Testing, Testing
'If some instrument could be devised to test sledges in this way it would be of very great service… Sledges vary enormously, and it would be an excellent thing for a leader to be able to test his sledges before buying them, and also to be able to pick out the best for his more important sledge journeys. I believe it can be done by attaching some kind of balance between the sledge and the men pulling it.'
Apsley Cherry-Garrard, one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic, wrote this in 1922. Spookily, Tony only read this paragraph this evening, after we'd spent the entire day testing four different sledge designs and configurations (thanks to Alex at Acapulka), using exactly the device 'Cherry' imagined – a force meter between the sledge and its hauler. First up, we weighed each empty sledge (using some giant fishing scales Tony managed to procure the day before we left for Iceland). After that, we'd load each sledge with a number of different weights (from 50 to 180kg – food bags, fuel bottles and large Ortlieb dry bags packed with snow) and test each sledge several times over the same course, as well as working out the average force necessary to move each one from a standstill.
With the conclusions tucked away in our diaries, we're off for some speed trials of a different kind tomorrow. We left a small depot of food and fuel in the valley we skied up, marked by a GPS waypoint and a snow cairn. It's 24 miles from here, and we're heading off with rucksacks (ultra-light 90+ litre prototypes from Crux) to recover it. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the weather and visibility will hold out – there are some monster clouds rumbling up through the mountains as I write this and I popped my head out of the tent to take the attached photo.
— Filed under Greenland