South Pole – Day 10
It’s 10:30am and the group are about to depart on the next leg of their journey. The scene in front of them is ‘beaut’ said Sean, a complete whiteout with sparkling snow which has been textured from the wind. Luckily, today there is no wind and only a thin layer of high altitude cloud. But the cold is ‘unrelentingly, ridiculously persistent’. At least when climbing in the mountains, you get breaks from the cold but not in Antarctica. Sean woke up in the middle of the night with his hands and feet aching from the cold.
Yesterday they covered 10km and were hammered afterwards – 2 km every hour. Sean described how the snow on the ground has crystallized in layers one top of the other. And as he moved across the snow, the pockets of air between the layers would collapse resulting in a gigantic explosion as Sean dropped with a thud to the layer beneath. He’s capturing truly awesome footage along the way and said the people in the group are fantastic.
It’s Jeff the Good Doctor’s 57th birthday today. Happy Frozen Birthday Jeff.
Little dots on a large white sheet (www.zahidexpedtion.com)
