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| Sir Ranulph Fiennes to attempt record winter Antarctica trek | Sir Ranulph Fiennes to attempt record winter Antarctica trek |
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| The appalling challenge of a six-month 2,000-mile walk across the south pole, in the perpetual darkness of the Antarctic winter when temperatures can plummet to -90C, proved, perhaps inevitably, irresistible to the veteran explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. | The appalling challenge of a six-month 2,000-mile walk across the south pole, in the perpetual darkness of the Antarctic winter when temperatures can plummet to -90C, proved, perhaps inevitably, irresistible to the veteran explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. |
| Fiennes' hero, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, wrote "great God, this is an awful place" when he finally reached the south pole a century ago, before freezing and starving to death with his team on the return journey. Apsley Cherry-Garrard called his own trek "the worst journey in the world". Ernest Shackleton abandoned another expedition as the weather closed in to save the lives of his crew. | Fiennes' hero, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, wrote "great God, this is an awful place" when he finally reached the south pole a century ago, before freezing and starving to death with his team on the return journey. Apsley Cherry-Garrard called his own trek "the worst journey in the world". Ernest Shackleton abandoned another expedition as the weather closed in to save the lives of his crew. |
| Those journeys were made in summer. Nobody before has attempted, still less achieved, crossing the pole in winter. In a prepared statement, Fiennes said: "This will be my greatest challenge to date. We will stretch the limits of human endurance. | Those journeys were made in summer. Nobody before has attempted, still less achieved, crossing the pole in winter. In a prepared statement, Fiennes said: "This will be my greatest challenge to date. We will stretch the limits of human endurance. |
| "Britain and the Commonwealth has a strong heritage of exploration, from Captain Cook 300 years ago to the present day. As such, it is fitting that a Commonwealth team should be the first to fulfil this last great polar expedition." | "Britain and the Commonwealth has a strong heritage of exploration, from Captain Cook 300 years ago to the present day. As such, it is fitting that a Commonwealth team should be the first to fulfil this last great polar expedition." |
| However, in person, at the launch at the Royal Society of The Coldest Journey, Fiennes could not really explain why anyone should contemplate such a venture, still less a man aged 68 who has survived cancer, major heart surgery, and the loss of most of the frozen finger tips on one hand – which he cut off himself with a saw bought specially for the purpose. "It's what I do," he said, looking slightly puzzled at the question. | However, in person, at the launch at the Royal Society of The Coldest Journey, Fiennes could not really explain why anyone should contemplate such a venture, still less a man aged 68 who has survived cancer, major heart surgery, and the loss of most of the frozen finger tips on one hand – which he cut off himself with a saw bought specially for the purpose. "It's what I do," he said, looking slightly puzzled at the question. |
| Fiennes – officially the world's greatest living explorer, according to the Guinness Book of Records – was the first, with Dr Mike Stroud, to cross the Antarctic continent unsupported; the first to cross both polar ice caps; the oldest to climb Everest, finally conquering it in 2009 aged 65 on his third attempt, after suffering a major heart attack on his first; and the first to traverse the globe from pole to pole, with the late Charles Burton. He described this trip as one of the last great challenges, "now that everyone's grandmother goes up Everest at the weekend". | Fiennes – officially the world's greatest living explorer, according to the Guinness Book of Records – was the first, with Dr Mike Stroud, to cross the Antarctic continent unsupported; the first to cross both polar ice caps; the oldest to climb Everest, finally conquering it in 2009 aged 65 on his third attempt, after suffering a major heart attack on his first; and the first to traverse the globe from pole to pole, with the late Charles Burton. He described this trip as one of the last great challenges, "now that everyone's grandmother goes up Everest at the weekend". |
| He admitted his wife, Louise, and six-year-old daughter are not thrilled. "But I've never done anything else, it's how I earn my living. And you're much more likely, statistically, to die on the roads here than on the polar ice." | He admitted his wife, Louise, and six-year-old daughter are not thrilled. "But I've never done anything else, it's how I earn my living. And you're much more likely, statistically, to die on the roads here than on the polar ice." |
| He shrugged off suggestions he might be too old for such jaunts: "If you're still lucky enough to be able to walk around, you might as well go for it." As with Scott and his great rival Roald Amundsen, who beat him to the South Pole, it was rumours of a Norwegian team preparing for the same challenge that goaded Fiennes into an expedition which he himself dismissed as impossible 25 years ago. Another Norwegian recently achieved the winter crossing of the Arctic. | He shrugged off suggestions he might be too old for such jaunts: "If you're still lucky enough to be able to walk around, you might as well go for it." As with Scott and his great rival Roald Amundsen, who beat him to the South Pole, it was rumours of a Norwegian team preparing for the same challenge that goaded Fiennes into an expedition which he himself dismissed as impossible 25 years ago. Another Norwegian recently achieved the winter crossing of the Arctic. |
| After training in the Swedish Arctic in a relatively balmy -40C, his team will sail from London on 6 December on a South African research ship, the SA Agulhas – leased at a bargain price from the South African Maritime Safety Authority. | After training in the Swedish Arctic in a relatively balmy -40C, his team will sail from London on 6 December on a South African research ship, the SA Agulhas – leased at a bargain price from the South African Maritime Safety Authority. |
