Just like clockwork, the 2013 Antarctic season appears to be ramping up right on schedule. We already know that the Scott Expedition is off and running, but soon they'll have company out on the ice. Veteran adventurer Richard Parks will soon embark on a solo expedition to the South Pole and he hopes to do so in record time.

Parks left the U.K. on Monday of this week and should be in Punta Arenas now. He is no doubt resting, sorting his gear and preparing for the flight to Union Glacier for the start of his speed attempt. He will be taking on the daunting task of trying to beat Christian Eide's speed record for traveling 1150 ki from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole, a distance of 1,150 km (715 mile), that was set in 2011. At the time, Eide managed to make that journey in an astounding 24 days, 1 hour and 13 minutes. To do that, he had to average 47 km (29 miles) per day, which anyone who knows anything about Antarctic travel will tell you is an insane pace. Parks hopes to go faster.

Richard has set a goal of completing his journey to the South Pole in 23 days. That means he'll have to average 50 km (31 miles) per day, which doesn't sound like a lot more but those extra kilometers it can really wear on someone day in and day out, particularly when they are dragging a heavy sled behind them the entire way.

If all goes as expected and the weather cooperates, he hopes to begin the expedition in mid-November. That means he has a couple of weeks to rest and prepare before heading out on the ice. I'll certainly be following his progress once he gets going.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Scott Expedition continues to make progress, albeit at a slow pace. They boys have been on the trail for just five days but pulling the heavy sleds have made it tough so far. Their pace has dropped to as little as 1 km (.6 miles) per hour as they slog through powdery snow when they would prefer to be on hard pack. On top of that, the weather has taken a turn and gotten colder (-40ºC/F this morning!) and windier. They're now getting a real taste of what it is like to travel in Antarctica.

This was all to be expected of course and that's the reason Ben and Tarka set off early in the first place. It is also not uncommon for polar travelers to struggle early on, then find their groove once they've had a chance to acclimatize to the conditions. I suspect that will be the case here as well.

That's all for today. I'll update the progress of both of these expeditions as we get word and I'll post more starts as they come.

As I mentioned a few times last week, we're on the verge of the start of the 2013 Antarctic expedition season and soon numerous teams will be heading to the bottom of the world to ski to the South Pole, climb Mt. Vinson or explore some other location on the frozen continent. But one team got an early start to the season by setting off last week, and while they're just a few days into their epic journey, they are now moving south at last.

Last Monday, Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere of the Scott Expedition flew from Punta Arenas, Chile to the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. They spent a few days there getting their gear and supplies organized before they caught another flight out to the Ross Ice Shelf, where they spent another day and a half skiing to their official starting point at the Scott Terra Nova Hut. Since they will be skiing in the footsteps of polar legend Robert Falcon Scott, and hoping to complete the route he couldn't, it seemed only fitting that Ben and Tarka set out from the same place that he did more than a century ago.

The boys have begun posting dispatches from the ice and so far it seems that conditions are good but the work is hard. Their sleds are at full capacity at the moment, which means they are pulling 200 kg (440 pounds) of gear and supplies behind them as they begin their 1800 mile (2896 km) journey to the South Pole and back again. Those sleds will get easier to pull as the food supplies start to dwindle, but for now it is tough going, especially since the snow is soft and powdery.


As a result of these heavy loads, Ben says they are covering about 2 km (1.2 miles) per hour, which doesn't sound very fast but is actually quite good for so early in the expedition. It usually takes a week or two for Antarctic explorers to acclimate to the temperatures and altitudes there and the body must adapt to the work load of skiing all day while puling a heavy sled behind them.

The weather has been great for the lads so far although as expected the temperatures are a bit brutal. This morning they are dealing with -30ºC/-22ºF with wind chills taking those temps down to -40ºC/F. It is a bit unusual to have such good weather at this point in the season, but I'm sure Ben and Tarka are happy to have it. It is not uncommon for Antarctic adventurers to encounter high winds, blowing snows and whiteout conditions as they get underway. In recent years, there have even been delays  to the start of the season due to poor weather at the traditional drop off point at Union Glacier.

