Hiking and Expedition news March 2021

Another Arctic balloon just got popped

I've only just picked up on the news that ski expeditions to the North Pole have been canned for the third year in a row, reports ExplorersWeb. Putting aside the obvious environmental factors - reduced pollution and disruption to Arctic wildlife - this is a huge blow for the planned 2021 expeditions. Right now there's a backlog of teams that has accumulated over the last three years and this logjam is getting bigger.

The obvious answer would be to increase the number of teams allowed on the ice, but Barneo, the floating ice station built every year by the Russians, can only support a relatively small number of explorers.

Add in the annual price hike for the journey and it would be fair to say that many people will either cancel their planned journeys, or find themselves priced out of the expedition game.

Five years of inactivity

You know you're busy when you haven't blogged in five years!

I've decided to resurrect this blog from its dark grave. Going forward, I'll be recounting my journeys (there have been a few) plus adding a new dimension: mental health.

Ooo, that's a touchy subject. 

Yes, it is. And I think it's fair that mental health gets and an even bigger share of public 'eyes on'.

Why?

It's February 2021. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Families are splintered and isolated via the process of lockdown.

What is the upshot?

A lot of people suffering from poor mental health. The only support they have is through tech like zoom and what we in the UK call bubbles (not the ones you make in the bath; support bubbles of family and friends who can be leaned on in times of need).

There are plenty (hundreds of thousands) of people who don't have access to the kind of love, care and support needed to maintain good mental health. When the lockdowns and isolation finally roll back and we humans stagger, blinking, into a post-pandemic world we can expect the real avalanche to begin. But most of us - those who have no knowledge of life on the dark side of depression and self-loathing - will be oblivious.

News reports might hint at the new scourge of society. Maybe the massive upswing of the need for counsellors and pscyhologists will make the front page of the news. But the stories will be short-lived.

Today: poor mental health.

Tomorrow: dog eats Trump.

All stories for another day. I promise. After the dog has been sent back from the veterinarian!

Poor pooch.

That's all for now.

Feel free to check out my other blogs: https://treksumo (outdoor gear reviews) and https://jamesredden.co.uk (expedition, public speaking and marketing blog).

See you soon. Big 'first' post coming.

And So Back to the Grind

A Little Teaser of Shots to Come

It has been a while since my last update... in my defence, I've been busy (mainly defrosting my fingers which, after two weeks, are a little tender, but much improved since dancing with Mr Frostnip).

Progress report: took a week off training after I returned. Last week I kicked off my training with some steady runs. There was a minor niggle in the form of still cold toes that took a good twenty minutes to warm up. They're good now.

The push for more charitable donations goes on. First I...'d like to thank those of you have donated or are planning to - much appreciated. Something I'm hoping will spark more interest are some planned interviews with both TV and radio (local mainly, but with the potential to reach right across the county, and further). I'll post any links here.

Final stages of the plan are coming together now. I ordered myself an outrageously warm down jacket... you know why! I'll be running a few more kits tests (mainly checking on the ability to tweet and update blog posts via satellite - can't do FB as a change to their API broke the Iridium interface. For non-techies, that means Facebook wrecked my plans to post to the site from the north pole).

Other thoughts... oh yeah, five weeks and I'll be flying out to Svalbard for a few days acclimatisation before heading up to Barneo ice station. FIVE WEEKS! Oh fark!

One more thing - I'm currently consulting for a spread betting firm, called IG and they've picked up on my trip and are running an internal comms plan to help bolster the effort. I am pretty bloody happy with that.

Right. I'm done for tonight - it was another tyre pulling session.

I'll be back soon with some photos of the beautiful Finse region of Norway.

Next Stop: Finse, Norway

So the training is coming along nicely. I'm still working on the donations (bit slow) and I'm hoping my flyer and business card campaign will generate more interest. More on that later.

What next? On the 11th Feb I'll be flying up to Finse, Norway for a few days skiing. Not, I have to add, the leisurely downhill type. The plan is to ski between 25km and 30 km per day - a distance that seems reasonable given my current level of fitness.

