Dear All,

Below is the official line on the latest from Antarctica. This is what is being sent to the media around the world right now. We will be keeping our Facebook page, Twitter feed and website up to date with all of these latest announcements, as well as additional blogs, images and footage, making this the place to visit for all the latest for expedition news and Ran’s journey home.

“Further to continued bad weather at The Coldest Journey base camp in Antarctica, Ranulph Fiennes remains in the team’s caboose. The Ice Team are waiting for a break in the snow storm and are working on the best way to get Sir Ranulph to the Princess Elisabeth Station for evacuation, which we hope will now be tomorrow.

Regarding Fiennes’ injury, Dr Robert Lambert, the Ice Team doctor, said: “Ran has frostbite injuries to four fingers of his left hand, sustained during his usual ski training regime in Antarctica. As with all frostbite, it is still too early to determine the full extent of the injury; however treatment is progressing well, and Ran is bearing up with his usual fortitude and good cheer. Ran himself has made the very difficult decision not to continue with his attempt to ski across Antarctica in winter, a decision with which I concur. In the circumstances I think this is very wise. To continue skiing with this injury in these conditions would be to invite much more severe damage.”

As a point of detail, we would like to clarify that the frostbite was sustained whilst Fiennes was making adjustments to one of his ski bindings which had become loose, and there was no failure of the binding. It was whilst making these adjustments that he briefly removed his glove.”

Best wishes,

Hugh – Operations HQ, London