Save £6 off the ticket price by booking in advance quote ”Tarka” / “Katie-Jane” / “Rachel” (£10 on the door) visit www.adventuretravellive.com

Adventure Travel Live is the must visit, one stop shop for anyone planning an off-the-beaten-track travel adventure. The show is packed with inspiration and travel advice that will help you to uncover the journey of a lifetime. From once-in-a lifetime-travel experiences, small group adventures, trekking, family adventures, career breaks, safaris, overland expeditions, volunteering, gap years and much more.

There are over 60 talks at Adventure Travel Live and our impressive line-up of travel experts includes the likes of Simon Yates (Touching the Void), Ben Fogle, Benedict Allen, co-founder of Lonely Planet Tony Wheeler, Doug Scott, Tom Avery, Simon Calder, Paul Rose and many more, oh and us of course!

We will be presenting ‘The Great Walk of China: Proof that anything is possible!’ Recounting my colossal life-change from the world of commercial fashion to adventurer: surviving blizzards, temperatures of -35°C, frost bite, starvation, exhaustion and dehydration? In 167 days and over 4500km we became the first to walk the entire length of the magical Great Wall of China from its westerly terminus to its most easterly. The equivalent to over 100 consecutive marathons with a third of our body weight on our backs. With the hope of inspiring one or two others, that we are all more capable than we think if we are just brave enough to take the first steps!

Show features include:

• 5 x theatres packed with inspiration and advice; from Simon Calder’s weekend of adventure travel, wildlife adventures, overland & expeditions to the planning the ultimate career break
• Nat Geo Adventure explorers workshop
• Royal Geographical Society Map Zone
• The Big Earth expedition planning feature
• Travel Africa safari planner
• Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition
• Nomad Travel Health & Essential Kit Guide
  

Venue & Getting there
Royal Horticultural Halls, Greycoat Street, Victoria, London SW1P 2QD.
Friday 29 January, 6pm-10pm
Saturday 30 January, 10am-6pm
Sunday 31 January, 10am-5pm

On door price
Friday / adults / £10
(£18 for the evening with Simon Calder + valid any one day)
Saturday / adults / £10
Sunday / adults / £10
Under 16s free


Advance ticket offer
I am pleased to confirm that we have teamed up with the organisers of Adventure Travel Live to offer you a discount to the show when you book in advance. You can save £6 off door price for adults (i.e. £4 valid any day), under 16s are free. Add £1.50 postage and packing per order.

Tickets for an Evening with Simon Calder are £15 and takes place from 6pm to 10pm on Friday 29 January only. Also valid any one day for Adventure Travel Live.

Order online at adventuretravellive.com or call 0871 230 7159 and quote  “Tarka” / “Katie-Jane” / “Caroline” / “Rachel”  (please use reference code where relevant J).

Also dont forget 2 days letter we will be speaking about the Rivers of Ice Expedition at the quirky ‘Night of Adventure’ in the style of Pecha Kucha, 15 speakers, 20 slides per speaker, 20 seconds per slide on February the 2nd at 7pm, at the Roxy Bar & Screen, London. This will be great fun and not to be missed, with all proceeds going to Hope and Homes for Children.

FIFTEEN speakers from across the spectrum of expeditions, adventure and travel will talk about their experiences (Tarka and I speaking as a pair being one of them) .

The subjects range from rowing oceans, climbing Everest, walking and cycling across continents, crossing ice caps (I think this is us!), trekking to the North Pole (and South Pole) all the way to flying cars, climbing Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair and spending six months living in a tree house.

Each one is an amazing story. But the twist is that each speaker is allowed just 20 slides. And each slide scrolls on automatically after just 20 seconds!! Tarks and I have never spoken before in this style and i think its going to be quite a challeng but great fun for the audience to watch. This format, originally called “Pecha Kucha” in Japan, makes for a high-paced, varied, original evening.

The Roxy Bar is a really good venue for a night out. The setting is informal so you can sit on sofas with a beer or eat a light meal while watching the event. Friendly heckling will be encouraged!

This evening of adventure is being held to raise funds and awareness for Hope and Homes for Children. All the proceeds from the event will go to support the work of this charity. So please come along, bring a few friends, have dinner, and make an evening of it. Put it in your diary today and buy your tickets here!

February 2nd 2010, www.roxybarandscreen.com, London, 7pm
15 speakers
20 slides per speaker
20 seconds per slide
£15 minimum entry. Buy your ticket online here (or below) and just bring ID on the night. There will be a few tickets available on the door for cash only. All proceeds from the door go to charity
Dinner and drinks available at the venue

On a seperate note our Great Wall of China documenatry won the people’s choice award at Dundee Mountain Film Festival…yippie! the weekend before last and was well recieved at the Autrans Mountain Film Festival in France this weekend.

We have been over whelmed by the level of press interest in the expedition, especially as the coverage has been over such a broad spectrum of readers and amazingly it is still coming. I have attached just a small sample below.

As we have mentioned previously we are disappointed in the limited film footage we were able to capture out there, and are already looking at alternative camera equipment for next year, to depict the unfathomable conditions and drama that the ice cap provides. However, from the little footage we were able to capture, we will be creating little film snippets over the weekend, so keep an eye out of the multimedia page.

Tarka has now, a little over a month since we came off the ice, fully recovered physically. I however am still a little behind. The numbness in the toes has gradually disappeared bar my left big toe which I still can’t feel…very strange sensation, especially as I keep tripping over it! This week I have been shedding layers and layers of skin from my hands although that seems to be clearing up now. But problematically my knees are in a bad way. They hurt continually especially up and down stairs and don’t seem to be improving. For this reason we have been delaying getting back into training. Although I think it’s about time to dust off the bike and see if exercises will actually help the old knees.

As well as wrapping up from this expedition we have already started planning and organising for next year’s expedition…Rivers of Ice – Take 2!

As you will see from the table that we were incredibly happy with our choice of equipment and nearly all of it performed amazingly, leaving very few things to change or modify for next year.

As soon as we are home we will start replying to the hundreds of personal messages we received offering kind help and support, as well as updating the website with photos and video footage of our epic journey. For the kit junkies we will do a full equipment review and take a look at the few changes we will make for next year (predominantly the camera equipment).

