48 HOURS BEFORE THE START

And it begins! After two years of preparation and discussion, months of training and weeks of gathering and packing equipment the team flew to Iceland on Tuesday 11th April. British Airways kindly pulled out all the stops and flew them and all their kit (hundreds of kilos!) to Iceland, with a special transport box for Darren’s McLaren sit-ski to make sure it got there undamaged. After so long of planning, it’s always a joyous moment when these things come together and things begin.

The team moved into an apartment in Reykjavik to check the weather, confirm their Arctic Trucks drop-off logistics and get all the kit out ready to check, double check and pack everything.

“There’s no second chances here if we forget something we have to do without”.

The team are travelling on skis (Niall and Ed on foot, Darren in his sit-ski) and pulling pulks (plastic sledges) with all their supplies for the 18-day expedition.

“As we got everything together we realised they were going to be REALLY heavy, and had to make some serious decisions about certain things to try and keep the weight down. Food and fuel weigh well over 100kg on their own, then there’s all the camping and cooking equipment, clothing, expedition equipment and ski stuff. The food and fuel will reduce each day, it’s just a shame that the first few days of the trip are up a steep hill onto the ice cap when they’re at their heaviest!“

Day 1

04:00 - The team travelled in specially adapted Arctic Trucks (massive wheels and tyres on 4 x 4 vehicles) and started the long journey to the edge of the ice cap. Starting off on tarmac, moving onto gravel tracks and then across the volcanic wasteland that leads up to Vatnajokull where there are no tracks at all - just rock, moss, rivers and snow. All in all, it took 9 hours to get them to the edge of the icecap, all under glorious blue skies. They spent an hour getting everything together and then waved goodbye to the trucks as they drove back out. This was the big realisation point.

“When the sound of the truck disappeared, we realised that we’re in the middle of nowhere and won’t see anyone else until we get to the other side of the ice cap. It was an emotional moment for us all.”

With no time to ponder, they packed up and set off uphill - the steepest part of the expedition.

Pulling sledges on skis is a little like pulling a big man in a bath along a beach. It’s backbreaking work (no pun intended…) and progress is super slow at the start but as expected. Once they get into it and move up onto less steep slopes things should get easier. After a few hours, they stop and set up camp for the first time on the ice.

“The weather was gorgeous and it was good to get our systems dialled. We got the tent up and Darren goes into the tent where he sets things up and makes dinner - all while we get the camp set for the night. We need to build a snow wall to protect the tent from stormy winds, gather snow for melting for cooking and make everything secure for the night before getting into the tent for dinner. Toilet wise - we’ll write about that later! A really long and eye-opening first day so it’s food, drink, catheters double checked and then straight to bed to see who snores the most…”

Day 3

And the storm hits!

“We woke up in the early hours of the morning to the tent shaking pretty hard. Niall stuck the wind gauge out of the door and the reading came back at 70kmh which was above our threshold to move. We waited out the morning, eating porridge and drinking coffee hoping the wind might die down so we could get a few hours in before the storm that was due this evening hit. Unfortunately, that moment never came so we made the call at midday to batten down the hatches & ride it out.””

“Niall and I headed out to build a bigger snow wall whilst Darren stayed in and took care of his bowels, these processes took a couple of hours and a lot of effort. Sawing blocks of snow out of the ground in 70kmh winds was exciting and the result wasn’t exactly something the Inuit would be proud of but hopefully, it will do the job… time will tell! 🤞””

“Considering we haven’t moved it’s not been the easiest day…Darren has struggled with being stuck inside and we’ve all had various toilet complications. Niall’s snow toilet collapsed on him and my convene broke which resulted in me crashing at full speed out of the back of the tent so as to not make a mess, which Niall said reminded him of getting charged by a baby elephant.””

“The little things that should be easy are infinitely more time-consuming and often take at least two, sometimes all three of us, but in the end, it’s all possible so far. We’re certainly learning a lot as we go and because of our various individual limitations we’re having to work together to get things done.”

“The weather tomorrow is looking rough again so it looks like another tent day which puts us way behind schedule but all things considered spirits are still high. We can’t do anything about the weather so there’s no point getting annoyed by it, we’re just going to have to really go for it when we get the chance.”

Day 3 continued

Just as I finished writing my daily update last night and settled into my sleeping bag the tent start to shake violently. The wind had picked up but the sudden change suggested something had happened to our wind defences so Nile headed out to take a look and patch up any damage. He left saying he wouldn’t be long so 20 minutes later when he hadn’t returned I forced my head out of the tent to see what was going on. It was carnage out there. Nile was clinging to a tent pole that had come loose, the canvas thrashing in front of him. He was yards away and shouting at me but could hardly hear him above the wind. I looked to my left and realised the pole was also loose on my side. I grabbed it and forced it back into place then ducked back into the tent to put my boots on so I could get out and help properly. I jammed my feet in and went to tighten the straps but realised that my bare hands were now frozen into fists. I quickly swung my legs around to Darren who did them up for me then grabbed my gloves and tried to force my hands into them but quickly realised it was pointless. The tent was caving badly now so I ditched the gloves and scrambled back out. I grabbed a shovel and started to make my way around to the other side of the tent to help Niall. It was only a few steps before a gust took me clean off my feet and I had to crawl the rest of the way. Adrenaline was pumping when I got to Niall who was shovelling furiously. I got to my feet and joined in piling snow against the tent to weigh it down. 15 minutes later we both fell back into the tent, soaking wet and cold but with the tent secure for now.

