pole. We’ve dried out the tent, done some repairs on that. I’ve been doing quite a lot of sewing – sewing up holes in some of our expedition gear, and getting all that patched up. There are quite a few holes in the canvas covers of the pulks for example. I’ve just been working away on that. A bit of a sewing circle going on!
And sorted out the fuel that we need, again just for eight days when we go out. It’s making good use to get that done. A bit of laundry as well, and other bits and pieces, and making sure that everything is in as good condition as it can be. Hopefully redeploying in three or four days’ time.
Part of Martin’s recovery; we’re going to go out tomorrow – they’ve got some mountain bikes here with fat tyres on, for riding in the snow, and there’s a 10km loop (which is what we used for the marathon). We’re going to go out tomorrow, just to keep our legs turning over, and go for a 10k mountain bike ride through the snow. And that should put minimal pressure on his Achilles tendon but should help keep it moving and exercised, so that’s good.
There’s a lot of interesting people passing through Union Glacier at the moment. There’s groups coming in to climb Mount Vinson and other mountains around Antarctica. We’ve spent a lot of time chatting with them. We’ve also been chatting to an ex-US Marine, who had to come back in off an expedition – he was out in a guided group going up the Axel Heiberg Glacier to Pole. He unfortunately got frostbite in both of his hands. So he had to be medically evacuated, and he’s back in getting his injuries treated, before returning to Chile. It’s been interesting having a chat to him about his experiences over on that route. It’s a route I first did in 2011 with Henry Worsley and I know it well. We’ve been comparing notes, so that’s been quite fascinating as well.
Making the most of our time here. The weather’s pretty awesome here in Union Glacier at the moment – apparently it’s not great out in other areas of Antarcitca. There’s some big storms coming in with 70-knot winds in different parts of the continent, so we’re going to be tracking those, just to make sure it doesn’t affect any of the various expeditions that are out and about.
Fingers crossed, if Martin’s recovery continues to progress well, which it is, we’ll get the medical sign off that they think it’s suitable to head back out, and hopefully crack this last degree and get the opportunity for Martin to ski into the South Pole, which I’m sure will be an absolutely incredible feeling for him.
Really looking forward to that. That’s all from us from Union Glacier, and we’ll provide you with an update on how the mountain biking goes, tomorrow evening.
Onwards.”
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