Ben Saunders

Some gorgeous photos from Svalbard. The yawning husky is my favourite.

— Filed under Aside

A Palpable Reality

I had an email yesterday from Adam Munthe, just back from his Finnmark 2007 Expedition, a 1,500km dog sled journey through Arctic Finnmark (the northernmost county in Norway) from the Barents sea to the Atlantic. I hope he won't mind me reproducing a paragraph of it, but the last sentence really struck a chord with me this morning:

"Finally, it must be said the trip was astonishing and magical. We had our ups and downs, our bumps and disagreements. I broke two ribs three days out, and a finger two days later, but we survived, and felt blessed! It reminded me again that we all need to be stretched inside and out, and that pettiness (which we all indulge in) is eliminated through challenge, danger I suppose, and proximity to a palpable reality."

— Filed under Other expeditions

Samantha Larson on Everest

18-year-old Californian Samantha Larson has just become the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, and the youngest American to climb Everest. There's more at Samantha's website, and at her Everest blog.

And to think, at eighteen, I was pretty proud of myself for making the walk in to Everest base camp…

— Filed under Other expeditions

Only in America

"Endurance is a 10-minute excerpt from an archival film of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the South Pole on the ship Endurance, projected onto my front tooth. While the film plays, I try to smile without losing composure. This piece is exhibited as a large projection such that the image is at least eight feet wide (when shown at this scale, the film playing on the tooth is legible). My increasingly distressed breathing and the sound of my slurping mouth constitute the soundtrack."

Sadly the video isn't online yet, but there's a preview coming soon at artist Nina Katchadourian's website. [Via] Edit: I've just spoken to my mum on the phone – after reading the above, she was under the impression that the film was being projected onto my tooth. Rest assured, dear reader (and mum) that this is not the case. In fact, I'm amazed she thought me capable of keeping my mouth open for ten minutes without stopping to put food into it.

— Filed under Miscellany

Marmot Down Jacket Seeks Adventure

Half-way through a much-needed tidying up session this afternoon, I unearthed this Marmot 8000M Parka in a slowly-growing pile of expedition gear in the corner of my living room. I bought it for my 2004 North Pole expedition as an outer shell that I could wear on the very coldest days while I stopped to eat, drink, or put my tent up in the evening. I haven't used it since then, and seeing as a) we'll have some custom-made down gear on the way for SOUTH and b) it's slightly too big for me, I want to give it away to a good home.

It's size XL (large enough to go on over the rest of my expedition clothing) and I bought it for $575 from Mountain Tools in California who describe it as "like a sleeping bag you can climb in, and de rigueur for Alaskan, Himalayan and Antarctic Expeditions. Gore-Tex backed Twilight N- 143R shell, fully baffled construction, 800 fill power high loft goose down, huge draft tube, attached hood, hand warmer and internal bottle pockets are all features you can count on to retain the maximum warmth – on route, in camp or for tipping the scales in your favor on an unplanned open bivouac".

It's amazingly, stupendously warm; I wore it to run errands around Khatanga in northern Siberia at between -40 and -50 degrees c. with just a t-shirt underneath, and on the few excrutiatingly cold days that I used it on my expedition, it probably saved my life.

Yet despite being dragged to the North Pole in my sledge, it's in nearly-new condition, the only cosmetic flaw being a bit of protruding down where I removed the sponsor patches (easily remedied my sewing your own badge over the top!)

So, here's the deal. I'm giving it away for free, and I'll post it anywhere in the world for free, but I want it to go to a deserving home. Drop me an email or leave a comment below if you're planning an expedition where you could do with a jacket like this – it's a top-of-the-range belay/summit day jacket for Himalayan, Alaskan, Greenland or Antarctic expeditions and I'd love to see it being used rather than sitting in my wardrobe. Bonus points if you're an unsponsored, up-and-coming mountaineer/adventurer. Double bonus points if you're using your expedition to get kids involved with the outdoors/adventure.

Edit (24th May) – the jacket's gone to a good home! I'll write more about the winner soon…

— Filed under Miscellany

Ding Ding

My favourite phone call for a long time: Everest mountaineer, rip-snorting raconteur and all-round top bloke Paul Deegan called my mobile just now – he'd been at the RGS talking to school kids today and was sounding a bit like a school kid himself (admittedly not unusual for the always-ebullient Paul).

P: Mate! Guess what this is! [loud noise down the phone] Ding ding! Ding ding! Ding!
Me: Er… I'm not sure. A ship's bell? (I'm not sure what possessed me to say this, but it was a lucky guess).
P: Got it in one! Which ship?
Me: Um…
P: Nimrod!

— Filed under Miscellany

Arctic ice melting faster than predicted.

— Filed under Aside

Base One

Apologies for the radio silence. As you'll note, I've spruced up the design of the site a bit (not least because there were a few similar-looking sites popping up, and it's good to raise the game now and again) and I've also managed to fix a few problems that have been bugging me for ages, mainly getting the archives and categories working properly.

Anyway, here it is. There are obvious gaps to be filled here and there, but do let me know if you spot any glaring errors.

The next expedition, SOUTH, is now less than six months away and I'm starting to feel the familiar sense of pressure as kick-off approaches. You'd think having a Yahoo! website and a Discovery Channel documentary lined up would have sponsors knocking at the door, but the truth is a little different and we're currently reeling from being turned down by a huge technology company that we'd been courting since February. At least the current exchange rate makes buying a mile of the expedition a bit of a bargain for those of you in the UK/Europe.

The physical preparation is going rather better, and I'm working with triathlon coach extraordinaire James Beckinsale in the build-up to our late-October departure for Antarctica. The current period of training, "base one", entails building my aerobic capacity and strengthening the supporting muscles that I use when I'm sledge-hauling. Lots of running, cycling and weight training, with a bit of roller-skiing thrown into the mix. I'll write more on the training shortly (and hope to start blogging it day-by-day) but right now I've just seen I'm horrendously late for a meeting. More soon…

— Filed under SOUTH