Current Position
Position Date: 2012-12-20 23:35:03
Position Lat: -80.0804
Position Long: -80.6106
After another anxious night, the weather looked good for
the flight to Hercules Inlet and the edge of the Antarctic continent.
Within a hour of hearing the news, we were packing the twin otter with
the Moonlander and two Ergodyne duffels full of my supplies. It was a
relief to finally be moving. (Image: Packing up at Hercules Inlet).
While I was excited to finally start this expedition, I was more
excited about simply moving as the past two days in Union Glacier
proved to be nerve wracking and stress filled. It seemed like my mind
thought that any idle moment was fair game for offering up a wide
variety of worst case scenarios. It didn't help that most at camp
were somewhat skeptical of any chance of success.
The plane landed hard bouncing off sastrugi (hard drifts of snow). It
somewhat calmed my nerves as hard sastrugi would mean better travel
for me. I hopped out and began to dig two small trenches in the snow.
This a plan I had devised so time ago for keeping the bike upright
when it's being loaded.
After a few well wishes from the pilot and other ALE staff, I was on
my way.
Right away, I had trouble dealing with the wind. It kept pushing me
east and with nearly 100 lbs. of weight on my bike making quick
adjustments is no easy task. One other problem was the compass we had
mounted to the handle bar - the metal of the bar was altering the
reading. I had noticed this two days ago so I wore my spare compass
around my neck. (View current position by clicking on map).
Because I kept getting pushed east, I was now in an area with several
crevasses. I gingerly hopped over one then another only to trip and
open up a hole that was easily over 100 feet deep. It definitely
scared me as the thought of ending up mangled at the bottom of one was
not my idea of a good time. I tried not to think about it too much and
took comfort in the fact that I was wearing my DeLorme inReach should
anything happen.
I managed to veer enough to begin the steep climb out of the Inlet and
onto Antarctica proper. I was glad that I had put on my Yaktrax
because trying to push my monster bike up was brutal enough without
slipping.
At the top, I was exhausted. I had wanted to get out of the crevasses
area so badly I didn't stop for my normal breaks. I pulled out my
Bergans down jacket, Vapur bottle and chugged down water as I wolfed
down two Clif Bars and a piece of Skratch candy.
There was another hike a bike climb, and then blowing snow. Overall
the snow conditions are pretty good, but several drifted pockets are
like grease and I must have totally wiped out about 20 times today. It
was hard.
I tried to focus only on small goals. If I thought about anything else
all this self doubt would creep in. I felt like I just took this
mental hand and tried to push all that anxiety way back inside. It
worked for a little while, but thoughts of home and failure came
creeping back in and I was left with my bike and the biggest expanse
of white you could ever possibly imagine.
Distance traveled: 10.6 nautical miles (5.7 of those were southerly).
