The commonwealth of cold
The tips of my skis slammed into the back of the sledge in front with a jolt. I was skiing at the back of a line of women making their way, in single file, across the flat expanse of Antarctica towards the South Pole. My team mate from Cyprus was taking her turn as navigator at the front of the line. I couldn’t see why she had stopped, but within seconds, a pair of goggles flew through the air, arcing gracefully over the heads of the team to land in the snow. A babble of angry (and filthy-sounding) Greek followed them.
I understood my team mate’s frustration with her goggles. My pair had slowly iced up throughout the day until I had been left with a tiny sliver of ice-free lens just above my left eye. If I tilted my head forward a little, I could see just enough to follow the sledge in front, but nothing more.
The ice was caused by my own breath rising from my mouth and nose into my goggles and condensing onto the inside. Removing the ice with gloved hands was extremely awkward, especially while skiing. Even if the ice was wiped away, it would soon build up again, so I often didn’t bother and elected to cope with what little vision I had left. After hours of constricted vision and repeated unsuccessful attempts to deal with her own goggle problem, my normally calm Cypriot team mate on the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition had finally lost her temper.
Moisture management
Everything in Antarctica freezes. This might sound obvious, but it isn’t until you’re actually trying to function in the Antarctic that it becomes completely clear how much of an inconvenience this can be. Moisture is everywhere, from the breath you exhale to the liquid inside the critical part of a compass. When that moisture freezes, it can cause all sorts of problems, from frostbite and hypothermia to the rendering of vital kit, such as a stove, completely useless. Therefore, being obsessive about ‘moisture management’ is a critical skill for any polar expedition team.
Ironically, however, one of the fundamental problems in Antarctica isn’t staying warm but keeping cool. When faced with ambient temperatures of –30°C, the instinctive response is to wear the thickest, warmest clothing you own. This is great if you intend to be stationary most of the time, but if you’re hauling a 70-kilogram sledge, you quickly begin to sweat, despite the low temperatures. Sweat rapidly turns into ice. And ice next to your skin causes cold injuries.
As a result, we wore surprisingly few layers while skiing. These were made from remarkably lightweight materials. On top of a single layer of merino-wool thermals, we usually wore insulated salopettes that could be ventilated with zips that ran from ankle to thigh.
The wind in Antarctica is often a greater enemy than the air temperature. It always blows from the south, the very coldest parts of the continent, and the slightest breeze creates significantly lower temperatures. On a cold and sunny day, we would often ski in just our thermals. But as soon as there was a breath of wind, we would need the protection of a wind-resistant shell. This garment weighed 100 grams, and the Pertex material it was cut from felt extremely flimsy, but it provided complete protection from some of the world’s severest winds.
The wind also aggravated the icing problem caused by the moisture in our breath. Our faces had to be covered to protect our skin from the cold air, but anything over our mouths and noses quickly iced up. I’ve tried a variety of face-covering combinations involving Buffs, balaclavas, goggles and even zinc oxide tape with varying success. Every polar expeditioner has their own favoured combination, but no-one has come up with a completely reliable system that works for everyone.
We used an all-in-one balaclava that had removable sections covering the mouth and nose. Everyone on the team liked the system, but there were still problems. The removable sections tended to freeze together, making it difficult to eat and drink (particularly from wide-mouthed water bottles) and long ‘snot-cicles’ formed like stalactites on the end of the nosepiece.
Leave no trace
A key part of our expedition was ensuring that we had minimum impact on our surroundings. There’s a long-held convention in Antarctica that you remove all rubbish, including food scraps and excess fuel, but we wanted to go one step further and remove our human waste, too. We managed to source Disposa-Johns, lightweight bags that are used by the military to dispose of faeces. Each bag is double-lined with secure seals and contains a powder of polymers and enzymes that deodorise the contents (which, in any case, froze almost instantly). The additional weight amounted to about 12 kilograms per person during our 38-day expedition; a small price to pay for leaving no trace. We hope that it has set a precedent for future expeditions.
Polar landscapes are beautiful, mesmerising places, but skiing across endless white plains can get monotonous. To while away the kilometres, many people, myself included, like to listen to music, audio books and downloaded radio programmes as they ski. There are a myriad of MP3 players to choose from. Most are lightweight with a huge memory capacity.
