Day 24: A much needed, Good Solid One!
South Pole: Solo but Not Alone
Howard Fairbank
Fri 16 Dec 2011 00:48
Oops, yesterday was 87th parallel crossing day, forgot to tell you, but I did enjoy Ruth's card, and well huge whisky celebration, as I tried to minimise throwaway!
Elevation: 2365 metres...114 metres today, but 'hills and valleys' again to get there.
Just the day I needed, a good solid, mainly, non-event day. As you will probably appreciate, every day is an 'ordeal' and a mind and body struggle, so non-event is in that context!
The 'night' snowfall was very light, and even as I was setting out this morning there were still light flurries. As when it snows it was warmer, but as the cloud cleared during the day, it got a lot colder, and I finished with it at -24C. There was a 18-20 knot SE wind blowing for most of the day, making for difficult wind chill with it coming just off the face. Breaks were cold and I so I changed my marches, doing longer ones with less number of breaks, which worked out well, because I got into my warm little tent earlier! 9 hours marched and 30.0 kilometres done! That's 3.3km/h, and pretty respectable, considering that I was once again without skis and just 'stomping' inn my boots! I did try the skis for an hour, but I REALLY felt it was slower, and for more stressful.
Still lots off sastruggi, I fact today I saw the biggest monster yet! Most of the big ones have a trailing tail ridge, behind the ornate head, and this ridge normally has a close to vertical shear face, that one has to ski, walk down. Well the face of ''the monster' was all of 2m, and I'm supposed to ski off the ledge, hope for a happy landing, and pull 'my friend' over a few metres of towline later!
My whisky bottle, flask replacement, worked well today, so that's good. Don't think it's a 'Johnny Walker' type bottle, just a 1L Nalgene synthetic 'bottle'. Even with the down jacket insulation, the initial boiling water is almost frozen by day end.
I'm about 4km from the largest crevasse area on route. I'll skirt around it tomorrow, and THEN it's direct no stopping to the POLE! I'd estimate 9-10 days now...but not banking on it!
Some people asked about my food / calories: There is a whole description with photos, on the blog, a posting around 10-13 Nov. In summary I eat about 7500 cal / day, and this is largely fat based. I can also tell you: It's really easy to eat that amount of food when exercising like I am, and being semi cold all the time! In fact I have just eaten my delicious 'tomorrow's breakfast' sandwich, as I was ravenous AFTER a huge dinner! (I'll steal two in the morning from 'the excess' I now have. (planned for 38 days, and it will almost certainly now take less)
Not much else to 'report' today...and hope for another 'productive one' tomorrow..
I presume you have all worked out your 3-5 key life activity issues, and have two 'Yes' ticks for the two questions, and so you are in 'Holy Grail', not wasting your life territory!
Lastly on that whole concept, and my 'brief' explanation: It may come across as very 'me', 'selfish', and individualistic driven. It's not exclusive of others, there is a subtle twist in the way I see things. I believe one must do things for oneself, butt in doing that others benefit the most, rather than doing things for others and hoping their recognition, appreciation etc, satisfies you. Ie the goal is to bee the best parent, because that's what you have chosen to do, and a spin off from that is that you will have an offspring who you love, care for and have given a lot. But the goal is too be thee best parent, that's where the personal height comes in. Continuing, I believe that if you make the goal the other person, then there is risk of an unhealthy dependency relationship, and while that may seem cosy, it's not a source of personal height. The personal height goal / result comes when one achieves something extraordinary for ONESELF. Single-handedly turning a business around is the source of personal height, not thee benefits to others not the huge title / status of the job, nor the financial rewards that go with it. These are all benefits, some for others, but the personal height is within, knowing YOU took on a challenge and did something EXTRAORDINARY.
Lastly, the major discoveries that help millions were driven by a desire to solve a 'difficult' problem, and the scientist, doctor whoever, was magnetised by this challenge. In the process of solving it, he/she gained huge personal height, and ALSO many were given something by it. But the primary motive was the solving of the challenge, rather than the desire to help others... Therein lies my subtle, yet I believe powerful, within (vs others) focus.
That's it from me on 'this stuff', unless there is more 'blog debate..
Thanks again for your SUPPPORT on my adventure...It's really motivating....