Brrr!

There are 18 comments

Posted by Mike on June 14, 2013 @ 3:07 am

There seems to be a little surprise that Antarctica in winter is a brutal place to be.

Posted by Jo on June 14, 2013 @ 5:05 pm

Wow! What a fantastic photo! A great illustration of the conditions many of us can’t even imagine. Stay warm and safe, we’re thinking of you.

Posted by phill on June 14, 2013 @ 5:28 pm

Great photo – can’t imagine what conditions are like that can do that. Keep em coming – really interesting to see.

Posted by June on June 14, 2013 @ 11:00 pm

Is it not burying the head in the snow to ignore the sad but unmistakable fact that their objective is now impossible to achieve? The pretence can’t be sustained. All support activity should now concentrate upon extracting them from their predicament without further delay. You say: “they will get it sorted out soon enough”. But what can they do? It’s their back-up team that needs to be galvanised into action. It’s all very well to attempt to defuse it with flippancy but has no one recognised the, at best, appalling, at worst, dangerous situation they’re in?

Posted by Mike the cynical one. on June 15, 2013 @ 4:02 am
No way out of the situation until spring now – and mid winter is still a week away.
At least they have plenty of food and fuel.
I believe the buses start running again around mid September.
Having camped in -30C on Mt McKinley I’m sure they’ll be just fine in their cabin.

Posted by Andy Lawrence on June 15, 2013 @ 6:07 am
Mike is right, they’re stuck there for 3 or 4 months but since they are fully equipped to cross the entire continent there is no particular cause for concern. This was always a possibility and the team setnout prepared to deal with it. It may well be impossible to complete the main objective of the first winter crossing of Antarctica but the expedition has a number of scientific objectives which can still be completed. The tricky thing will be keeping the Cats in working order because that’s how they’re going to get back to the coast. As for the support team there is now way the expedition can be recovered except by a bigger expedition with similar equipment.

Posted by elgin on June 15, 2013 @ 10:14 am

brave explorers, keep warm and safe…

Posted by Flossie Reed on June 15, 2013 @ 1:41 pm

I am a pupil from otterton school, and I know it was a long time ago that we sent it but I hope you got our picture of the class with our sign it is now hanging up in our classroom where every one can see it.

Posted by Joan on June 15, 2013 @ 7:30 pm

Not surprising – we get the same thing in our windows here in upstate New York during a very cold spell in winter.

Posted by Chris on June 16, 2013 @ 10:59 am

We all know you are doing your best, if it can be done you will do it. Brian we are keeping an eye on progress. Stay safe. Chris & Kathryn

Posted by Continental on June 16, 2013 @ 12:35 pm

Has anyone NOT noticed that the Cats could never pull the Ice Train as originally envisioned and diagrammed in the prospectus to TCJ?

Now, this could surely have been conclusively test in the Swedish winter trials with a fully loaded Ice Train (a mock up).

As it turned out, the Cats can just pull small fractions of the Ice Train, forcing them to relay 3 to 4 times across the same stretch.

This engineering and testing defect has doomed TCJ from day one as far as covering the distance is concerned — sadly, a bit like with the ponies of Scott 100 years ago.

Posted by Andy Lawrence on June 17, 2013 @ 7:06 am
The Cats can pull the ice train the problem is the crevassing, it’s too dangerous to pull the entire train over the crevassed area for fear of loosing parts of it down a very large hole. The crevassing seems significantly worse than anybody predicted

Posted by Annac on June 16, 2013 @ 2:57 pm

Having read all the comments for and against this venture I can only say good luck to the five who have to sit this one out now. It must be very disappointing. Hope you keep the Cats maintained and that you manage to keep busy and cheerful.

Posted by Patrick on June 17, 2013 @ 7:09 pm

I fear that it may soon become rather boring, the ice team being mostly confined to their hotel, with little chance of making progress — except for when they set off back to base. Boring for us, but how boring for them. However, if they are to remain safe there may be no other option.

I do now wonder how the fund raising is going under these different circumstances.

Posted by Anonymous on June 17, 2013 @ 10:22 pm

I think everyone needs to take a step back.

What these people have done was to test our understanding, beliefs and boundaries in exploration. However it turns out, whether to the Pole or the other side of Antarctica or not… its challenged nature. One day man will set foot on Mars. Why? Because its what we ‘have’ to do. Exploration makes us who we are as a species and one day, it may well save us.
Best of British.

Posted by Catalin on June 18, 2013 @ 5:34 am

I’ve been following the expedition all the way from the beginning (even before landing on Antarctica) and although there can be a lot of debate about how well things were prepared and how much thought was actually given to the eventuality of huge crevasse fields, what I really can’t understand is why the silence.

Of course it’s a risky expedition and the possibility of not succeeding in the crossing was there all along, but at least the support staff back in the UK should be upfront about it, posting daily updates about what’s going on as that will only help with the charity efforts. Even Ian Prickett posts more news all the way from Antarctica on his personal Twitter account!

Posted by Aurius on June 18, 2013 @ 9:42 am
I couldn’t agree more.

Posted by Class 3 Otterton on June 18, 2013 @ 10:54 am

That looks really cold, especially as we are currently sitting in our classroom most of us just in short sleeved t-shirts! We are still supporting you and thinking about you even though we haven’t been commenting as much recently. It sounds like things are very difficult for you at the moment but we hope you can carry on your incredible journey.