To save carrying spare batteries, it would seem to make sense to select one with a rechargeable battery. But beware: rechargeable MP3 devices often fail in cold temperatures, whereas those that take replaceable batteries fare much better. MP3 players powered by a single AAA battery are a great choice, but are becoming increasingly difficult to find. iPods are a bad option. They often refuse to recharge in the extreme cold and are expensive to replace if lost or broken.
While some people wouldn’t dream of going on a long expedition without an MP3 player, others feel that listening to music detracts from the experience. My Indian team mate decided not to take music with her. ‘At home in Delhi, it’s noisy at all times of the day and night,’ she explained before departure. ‘The silence of Antarctica will be bliss for me.’
To navigate across the featureless terrain of Antarctica, we used the Global Positioning System (GPS). We chose the most basic GPS handset available because simple black-and-white displays use battery power less rapidly than those with colour screens and elaborate graphics. In order to further conserve power and minimise the number of batteries that needed to be carried, we avoided using the handset as much as possible when skiing. In the morning, we would use the GPS to set a bearing on a compass, and we would follow that bearing throughout the day. GPS was only then used to find out how far we had travelled or to reconfirm our bearing.
In the evening, GPS was essential in order to be able to report our exact position to base camp so that they could find us if we got into difficulty. GPS was also employed to find our resupply of food and fuel, which had been left on the ice by an aircraft some weeks before. The system is so accurate that our handset guided us straight to this vital depot, which consisted of a single duffel bag in the vastness of Antarctica.
Taking charge
Every battery-operated device loses power very quickly in the cold and needs regular recharging. We tried to keep battery-hungry equipment to a minimum, but with two compact cameras, two video cameras and two satellite telephones, we had at least three batteries to recharge every night. We took advantage of the 24-hour daylight and attached a flexible solar panel to our tent while we slept. A universal cigarette lighter attachment on one end of the solar panel allowed us to connect the various battery chargers.
The cells needed to be kept warm while charging, so we ran a cable from the solar panel to the batteries, which we tucked inside our sleeping bags. In this way, we were able to successfully recharge everything using the solar panel, with the exception of one team member’s ill-advised iPod.
We used the Iridium satellite telephone to report our position to base camp every evening in case we got into difficulty. We were also able to use it to record podcasts on our website and to write micro-blogs using its short message service (SMS) feature. This device enabled us to share, in real time, our experiences with those following our progress at home, without needing to carry any extra equipment. This ability was generally a very positive aspect of the expedition, but luckily, at the moment that she flung her hopelessly iced-up goggles across Antarctica in anger, my Cypriot team member wasn’t within reach of the sat phone to micro-blog her thoughts to the world.
Noodles for breakfast, anyone?
Food is a central part of almost any expedition. In Antarctica, our evening meals needed to be lightweight as well as full of energy and protein. However, among our multinational team there were a number of other considerations. We had a Muslim team member who required all meat to be halal and all meals to be without pork products or alcohol; a Hindu team member who could not eat beef; and a New Zealander with an aversion to a vegetarian diet. Luckily, we found a small company that prepares and dehydrates real meals, rather than simply mixing together already dehydrated ingredients. This producer was able to cater for all of our dietary requirements.
Porridge has been the traditional staple breakfast on Antarctic expeditions. In recent decades, the humble rolled oat has undergone a quiet revolution. We sourced porridge with seeds and whole grains, which contributed vital vitamins and minerals to our nutrient-depleted diet.
Porridge was a new and not entirely welcome experience for some of our international team members. Reaching a compromise, we often substituted instant noodles for breakfast. The noodles supplied a similar dose of carbohydrates as porridge to give us energy, and were a more acceptable start to the day for our Asian teammates.
Felicity Aston led the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole with team members from Brunei, Cyprus, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. www.felicityaston.com
Ten of the best
The Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition comprised an eclectic mix of eight women from around the world on a 38-day journey through inhospitable conditions to the South Pole. In order to keep this multinational team warm, comfortable and happy, an eclectic mix of clothing, kit and food was required. Here is a selection of the expedition’s essential items, from tents and toilet bags to timepieces and tasty meals.
