Day 47 – Last degree
Day 47
Lat S89deg 10.356’
Long W79deg 39.466’
Altitude 2753m
Daily
distance 14.25nm
Distance to SP 49.90nm
Finally into the last degree
and have taken a ten nautical mile bite out of it.
This takes me to just
under 50 nautical miles to the pole so very happy with today. Recorded my best
miles day since before Thiel too.
Today’s forecast promised whiteout
conditions but what I ended up with was a nice compromise. The sun was an ever
present but just not strong enough to burn off the low cloud. It ended up being
mostly hazy with another sun dog for the third day in a row. Although the
horizon was hidden, visibility was pretty good and you could see clearly into
the middle distance. To dampen this there was a reasonable easterly wind of
around 20 knots blowing the whole day sending the windchill down to minus 35. It
brought with it a lot of snow drift and along with the low cloud made it look
exactly how I imagined Antarctica to be before coming here. The wind was blowing
across from my left and the constant cold on that side made my left shoulder
ache towards the end of the day. All ok now though.
In fact not wanting to
tempt fate, I’ve been very lucky on that front. My biggest concern was picking
up an injury that either ended my trip or made it very uncomfortable. I was also
concerned about blisters as that can turn it into a very miserable time but my
feet have been brilliant. Boots and both sets of liners and custom insoles have
ensured this along with keeping the cold from my toes.
Obviously I’ve had
aches and pains especially in the hips and lower back but nothing a good stretch
can’t sort out. The only thing I have suffered with is mild polar thigh on the
inner left leg but this hasn’t caused any problems and the same with a cold
injury on my upper chest from a harness hotspot. I’ve also had a bit of a
problem with ice forming around my face. Early in the trip one of the bits of
tape on my cheek got dislodged and some ice formed under it and gave me a cold
burn which has pretty much healed now. The worst is where my beard froze to my
mask and it hasn’t been given the chance to heal due to the need to wear a mask.
I can protect it as best I can but only a few days until I can let it heal
properly. Fingers crossed the last days to the pole remain injury free and I get
there unscathed!
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#antarcticlogisticsandexpeditions #solo #southpole #antarctica
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Good progress mate, I’ve just got back from a ski trip and to test what it’s like for you I did miss out a coffee break one morning and cut down on the red wine a bit. Makes me realise how well you have managed to push through!
Looking forward to you getting back and hearing about the adventure first hand. Good luck on the final push.
Great effort Neil, good luck for the last degree!
Go Neil – what an awesome achievement keep pushing through on the home straight now!!
Almost there Neil and some home comforts xxx
Amazing blog, i really enjoyed it. It’s has been really useful for my blog, and it has given me really good ideas to. Congratulations on reaching the south pole, and lettings us read you’re blog, good luck for the future.
THOMAS