Ben Saunders

Pakistan's decorated vehicles.

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More toys

It's like Christmas here at Saunders Towers. Today: custom-made ski boots (a big thank you to Alain Hubert) and ultra-light Trango crampons, all the way from California (a big thank you to Mountain Tools).

Any guesses where we're off to? (And no, it's not Antarctica. At least, not yet…)

— Filed under Miscellany

Backpack. I can't wait for this – I have so much to organise in the next few months…

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New tent

A brand spanking new Hilleberg Saivo, pitched for the first time on the roof outside my flat.

It'll be somewhere a little colder soon…

— Filed under Miscellany

'Well, if you have to ask the question, you might not understand the answer.'

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How to light a fire when all you have is a Coke can and some chocolate…

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'A 10 cm crack opened up in the ice under our tent overnight. Nobody heard anything due to the loud snoring noises coming from Petter Spiten!' – Børge Ousland's 'Last Degree' expedition report.

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Always a little better, never perfect.

I saw a lady on the tube last week with a brown paper Camper carrier bag, with the words 'Always a little better, never perfect' printed on it.

Perhaps subliminally inspired by Camper's endearing strapline, I'm participating in this year's CSS Reboot. I love the idea behind this – several hundred people redesigning their websites for a May 1st deadline, for no other reason than they reckon what they have at the moment could be improved. I have two ideas currently on the go – one is a revamp of the current design, the second is a full-blown, start from scratch effort.

For those of you (especially those waiting for a response to one of the dozens of emails sitting in my '@Action' folder) wondering if there isn't something better I ought to be doing with my time than redesigning my website again, the answer's yes, of course there is, but in times of pressure, I'm finding tinkering with pages of code in TextWrangler oddly therapeutic.

I ought to finish with a quick thank you to the man behind CSS Reboot, Benjamin Adam (not least for listing my site as one of his top ten 'before' designs. No pressure, then…)

— Filed under Rumination

'Like climbing an inverted Everest…'

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After some very biased 'journalism' and an awful lot of hearsay on the subject of Russian Arctic logistics this year, Ann Daniels writes a frank, heartfelt and extremely touching first-hand review of what happened to the the three 'all-the-way' North Pole expeditions that were picked up last month.

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Lance Armstrong is retiring in July.

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3:02:47 according to the website, but I'm still happy…

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