Don’t forget…
...to take plenty of moisturiser with you. The air in Antarctica is very dry, and dry skin is more prone to cold injury
January 2011
I understood my team mate’s frustration with her goggles. My pair had slowly iced up throughout the day until I had been left with a tiny sliver of ice-free lens just above my left eye. If I tilted my head forward a little, I could see just enough to follow the sledge in front, but nothing more.
The ice was caused by my own breath rising from my mouth and nose into my goggles and condensing onto the inside. Removing the ice with gloved hands was extremely awkward, especially while skiing. Even if the ice was wiped away, it would soon build up again, so I often didn’t bother and elected to cope with what little vision I had left. After hours of constricted vision and repeated unsuccessful attempts to deal with her own goggle problem, my normally calm Cypriot team mate on the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition had finally lost her temper.
Moisture management
Everything in Antarctica freezes. This might sound obvious, but it isn’t until you’re actually trying to function in the Antarctic that it becomes completely clear how much of an inconvenience this can be. Moisture is everywhere, from the breath you exhale to the liquid inside the critical part of a compass. When that moisture freezes, it can cause all sorts of problems, from frostbite and hypothermia to the rendering of vital kit, such as a stove, completely useless. Therefore, being obsessive about ‘moisture management’ is a critical skill for any polar expedition team.
Ironically, however, one of the fundamental problems in Antarctica isn’t staying warm but keeping cool. When faced with ambient temperatures of –30°C, the instinctive response is to wear the thickest, warmest clothing you own. This is great if you intend to be stationary most of the time, but if you’re hauling a 70-kilogram sledge, you quickly begin to sweat, despite the low temperatures. Sweat rapidly turns into ice. And ice next to your skin causes cold injuries.
As a result, we wore surprisingly few layers while skiing. These were made from remarkably lightweight materials. On top of a single layer of merino-wool thermals, we usually wore insulated salopettes that could be ventilated with zips that ran from ankle to thigh.
The wind in Antarctica is often a greater enemy than the air temperature. It always blows from the south, the very coldest parts of the continent, and the slightest breeze creates significantly lower temperatures. On a cold and sunny day, we would often ski in just our thermals. But as soon as there was a breath of wind, we would need the protection of a wind-resistant shell. This garment weighed 100 grams, and the Pertex material it was cut from felt extremely flimsy, but it provided complete protection from some of the world’s severest winds.
The wind also aggravated the icing problem caused by the moisture in our breath. Our faces had to be covered to protect our skin from the cold air, but anything over our mouths and noses quickly iced up. I’ve tried a variety of face-covering combinations involving Buffs, balaclavas, goggles and even zinc oxide tape with varying success. Every polar expeditioner has their own favoured combination, but no-one has come up with a completely reliable system that works for everyone.
We used an all-in-one balaclava that had removable sections covering the mouth and nose. Everyone on the team liked the system, but there were still problems. The removable sections tended to freeze together, making it difficult to eat and drink (particularly from wide-mouthed water bottles) and long ‘snot-cicles’ formed like stalactites on the end of the nosepiece.
Leave no trace
A key part of our expedition was ensuring that we had minimum impact on our surroundings. There’s a long-held convention in Antarctica that you remove all rubbish, including food scraps and excess fuel, but we wanted to go one step further and remove our human waste, too. We managed to source Disposa-Johns, lightweight bags that are used by the military to dispose of faeces. Each bag is double-lined with secure seals and contains a powder of polymers and enzymes that deodorise the contents (which, in any case, froze almost instantly). The additional weight amounted to about 12 kilograms per person during our 38-day expedition; a small price to pay for leaving no trace. We hope that it has set a precedent for future expeditions.
Polar landscapes are beautiful, mesmerising places, but skiing across endless white plains can get monotonous. To while away the kilometres, many people, myself included, like to listen to music, audio books and downloaded radio programmes as they ski. There are a myriad of MP3 players to choose from. Most are lightweight with a huge memory capacity.
