Over the weekend we asked you to send us your questions for Ian Prickett. Despite working 15-hour days outside in the cold, Ian managed to squeeze in enough time get back with his answers. I’ll reveal them in three instalments for maximum impact!

Question One: As one who knows you extremely well, and knowing how you hate an untidy bedroom… Where do you put your laundry and where does it get washed…? Obviously you can’t hang it out to dry… Have you got some state of the art technology that will wash and dry your smalls? 🙂 (by Annette Howitt, Ian’s mum!)

Firstly, there must be some sort of conspiracy out there for this question to have received so many likes.  My mum could of just emailed me personally!

I’m afraid to say there is no state-of-the-art technology for washing clothes.   We are on an extreme expedition here and we have been kitted out in recognition of this with the very best in clothing for these types of environments.  We have merino wool base layer thermals and underwear which have specific properties to allow you to wear them for, let’s say, more than one day at a time.  OK, let’s say maybe a week at a time.  In some cases, maybe even a month!  This drastically reduces the amount of laundry required.  An example of this is that since the very start of the trip I have had to wash my clothes twice.

Now to the process of actually washing.  As I mentioned before there’s no state-of-the-art technology in place; instead we have a bucket, eco-friendly soap suds and a clothes line in the shower to drip dry our gear in moderate warmth.  It still takes a good few days or so to fully dry inside the toilet room and a bucket rinse is never guaranteed to completely clean  your undies so as I’m sure you can guess, it gets a bit smelly.

In the summer months it is possible to hang your clothes out to dry outside on a line.  Due to the air being so dry, the moisture wicks away from your clothes as the garments freeze.  This just means they need a little thawing out after a few days in the ice but they will be dry!  If I hung my clothes outside at the moment I certainly wouldn’t see them again with the wind we have had relentlessly battering us for the past few weeks.