Another quick thing, currently our first public talk about the Ice Cap crossing will be at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival on the 20th of November.

We have completely circum-navigated the base of this glacier looking for an exit by boat and there just isn’t one. There is no way off here other than going back up the glacier which I am not sure I can physically do. Technically especially with the fact that we have no tent, we have run out of food and I cant see. So were about 100 meters from the mouth of the glacier and there is nothing that we can do. We can t go any closer as it sheers off and the boats cant get any closer cause it would be dangerous for them also. So our journey is going to finish by helicopter, it’s the only way off. So we’re just hoping one comes. I don’t know how or where it will land as we’re in enormous cerracs. But hopefully it will have a winch and we’ll be able to get off.

Basically I have just completely had it. The last week since the tent went has just completely taken its toll and I don’t have an ounce of strength left in me and I just can not wait for this to end.

Just thought we would say a few thank yous since we’re here. Thank you to all our sponsors you’ve been amazing obviously couldn’t be here with out them and really really appreciate their support. Sarah you’ve been a star, Caroline again you’ve been a star taking on press and everything else**also big support to PM**. Thank you to all the people that have helped all round the world with information about the area and everything else. And most importantly I would like to say thank you to Sadie, who I cant thank you enough. I kinda through her into being Project Manager, she had never done anything like this before. She just moved her house, moved her business, running her own business all at the same time as doing this for us. As good as the professionals.

Quick summery for now, well we have the longest British traverse, longest journey by a woman and we think the first to descend via the Glacier Spegazzini.

We’ve nearly lost our lives on several occasions, but what we are taking from this trip is that we have every intention of being here back next year at the same time to try again at our main objective. We truly believe that the tactics we used will work and now we know that the first three quarters of the trip we believe if we’re a bit fatter and a bit fitter we can do 20km a day as appose to 16km a day which would give us an extra week at the Fella Rechart. And with over two weeks in all to get through that section, again fingers crossed, it would give a much better chance to get through that weather window. So we have not given up on the mission its just going to have to wait a few more months. But we have still achieved an awful lot so were not going away completely disappointed. That’s probably it for now, we’ll do our final pod cast tomorrow hopefully being on dry land as it were. Bye.

The only thing to report here today since we have been scrunched up in our sleeping bags, would really like to straighten my legs and my knees have big cramps. We have both been screeching at each other in pain. I also have snow blindness in my eyes, just to describe that really its like swimming underwater for 24 hours in a chlorine pool and someone scratching sand in my eyes so their pretty bloodshot to say the least and quite sore. But I am putting drops in them so hopefully they’ll get better.

Tarka has frost bite on two toes. Not badly as in he will loose his toes but he is in quite a lot of pain with them and has nicked the last of the pain killers for tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow we will hit land, its 6km till we’re off the ice cap all be it through pretty slow terrain. Then another 10km over the top of some mountains that we need to climb over to get to a pick up point. Then the thick vegetation and some aggressive wild cows thrown into that apparently! So we’ll watch out for those but that’s all to report for today hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some good news, and make land. Bye for now.

]]> http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/27/snow-blindness/feed/ 0 http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/24/getting-off-the-ice-2/ http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/24/getting-off-the-ice-2/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:59:05 +0000 Katie-Jane http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/?p=563 HI every one I hope you can hear me over the gust of wind I am buried under my sleeping bag to shield the noise somewhat. Serious change of emotions, yesterday I was in floods of tears absolutely uncontrollable yesterday pretty much all day because we have come to the conclusion that we were probably going to have to get off the ice cap without going through the Fella Rechairt and the Cero Mayo and obviously not achieve our goal of making the glacier. Which to me felt like a huge failure despite our journey already being the longest British journeys and the longest journey made by a woman. It wasn’t the goal we came here to achieve, and it felt like we weren’t getting even to have a full attempt at what we wanted. There is nothing wrong with us, we felt like we had it in use, we felt like we had the right stuff we just didn’t have a weather window. It felt like a really hard choice because if we did have a go any of these last few days it would have been suicidal and if we had waited any long we wouldn’t have any food on the other side and with these hostile conditions equally that would have been suicidal. So yesterday although we have given ourselves two extra days we have come round to the fact that we were going to be heading home unsuccessful. So I was really distraught as was Tarka. However over night 4ft of snow has fallen or blown up the valley and the storm hasn’t subsided at all and the tent was completely buried in snow even worse than the night before. So we spent this morning digging it out in 60 knot winds because the tent would be weakened by the weight of the snow. And this morning putting it back up it just fell apart with every gust of wind. I mean were in a Golite tent which is arguably the strongest tent in the world and we have 5 pole breakages, snapped right through the middle. The whole door is torn away we have no zips its just shredded. It doesn’t stand as a tent at also we have made a survival shelter out of it. Inside at the moment we have ski poles lifting up the roof as much as we can so we can lay in here and our bags pushing out the side. So we have a little den just to keep us warm and out of the wind the best we can. Tartka is out side at the moment shovelling because that getting buried all the time and we cant afford to let it bury us as we will literally be buried us. So big problems, the rescue services cant get us as the storm is too storm regardless. So we have lots of food lots of fuel and we’re just trying to keep warma nd make it through the night really. Tomorrow were hoping to make a bid for a glacier off on the Argentina side about 15km away and we will have to go through crevasse fields but we have no tent and if the tent doesn’t hold its not looking like a good scenario. So we are just praying the tent holds in this position till the morning and we will do our best to get out of here tomorrow. Not making the end seems completely irrelevant now we are just trying to survive. Speak Tomorrow.

