No Luck For Michele
Published on 19.03.2010 - The big Nail
Since the beginning of his trek, the Italian, Michele Portrandolfo, has been experiencing technical troubles that come hard on each other's heels almost every day. Major stress is setting in...
Was he ill-prepared? Or has Michele Portrandolfo had more than his fair share of bad luck? Perhaps he'll tell us one day... Nevertheless, troubles of various kinds have been maliciously besetting our brave adventurer since 02 March, the date when he was deposited on the ice, as if some kind of ill fate was pursuing the man from Pordenone...
First set-back: two days after setting out, one of his two sledges cracked (certain explorers, like Christina Franco in particular, pull two sledges behind them instead of one - thus preferring to make frequent return trips rather than to pull extreme weights). The next day, one of his feet started to bleed. "These are domestic incidents", as he noted in his 11 March update.
Almost a week later, when his trip counter was showing 61.4 kilometres (which makes an average of 4 kilometres per day), it was one of his ski boots that was torn. Michele must envisage continuing his trek on foot because he will undoubtedly no longer be able to put on his skis. Next misfortune: the front lens of his camera broke --"because of the cold", he writes...
Michele, 18 March "With all these troubles, the tension remains sky high", he writes, "and obviously, that makes me very tired on top of everything else. But nevertheless, I still believe in myself and I'm going ahead (vado avanti)".
