The Routine
Last Degree camp on the Polar Plateau with all the outside jobs done and stove purring away inside.
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- 0700 Alarm. Fire up the stove straight away and start heating the water and ice in the pans. Brews, breakfast, re-heat water for the days sledging in flasks and insulated bottles.
- 0825 All warm clothing is put on in the tent with sledging harness on over windproof layer and below down jacket. All tent / stove / food bags are put outside ready for packing sledges. Tents are efficiently packed away and stowed on the large sledge.
- 0855 Depart camp and start navigating a course South
- 0900-1700 Sledge hauling for 8 hours with a 5-10 min break every hour. Snacks are often kept in the pocket to keep them warm enough to be edible. Flasks, gloves, anything else needed during the day is kept by the opening of the sledge bag so stops are swift and efficient. Navigation is based on following a bearing just west of the Pole (as the U.S. base at Pole does not want skiers going under it’s large Antenna. So in order to avoid a large dog leg variation near the Pole a bearing is followed on a GPS waypoint of 89 degrees, 59 minutes South, 121 degreest West).
- 1700 Stop sledging, pitch tents into prevailing wind, collect snow for melting and stack in neat bricks in tent porch. Dig toilet area for shelter using the ‘WAG BAGS’ (all human waste is removed from the Last Degree sledging trips). Tent / Stove / Food bags and sleeping bags & mats go into the tents, everything else stays on the sledge. There is usually an 'inside man' and outside man for striking and pitching the tents to organise the different tasks involved in setting up the inside of the tent and finishing the pitching and general camp tasks outside. Hang up icy goggles and face mask to dry in the tent. Due to the strong 24 hour summer sun the tent is generally pleasantly warm and can even be to hot to be comfortable during the night, not always though!
- 1730-2130 Tea, cakes, soup, dinner, cakes, tea, coffee. Melting large amounts of water for re-hydrating, filling tomorrow’s water bottles (to be kept warm in the tent overnight) and the pans for tomorrow’s breakfast. Short read, diary, sat phone, blogging! Etc etc.
- 2130 – 0700 9.5 hours sleep, can’t be bad!