]]> http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/24/getting-off-the-ice-2/feed/ 0 http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/24/getting-off-the-ice/ http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/24/getting-off-the-ice/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:57:22 +0000 Katie-Jane http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/?p=562 HI every one I hope you can hear me over the gust of wind I am buried under my sleeping bag to shield the noise somewhat. Serious change of emotions, yesterday I was in floods of tears absolutely uncontrollable yesterday pretty much all day because we have come to the conclusion that we were probably going to have to get off the ice cap without going through the Fella Rechairt and the Cero Mayo and obviously not achieve our goal of making the glacier. Which to me felt like a huge failure despite our journey already being the longest British journeys and the longest journey made by a woman. It wasn’t the goal we came here to achieve, and it felt like we weren’t getting even to have a full attempt at what we wanted. There is nothing wrong with us, we felt like we had it in use, we felt like we had the right stuff we just didn’t have a weather window. It felt like a really hard choice because if we did have a go any of these last few days it would have been suicidal and if we had waited any long we wouldn’t have any food on the other side and with these hostile conditions equally that would have been suicidal. So yesterday although we have given ourselves two extra days we have come round to the fact that we were going to be heading home unsuccessful. So I was really distraught as was Tarka. However over night 4ft of snow has fallen or blown up the valley and the storm hasn’t subsided at all and the tent was completely buried in snow even worse than the night before. So we spent this morning digging it out in 60 knot winds because the tent would be weakened by the weight of the snow. And this morning putting it back up it just fell apart with every gust of wind. I mean were in a tent a thats arguably the strongest tent in the world and we have 5 pole breakages, snapped right through the middle. The whole door is torn away we have no zips its just shredded. It doesn’t stand as a tent at also we have made a survival shelter out of it. Inside at the moment we have ski poles lifting up the roof as much as we can so we can lay in here and our bags pushing out the side. So we have a little den just to keep us warm and out of the wind the best we can. Tartka is out side at the moment shovelling because that getting buried all the time and we cant afford to let it bury us as we will literally be buried us. So big problems, the rescue services cant get us as the storm is too storm regardless. So we have lots of food lots of fuel and we’re just trying to keep warma nd make it through the night really. Tomorrow were hoping to make a bid for a glacier off on the Argentina side about 15km away and we will have to go through crevasse fields but we have no tent and if the tent doesn’t hold its not looking like a good scenario. So we are just praying the tent holds in this position till the morning and we will do our best to get out of here tomorrow. Not making the end seems completely irrelevant now we are just trying to survive. Speak Tomorrow.

]]> http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/24/getting-off-the-ice/feed/ 0 http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/23/lucky-charms/ http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/23/lucky-charms/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:50:13 +0000 Katie-Jane http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/?p=558 Hi everyone not much to report, huge storm all night and all day despite the weather map showing clear skies above us so we can’t move. Tent is still in the same precarious position its been in for the last few days. .We have a crevasse about a meter in front of us and the hole that Tarka fell down about a meter behind us. We would love to move some where else but cant so we’re stuck in this precarious position.

We’ve had so much snow in the last 24 hours that when Tarka went out to check the tent and skis were in the right place, we were completely buried. The wall has made snow whip round the side of us. Unless you went over in a plane you would have no idea that we were here. We are completely surrounded by snow right up to the roof, so he had to dig out all the ski’s and stuff!

We have laid here all day in our bags cant do any thing, dreamt of food, mapped out our lives, normal stuff when you have nothing to do. So that’s about all we have to report today really.

Couple of extra things . We were doing some visual data gathering for Camino about 4 volcanoes that we’ve past on our route so far. Only 2 of them we could see, the others we past on one of our many white out days. But the two that we did pass have had no recent activity and we’ve taken various images as requested so I hope that’s useful.

The other thing I was going to mention was I know that our kit is ultra light and Tarka has shaved down to the last gram, but I did sneak a few things in my bag. 4 of which are little lucky charms I suppose. The first is a four leaf clover that my dear friend Sadie found a few days before we left so I felt that we should take that, I also have a tiny angel pendant that my Grandma gave me for our very first expedition on the Great Wall of China to keep me safe and it did keep me safe and I’ve taken it on each expedition since and thought it was only right it came again. I also have a tiny little wooden lady bird, from one of our youngest followers Hector who is absolutely bug mad and we’ve taken photos on previous trips of bugs and spiders for him. He was mortified that we wouldn’t see any bugs on this trip so though it was best that we should bring one with us, and how can your refuse!!

The final thing I have is a small photo of my mum and dad aptly dressed as Batman and Robin, so their fully costumed incase I need to give them a call and they need to come and get me, thier ready to go.

So there all in my camera bag, my very rarely used camera bag, Tarka hasn’t kicked up too much of a fuss and he hasn’t trown them away so that’s a bonus!

Other than that I cant really report anything more for today hopefully we’ll move tomorrow

Filming, we have obviously been trying to make a film about our journey but its considerably harder than we thought. We used the camera in the Artic at -40 and stuff with no problem. But here about 80% of the time it just doesn’t work. Presumably it gets moisture in there which then freezes and then it gets wet and then it gets warm and its just a nightmare. What filming we have done we’re please with and we will continue to do our best to get as much footage as we can, but as I say most of the days especially the bad weather days which shows you what were going through, it doesn’t work. It only seems to like the nice sunny days which paints the wrong impression of the icecap. But we are doing our best with that. Similarly with the camera there are only so many pictures I can take of a complete white out! So we haven’t done very well with the photos yet.

I thought I would give you a quick low down on my favourite and worst parts of my day, showing how simple my day is! The worst part is putting my frozen boots in the morning. The pain is immense, probably not helped by the fact that my feet are hideous, there’s very little skin on them and everything is infected and its all just nasty down there. So that’s pretty painful. Don’t enjoy night time at all, because we cannot sleep, we haven’t slept for weeks and its starting to show now, we’re really tired. Not only because its wet and cold but also because in the night we get these shooting pains kinda like growing pains, in our hips and our legs. What ever position we’re in it just hurts and we roll. I just wait for the next day, one day nearer the end, that’s all night time is to me at the moment.

The other thing I cant stand is my rope that’s tied between Tarka and I every second that we’re moving. Because where ever I am the rope is in the wrong place, I trip over it, it pulls me over! I am going to cut it to shreds when this is over I hate that blinking rope!

But the best bits… well taking the boots off!! Breakfast we LOOVVEE breakfast. There our own home made breakfast and their absolutely scrumdidlyumpsus! Even though I say so my self. Hum what else…Sadie, we love hearing our voice answer phone message from Sadie, although its not her in person it lovely hearing her voice and hearing all the messages on the web site and makes us feel a little less isolated. What else? Probably the second hour of the day walking is my favourite point of the day purely because it’s the only time I’m starting to get warm and nothing started hurting yet, so that’s a good hour.