With the first of November now just a few days away, we should start to see a few more teams making their way to Punta Arenas and preparing to head out on the ice. Because of the extreme distances involved with their expedition, Ben and Tarka set off as early as they could, but most won't be making a return trip from the Pole, so they'll have more to complete their expeditions. It'll also give them more time to allow the weather to be more conducive for travel.

Stay tuned for more soon. The season is just getting started.

A few days back I posted that the 2013 Antarctic season had officially begun with the first team departing Punta Arenas, Chile for the frozen continent. That team consists of veteran explorers Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere who collectively make up the Scott Expedition. Over the next couple of months, the two men will attempt to complete the route used by Robert Falcon Scott on his way to the South Pole back in 1912. Scott himself was unable to finish that expedition, perishing on the return trip after discovering rival Roald Amundsen had beaten him to the Pole by a matter of weeks. Ben and Tarka will make that journey in a self-supported fashion as they look to finish what Scott started.

The team flew out of Punta Arenas on Monday and were shuttled to the Union Glacier camp for the first stage of their journey. They then spent a couple of days getting organized, prepping their gear and acclimatizing to the Antarctica. Yesterday they again boarded a plane and were taken to the Ross Ice Shelf, where they are now en route to the Scott Terra Nova Hut, the famous launching point for Scott's expedition. Even though it was built more than a century ago, the hut remains an important landmark on the continent.

When they were dropped off on the ice yesterday, the two men had to ski 32 km (20 miles) just to get to their starting point. They are expected to arrive there today and will likely take a brief rest before they start the real meat of the expedition. Once they're ready, they'll then begin moving south, pulling their heavily loaded sleds behind them as they set off across the Antarctic at last.

Once they're underway, Ben and Tarka expect to make daily – or at least frequent – updates from the field. In fact, as I write this they are a bit over due for their first check-in from the hut. Hopefully that update will come soon and we'll be able to follow them closely over the coming week. You can read those dispatches on the team's blog page.

In the days ahead I'll be following the progress of this expedition very closely. Expect to read about it regularly on the Adventure Blog. Other teams will soon join Ben and Tarka out on the ice, but for now most them look like they're a couple of weeks off yet. Since the lads are making a return trip from the Pole, they had to get a jump on the season. They'll also likely endure worse conditions in the early going.

Such is the life of an Antarctic explorer. Best of luck boys!

Just as the fall climbing season in the Himalaya begins to wrap up, the 2013 Antarctic expedition season is just about to get underway. As usual, there are a host of explorers heading to the frozen continent this year, most of whom will be making the journey on skis to the South Pole. The first of those explorers will hit the ice today, officially launching another season of adventure at the bottom of the world.

The first team to hit the ice is will be Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere, the two men who are taking part in the Scott Expedition. They are on a plane out of Punta Arenas, Chile this morning and are now making their way towards Patriot Hills in Antarctic to start their journey. As you may recall, Ben and Tarka will attempt to make an unsupported round trip excursion to the South Pole and back, starting and ending at the Ross Ice Shelf, while following along the same route that Robert Falcon Scott took on his fateful expedition more than a hundred years ago. If successful, they'll be the first to complete the 1800 mile (2897 km) sojourn that claimed the lives of Scott and his men.

You can follow the expedition on their website, Twitter feed and Facebook page. The team is carrying a lot of communications gear and plans to making daily updates and dispatches to keep everyone informed of their progress. That's a far cry from Scott's days when the ultimate fate of the men wasn't known for months. But for those of us who enjoy learning about expedition life in the Antarctic and the challenges the explorers face, these updates should prove extremely interesting. The next time we hear from them, they will hopefully be in the Antarctic and preparing for the start of the expedion.

Ever wonder what kind of logistics are involved with getting an expedition such as this one off the ground? Then you'll want to watch the video below which shows Ben and Tarka preparing some of their gear. More importantly, it shows them packing their food, which is a painstaking task that takes a great deal of time but is absolutely necessary for survival out on the ice.

