Day 40
S79 45' 39.60", W82 51' 24.84"
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Louis gives a shout-out to fellow expeditioner Preet Chandi, who is currently almost at the South Pole.
“Hi good evening everyone, it’s Lou reporting in now from day 40 of the expedition.
So we’re still back here at Union Glacier, but the good news is pretty much all of the last degree teams that were ahead of us waiting to fly out have gone now. The final team, which was Nims’ team, with some of his Sherpa pals, they left first thing this morning, to get dropped off at 89 degrees South. And so it’s just really now, the only people left in Union Glacier, is myself and Martin, and then some guys from Arctic Trucks, and the Royal Enfield motorcycle company. They’ve been out here on an amazing project; they’ve been riding a Royal Enfield motorcycle the last two degrees to the South Pole. That’s all been done and they’re back in now and just waiting to fly back out to Punta Arenas.
So it’s just me and Martin really, waiting to get up to a last degree. And I think the plan is, once one of the teams that’s currently out there gets close to Pole, that’ll trigger an empty aircraft to depart here to head up to pick them up. So we’ll get loaded onto that and then they’ll drop us off 60 miles – 60 nautical miles – to the South Pole. Then we can begin the last degree expedition. They’ll then continue on and pick up the team that’s arrived at the Pole. We’re looking forward to getting back out on expedition. Martin’s recovery has gone really well. We’re confident his Achilles has recovered enough to be able to complete a six or seven day, 100km ski into the South Pole, which is great. That’ll then still give us sufficient time to get back here, re-role for mountaineering, a couple more days rest to recover, and then head off to attempt the summit of Mount Vinson, which I’m really looking forward to as well.
Just to finish off. I wanted to do a shout out to Preet Chandi. I’ve been training Preet, I’ve been her expedition manager for the last couple of years now; and I’ve been helping train and prepare her to come down and do a solo, unsupported, 720-mile ski to the South Pole. And she’s been out there now for well over 30 days, battling away from Hercules Inlet – on exactly the same route that me and Martin were doing. And she’s now through 88 degrees South, so she’s got well-under two degrees to go now to the South Pole. But I know she’s had a tough few days with sastrugi, weather, and she’s been a little bit unwell with diarrhoea and vomiting, so I wanted to do a shout out to you Preet and say hang in there. That South Pole is just over the horizon now; you’ve done absolutely amazing so far, so just hang in there for the final push, and the home run to finish what’s been an incredible expedition for you. Maybe we’ll catch you at the South Pole, but if not, certainly back here at Union Glacier. I look forward to hearing all about it.
That’s all for me this evening.
Onwards.”
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