Ben Saunders

The US Geological Survey's Atlas of Antarctic Research map viewer. (Thanks to Chris at Terra Incognita.)

— Filed under Aside

Dr. Charles Swithinbank

Today's meeting was genuinely inspirational. Tony and I jumped on a train to Cambridge and took a taxi to Dr. Charles Swithinbank's house, a modest bungalow in a village nearby. A toy penguin in the kitchen window was the only clue that we'd found the right address, but once Charles invited us in I felt like a kid in Willy Wonka's factory. Framed maps and charts of Antarctica hung in the hallway, and his living room was lined, wall-to-ceiling, with every single polar book you could imagine. And to top it all off, a giant framed photo that took my breath away – a shot Charles himself took of the icebreaker USS Atka in McMurdo Sound.

We pored over maps, knelt in front of his PC to look at satellite photos, and scribbled notes as he stood by his fireplace and expounded on route choices, crevasse navigation, dealing with Russians and dozens of other nuggets distilled from more than 50 years Antarctic experience.

After a while, Charles drove us to the Scott Polar Research Institute, where he gave us a whistlestop tour (apart from the museum – 'I'm not going to show you that' said Charles, 'because you'll want to spend all day in there') that finished in a musty basement archive, where he dug around for ages in a giant metal cabinet before producing some incredible satellite images for us.

As we left the car park, Charles edged his Ford Fiesta into the streaming traffic. 'Pulling out of here is the most dangerous thing I've done' he said, glancing in his mirror. For a man that spent more than 50 years working in Antarctica (and took his first hang-gliding lessons aged 79 in Rio de Janeiro) that's saying something.

Dr. Swithinbank, like all of the heroes I've met, was modest, self-effacing, generous with his time and advice, and genuinely more interested in the achievements of others than in his own. But most of all, his eyes shone with his passion and enthusiasm for Antarctica. What an amazing man.

'Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.'

-Henry Ford

— Filed under SOUTH

In the presence of greatness

It struck me this evening that, looking back over the last five years, I've been lucky enought to have met most of the people I've looked up to as heroes and role models. I was trying to work out as I typed the title to this post whether I'd met them through doing what I do, or whether I'd sought them out in order to do what I do. The answer lies somewhere between the two.

The most recent encounter was with Robert Swan, this time last week. I've looked up to Robert for years – he was the first person to walk to both Poles, and he has gone on to launch massive projects in the fields of conservation and education. His website says this of his first expedition:

Without recourse to depots, dogs or outside assistance of any kind, Swan, Mear and Wood arrived at the South Pole on 11 January 1986. Testing the limits of physical and mental endurance, Robert Swan's 883-mile journey, 'In the Footsteps of Scott,' stands as the longest unassisted walk ever made.

I was about to take issue with this, when I realised that 'unassisted' meant slightly more to Robert 20 years ago than it does to adventurers nowadays. He and his team sailed down the year before, built a hut and wintered in Antarctica, in much the same way as Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen did early last century. There were no satellite phones in 1985, and Roberts team eschewed even HF radio (meaning they had no chance of assistance or evacuation if anything went wrong). In contrast, I blogged live, via satellite phone, from my solo North Pole expedition last year, and Simon Murray's wife was able to drop in via helicopter as he and Pen Hadow skied to the South Pole last year.

Tony and I are off to meet the renowned glaciologist Dr. Charles Swithinbank at his home in Cambridge tomorrow. While I doubt I'll ever be able to compete with more than 100 publications, 53 years of polar research and a mountain range named after him, I can at least aspire to looking as cool as he does when I'm a bit older…

— Filed under Inspiration

The proof is in the (bread) pudding

Thanks to an astonishing new discovery*, I leapt out of bed at exactly 0700 this morning, and went on to crank out a Sunday morning training ride that wasn't far off five hours.

I've uploaded my heart rate graph – the session was four hours, 53 minutes in total, at an average heart rate of 138 beats per minute. The big peak/trough at 2hrs 30 or so was the climb up the Box hill 'zig zag' followed by a cafe stop at the top, where I rewarded myself for an atypically early start with a coffee and a huge slice of bread pudding (the fact that my heart rate barely dropped below 90bpm as I was wolfing it down bears testiment to its stodginess). As you can see, it's a hilly old route, but it was a great morning – cold and damp, but once I'd climbed above the mist, the views over the Surrey hills were glorious.

*Keaka Jackson's Power Controller - a nifty bit of software that turns a Mac (a G4 PowerBook in my case) into an alarm clock, waking the computer and fading in any playlist you like from iTunes; I bounced out of bed to James Holden's 'One For You' today. Mornings will never be the same again.

— Filed under Training

Inspiration

Or, 'websites that might goad me into heading out for a four-hour training ride in the rain on a Sunday morning':

Firstly, Langkjøring – the blog of a Norwegian pro cyclist aiming for 2012 Olympic selection.

Next, 'Somewhere Between Obscurity and Oblivion' – Cory Smith's five-year journal of his career as a professional XC ski racer. Cory was aiming for 2002 Olympic selection, but ultimately missed his dream by a whisker. It's compelling reading:

'I have expended most of my time and energy over the past six years towards this goal and I simply have nothing left to give.'

I'll report back tomorrow afternoon.

— Filed under Inspiration

It looks like EasyJet are being a bit fussy about letting people fly with camping stoves (even if they're in checked-in baggage). The solution? 'Best answer seems to be to strip down stoves into as many bits as possible and distribute them around your luggage.'

— Filed under Aside