henshaws2antarctica

Hi Everyone,

Well this morning was the penultimate training session.The hard physical work seems to have paid off. Arriving back this morning after dragging the tyre five miles in the best time yet, did not have me gasping for air. Thank you to all those who shouted support for me when they were stuck in the traffic along the Wetherby road, the four lads near Fishers school, who wanted to know what I was up to and the guy on the Wetherby road who stopped for a chat and to give me inspiration, (he had skied to the South Pole a few years ago, this had been my intention, had the costs not rocketed).

Most of the extensive prep for the trip is complete. The satellite phone arrived yesterday, this will enable me to keep in contact with Henshaws provided the cold is not so intense that we can't remove any of our gloves or the storms are not too loud to prevent conversation, (this has been a problem in the past, even inside the tent).

So on Sunday I will be leaving the UK and flying via Madrid and Santiago to Punta Arenas in southern Chile. Here I will meet the three Italians and an American who I will be climbing Vinson with. From this point on the weather dictates our schedual. We may have several days to wait until the weather is good enough to fly the five to six hour flight down to antarctica, it has been know for the Ilyushin 76 aircraft to have to turn back after several hours in to the flight as a consequence of rapidly developing bad weather at Patriot Hills. Once at Paitriot Hills, again we may stay for a few days in relative luxury IE beds that are actually off the ground and ad-lib food, or we could get off the Ilyushin and straight onto the Twin Otter to fly to Base Camp. Part of the excitment is the 'not knowing'.

The intention is to keep this blog active thoughout the expedition, however as said, the weather is a major contributer to achieving that objective.