“Being trapped bewteen two withe voids…”

Published on 07.12.2011 - North South Solo Expedition -Leg 2

Briton Mark Wood continues his progression on this white ice sheet towards the South Pole. Although he suffers from some small injuries, he carries on with a respectable daily mileage.

The latest stats 

• 7 December - day 16 of the expedition / Latitude: -82.0773 Longitude: -79.9398 / Temperature: -7°C / Windspeed: 1 mph / feeling tired and pain at the knees, the weather is still but he does not want to speak too much about it because ke knows that all of a sudden it can change from fgood to worst... Made a good 12 Nm in 7.5 hours.
• 6 December - day 15 of the expedition / Latitude: -81.867 Longitude: -79.9592 / Temperature: -15°C / Windspeed: 2 mph / third week on the ice, made 13 Nl in 8 hours trek, check his blisters at night and feels confident for the rest of the trip.
• 5 December - day 14 of the expedition / Latitude: -81.6516 Longitude: -79.9344 / Temperature: -12°C / Windspeed: 0 mph / no voice dispatche today.
• 4 December - day 13 of the expedition / Latitude: -81.4133 Longitude: -79.9446 / Temperature: -15°C / Windspeed: 10 mph / A 'lucky' day 13 he says ion the phone. 11.6 Nm done in 8.5 hours which is a good mileage. "The sun is extremely hot out here", says Wood, "I have to protect my skin during the all day but at night in the tent it's so warm and I feel so good that my doubts about all this polar entreprise and coming here are over. ..."

Mark Wood just thinks to nothing else but to proceed with his adventure and to try to reach the South Pole in time. But he does not want to push too hard for fear that he could get some more serious unjuries and would then be obliged to call for a rescue plane.

After he had lost his Ipod (and with it his music) at the beginning of his voyage, he said : “I lost my iPod on day two, so all I have in my head is where I’m heading. I’m really in the expedition constantly, there’s no room for thoughts of home. I’ll get used to it, I feel positive. You’ve got to progress for success!”

Some very interesting articles

Here are some very interesting articles written about the inner motivation of M. Wood and about his mental training before the departure.

• An article written in Life.Size.Media by Suzy Greenwood (6 December) in which Richard Watson MHFST, Mark’s sports therapist and personal trainer, takes a look back at the journey of injury, rehabilitation and fitness training that enabled Mark to take on this amazing feat of human endurance.
• Almost the same contenu published in LowCarbonEconomy.com (6 December)
• An artcile 'Coventry explorer shares epic trek experience' written by Tina Junday (7 December) for the Coventry Telegraph.net.

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