Ask Brian
Last week we gave you the chance to ask the two drivers, Richmond and Spencer, questions about the Cats and driving in Antarctica. Now you can put your questions to Ice Team Leader, Brian Newham. Brian has spent over 20 seasons working in Antarctica and is one of the most experienced polar professionals around. If there’s anything you have wanted to know about The Coldest Journey, Brian is your…
The Long and Winding Road
The Ice Team have been pinned in the same position since days before Ran left because of terrible whiteout conditions. The weather broke just long enough for Ran’s collection, but other than that progress has been all but non-existent. The current camp is poised at the bottom of an extremely difficult 7km-long section of terrain which demands reasonable conditions to assess and cross safely.
Winter’s Coming
This spectacular shot by Brian Newham shows the moon hanging low in the ski in the dwindling light.
Blue Ice and Mountains
By Brian Newham. Yesterday was a long day and today isn’t to be any shorter but we really want to make the most of the good weather. Despite a fresh breeze it is sunny with great visibility so we need to push southwards. By late morning we arrived at an area of ‘Blue Ice’. It’s a term used to describe a surface that is just that – it’s like an ice rink but with a few surface imperfections. They…
Blowing Snow
By Brian Newham (written on Saturday evening) A grey and breezy start to the day which gradually deteriorated into blowing snow and visibility of only about 100m. Anyone who knows the term “whiteout” will know what we have been experiencing – the sky merges with the ground, there is no contrast at all and its quite disorientating. Despite the conditions we were able to push slowly southwards and…
“Moving South” – by Brian Newham
The Ice Train is on the move for the very first time. This morning we made final preparations and stowed the last of our equipment before setting out on our journey to lay a fuel depot further south. The strategy behind the fuel depot is twofold. Firstly, we need to reduce the weights that we are towing so we need to position fuel between our starting point at the coast and the Pole – we w…
“We are alone now” – by Brian Newham
There are certain moments in life that are so hard to describe that it is almost futile to try. What happened here just a couple of hours ago was one of those moments. Last night’s party was a great oc…casion but this morning the stark reality of what was about to happen overwhelmed everything else. Farewells were extremely hard as friends that had helped so much to get us this far offered…
Choosing the Moment
By Brian Newham It was a grey and breezy start to the day but, more importantly, the bay was still full of tightly packed sea-ice. It looked very unlikely that the ship would be able to reach us and it wasn’t long before a chat on the radio with the ship’s bridge confirmed the news. It’s a frustrating fact of life down here that you have to remain flexible and make the most of conditions when…
“First Night Ashore” – by Brian Newham
As followers will know, the Ice Team spent their first night ashore in their new home last night. To be honest, the caboose assembly wasn’t quite ready for this move but it did give us the opportunity to keep pushing the work forward without worrying about retreating to the ship every night or worrying about the ice which has invaded the bay sporadically over the last few days and caused the s…