And I thinks that’s about it, I’ll leave it at that tomorrow Tarka will have some more news about the most difficult part of the trip and we will go from there. Bye!

]]> http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/20/best-and-worst-bits/feed/ 0 http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/17/never-a-problem-always-a-solution/ http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/17/never-a-problem-always-a-solution/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:44:49 +0000 Katie-Jane http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/?p=547 Right well I have 2 days to tell you about and quite a lots happened. So yesterday, we walked in a blizzard, as per usual. Tarka mentioned briefly that we were going through a crevasse field. What he didn’t tell me whilst we were going along, and probably quite wisely, is that that two snow bridges that he was on, kinda boomed out beneath him luckily there was enough snow that he could actually back off and go a different way. But you know, the noise of a huge crack and thunder underneath you scared him a little. Thankfully the rope was long enough back and the wind was howling enough that I was completely oblivious. Which is a good thing.

The I got worst in the evening, having now spoken to a few people we are convinced that I had acute Carbon Monoxide poisoning last night. We actually think that the panic attack I had a week or so ago was a mild version of this also. But this was a full blown episode. I lost all control of my body, I went like a stiff plank, I had a seizure, full dilation of my pupils, nose bleed and then unconscious. I remember coming round to Tarka screaming my name, I was in his arms and he was screaming at me. I’ve never seen him terrified and the look on his face frightened me to death as well. So it was a horribly scary night and it took about 2 hours before I was under some form of control. Its knocked me for six really, this morning I didn’t want to leave the tent, it took 2 hours of tears and convincing you know “what should we do?”, basically it scared me to death. I’m finding it really really tough from every angle and that was really the extra nail needed to make me want to quit.

But equally I didn’t want to fail so I did get out of the tent and I have walked another day. And I am feeling much better today.

We had another blizzard today so we couldn’t see anything. We had a lot of  sastrugi.  So that’s really uneven ground and the sledges kept turning over. Tarkas sledge fell over far more than mine and at one point he was bashing the hell out of it with his ski sticks! He lost his rag, he was so angry it just kept going over and over and over.

We had to stop a little bit early because of the wind, we couldn’t stand up. But we’ve done 13km and after all of last nights fiasco we’re quiet pleased with that.

The only other thing to report at the moment is the bad infection on my foot is doing much better. I have 3 other wounds that are also infected. The problem is that tomorrow our medical bandage supply will run out and then we’re forced to use the repair kit, electrical tape and gaffa tape and obviously if we use all that up and then if something breaks we’re in trouble.

So its all going a bit Pete Tonge! But we’re going to carry on the best we can any way and I think tomorrow we’ll be half way in distance and we have 15 days of food left. Whether we make it, who knows?. That’s all for now bye!

Anyway, it was incredibly cold. So, we had another night with no sleep. So, that’s 48 hours now with not even 10 minutes between us, sleep. Yesterday, in our day off we actually cut up the sleeping bags and sewed them back together as one slightly smaller bag in the hope that we keep warmer. So we’ll see how that goes.

Right this morning, that’s where it’s all kinda started. Not everything had completely dried. The socks, the gloves, the boots and our trousers. So, that all froze over night. And if you could hear the swearing and the screaming, of me, having put on the bandage on my feet and the freezing socks, and then trying to get them into the completely frozen ski boots. You would have thought I was giving birth. It was just horrendous. And it was good 2 hours before I could feel my hands or feet. But everything did dried because we‘ve had clear skies today, all be it quite cold because we were walking into a head wind but everything is dry bar our socks. So that’s not bad.

We walked up hill all day, every step was up hill and over half of it was with our back packs on as appose to pulling our sledges. It’s the first time we’ve put on our back packs for 8 or 9 days now. They are considerably lighter but still a dam sight harder work than pulling our sledges. But we had to climb over a cole between some mountains, we are actually perched on top of the cole at the moment. We had planned to make about 20km today but with the terrain we only made 14.5km so that’s not too bad considering we were carrying rather than sledging.

Ok last bit of information, a wound that I did have a bit of an infection on my toe quite a while ago from a blister, had healed. But I’m having really bad pains and problems with it and we can’t work out whether I’ve got an infection inside or if I’ve got frost bite its looking a little like frost bite at the moment. So, I’m gonna start a course of antibiotics in case its an infection but I‘m going to look after it as if it could potentially be frost bite as well.

So, that’s the only problem of the day but we are happy and we’re looking and hoping for a good day tomorrow. Bye.

So, I mean it really just…it truly makes my experience in the Artic in February feel quite pleasant because at least then it’s just cold and you could wrapped up because here it’s just evil. I wouldn’t want to put off people coming to Patagonia of course, just the ice cap itself!

Lets just talk a little bit about the panic attack because I’ve seen other people with panic attacks or I thought and it wasn’t like that. I’ve seen people get really upset and they get carried away and they get in a tiz until they can’t control their breathing and it is just a complete mess. Where I was happily just finished dinner, in my sleeping bag chewing on a 9 Bar and I said to Tarka “oh pants I need to go out side for a wee”, which when your in your sleeping bag is a bit of a rig moral. Before I even had a chance to eat my last bite of my 9 Bar I couldn’t feel my hands…well, I could feel that they were going tingly, then I couldn’t feel them. I lost coordination and couldn’t focus my eyes, it felt like someone was sat on me. My chest was going tight and then I couldn’t breathe very well and this just came out of nowhere. You know I wasn’t upset about any thing and now I’m really worried about needing a wee in case it happens again! One interesting fact, that Dr Ed Mathers did tell us, is that after you start hyperventilating in a panic attack, after about 4 minutes of that unless you can bring it back to normal, you pass unconscious which presumably is the body re writing itself! Aren’t we clever us humans! Anyway, that’s probably enough of me rabbiting. I’m going to go kind of to sleep in my wet sleeping bag. And, yes we’ll speak tomorrow. Bye.

