British Winter Swedish 2000ers Expedition

I’ve been meaning to post a few updates but just haven’t had the time these last couple of weeks, so here they are in one lump…

BBC Radio

Through my training with Andy Wadsworth here in Bristol (which is going very well and really helping to utilise time during the week when I can’t get out into the hills) I got introduced to Graham Torrington from BBC Radio Bristol (and former ‘Late Night Love’ presenter). Graham offered to get me on his show, so two weeks ago I popped in for a 15 minute chat during Bristol’s morning show. It went well, besides my usual ‘umms’, ‘errs’ and falling over the odd word, and was a good chance to talk about what we’re up to and why we’re doing it. Graham has offered to do a follow up on our, hopefully, successful return (by that I mean a successful expedition, not ‘I hope our efforts to return will be successful’; we’re quite keen to come back in safely and in one piece!).

Gear

Thanks to the nice chaps at Marmot, some shiny new gear arrived this morning in the form of some ‘Expedition Mitts’ and ‘Tour Pro II’ salopettes. I’m particularly looking forward to giving the salopettes a test as I have heard good things about them (from John Griffith, Alpine Exposures). We also have some glossy stickers to go on our pulks:

Twitter / Google Map / Satellite Phone / GPS

On a final note, I’m hoping to test a prototype of mine on the expedition, involving using a satellite / Iridium phone to SMS our current position (using a handheld GPS unit) along with weather / condition updates and a short message to a Google Map (on this site) using the web service ‘Twitter’, at regular intervals throughout the expedition. Twitter is a simple messaging service that allows you to send short (140 character) updates via SMS (and other interfaces). Why use Twitter when there are plenty of other SMS based services out there? Well, I have been using Twitter for a while now (http://twitter.com/greg_a) and I really like the service, it has a nice API (I do like JSON), it’s free (apart from our Iridium related costs of course) and it has been getting a lot of press coverage recently which has generated a lot of interest.

We have been looking for a sponsor to help cover the costs of this, but as yet have been unsuccesful. If you’re interested, do please get in touch!

I had the chance of a quick jolly up to Glenshee last weekend. The snow was good, although it started to thaw a bit on Sunday. Saturday saw me on a ski tour from the ski centre up on to Glas Maol, round by Cairn an Tuic and then descending back to Braemar by way of Glen Callater. Sunday saw some downhill action at the ski-centre, happy that I can remember what to do!

Glas Maol Summit

North Wales 7th & 8th February

Greg being workbound then snowbound in Bristol left us heading to North Wales for a couple of days playing in the snow. Saturday was spent hauling pulks up the Berwyns and Sunday saw the team scrambling over Tryfan in powder snow.

Paul in full pulk

River crossing

Saturday was going OK, though a little slow due to serious amount of faffing with gear, until 50m from the top when we found a queue of 4×4′s behind us churning up the snowy track into a mud-slush mix which left our descent much less than pleasent. I am hoping that this will not be a problem in Sweden.

Team heads up the ridge

What a pleasent view.

Met a local couple out for a stroll in the snow, in the dark, etc. I disappointed them by proving I was considerably madder than them by towing a 20kg pulk behind me, without a torch, without a stick, without a rope, without a brain, etc.

Mk2 Hauling System – same as before but a little bit stronger (and heavier)

Ho, ho, ho

Still needs more tweaking but the shafts are considerably stronger. Steers nicely going downhill. Need to sort out end attachments. The £2.99 for 15m of ‘paracord’ turns out to be £2.99 for approx 20m of ‘stretchy stuff not in the least like paracord at all more like spongey squids legs’ and doesn’t appear to be the best buy of the expedition so far.

Hop

Training in public on York Racecourse, Sat 31 Jan. I reckon pulling one 4×4 tyre on mud is about the same as a laden pulk on snow.

Training went well, but the hauling shafts need to be rigid – I need to get rid of the bend in the middle. Otherwise lightweight and strong – fine for normal pulling.  Also need shorter distances between the pulk and the end of the hauling shaft.