To save carrying spare batteries, it would seem to make sense to select one with a rechargeable battery. But beware: rechargeable MP3 devices often fail in cold temperatures, whereas those that take replaceable batteries fare much better. MP3 players powered by a single AAA battery are a great choice, but are becoming increasingly difficult to find. iPods are a bad option. They often refuse to recharge in the extreme cold and are expensive to replace if lost or broken.
While some people wouldn’t dream of going on a long expedition without an MP3 player, others feel that listening to music detracts from the experience. My Indian team mate decided not to take music with her. ‘At home in Delhi, it’s noisy at all times of the day and night,’ she explained before departure. ‘The silence of Antarctica will be bliss for me.’
To navigate across the featureless terrain of Antarctica, we used the Global Positioning System (GPS). We chose the most basic GPS handset available because simple black-and-white displays use battery power less rapidly than those with colour screens and elaborate graphics. In order to further conserve power and minimise the number of batteries that needed to be carried, we avoided using the handset as much as possible when skiing. In the morning, we would use the GPS to set a bearing on a compass, and we would follow that bearing throughout the day. GPS was only then used to find out how far we had travelled or to reconfirm our bearing.
In the evening, GPS was essential in order to be able to report our exact position to base camp so that they could find us if we got into difficulty. GPS was also employed to find our resupply of food and fuel, which had been left on the ice by an aircraft some weeks before. The system is so accurate that our handset guided us straight to this vital depot, which consisted of a single duffel bag in the vastness of Antarctica.
Taking charge
Every battery-operated device loses power very quickly in the cold and needs regular recharging. We tried to keep battery-hungry equipment to a minimum, but with two compact cameras, two video cameras and two satellite telephones, we had at least three batteries to recharge every night. We took advantage of the 24-hour daylight and attached a flexible solar panel to our tent while we slept. A universal cigarette lighter attachment on one end of the solar panel allowed us to connect the various battery chargers.
The cells needed to be kept warm while charging, so we ran a cable from the solar panel to the batteries, which we tucked inside our sleeping bags. In this way, we were able to successfully recharge everything using the solar panel, with the exception of one team member’s ill-advised iPod.
We used the Iridium satellite telephone to report our position to base camp every evening in case we got into difficulty. We were also able to use it to record podcasts on our website and to write micro-blogs using its short message service (SMS) feature. This device enabled us to share, in real time, our experiences with those following our progress at home, without needing to carry any extra equipment. This ability was generally a very positive aspect of the expedition, but luckily, at the moment that she flung her hopelessly iced-up goggles across Antarctica in anger, my Cypriot team member wasn’t within reach of the sat phone to micro-blog her thoughts to the world.
Noodles for breakfast, anyone?
Food is a central part of almost any expedition. In Antarctica, our evening meals needed to be lightweight as well as full of energy and protein. However, among our multinational team there were a number of other considerations. We had a Muslim team member who required all meat to be halal and all meals to be without pork products or alcohol; a Hindu team member who could not eat beef; and a New Zealander with an aversion to a vegetarian diet. Luckily, we found a small company that prepares and dehydrates real meals, rather than simply mixing together already dehydrated ingredients. This producer was able to cater for all of our dietary requirements.
Porridge has been the traditional staple breakfast on Antarctic expeditions. In recent decades, the humble rolled oat has undergone a quiet revolution. We sourced porridge with seeds and whole grains, which contributed vital vitamins and minerals to our nutrient-depleted diet.
Porridge was a new and not entirely welcome experience for some of our international team members. Reaching a compromise, we often substituted instant noodles for breakfast. The noodles supplied a similar dose of carbohydrates as porridge to give us energy, and were a more acceptable start to the day for our Asian teammates.
Felicity Aston led the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole with team members from Brunei, Cyprus, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. www.felicityaston.com
Ten of the best
The Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition comprised an eclectic mix of eight women from around the world on a 38-day journey through inhospitable conditions to the South Pole. In order to keep this multinational team warm, comfortable and happy, an eclectic mix of clothing, kit and food was required. Here is a selection of the expedition’s essential items, from tents and toilet bags to timepieces and tasty meals.
Start the slideshow (10 pictures)
Don’t forget…
...to take plenty of moisturiser with you. The air in Antarctica is very dry, and dry skin is more prone to cold injury
January 2011
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