July 2013

Winning photo All five of us judged this competition independently yesterday, then pooled our results to come up with the overall winner. The competition was of a very high standard and we all very much enjoyed our role as judges. We gave two scores for each entry: one for the strangest/far flung theme and the other for the technical standard of the shot. In the end first and second place wer…

Thank you to Doug Quelch of Amber Promotions for arranging for Hugh and me to visit the Top Gear set to see the filming of one of the new episodes. What an awesome day it was. As someone familiar with technical projects and working within engineering, I am no stranger to the bait-room posters of Ferraris and ‘Lambos’ that are a staple and traditional wallpaper of the UK industry (<cough&gt…

Ice Flowers are delicate tufts of frost on a surface of ice or snow. The are sometimes referred to as Frost Flowers. Image by Brian…

Thank you to everyone who has sent in a picture for our Photo Competition. There have been so many wonderful images, and  you can tell that without exception all of these places hold special memories to the people in them. All of the pictures are now available to see in our Flickr gallery following this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecoldestjourney/ The Ice Team will now work through a…

Thank you to everyone who has sent in their entry for the photo competition so far. As you can see from our Flicker pages, there are lots of excellent photos from some fairly far out places, so choosing a winner is not going to be easy for the Ice Team (visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecoldestjourney/sets/72157634712782950/ to see them). If you would like to enter the competition and stand a…

Earlier this week Ice Team leader Brian Newham spoke with The Weather Channel in the US about the extreme Antarctic weather and what the guys have been experiencing. Follow the link below to listen to that interview. http://www.weather.com/video/the-coldest-journey-37886…

The Polar Circles mark the latitude where for one day in summer  the sun never sets and conversely in winter the sun never…

You might remember that about three months ago we ran a light-hearted Jazz Hands competition. The idea was borne after Ice Team member Ian Prickett’s impromptu decision to pull the pose at the start line. Well, there have been some successful competitions along the way (the on-going photo competition to win Sir Ranulph’s Montana jacket is a case in point – check here to see an album of entries…

Last week, we posted a video featuring Brian Newham explained the process of melting snow into water for drinking and cleaning. In this video Richmond Dykes talks us through the systems in place for generating electricity for the Ice Train, including the two 240V generators, the battery store and how the team have planned against fire and crevasse falls. For the technical and the not-so-technica…

The sun is getting closer and for once there is only low drift so we can see the horizon. This shot was taken from the door of the living caboose and is looking north towards the Sør Rondane mountains which we must pass through on our journey back to the coast.