It wasn’t until I sat down and the adrenaline died down that I felt my hands start to burn. Darren had put the jet boil on and passed me a bottle full of boiling water to help heat them up. We all looked at each other with a an expression of relief, disbelief and exhilaration. If one of those loose tent poles had ripped the tent we would have been stuffed but thanks to some quick thinking from Niall, Darren’s hands replacing mine and a grizzly bit of effort we were safe, for now.

Day 5

The alarm went off at 5am and things outside the tent sounded pretty good. There was no precipitation hitting the canvas and minimal shaking from the wind, finally we were able to get moving.

The forecast was actually quite warm (0-1c) but we knew there was rain/sleet coming so layered up with as much gortex as possible. We set off and were moving at a decent pace which was a good sign as we have a lot of catching up to do after 2 days in the tent. After about an hour however the weather closed in and we soon found ourselves in a white out which made it very difficult to navigate.

Skiing in a straight line is surprisingly hard with no reference points, it’s like being inside a ping pong ball, you can’t tell where the ground finishes and the sky starts. Darren was manning the GPS, giving instructions to Niall but it wasn’t long before we realised we were snaking all over the place. Turns out the GPS had a delay and Niall was attached to Darren so was too close to for him to be able to tell if he started deviating. We decided that I would move to the front so there was more space between us and any snaking would be picked up quicker.

After 9 hours the weather had set in, so exhausted we stopped to set up camp. As we did the wind and the rain seemed to want to make it as difficult as possible. We smashed the tent up and got Darren in the shelter. By the time Niall and I piled in we were all soaking, as was all of our kit, so it was an evening of consolidation and trying to dry things. The problem is that in these temperatures and with these Atlantic weather systems nothing will dry naturally so you have to rely on hot water in bottles and body heat. Climbing in to your sleeping in all of your wet clothes is not pleasant, but it’s the only way.

Fortunately, thanks to the amount of energy exerted during the day it wasn’t hard to fall asleep. The main thing playing on my mind now though is eating enough food. I hit 10,000kcal yesterday which means I’m in a huge deficit so eating as much as possible is a priority - if only there was a Maccy Ds on the ice.

On the bright side we hit our 15km target, which was an ambitious one, and we only have about another 15km before we’re done with the uphill sections.

29km done
126km to go
The war of attrition continues.

Day 7

The alarm went off at 5am again and we woke up to ice on the inside of the tent. Luckily we had slept with everything important in our sleeping bags because pretty much everything else was frozen solid. It’s always difficult vacating the warmth of your sleeping bag in temperatures like that but we knew we had to get a big day in. After porridge, coffee and some high level faffing we emerged from the tent into a wall of light.

Clear blue skies meant the sun was pouring onto the ice and blasting in every direction, we all donned our POC glasses and lathered the suncream on before setting off.

Despite the sun it was the coldest morning we’ve had for some time which meant the snow was perfect for our last day of ascent. As soon as we set off we could feel how much faster we were going to be, Niall and Darren in particular just took off together.

We have been hauling for an hour then having ten minutes off, today our split times were by far the fastest they’ve been so far. Granted our pulks are now lighter as we've eaten a weeks worth of food and we've undoubtably got fitter but for the first time we were really looking like we could get back on track. Although we’re about a third of the way distance wise this seemed like half way.

We were all in a great place apart from the fact that we had to ski straight passed the hut situated on the volcano which has a geothermal heated sauna. Given the state we're all in after a week of pretty much the same clothes that would have been very welcome.

Just the other side of the hut was a sharp bit of descent into an area marked as red on the map meaning 'high crevasse risk'. Darren had been battling uphill for the last week in his sit ski attached to the back of Niall so got a bit excited with his first taste of freedom and disappeared off down the slope in a true 'Fentooon!' moment. Luckily after a couple of hundred metres he remembered where he was and slammed on the brakes. It was a heart in the mouth moment as well as being pretty funny.

15 more kilometres covered, 90 to go.

Day 10

It was panic inducingly cold this morning. -27°C is enough to rattle anyone’s bones and again I had to battle with clenched fists for hands whilst trying to manage my morning routine.

We’ve been getting up at 5am and trying to be away within 3 hours. That may seem like a long time but there’s a lot we have do and it takes a lot of collaboration to get over the line.

We ended up getting away by 8:30am and it was another crystal clear day. We headed into the vast expanse of whiteness ahead of us aiming for a distant volcano on the horizon which was almost where we will be ending the trip. The air temp was cold but there was no wind so it wasn’t long before we were stripping layers.

What on paper looked like a straight forward day in good conditions ended up being much tougher than expected. Every hour looked the same as the last and it didn’t look like we were getting any closer to the volcano. The surface was also tough with frozen moguls making pulk dragging very awkward, the two I have attached to me were effectively giving me the Heimlich maneuver all day. After 8.5 tough hours we hit 20km and set up camp exhausted.

This evening we’ve had the pleasure of accompanying Darren in the tent for moral support during his bowel evacuation…8 days of back up but finally success! As much as we love Darren, we’re not weirdos - it was -15 outside and it took 2 hours so all of us in the tent together it was. Team bonding at its finest!

We’ve just had a weather update and there are 50km winds due to hit in 24 hours. Combined with an ambient -20c that could be dangerous. With 27km to go to the finish and safety of the hut we’ve decided to go for it tomorrow. It will be by far our biggest day if we make it but it will also mean safety and mission accomplished!

One last push!