During the journey I'll be using some of the many wooden shacks that are used by travellers when exploring the wilds of Norway. If you're interested, you can access the shacks by joining the DNT - all for £50 per year.

Bar a tent, I'll be carrying the same equipment as I'm taking to the north pole. Oh, and less food. My body will burn through quit a few calories, but not THAT many.

In addition to getting a feel for being back on skis, the comms gear will be tested. My health stats will be transmitted back to base via satellite, then presented on an Azure-based website. The trip will also provide an opportunity to hone my navigation skills.

Whilst out there I'll send some blog updates via the Iridium satellite system and post will be available both here and at my main site: www.jamesredden.co.uk

Keeping the Ball Rolling

I know: the title is dated and cliched, but I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to describe recent events.

As you're aware, and due to injury, Anita has withdrawn from the Last Two Degrees trip. I wish her well and sincerely hope she recovers soon and starts planning and training for future events.

In the meantime, my training pushes on. Yesterday, 17th January 2016, the weather turned and some long awaited snow finally arrived. Like Scott, Shackleton, Fiennes, etc, I squealed like a girl and dashed out into the garden. Imagine my surprise when I found only a couple of inches of snow and not a knee deep coating extending out to the horizon.

Looking to the hills, I caught sight of the snow-capped domes beckoning me. Again, the covering was simply not of a sufficient depth to support skis and pulk.

No worries, I loaded up my trusty tyres and hit the trails, hard!

Snow, snow and more snow. Oh, and a couple of guys wrapped in mountaineering gear and commenting how unusual it was to see someone pulling tyres through the woods. Yeah, that was one of the few moments when I've been left speechless. One of them even took a photo of me, no doubt to entertain, or terrify, his friends and family!

Anyway, here's a few shots from the training session.

Enjoy.

Hardest thing I've had to do

This is the hardest thing I have had to do.  But I'm going to have to withdraw from the North Pole trek.  Unfortunately my knees have decided that they weren't up for the job, and to be truthful I have been carrying an injury hoping that they would hold up. But they gave up the ghost on the last tyre drag I did in Jebel Ali and have been getting worse and worse.

I finally went to the doc yesterday in the UK, as I'm on leave, and he has said that I have to go and see a specialist up in London as there is some major tendon damage going on there that would need a specialist in sports injury to rectify, and that the initial injury should have recovered by now anyway.

I am so gutted. I had to do a lot of thinking about this - as just take some painkillers and man up but, the doc put it in perspective that I could do the North Pole this year, and work through the pain, but I probably wouldn't be able to do anything after that, as I would have permanently damaged my knees. So I'm sorry guys I'm bowing out and handing this blog over to James.

Anita x

Not so glamorous sweetie darling

I'm sick and tired of all those fitness photos that show women in tiny shorts and bras looking perfect without a hair out of place, tanned and full makeup. This is not real life. 

If you do a really hard work out you will look like absolute crap - but amazing afterwards. You will dry heave. You will go bright red. You will sweat your bits off, and feel like calling it a day every step of the way - but you keep going. This is real fitness training. 

As you can see by the glamorous picture below I did a tyre drag around the base.  This is what real fitness looks like. This was my first drag around here and boy was it hard work.  I have a long term lease of the tyre from the EOD gym, and thank god it already had holes drilled in it. So because I had my ropes and carabinas (have rope will travel) I was ready to go. 

Well as soon as I hit the surface here, which is rough interlock bricks that gives the highest level of friction I have come across, I realised I was in for a hard one.  The tyre was slightly smaller than Tina (the SUV size) but wider and all the way round I had to take tiny steps just to move the bloody thing, with a harness that I had made out of a camelbak digging into me due to the drag. I could only make two and a half miles. I felt like I was a complete beginner again but I just kept going.  There was a  ship in which gave them something to look at with the three laps I did.  Don't think they have seen anything like it before, and must have thought I was crazy with all the swearing and muttering under my breath. 

So don't be embarrassed of looking like the swamp thing. You earnt every bead of sweat, every hair out of place, every dry heave!