| The ice trek proper will begin on 21 March, the equinox that marks the official start of the polar winter, from the Russia base of Novolazareskaya. Fiennes and his five team members must then climb more than 3,048 metres on to the inland plateau, trek for several hundred miles with all the supplies and equipment they need, descend another 3,000 metres, and finally cross almost another 2,000 miles to reach the Ross Sea. | The ice trek proper will begin on 21 March, the equinox that marks the official start of the polar winter, from the Russia base of Novolazareskaya. Fiennes and his five team members must then climb more than 3,048 metres on to the inland plateau, trek for several hundred miles with all the supplies and equipment they need, descend another 3,000 metres, and finally cross almost another 2,000 miles to reach the Ross Sea. |
| If they reach Captain Scott's old base at McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, by the spring equinox six months later, they will still have to wait for months until the sea ice retreats enough for their ship to collect them. | If they reach Captain Scott's old base at McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, by the spring equinox six months later, they will still have to wait for months until the sea ice retreats enough for their ship to collect them. |
| The saddest man on the ice will be Stroud, who for decades was Fiennes' joint expedition leader and medical officer. He dreamed up this adventure but finally concluded a fortnight ago that he could not join it – mainly because more than a year away from his work at Southampton University would pummel his pension entitlement. | The saddest man on the ice will be Stroud, who for decades was Fiennes' joint expedition leader and medical officer. He dreamed up this adventure but finally concluded a fortnight ago that he could not join it – mainly because more than a year away from his work at Southampton University would pummel his pension entitlement. |
| He will sail with them and then wave them off. He is currently desolately interviewing for his own replacement. It takes a special temperament to fit into a "very small, very isolated group in very extreme conditions", he said – so isolated that space travel researchers will be monitoring their progress, in a project dubbed "White Mars". | He will sail with them and then wave them off. He is currently desolately interviewing for his own replacement. It takes a special temperament to fit into a "very small, very isolated group in very extreme conditions", he said – so isolated that space travel researchers will be monitoring their progress, in a project dubbed "White Mars". |
| His replacement must cope alone with any medical emergency – not just trivialities such as coughing blood from lungs damaged by the icy air, experienced by both Stroud and Fiennes on their last Antarctic expedition, when each was hauling 220kg of supplies. In the event of what he terms "a howling disaster" the team will carry a dead body with them – in cold storage, as he pointed out cheerfully. | His replacement must cope alone with any medical emergency – not just trivialities such as coughing blood from lungs damaged by the icy air, experienced by both Stroud and Fiennes on their last Antarctic expedition, when each was hauling 220kg of supplies. In the event of what he terms "a howling disaster" the team will carry a dead body with them – in cold storage, as he pointed out cheerfully. |
| This time Fiennes and Stroud's replacement will lead the way on skis, towing relatively light ground-penetrating radar equipment. The radar should give the two following tractors 30 to 40 metres warning of ice crevasses, which could swallow them whole in a few seconds. The tractors are heavily modified standard machines, stripped down and rebuilt, every piece of plastic replaced with more resistant silicone, and adapted to run on aviation fuel, each towing about 70 tonnes in equipment and the living pods. The team will include an engineer and a mechanic able to make running repairs, but in the event of calamity will have to camp out until summer, the earliest a rescue mission could reach them. | This time Fiennes and Stroud's replacement will lead the way on skis, towing relatively light ground-penetrating radar equipment. The radar should give the two following tractors 30 to 40 metres warning of ice crevasses, which could swallow them whole in a few seconds. The tractors are heavily modified standard machines, stripped down and rebuilt, every piece of plastic replaced with more resistant silicone, and adapted to run on aviation fuel, each towing about 70 tonnes in equipment and the living pods. The team will include an engineer and a mechanic able to make running repairs, but in the event of calamity will have to camp out until summer, the earliest a rescue mission could reach them. |
| Stroud estimates each team member will need around 6,000 calories a day from freeze-dried supplies, although he and Fiennes consumed up to 11,000 calories each on their last Antarctic expedition. | Stroud estimates each team member will need around 6,000 calories a day from freeze-dried supplies, although he and Fiennes consumed up to 11,000 calories each on their last Antarctic expedition. |
| Fiennes just hopes there are good flapjacks, the highlight of each of his last days on the ice – until he noticed that Stroud was giving him a much smaller one. He demanded to be allowed to choose his own, but after a week realised that his still looked smaller. | Fiennes just hopes there are good flapjacks, the highlight of each of his last days on the ice – until he noticed that Stroud was giving him a much smaller one. He demanded to be allowed to choose his own, but after a week realised that his still looked smaller. |
| "As you get hungry, it has a bad effect on your personality," he explained - the only glimpse he offered into the internal workings of the mind of an extraordinary man. | "As you get hungry, it has a bad effect on your personality," he explained - the only glimpse he offered into the internal workings of the mind of an extraordinary man. |
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