Training and hauling

In all the best Antarctic adventuring books there is always lots to read about how the cold, snow and the physical human condition conspired to create situations that were unexpected. I'm glad to note that in my own little way, I experienced some of those.

I dragged the sledge over to the site and loaded on 12 steel angle sections, attached the sledge to the harness, attached the harness to myself and started to pull. Immediately I started to sweat badly and found it a great effort. The sweat soaked into my hat which froze like stiff cardboard to my head. The inside of my boiler suit was saturated.

I thought it would be good to listen to my i-pod at the time, but the wires to the earphones literally turned to stiff wire. The ear pieces sprang out of my ears and hovered about a centimetre away. I could still hear the music. The work was back breaking and I had to take a bent-over stance to try to gain enough forward momentum to move. My anti-fog glasses were useless with all the condensation that built up inside them.

Eventually after about 20 minutes I got the sledge to move. That night I think I covered a total distance of 500m. Not a good start for a target of 4x5km! I did find out later that 12 steel angles comes to approximately 200kg, and that to achieve a load of 150kg I should have taken nine angles. Andy suggested eight plus the supplies we will need.He decided to do the hauling with me on Sunday. That sounded good to me – 134kg steel and 16kg chocolate. I can see the sledge getting lighter in the first 100m. Training has its advantages.

The big day:

Looking a bit like Laurel and Hardy, Andy and I prepared ourselves to set off on our intrepid expedition walking around the Halley site, pretending we are going to the South Pole. We packed our sledges with eight pieces of Halley VI prime steel. With supplies of chocolate and a little water this weighed in at around 140+ kg. We started at 10.30am and completed the first 5km lap by 12 noon.

Meanwhile, Simon Coggins (BAS scientist) was tearing up the track on a kite. I think he did about 14 or 15 laps that day. That's smart thinking - you wouldn't catch the ones with brains pulling heavy sledge loads on foot.

Come to think of it, Andy and I were the only ones man-hauling that day. Other means of getting around included skiing, walking and running. The closest thing to what we were doing was the Morrison team pulling the 'happy sledge' around. They were running the opposite way round with refreshments for everyone. 

It soon became apparent that there has to be something better than man hauling to get to the South Pole. There is definitely something insane about it. A lot of time and thought is put into making it easier:adjusting the harness so it is over the hips and not the back,r ationalising supplies to reduce weight, reducing friction on the sledge, wearing the right clothes etc. But the fact remains it is still man hauling and the real thought should be given to eliminating the exercise altogether. Mad dogs and Englishmen! 

The first lap, 5km around a groomed snow road was gruelling! For the second lap we each took out two steels to lighten the sledge to around 110kg. (I tried to put mine in Andy's sledge but he was watching). At first that was easier, but it soon became as difficult as the first lap and took the same time. It is incredible to think that people can push themselves to average 22km per day for months on end with more weight than this. Brian Newham (Morrison Logistics and Polar Explorer) said 'it's all in the head' - and he's right.

We called it a day to hauling after the second lap. By then it was 2pm. I was delighted I'd managed to do 10km with the loads that we had, and I think Andy felt a real sense of achievement too - between all the swearing. It did strike me in the last kilometre, that although man hauling must be one of the most insane activities, it was not nearly as stupid as pulling Faber Maunsell's steelwork around like a set of mortal chains.

I really wanted to get a sense of a day's travel to the pole and did another two laps walking which was great, but still hard. Andy did another skiing. I went to bed at 8:30pm and when Andy came back to the pit room I was already snoring. (I do try to remedy this but can't really feel too guilty - because he farts in the office).

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