]]> http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/10/on-the-move-again/feed/ 0 http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/08/cold-to-tears/ http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/09/08/cold-to-tears/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:08:06 +0000 Katie-Jane http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/?p=531 Well, last night I reached well the biggest low on the trip and burst into tears.  Couldn’t stop.  Really for a very silly reasons.  Just because I’m so cold, you won’t believe that the cold can bring you to tears like that but it has and I’m sure it will again, yet.  Well, it’s colder here than I felt in the Arctic although it isn’t that cold

But we don’t have the warm clothes that we had before or we don’t have a nice hot drinks coming into or big sleeping bag and I mean no fault of the sleeping bag but we have brought bags for weight reasons that are just warm enough to survive but not warm enough for comfort and I’m wearing every single item of clothing I have every hour of the days as it is and we don’t have enough fuels for warm drinks.  So, I’m  just really, really suffering from the cold and it just brought me down yesterday and exploded in to tears and to make it worst, you know, you get tired if you don’t sleep and then you feel the cold more. It’s  kind vicious circle that’s biting me at the moment and I can’t keep the food down.  We’ve got these added supplement of cheese powder and AMS which are the 2 things that have changed since, over the last week since I felt quite ill and so I’m losing a lot of weight ’cause I can’t obviously get out all the calories that I am putting in ’cause it’s coming out one end or another quicker than it’s going in.  So, I’m actually going to stop the AMS and cheese powder and just see if I can keep down just a normal evening meal as it is and then hopefully, stop losing the weight as fast as I am.  So, yeah, all that was a bit down really but today, I am much much better.

We’re having a fairly good weather. Really, really strong winds hitting us on the side but it wasn’t snowing and the clouds are pretty sparce.  It was just a strong wind.  So, we can still see where we’re going and navigation is pretty easy.  So, actually this morning we did a radio interview BBC Somerset with Emma Britten.  That should be going out in the morning.  That was lovely to speak to somebody.

We’re actually camp outside Mount Fitz Roy region which is really fairly well known pinnacle mountain. Really, known for serious climbing and it’s quite different to all the other mountain here.  It’s really jagged peak. I’m sure it’s the most it’s the most  photographed place in Patagonia, all be it not from this side, they would have been photographing  from the other side to where we are.  But its nice to see a landmark. The only other thing to say is, over the last week, we’ve been doing some analysis with Sarah and hopefully she’ll have put on either today or maybe tomorrow some evaluations on how we’re fairing in the minds whether she things we’re going cuckoo or if we’re doing okay. I don’t know.  So, that’s it for today.  We’ll speak tomorrow.  Bye.

But, got up in the morning and again zero visibility. Wind, as I say wasn’t as bad as the day before but we just can’t see even a foot around you. It can make you feel quite sick and dizzy. So, we had two big climbs, again I’m waiting for this plateau to be flat! And, with one of the climbs came a steep descent. But, obviously when you can only see a foot around you we had no idea it’s gonna be quite so steep. And, I had a huge wipe out and took everyone with me all the polks, tarka! Tarks shouted at me and I did try and explain to him, you know this is quite steep and I haven’t got my heals fixed in here. I have only really done normal Alpine skiing before. I am not a telemark expert, so please you know bear with me here. Which he finally did see the point and apologised.

Eventually, 5 oclock just before we finished for the day the cloud actually cleared and the wind and the snow stopped. And, we could see where we are and it makes such a difference when can see it’s the most incredible scenery, but we see for like 0.5% and it’s ridiculous. But it really boost moral when you do see it. By 6 oclock it’s gone again winds blowing and Tarka’s building the walls. Thats pretty much it for today. Yes, bye now and speak tomorrow. Bye

The only light entertaining moment of the day, on the plateau (which isn’t flat by the way even though you would think that from the word ‘plateau‘!) We climbed a big hill in the morning and got to do some down hill skiing the other side. Although my attempts were pretty horrendous! Every time I tried to go even a couple of feet the sledge would shoot past me at a rate of knots and knock me over. So after a couple of attempts of that Tarka took over and stood in the middle and had a sledge either side and nicely controlled them down the slope whist I snow ploughed on behind!

Other than that we cant see a foot in front of us so its just heads down staring at the tip of your skis, there’s no scenery to look at and its too cold to stop for breaks. So its just generally miserably. I hate to say its miserable because we chose to be here!!

I have good news, the feet are slowly beginning to heal. Their well bandaged but today was the first time in about a week that every step didn’t bring tears to my eyes so that is good news.

Once again thank you for all your support and comments, it really does help when all those little niggling thoughts about wanting to quit and go home creep into your head, which they do. Its nice to know there people out there following us and supporting us and we really appreciate that. Speak tomorrow. Bye x

Today had its own highs and lows. The lows were Tarkas excitement that we were on the plateau meant that when we weren’t on the plateau this morning and he had a huge temper tantrum and threw all the toys out the pram, yelling at all the equipment, thankfully I managed to get away with it lightly and he didn’t shout at me which is a bonus! By lunch time we finally made it to the plateau and we could put the bags down and pull them along in our micro sledges which although is still hard work its nothing compared to carrying those buggers!! That was a good high

The only problems of the day was that we’ve had a complete blizzard all day. We’re still roped together even though we are out of the crevasse as half the time I cant see Tarka in front of me so really really bad weather.

I haven’t really got much skin left on my feet, which is quiet uncomfortable. I’ve never really suffered from blisters before I am assuming thanks to the lakes and bogs at the beginning. Our faces are horrendously burnt even though we’ve got factor 50 sun cream and lip cream on and despite the blizzard we are burnt to pieces. Its very silly burns as well I have huge goggles marks and Tarka’s got huge sun glass marks.

The final thing which is a low is I started dreaming of food really badly which is always a bad sign as it means you want to come home already. I desperately want steak and chips and an ice cold coke.

I think that’s all, speak to you tomorrow.

When we woke up in the morning we couldn’t even see a foot outside the tent. So we were tent bound till about mid day when it started to clear a bit but still really no light but we thought we would crack on and see how far we’d get. Its pretty slow progress over all the crevasses and you cant actually see where they are. And then I fell over one. We were walking across a snow bridge crevasse on each side and my ski came off and the weight of the pack pushed me forward, and I went head first over the top, but was rescued by my leg, which got jammed down the snow hole and twisted at the knee and made a nice anchor. Painful anchor but it stopped me going all the way down. It was a daunting moment for a second!

