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