Update from the Ice Train

Just to let you know that the Ice Train was unable to proceed today. The wind rose again during the night and this morning was 40+ kts with zero visibility. However, things have calmed down and tomorrow is looking more hopeful. On a separate note, the SA Agulhas is due to arrive back in Cape Town tomorrow night, or early Wednesday evening. We’ll keep you…

Another short video from Ian Prickett. This time he gives us an update on what has been happening today. As you will see, not much! Still, it’s a good insight into conditions down there right…

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…

Spencer Smirl’s latest blog. The first successful day of travel finally happened. Well, not completely successful, but just about. Yesterday was Thursday the 7th of February. It was our 18th day on the Antarctic continent. Long days spent unloading and assembling our massive amount of kit. The sun never stopped shining and the temperature didn’t spend much time below zero. The struggles of coping…

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…