South Pole Race
South Pole Training
Polar Survival Training
Planting a flag in the snow at the South Pole, Antartica
Challenge: South Pole Race
Date: January 2009
The South Pole is as hostile a territory as you'll find anywhere in the world. And yet it marked another triumph for adventure athlete Mark Pollock and his team-mates on January 26, 2009 when they reached the South Pole.
On December 19, 2008 Mark, Simon O'Donnell and Inge Solheim set off for the South Pole to mark the 10th anniversary of Mark's blindness. They raced against five other teams, including double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell and TV presenter Ben Fogle.
This was the South Pole Race, the first race to the South Pole since Scott and Amundsen 's historic race nearly 100 years ago.
For up to 14 hours a day for over five weeks , the trio hauled 70kg pulks (sleds), navigated almost 1000km of vast Antarctic terrain, negotiated crevasses, skiied and climbed to heights of 9300 feet in temperatures as low as minus 48 degrees.
“It's what sport is all about– having incredibly
tough times, putting in a huge effort and achieving your goals. This is ‘the
feeling' that drives me!”
- Adventure athlete Mark Pollock –
Huge effort
Becoming the first blind man to reach the South Pole is no easy feat
and, in the last 36 hours, Mark and his team-mates covered 81km of
harsh terrain . That's the equivalent of almost two marathons, a
stunning achievement when you consider that the team survived by snatching
one-hour bouts of sleepduring this final push.
Throughout the race, often filled with pain, blisters, frostbite, the team averaged 38km per day , 4km above the official cut-off daily target of 34km.
After all the gruelling training, Mark was in pretty good physical shape at the end of the historic race, though it took a huge mental effort to keep going in the last couple of weeks. “The closer we got to the end, the further away it seemed to get.”
Despite falling up to 20 times a day during some of the more treacherous
stretches, neither Mark nor his team-mates suffered injuries serious enough
to knock them out of the race.
His team-mate Simon O'Donnell, a professional strength and conditioning coach for rugby, was “over the moon” at the end of the race, not least because he was suffering from frostbite. Inge Solheim, who had reached the North Pole eight times previously, was excited to reach the South Pole for the first time.
Still, the guys were shadows of their former selves at the end of the race! Mark lost two stone, Simon 3 stone and Inge the least losing one stone. They had to pile on weight before the start of the race to build up fat reserves for warmth in the first phase in Antarctica and for energy in the latter stages.
During the trek, they consumed around 6,000 calories per day and used up 8,000–10,000 calories in energy. Not surprisingly, they had lost two to three stone each in weight by the end of the race.
Thank you …
to all those who supported and sponsored Mark and the team. You are now part of polar history!
“We planted our flag, which bears the photographs of 500 of our supporters, in the ice at the South Pole, so a big thank-you to those who ‘travelled' with us.”
To read about the trip, listen to audio reports and learn about our sponsors please go to our team site at www.southpoleflag.com
Gliding through training, literally
Challenge: South Pole Training Camp , Norway
Date: November 2008
"I'm bloody loving this!"
"Ah, some Norwegian positivity," team-mate Inge Solheim replied.
Adventure athlete Mark Pollock and team-mate Simon O'Donnell were taking a quick food stop during their final training camp with Inge Solheim and they were starting to understand what 'gliding' on skis means …
As they skied, through their guiding system, Mark could feel Simon and his pulk rise up the face of the wind-blown snow mounds. As his pulk gathered pace over the other side, Mark knew he would soon hit the upslope.
"Over and over the ups and downs of the Norwegian
snowscape and I was actually enjoying myself. I have spent so long doing events
in deserts and mountains kicking rocks, stubbing my toes and hating it
that I am still surprised how much I enjoy skiing!" – Mark Pollock
Cracked it!
It took time and effort but they've cracked the guiding system for cross-country skiing blind – two lengths of 2.5 metre carbon-fibre poles attached with a system of climbing rope and caribeeners to Mark's hips at the back and to Simon's pulk at the front.
For this, their final training camp on snow before landing in Antarctica, they knew that there would be some teething problems. But Mark is getting stressed and frustrated when his blindness affected the team's progress.
All that first day, every time he took his big mitts off, it took him at least ten attempts to get them back on. It was the same in the tent - Simon took five minutes to get his kit packed. Mark took a half-hour.
"I was raging with myself for holding the guys up and I could see that in an effort to speed up, I may cut corners resulting in an injury. It made the ‘rest' stops for recovery stress.
"I need to sharpen my tent routine and streamline my systems. Simon needs to forget about encroaching on my independence and just wade in and tell me where my gear is, where he is, what he is doing and how long we all have got until our next move."
But in the spirit of Norwegian positivity, the team is on track and they'll get there …one glide at a time!
Being aggressive is about speed
Being non-emotional is about thinking clearly
Challenge: Polar Survival Training , Austria
Date: July 2008
6.30am on a glacier wearing nothing but boxer shorts is a tough time to learn a life lesson.
But that's what was happening at our polar survival training camp in Austria. "It's about aggression…non-emotional…get in there," shouted exRoyal Marine Gary.
Non-emotional!
"We just had to go in. It was going to be cold, but we had committed to doing it so there wasn't any point putting a pained expression on."
Adventure athlete Mark Pollock
Moving at speed now, they entered the snow hole up to their chests in freezing ice-filled water and dived, or perhaps more accurately collapsed, in. As Mark resurfaced, he was up and running - straight for Gary 's voice.
"In the snow!"
The orders kept coming. "Get down!…Aggression…heads in it and roll! Roll….that's it, roll in it…non-emotional!"
Snow helps to get rid of excess water and stops the body freezing – at least it slows the freezing process. Three, four, five revolutions in the snow and the team were up and running. Hearts pumping, skin freezing, they bolted for the relative warmth of the tent. In the door, clothes off and stove on. They had passed our first survival test.
Their time on an Austrian glacier was about learning how to survive if something goes wrong in Antarctica
Why?
"I finally figured it out as we skied across the glacier.
Being aggressive is about speed. Being non-emotional is about thinking clearly. That's how we'll survive." - Mark Pollock
Thanks to Gary, Felicity, Phil, Simon and the two Toms, the South Pole-bound team now has the skills that could save their lives during their polar adventures.