We only managed about 3 and half hours before the light got bad again and my ankle is pretty sore, so we set up tent in another storm. Tarka has built huge snow wall around the tent hoping that it will……**end transmission**

It cleared in the afternoon and we’ve come into a huge change of scenery, we are through all the vegetation now onto the steep scree slopes of the mountains, heading up a valley along a waterfall. Right now we have just reached the snow line. We’ve climbed up a steep channel, over all the boulders and scree and just popped over the top and we can’t quiet see the glacier but we’re hoping in about 20 minuets in the morning it should peep over the horizon and we’ll see it, but it got quiet dark tonight so we have called it a day.

We’ve seen some Patagonian deer, I think their called Melan – although that may just be a Disney film about a dragon!! ***PM note. I could only find reference to a Pudu or the very rare nuemul, so lets hope they got some pictures!!*** But their Patagonian deer, stunning, and they have no sense that humans could be a danger to them and they just wondered out stared at us and all our kit, apparently their quite rare so that was quite exciting.

We’re in our tent now repairing our torn trousers from all the thorns and puncturing blisters, you know normal expedition stuff.

In general were pretty pleased with our progress, we’re on schedule and tomorrow hopefully we should be on the ice. All for now.

Bags are feeling really, really heavy today and obviously back is still feeling sore from yesterday. We’re going pretty slow over the rocky terrain, bogs, vegetation and everything. We haven’t really stopped, we had 20 minutes off for lunch. No other breaks and just kept going backwards and forwards, doing three times for each bit of route which is quite depressing and working our asses off really. But, you know  that’s what we came here to do.

Some good news for the end of the day. Just as we were where we wanted to stop anyway we have found an old, well I think it was a cow shelter once upon a time. But, it is a nice bit of a relief from the rain. We lit a fire and we’re doing our best to dry everything out tent, sleeping bags and clothes. Tarka is laughing at me because I am wearing my sea goggles to avoid the smoke from the fire which I think I genius but he thinks is ridiculous. But, it’s giving us something to laugh about anyway. Well that’s about it for today and we will speak again tomorrow.

The packs weight in about 46 Kilos each at the moment and in addition we have two 8 kilo dry bags which we will shuffle for the first few days and then all the climbing gear and ropes on top of that. Quiet a lot for the back to cope with when its not in perfect working order.

Weather wise we been quiet lucky its not raining its pretty cloudy but fairly pleasant. We’ve had a lot of ice bergs to get through today with the boat which is why its taken so long to get here. But all should be good for the morning.

The only other big news is apparently yesterday we were in National Chilean News papers, but we haven’t seen a copy and it will take a good few weeks to get to the village of Caleta Tortel where we left from this morning, we just heard that thought the grapevine.

That’s all for now, hope fully well have exciting news when we actually get under way. Till tomorrow.

Hang on a second, where is the wind and rain I hear you ask?! Every morning we have woken to the bluest of skies, glorious sunshine, not a breath of wind and a cool bite in the air, keeping the snow crisp. Probability would have it, that we are going to have bad weather for the next forty having used up our 4 good days!

A couple of little things to report. Firstly, Tarka’s allergy, that he suffered from in the Arctic earlier this year, has shown some symptoms again so we have had to bin several items of clothing used in the Arctic and replace them with new ones from the only Cochrane shop.

Last night we went out for a bite to eat and had a classic ‘lost in translation moment’. I ordered a simple pizza and mineral water, dull I know but I am currently loosing weight as opposed to gaining it, so thought I would try and aid recovery. Tarka, as ambitious as ever, tried to order two Empaladers (small samosar style parcel of food) but his brilliant accent actually managed to order him two bowls of lettuce and tomatoes (ensalada)…just what a growing boy needs. To top it off he had accidentally ordered a Chocolate Sunday for his drink, with whipped cream and cherry on top to boot!

We hoping to start the expedition itself on the 23rd of August and from this point on we will send back audio podcasts, as well as written versions, daily. Although once the expedition gets under way Tarka and I will not be able to see the website itself, we will have daily contact with our expedition manager. She will pass on messages or questions from emails, message wall, or twitter, and where possible we will try and get replies back to you. Receiving messages have a far greater impact than you may imagine, they allow a very remote and harsh wilderness to feel a little less lonely during those really hard times.

Before we depart I just want to say a few thankyou¹s to those who have got us this far. We feel incredibly privileged to be sponsored by such a host of exceptional market leading brands and we thank them greatly for sharing in the vision of Rivers of Ice. Our parents have also been invaluable in their effort, time and finance towards the journey and a simple thank you doesn’t seem enough. I just hope we can be successful in our quest as a way of a return.

There is also a team of people who¹s efforts are really only just starting, but we would like to give them a huge thank you in advance. Sadie who is project managing the expedition has an epic amount of work ahead of her. And considering a few months ago she agreed to my request of whether she could just check a few emails for us, maybe 5 minutes maximum a day. I now feel incredibly indebted to her, as her work load has escalated to website updating, logistics, press, weather forecasting, etc etc and for freeŠ.she¹s amazing, a great friend thank you. The rest of the team Sarah, Hannah and Caroline are equally, carrying out sterling work on our behalf¹s, and I would like them to know that their efforts are greatly appreciated and we couldn¹t do this without them.

I believe the ‘why’ for each particular journey changes slightly, but also changes greatly from person to person. There are many expeditions happening right this minute raising money for particular charities, raising awareness of climate change and carrying out groundbreaking work in the name of science. So when your reply to the ‘why’ is none of the above, you are met with a sense of confusion followed by a look of “ well what’s the point, why are you only doing it for yourself, that’s selfish!”

We have worked with both charities and scientific bodies on previous expeditions, but to be truly honest, they are never the reason ‘why’. They are an added bonus.

George Mallory describing his motivation for reaching the summit of Everest:
“For the stone from the top for geologists, the knowledge of the limits of endurance for the doctors but above all for the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul of man.”

