Travelling to Punta Arenas and preparing for South Pole

A diary from 31st December 2014

Our 30-hour flight, courtesy of British Airways, Iberia and LAN worked perfectly from London to Madrid, then Santiago to Punta Arenas. A huge long flying time but all arrived safely including 109kg of luggage; sledges, skis, food and equipment – quite extraordinary to have got the whole lot here in one safe move without any interruptions, congratulations to the airlines!

Sorry to keep harping on about the baggage...but the above is especially true as apparently this journey is renowned for losing both luggage and people. Indeed, two people that we met in the luggage area at Punta Arenas had either missed luggage or people which were still stuck somewhere else in the world! One American's luggage was stuck in Miami, and another person’s partner had missed the flight because the connections had not worked as they should’ve done. Conrad reckons we are remarkably fortunate.

Punta Arenas is on the Magellan Straits, the sun virtually didn’t set last night – in other words it was still vaguely light at midnight. It is a pretty barren, desolate place at the end of the world and it seems most people are here because they are in some way involved in Antarctica; either touring to watch penguins & whales or walking or doing crazy things like exploring the Antarctic Peninsula.

Kissing Magellan's foot for good luck!

Double luck!

It is an incredibly small world because we bumped into a neighbour of Conrad’s and had dinner with him without either one knowing that they were going to be here.

The food is absolutely excellent, I had one of the best fish meals I’ve ever had and it was a three course, complete blow out with an amazing bottle of wine all for $20!

The people are unbelievably friendly and helpful and I mean that genuinely; they are extraordinarily helpful and generous.

Today is New Year’s Eve and I’ve sent a whole range of photographs of the Magellan Straits and various other bits of Punta Arenas but there is not a lot here.

Beautiful Lupins

looking over the Magellan straits

Map of the Chilean territory of Antarctica

Sculpture in Punta Arenas

We are spending the morning packing and putting our food into little bags of separate day rations. This will make it much easier when we are on the ice, to just grab what we need day-by-day.

15 days' worth of food

This afternoon we have a briefing on where we are going, how we are getting there, when we are likely to go. The dilemma that everybody has in Punta Arenas is you can’t be certain when you are leaving the place to get to Union Glacier (Antarctica base camp) because it very much depends on weather and logistics. We have to wait for a slot and then be prepared to move pretty rapidly to our departure point.

At the briefing

It seems unlikely that we will be moving forward on New Year’s Day because everything is shut and therefore we’ve decided to hire a car and go and look at whales and penguins and explore the area a bit more carefully – after all, when you are this far south, why not?!

Penguins on the Magellan straits (Pacific side)

31st December 2014

Just about to go out on the razz, as have organised amazing dinner and fireworks looks like the whole town of Punta Arenas goes to party!

The world's weirdest explorers

NYE fireworks over the Magellan straits

So I now know why Conrad has survived so many cold weather expeditions!

The skill in packing and pre planning is amazing, and has taken all day. Food, energy sachets, clothes, he's being brutal about weight allowance - gosh it's slow but worth it! 

Making sure everything is in the right place and knowing where it's placed is vital. We have set up the tent in a way that make erection fast and simple. 

Putting up the tent outside the hotel

Sadly we cannot get iPod to charge so it's not going and the GoPro loses charge so fast it's not going. We do have iPhone iPad and camera. 

Briefing was very good but storm currently at base camp (Union Glacier) so we expect to head out some time on 2nd Jan. Off penguin spotting and whale watching tomorrow...it's been hot and sunny all day, all a bit surreal.

Happy New Year!

2nd January 2015

"Our next update in 10 hours of flight into Antarctica, probably. Will let you know in morning but if call comes we have to be ready to move in 20 mins so might be rushed"

3rd January 2015

"6.20am tomorrow (Sunday) we will set off.

"Today we did 18 km along beech to end of South American land. Totally wrecked shoes, had to buy more! We saw Dolphins and (we think) dead killer whale but it was floating a long way out. Wonderful spring flowers again and amazing bird life. Punta Arenas has a dramatic landscape.

"All ready to go, so the waiting is over. Will communicate if I can but if not await sat phone. Will set up time with you via base station, likely to be late evening."

Thursday 8th January

Position: 88º 22.41 S  080º 08.25 W

Everything is good, we travelled 18.7km in 6.5 hours today and we're travelling really well.

The temperature is about -30 ºC...I get very cold hands when we stop to eat! It's a sunny clear day, though and everything is working.

Conrad is annoyed because he's broken a jug and the zipper on his jacket, but the equipment is generally absolutely fine.

Comment below your questions to ask Patrick and Conrad in tonight's phone call!

Updates from Antarctica

Monday 5th January 

position: Union Glacier

The planned flight out of Union Glacier was cancelled last minute, but we had a really good training day. We skiied 32 km from Union Glacier out to a mountain, which went really well.

Hopefully we'll fly tomorrow - it's weather dependent. Unfortunately this is just what happens in Antarctica!

Tuesday 6th January

Position: 88° 03.056 S  080° 29.135 W (decimal)

(Satellite phone call to the UK was not received at the expected time, but two hours late)

Sorry for the late contact...we arrived at 88 degrees South, and began walking. We completed about 1.5 hours and pitched the tent late.

Everything is working out well so far...and we're finally on our way!

We averaged 2.96 km/hour, and are all very happy.

