The Pole Already In Their Sights…
Published on 01.04.2010 - Richard Weber North Pole Expedition
Richard Weber's team is undoubtedly the one that is making the fastest headway towards the Pole. For them, after all those overly difficult days, everything is now for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
No more than 184 nautical miles (340 km) to go before reaching the Pole. Admittedly, that's still a good distance, but easily knocked off under these conditions that are no longer anything like the ones that Weber's men had experienced in the previous weeks.
Firstly, the drift: it's now pushing them northwards! Secondly, the cold: the -35°C and the -45°C are behind them. On the area of the pack ice where they now are, the temperature remains somewhere around -20°C each day, which is distinctly more bearable. As far as the cold is concerned, furthermore, you need to see the latest release from the northpolechallenge.co.uk expedition, in which Amelia Russell tries to explain by means of everyday pictures how hard it is to live in such low temperatures (for example, her tea that freezes in her cup before she has time to finish it...!). Thirdly, the state of the ice: it's much better and decidedly more stable than before. From now on, they will be going forward on older and therefore less chaotic ice. Fourthly, their progress: they are managing to knock off more than twenty kilometres each day (on 31 March, they did 25 km!) by spending nine hours on the ice. But with the goal getting nearer, they've decided to walk/ski for twelve hours per day rather than nine. Fifthly, the little plusses: in view of their excellent progress, they've decided to allow each other each evening, not one but three spoonfuls of Irish coffee...