The best way I can describe the ‘why’, is that these are our Olympic finals, we have just happened to choose a sport a little less conventional than the 400 metres. No one questions why Olympic athletes are there, it is obvious, they want to push themselves to their limit in a bid to be the best they can possibly be in what they do.

We battle with ourselves both physically and mentally to understand our limits, to grasp what we are capable of and discover parts of ourselves we never knew existed. We dream and chase our dreams. If we fail, we learn from it and try again. If we succeed, well the elation and memory will stay with us forever. We will also have something to look back on in 50 years time, to know we made the most of our allotted days. This is our ‘WHY’!

In addition to our own personal quest in Patagonia, we will also be gathering observations along our route for a glaciologist and volcanologist. We will be passing 4 volcanic complexes on the ice cap, which have proven extremely difficult for the experts to get to and work at regularly, so the images and observations of activity (hashes, smoke steam etc) we can gather on their behalf will hopefully prove to be very useful. The largest and most active volcanic complex is Lautaro and Mimosa Volacnoes and they are expected to be guilty of the extremely fast advance of the Pio XI glacier, so we will do what we can to be of use.

The final reason for our journey is to make a documentary film. We have been passionate about travelling through remote parts of the world for sometime, but more recently this passion has developed into capturing our experiences and the landscapes through which we travel onto film. We strive to make enjoyable and exciting films that allow others to live our adventures vicariously, whilst keeping them factual. We hope to bring home footage that shows a true representation of the environment we have endured, allowing those who may  have seen little about this particular part of the world, a taster of its harsh beauty. The inner depths of the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap have yet to be even mapped in any detail, let alone over filmed!

Only a Person who Risks is Free†

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams,
before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the
greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing, do nothing,
have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves;
they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
- anonymous

I can’t believe another week has gone by and that there is only 6 days to go!!

This week we have been working closely with Sarah, our expedition psychologist and I’ve been really taken back by how little I prepared psychologically for my previous expeditions. In the build up to our trips we spend considerable amounts of time training physically. We also spend a huge amount of time on the mandatory organisation and logistics, but until now we have never really put aside much time for to ‘officially’ prepare mentally. Under Sarah’s expert eye we have been working at dealing with some of our own fears and possibly more interestingly our ‘Dark Sides’. No this has nothing to do with Star Wars but rather the character traits that we poses that on a normal day would be our greatest assets but often under great pressure can become our worst enemies. On an expedition as difficult as this, where the odds are stacked against us, my mental preparation is the most important preparation of all, as I personally find so many elements of the journey incredibly daunting.

I have been working on visualising myself carrying out the various sections of the expedition successfully, as my head naturally thinks what if! What if the rope brakes? What if I forget something? Etc. So I have been trying to consciously concentrate on the idea that ‘you get what you focus on’ if you think your going to fall you are far more likely to,but equally, if you think you will reach the summit then you will. It sounds so obvious I know, but I suffer from an irrational fear of slipping on snow (I have never even fallen) and overcoming this is a real battle.

How we work as a team and make important decisions in crisis situations is obviously crucial. To help with this Sarah carried out 2 assessments that looked into the ‘bright’ side and ‘darker’ side of our personalities (kindly sponsored by Get Feedback). The results of which, has allowed us to work on tools and techniques to best manage ourselves and each other in what will be an extremely challenging environment, with the aim of making the most of our strengths and reducing the impact of our weaknesses. To see the results of Sarah’s summary from our personality assessments please click here.

A further dimension of physiological pressures to face us this week, has been the planning and logistics. Withso many elements of the expedition changing in the past fortnight, I reached a point where I just wanted to through in the towel (and we haven’t even started!) Taking out the packraft section felt like 3 months of prep had gone

to waste and that we were going to have to start over with little more than a week to go, it also resulted in more costs (charter fishing boats to take us to the start etc) and the funds have well and truly run out! Sponsorship falling through due to timeframe, and the video camera braking amongst many other little things, just tipped me over the edge and I had had enough.

24 hours later I was back on track with a new plan, and had managed to put it all into perspective… The packraft was always a fun element not an essential one, the change of kit and tweaking bits and pieces down to the last second is completely normal for expeditions, and as for the sponsorship… well its defiantly not the first time and I can bet it wont be the last either.

However, the week has finished on a high. We had a great rope work session in Avon Gorge on Saturday going through routines, and on Sunday I woke and for the very first time since the expedition idea came about, truly believing I could do it. I always was ready to give it my best shot, but knowing only to well that what we are attempting, with a light and fast approach, will be boarder line possible, I hadn’t 100% believed in my ability. But I do have the skills, and I now believe that if the weather isn’t against us too much we can achieve this.

Only yesterday were we able to calculate our final pack weight with all the additional food etc. and so today we headed out to Wimbalball Lake on Exmoor with the help of Andy Ward to test the packraft fully loaded. With a fair wind and driving rain it was a good day to train for Patagonia, the capital of the world for wind and rain! Our first problem, was when we were both paddling the raft (without any kit) the wind caused the boat to spin. This is a common problem on flat based boats but we had hoped it wasn’t going to have as much of a dramatice effect on us as it did. The only way we could overcome this was for the person sitting at the back to use their paddle off the back of the raft as a rudder. With only one of us paddling the distance we were covering was obviously considerably reduced. This in its self is not a major problem it just makes for longer hours paddling. However, the real problem came when we added the kit. With very little room in the raft we had planned to float 90L ‘river’ dry bags off the back of the raft filled with all the kit. When we tried this out a few weeks ago the plan worked to perfection. The excess air in the dry bag allowed it to float along behind with minimal drag. Today, with the backpacks and the additional food and fuel for the first 76km kayak section totalling 100kg pulling along behind, the drag was horrendous! Not only had the weight increased but with the kit being bulky and leaving little air in the dry bags, they sat low in the water. With only one of us paddling the other on steering, we were going nowhere fast.

We have to remember our objective for the Rivers of Ice expedition – to complete a full crossing of the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap unsupported and without kites! So we have been weighing up whether its worth taking the risk and jeopardising the ice cap crossing with a paddling section that is merely for our enjoyment and to add an additional element to the film. After a lot of deliberation, we have decided it’s not worth the risk, and we are going to take a boat (as nearly all previous expeditions on the ice before us have done) to the base of the Jorge Montt.

