Day 42
S79 45' 39.60", W82 51' 24.84"
///mushed.hyperlinks.devolve
The team remain in a holding pattern at UG
“Hi everyone, it’s Lou reporting in from – I think – it’s day 42 of the expedition.
Sadly, we still haven’t managed to go anywhere yet; we’re still waiting for one of the last degree teams that are currently out there to get to Pole, which will trigger a plane to launch from here to go and collect them, and that’s what we’re going to jump on.
It’s looking like - with the current progress of the teams out there, it’s going to be a couple more days yet before we go anywhere. So we’re just holding fire here. I’m keeping myself occupied actually; most days I head over after breakfast and go out and ski around the 10k loop that they’ve got here at Union Glacier, just to keep my legs turning over and keep the fitness going. That burns up a bit of time doing that. And I went out with some other people today and did that, so it was quite sociable. Back in for lunch. The afternoons, they’ve got a really extensive polar library here, and I’ve gone through about five books already, so learning a huge amount about polar history. Also, one of the ALE staff, a lady called Carol, who is a polar historian, she delivers daily lectures on topics such as Shackleton and Amundsen and the lesser-known expeditions that took place in the heroic age. They’re really fascinating, and again learning a huge amount. In the evenings, are mainly spent playing scrabble and chess and other board games with some of the mountaineers and other expeditioners who are passing through as well. So there’s plenty to keep up occupied here in this melting pot of Union Glacier, but yeah we’re both now chomping at the bit to get back out on expedition and go and do this last degree. And hopefully return in time by the 9th of January to head off to do the expedition to Mount Vinson. Unfortunately not much more to update than that. Hopefully in the next couple of days we’ll be able to let you know that we’re on our way, to get back out onto the high polar plateau, and ski the last 100k or so into the South Pole.
So that’s all for this evening, I’m back into my latest book, which is Antarctica, Both Heaven And Hell, written by the legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner. So looking forward to getting stuck into that, and we’ll give you an update tomorrow evening.
Onwards.”
Messner is arguably the greatest living mountaineer/explorer. In this book, he recounts the first crossing on foot, with Arved Fuchs, of Antarctica in 92 days ending in mid-February, 1990.
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