Ski, Pulk and Snowhole Training

We met up on the Friday evening at the SYHA. Blocked our arteries with some of Aviemore’s finest cusine in Smiffy’s Chippy. Discussed whether to risk taking pulks or not on the obvious ‘less than ski centre’ claimed amount of snow.

Weather was pretty good on the Saturday and after a little last minute gear shopping we were up at the top car park prepping. This took a little while – as myself & Greg had decided to risk our pulks on the windblown granite!

Progress was pretty good (once we were moving) apart from a few niggles. Everything was going well until we attempted to traverse an icy slope. With little lateral stability with the pulks just headed downhill dragging myself & Greg with them. Greg survived, my flexi-hauling system didn’t! So a little nordic skiing practice was had by the others whilst I attempted a repair.

After my repair we continued up the gully onto the col.

Video: up-ski

On the col we found (as suspected) the wind had scoured the plateau so we dumped the pulks and headed to the summit of Cairn Lochan.

Heading back down we decided to build a snowhole in the gully (as this was the only place where we had found a deep accumulation. After several hours digging and soaked we had ourselves a snug little room. We dried out as the food was cooked and with much merryment we tucked ourselves into bed by 8pm like good little boys.

2:50am. We awoke (“Are you guys still alive?”) with both entrances filled and blocked by new snow and spindrift. 30 minutes of furious digging cleared both entrances but were almost being filled as quickly as emptied. Outside conditions had deteriorated into a blizzard with zero visibility so we retreated back into the hole to have a cup of tea.

We took the decision to move and return to the ski station. The struggle began. 4 hours to pack up and move 2km. I suffered further hauling pole failures and attempted to carry the 20kg pulk & skis on my back which after 45 minutes left me battered. Jamie broke a ski pole so resorted to carrying his skis. The relief at picking up the path to the ski station was welcome.

Important lessons were learned. So although Scotland defeated us (myself in particular) we go to the Swedish Arctic stronger.

Last weekend I optimistically headed to Glencoe, hoping for a bit of ski-ing. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of a washout. We managed plenty of river crossing practice, though if we end up doing that in Sweden then something will have gone very wrong! As the kit didn’t fully dry out overnight we escaped to Ratho on the Sunday for some plastic pulling exercise.

The Pulk is almost finished. I’ve drilled holes at the back for prussik attachments and fitted an aluminium towing rig at the front. This has been made from 10mm aluminium tubing with the brackets/joints etc being scavenged from various everyday objects. I think I will cross the pulk poles over – this is supposed to improve the tracking and means I can do without the need for a crossbar. It’s not particularly aesthetically pleasing but its simple, appears fairly strong but also easily repairable in the field. Still needs testing though so fingers crossed for some snow next weekend…

So, only the cover to put on now and we’re all done.

Kwik Fit have agreed to lend me a couple of old tyres for pulk-pulling training.

This is it – I really am going to pull tyres around York Racecourse (just inside the horse running track).  Come to see me in action, hurl abuse, sponsor our charities, etc, on Saturday 31 Jan and Sunday 1 Feb!

I’ll also be pulling tyres and fine-tuning my hauling harness and method during weekday evenings, but as it’s dark, you probably won’t find me – just listen for grunting and the sound of rubber in mud.

We are 60 days from take off.

Status:

• Flights are booked
• Night train is booked
• Personal gear coming together (slowly)

Time to concentrate on:

• Team equipment
• Team safety gear
• Food
• Publicity
• oh yes and my PASSPORT arrggghhhhhh

Seeing that he’s based only 25 miles from me, I popped in to see Roger at Snowsled yesterday to pick up my pulk, along with its shaft and body harness:

Ok it looks a little out of place on grass, but the robin (top left) does make it a bit more ‘wintery’.

I had previously tried the harness and can say that it was very comfortable whilst trying to drag his lathe across the workshop. Looking forward to testing it now; fingers crossed for snow (and not too many rocks) in Scotland!