South Pole 2009

During February half term I started my Arctic training in Norway.  Here are a few extracts from my diary, along with some pictures that I took.

Norway 2009 – South Pole training week

Finally, my first experience of polar training before the South Pole at Christmas had arrived. I arrived at the airport to be met by the Fuchs group; these were the four people who I would be spendin g my Norway experience with. The Fuchs grou p were having their second week in Norway training for their expedition to cross Greenland at Easter 2009.

After the long journey down and the flight we were finally in Oslo – Trop Airport . We were greeted by seven inches of snow and this gave us an insight to how the week was going to progress. After a 7 hour train journey we finally reached Finse, our final destination.  

On the first day I learnt how to put my skis on and, without a pulk (Sledge), went on a 6 mile round trip to learn how to balance on these very unsteady cross-country skis. I must have fallen over at least 6 times but I still enjoyed the sensation of being on skis. The next day Carolyn , my leader for Norway , and I went out and learnt how to put up the tents that we would be using the following day. This was very useful as the following day was the start of the two day expedition to test all of our kit fully. We walked 9 miles up and down hills pulling 15 kg pulks, this may no sound a lot but with the fresh snow on the ground this made it twice as hard.

Camping was quick, easy and surprisingly warm, the only thing that kept me awake was the noise of the wind which was unimaginable. We arrived back at Finse the next day in half the time  , which meant that the pace we faster because the Fuch group's skis went faster down hill.  this made very little difference to us however as we had different skis to give more grip which is needed for the South Pole. 


  How we boiled water!!

When we arrived back at Finse we packed and got ready to leave the next day.
 
My time in Norway was amazing I met some great people and learnt the valuable lessons in a safe environment before going to the South Pole this Christmas. I would like to thank Steve, Carl and Carolyn for leading the trip to Norway and the four Fuch’s teaches Andy, Danny, Nicola and Helena for giving me a valuable insight into the life of a teacher!!

Bring on The South Pole!!!!!

     Katie xxx