I am currently feeling pretty low about the change of plans, paddling through the fjords alongside dolphins whilst taking in the stark beauty of the remote Patagonia waters in a mode of travel that is new to the both of us, had been something I was really looking forward to. An element of adventure before the stark reality of the Ice Cap and getting down to business – to achieve what is boarder line possible! But, I must keep telling myself that too much time, effort and money has gone into Rivers of Ice, for a local fisherman to retrieve us from the fjords having not made the Jorge Montt in the allotted time.

Images courtesy of Andy Ward

The majority of the conversation with Thomas was based around the Fella Reichart. We have always known that this part is going to be truly terrifying. In fact with the knowledge that only 2 groups have ever managed to navigate safely through the mass of ice, I wake up regularly at night in a cold sweat. The few photos and satellite imagies have told as a far amount but, confirmed first hand by Thomas, attempting it in bad weather is quite simply suicidal. This simple and yet rather unnerving statement has really bought home that we need to stay on schedule more than ever, in fact we need to reach the Fella Reichart ahead of schedule to allow us to wait for a weather window.

As brilliant as it seems having increased our food allowance, our packs are now simply too heavy to ski with efficiently. So we have opted to take 2 tiny (1m) kids sledges which fit perfectly over the outside of the backpacks and only add 1.5kg to the pack weight. What we hope to be a small price to pay up the Jorge Montt , for the amount of effort they will save us later on.

To update you on the paddle situation we have decided to take two untreated wooden paddles through the first fjord and lake section. Just before we head up the Jorge Mont we will dry our kit around a nice fire (if not a slightly expensive fire!!!). Then on the other side of the ice cap we will be using our shovels, or if it gets really bad we will create something in the spirit of MacGyver.

We were very sorry to hear yesterday that Linda and Rob had to turn back before being able to complete their journey across the ice cap (www.icecapjourneys.com.au). This bought home just how tough getting up the Jorge Mont t Glacier will be, even more!.

For all you kit junkies out there, our Neo-Airs have just arrived and they are simply amazing. Not only are they tiny but they are seriously comfy. The other pieces of kit that arrived today were our TISSOT-T-Touch Experts… AMAZING. Aside from the initial panic on their arrival at finding that a box containing two watches weighed in at 2.5kg! I’m pretty sure that by tomorrow the watch will be updating this page for me it seems to have so many functions!

]]> http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/07/24/change-of-tactics/feed/ 0 http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/07/12/hello-hello/ http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/2009/07/12/hello-hello/#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:54:41 +0000 Katie-Jane http://www.rivers-of-ice.com/?p=423

Thanks for joining us on our new website. Please let us know what you think of it and if there is any additional information that would be of interest. For the next 5 weeks we will update the website in the traditional text format. Once we have departed for Chile, this page will become an interactive map presenting daily audio podcasts. For those of you who don’t have speakers there will still be a standard transcript as well. Updates will come through every evening during the expedition, summing up the juicy details of the days events and how we are feeling about the situation.

A little over a week ago we returned from a fantastic 2 weeks training trip on the Mont Blanc Massif. As I have no previous glacier travel experience, it was a real eye opener as to the size of some of the crevasses and seracs and just how to get across them when carrying such heavy loads. Tarka with his wealth of alpine experience was, as ever, a thorough yet patient teacher.

There were numerous terrifying moments at the start of the fortnight, as everything felt completely alien. For example, I would spend 2 or 3 minutes (okay nearer 5) whimpering trying to pick up the courage to cross a 2ft wide snow bridge over a gaping chasm below, cross, look back with a mix of relief and pride as to what I had accomplished, only to see the bridge plummet to the depths below. On climbing the ice walls I would

weaken so quickly from the adrenaline and fear pumping through me as I tried to cling to the face with just one axe and the front 2 spikes of my crampons that I made falling an ever more likely possibility. Trusting your equipment is such an important part of ice climbing but something that took a while to get my head round. All in all I spent at least the first four days feeling completely inadequate and thoroughly doubting my ability to achieve our goal in Patagonia. But Tarka kept picking me up and telling me to stop being so hard on my self, I was learning new skills on an extremely difficult section of ice with a 35Kg bag on, it was never going to be easy!

One of the biggest lessons I leant during the training was the speed at which I must react if Tarka is to fall down a crevasse! We went over the routine of making your self safe, tying off the faller, descending the rope to put the faller into the safe position in the circumstance that they had become unconscious during the fall, ascend the rope, before finally hauling, using a set of pulleys, the casualty out! There was a large amount to remember, but after a few run-throughs I felt I had it, so next we were to practise for real. I stood a full 8m back from Tarka with the rope tort (you would always be roped together in a crevassed region), he stood at the edge and on the count of 3 was going to let himself fall in! The plan was, as soon as I felt the rope move, I should drop to the ground backwards so that my feet were facing the direction of the fall and that I could dig my crampons and axe into the ice and stop Tarka falling any further. Despite the 3, 2, 1 countdown (which Tarka described as being kind, incidentally) all didn’t go quite to plan! He was gone so quick and I shot forward at one hell of a speed, falling to the ground forwards smashing my knees on the ice, only coming to a stop by a fortunately placed, raised lip on the crevasse edge, which I lay over looking down at Tarka who was screaming up at me as to weather I was okay, despite the fact he was supposed to be the unconscious patient! I am now fully aware how heavy Tarka is with his full pack on, and how I need to increase the weight of the dumbbells back at home. Thankfully after a few painful and panicked moments I righted the situation and some considerable time later Tarka was hauled from the hole!

You will be pleased to here that as the days went on my skill level and confidence rose drastically and we are both fully back on track with confidence and enthusiasm as to our chances in Patagonia. In addition Mont Blanc provided us with an excellent opportunity to put nearly all our new expedition kit through its paces. There are a few alterations and modifications to be made but on the whole we are thrilled with everything and are completely happy that we have the best gear for the job. In the next day or two we will be out on the river putting the rafting/ kayak kit to the text and let you know how it goes asap.