A Swedish Saga

It’s 7am on Saturday, 24th November. I’m checking my emails before heading out of the door to meet Ian Prickett and Brian Newham at the warehouse for 9am. The cabooses and sledges are arranged in a train down the centre of the massive space. The rain drips from the cracks in the roof as is hammers down outside. No breaks and no tea for the first 5 hours. I crack on with building the scienc…

Very exciting day yesterday! We have taken over the warehouse at the docklands and started taking delivery of the heavy equipment. With the help of a 50-tonne crane, the fabulous removal men from Revells and about half a dozen extremely capable and patient truck drivers we managed to squeeze everything in and lock up by 6pm. Lots more on the way today and tomorrow… We will be uploading loads…

On Monday 12th October our Cold Equipment Team Leader, Steve Holland did  the morning assembly at Kimbolton Prep School. The week before, Mr Hall, one of the staff, had been using The Coldest Journey website to discuss leadership when Lucy, one of the pupils said: “That’s my uncle!” A few emails and calls later and Steve was stood in front of 300 small faces discussing the serious planning…

Inside this modest looking chest of drawers are all of the tools for the expedition provided by Snap-On Industrial – that’s nearly 400 individual pieces! Containing everything from a video inspection tool to chisels to pliers to hammers to drills to ratchets to impact guns, sockets and so much more, this extraordinarily well-designed and rugged box will serve as a treasure chest to t…

Good morning to you all. And what a morning it is! Not a cloud to be seen from Operations HQ in Pall Mall, London. Certainly makes travelling to work a pleasure. But enough of this! I am pleased to say that we have added extra content to the website which I hope you will find very interesting. The additions include detailed information and images from the all-important Cold Chamber testing days,…

Dearr All, The SA Agulhas sailed from Cape Town today at 13.00hrs (UK time) – destination London. If you want to follow the ship’s progress, while in coastal waters you can visit the website: www.marinetraffic.com/ais. On the map the ship is coloured blue and is heading in a North Westerly direction from Cape Town. I should get regular reports from the Captain and I shall try to post her daily…

Falling down a crevasse is one of the biggest threats to the success of the expedition, as well as to the lives of six-man ice team. Being prepared for such an eventuality is key, and last month the guys spent two days in the Lake District receiving crevasse rescue training from the experts. Read ice member Ian Prickett’s account of the trip on the website under The Expedition > Preparations…

Hi everyone. I am currently enjoying my final three weeks in Canada for the next while. After working and training heavily in the UK for five weeks in early fall , I needed to return home and say my farewells and tie up the last of my loose ends. The -25C chill of the morning air as I awoke today filled me with excitement for my approaching adventure. I will be returning to the UK in a week to…