Hope all is well at home

Wednesday 7th January

Position: 88°12.399 S 079°45.323 W

(no sound through the Satellite phone, tried connecting a few times. Eventually got through, although with a bad connection!)

We completed 12.5 km today, and found it very arduous. We are hoping to do 18.5 km tomorrow.

We aim to do the whole 222 km in 12 days.

Please support Patrick's superhuman efforts in this expedition by clicking the 'donate' button to the right of this page. We have just reached over one quarter of the target amount, but we still have a long way to go!

What an amazing day - 29th December 2014

After all of the time spent planning, delivering presentations and lectures, and countless hours of training the day finally came!

setting off

Conrad had undertaken a mammoth 9 hour drive down from Northumberland with a van full of kit, to the spend several further hours meticulously packing everything into it’s rightful place.

The next morning, we were both up bright and early for a morning interview on Sky News Sunrise…very exciting as it was our first major national coverage. The interviewers, Gillian and Stephen, were very nice and I hope I managed to get my message across effectively.

Conrad getting mic'ed up

A rather daunting large screen with my face on it

On the Sky News Sunrise sofa

My ever supportive wife watching at home

We then leapt back in the car, to find a message from the very lovely Harriet Alexander, foreign correspondent at the Telegraph, confirming that her article about the expedition would be printed the next day.

Thank you to the Telegraph for an excellent article

On arrival back at home, I had a quick phone interview with both Redstone FM in Redhill and BBC radio Northumberland before I could relax into a big family lunch.

Penguin themed table...lunch for 24

I was so touched by so many of the family who made it to see me off on my adventure…and the amazing commitment to the theme (which seems to be penguins!).

Thank you to all my mad and amazing family

After a fantastic few hours, and a rendition of the family anthem “the little green frog” song, Conrad and I set off for Heathrow with a couple of helpers.

a very fitting vehicle to begin a South Pole expedition

At this point, the nerves were setting in and I know that Conrad was worried about the airline kicking up a fuss about heavy, odd shaped baggage (skis and sledges aren’t the most normal baggage items on a flight to Madrid!).

"just act casual"...checking in our oversized baggage!

When passing through security, we were stopped by a lady who said “you’ve had a long day haven’t you?” …amazingly, she had seen us on Sky that morning and recognised my slightly unusual outfit! A good omen, I think.

The final goodbye!

(If you’re wondering about the Scouts scarf, check out this video)

Our fears were unnecessary, as all 30 hours and three flights went incredibly smoothly and we were delighted to find that all of our baggage arrived in Punta Arenas on time and intact! Thank you British Airways, Iberia and LAN…I have met several people since who haven’t been so lucky!

On our way!

Patrick and Conrad were safely deposited at 88degs South this afternoon and are currently making headway to the South Pole! Their progress can be tracked here

They are due to make camp any minute after their first half day of skiing

Flying in to Antarctica from Punta Arenas

After the most amazing day on the 29th December, which I will come back to in an upcoming blog post, Conrad and I set off from Heathrow to fly to Punta Arenas. This is at the very Southernmost tip of South America so a good spot from which to get to Union Glacier base camp, our starting point.

We arrived without a hiccup, having been looked after by the very nice people at BA/Iberia/LAN, on the 31st December and all of our 5 checked-in bags even made it! 

We were expecting to spend around three days in Punta Arenas, so set about meticulously packing up bags of food for each day we'll be skiing, and taking our tent up and down so that we can put it up in the shortest time possible once we reach Antarctica. 

Packing food bags for each day...5500 kcals per day

Honing the tent technique in Punta Arenas

We then had briefings with Adventure Network International, who run the flights into Union Glacier, to discuss when we will be able to fly. I discovered that they conditions required are quite difficult to achieve:

- wind speed must be below 35 knots

- there must be good visibility (as it is a 'sight landing')

- temperature must be cold enough for 'blue ice' in order to hold the aircraft 

It takes 4.5 hours to fly from Punta arenas to Union Glacier, so it's very tricky to predict it right.

The type of plane we will be flying in to Antarctica on

Yesterday afternoon, when we were first hoping to fly in, the wind at the landing spot was 40 knots, there was low cloud and the ice was wrong so it was a no go! 

This evening, our next possible flight time, quickly became a no-go also. We must be ready to leave at 20 minutes' notice!

Our next possible window is tomorrow morning. We are monitoring the weather at Union Glacier on www.yr.no, where it shows that tomorrow will be slightly less windy (for knots, multiply m/s by 2) and slightly colder.

Forecasting for our flight to Union Glacier base camp

There's now a bottleneck of passengers building up; 10 scientists, 4 climbers attempting Mount Vinson, 12 walking the last one degree, 10 others who are just flying in and out and then me and Conrad (who are walking the last 2 degrees).

Our route across Antarctica

I'm struggling slightly; mentally I just want to go and get started after all this training, publicity and build up.

I met a guy yesterday who advised that he was delayed by 24 (!!) days a few years ago...hopefully history won't repeat itself! 

Sending everyone at home a very happy new year.

Track my journey here!

While there's not much to see on the map above...see the representation below of where we'll be trekking in Antarctica. 

The first red dot is Union Glacier base camp, where we'll be staying to begin acclimatization and completing a practice one-night expedition.

We'll then fly to 88°S to begin our 222km trek to the pole.