Two explorers have announced their intentions of completing the Antarctic expedition that famed British explorer Robert Falcon Scott never could. Veteran adventurers Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere say they will attempt to follow in Scott's footsteps on an 1800-mile (2896 km) round trip journey to the South Pole that will follow the same route that the Terra Nova expedition took in 1911-1912. That is the same expedition that resulted in Scott and his men arriving at the South Pole three weeks behind their Norwegian rivals led by Roald Amundsen, before they all perished on the return trip to the coast.

Ben and Tarka intend to set off from the same cabin that Scott used when he launched his expedition more than a century a go. They'll get underway in October of this year with the hopes of completing the epic journey in approximately 110 days. They'll make the trip without resupply as well, which would make this the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

Scott, who remains a legendary figure in British exploration more than 100 years after his death, famously raced Amundsen to the South Pole to claim the honor of being first to reach that point. Using knowledge from his years spent in the Arctic, Amundsen and his men were able to move faster than the Scott party and as a result were able to plant the flag of Norway at 90ºS several weeks before the arrival of the Brits. Dejected and defeated Scott and his men set out on their return journey with heavy hearts. That journey proved fatal to all of the remaining men, with Scott himself, along with Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers, perishing in a tent after getting caught in a blizzard that raged for days. Sadly, they were just 11 miles away from "One Ton Depot," a supply cache that would have given them food and fuel that would have allowed them to survive.

Saunders and L'Herpiniere won't be facing such dire consequences when they launch their expedition later this year. Still, it will take a herculean effort on their part to complete this journey. We haven't seen a lot of success on these round-trip expeditions to the South Pole and they will be taking a route that is far from the tried and true Hercules Inlet starting point.

The 2013 Antarctic season is still months away, but I'm already starting to look forward to it.

This past Friday marked the 101st anniversary of the death of Robert Falcon Scott, who was stranded in a tent in the Antarctic after his ill-fated attempt to lead the first expedition to reach the South Pole. As we all know, Scott was successful in reaching 90ºS but arrived only to discover that he was beaten to the prize by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who had nipped him at the finish line three weeks earlier. On the return trip back to the coast, Scott and his men suffered mightily before he and his two remaining companions became stranded in their tent while a I blizzard rage outside for ten days straight. They ended up freezing to death, without food nor fuel, just 11 miles from a supply depot that would have saved their lives.

We know that Scott was the last of his men to die and before he perished he wrote a few letters to friends and family back home. One of those letters was to Sir Francis Bridgeman, one of his former commanding officers. Last week, the contents of that letter were revealed to the public for the first time. It read:

To Sir Francis Bridgeman 

My Dear Sir Francis 

I fear we have shipped up – a close shave. I am writing a few letters which I hope will be delivered some day. I want to thank you for the friendship you gave me of late years, and to tell you how extraordinarily pleasant I found it to serve under you. I want to tell you that I was not too old for this job. It was the younger men that went under first. Finally I want you to secure a competence for my widow and boy. I leave them very ill provided for, but feel that the country ought not to neglect them. After all we are setting a good example to our countrymen, if not by getting into a tight place, by facing it like men when we were there. We could have come through had we neglected the sick. 

Good-bye and good-bye to dear Lady Bridgeman 

Yours ever 

R. Scott 

Excuse writing – it is -40, and has been for nigh a month

One of the things that had continued to endear Scott to his countrymen is that he continued to maintain his famous British stiff upper lip, even to the bitter end. That is seen once again in this letter as he asks for forgiveness for his poor penmanship due to the harsh weather. You would think when you know that you are facing your own impending doom you wouldn't worry so much about that, but Scott still cared about the details even as he knew death was coming for him.

Would we all have the strength and courage to face our mortality if placed in the same circumstances? I'd like to think so, but I'm not sure that would be the case. These glimpses into Scott's personality help to keep his legend and spirit alive more than a century after his death.