July 2013

Of all the chores we have to complete out of doors at our winter camp, re-fuelling is the most difficult; it is also the most important. No fuel would mean no generators and no generators would mean no heat. When it is -50 degrees Celsius outside, it doesn’t take long without running generators to drop the interior caboose temperature to below freezing. It is a good thing the Perkins generators…

The Antarctic ice holds 70% of the world’s fresh water Antarctic ice holds 70% of the worlds fresh water…

Just a reminder that you can see all the latest photos from the ice on our Flickr site, including this terrific shot by Ian Prickett of a snow drift near camp. See all photos using the Photostream, or be more selective by clicking on specific Sets. Click here to see mor…

The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered by British scientists and it led to severe restrictions in the use of CFC’s globally. It is not expected to recover until around 2070. Image source: National Geographic The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered by British scientists and it lead to severe restrictions in the use of CFC’s globally. It is not expected to recovere until around 2070…

We are pleased to announce that The Coldest Journey shop is now open. From baseball hats and USB sticks to ice scrapers and T-shirts, there is plenty of reasonably priced expedition-branded merchandise on offer for our fans to take a keepsake of their own.Click here to visit the shopThe Coldest Journey will stand in the record books as Man’s first ever attempt to cross the Antarctic during t…

For once we have light winds and the twilight this morning is quite spectacular.Having not seen the sun since the 9th May it is now getting tantalisingly close to the horizon. On the 3rd August  (or even sooner, these things are difficult to predict), we should get our first glimpse, weather permitting, of the sun as it nudges briefly above the horizon and thereafter our days will gradually…

Today was snow sampling day and it is something that we do at least every three days, more regularly if there is local snowfall, as part of our science programme. We are collecting snow samples for two separate research projects. One is looking at Moisture Transport by Water Isotope Analyses  ( for NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, USA and also Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences,…

While the team continue to carry out their daily science duties and general upkeep of the Ice Train, Richmond Dykes took some time out to remind us of his obsession with all things mechanical…TCJ Biography Adjustment – by Richmond DykesAs l may have mentioned in the past in my Coldest Journey biography I have loved all things mechanical, electrical and steam related.  As a rule of thumb,…

Photo by Ian Prickett…

Brash is basically ice rubble, made up of loose pieces of ice of various sizes and dimensions, from the size of gravel to a wheelie bin or bigger. Brash is debris resulting from differing erosive processes in the poles, such as when an ice berg is calved or simply when an ice bergs starts to break up as part of their on-going erosion. This picture by Brian Newham taken earlier in the year at…