North Pole

so, we had bright weather, greta visibility, and the ice conditions were about as perfect as we might have wished for, no unpassable leads, no open water, no impassable pressure ridges, all things we might reasonable have expected. we also had positive drift that is the ice and tide were pushing us towards the pole, during the night we might move up to three kms at best but at least it was a couple, this was an amazing bonus. I saw the coordinates of last years trips most moved sideways two groups made no headway in nine days in one instance they had 20 kms negative drift one night alone that would have meant had they covered 18 kms in a day like we did the following morning they would be 2 kms behind where they were the day before hideous, we were without doubt very lucky indeed the conditions were perfect.

we reached the north pole 90 degrees at about 530 pm 5 days after we left barneo, half the time we might reasonably have expected, it was an incredible moment the gps going crazy you could actually see the world spinning beneath us, quickly as well, an amazing un repeatable sight we did it! we did it !amazing and a huge huge relief and excitement.
we put up our tents and spen the night at the north pole or soon down the other side as the positive drift swept us down the opposite side f the globe 2 miles during the night. we were picked up by a huge russian helicopter at 1 pm the following day and after 30 minutes stnding up in tis heli made it back to barneo hugely happy and very very releived and thankfull we had had such an incredible journey.
photos: me at north pole (shameless advertising

the heli and the interior of it...

more to follow......

Part 5: routine

we woke at 730 am ice frozen onto the inside of our tents any movement created a minor snow storm in the tent. sleeping bag thickly covered with frost but totally water proof (well for first few days) I popped my head out of my bag.

it was freezing minus 25, try and get dressed in my ba
you have to take your outer layer of clothes of and sleep in thermals only to get the most out of the goose down bags designed for temperatures of minus 70. Alan our guide and my tent mate (Very lucky break that....) would crank up the stove and heat would make the ice melt on tent and clothes etc, so it became damp. we boiled snow and then added water to our dehydrated foods in the morning it was porridge, fill our thermos up with soup and hot chocolate this took about an hour and a half.

Then pack up the tent squeeze sleeping bags into dry bags (everything done i huge mitts) and any other items we had out for the night, i had about six dry bags, food, drinks, spare warm clothes, big down jacket , small down jacket and medical stuff. then out into the cold load sledge getting balance right otherwise they toppled over easily, make sure emergency clothes were at the front easily accesible in case of bad weather, take down tents , pack them on mine robs and alans sledges, (the others carried other communal stuff) then go to the loo i won't go into any detail except it was freezing and you had to be very quick......... you peed in the tent in a bottle stupid to go out in the cold. strap on sledge and off we went.

the terrain is very variable generally it was slightly rutted rarely smooth we would have long flatish bits then have to weave through rubble, that was hell, sledges got caught on obstacles always having to turn around and pull it by your arms, if the sledge in front toppled over you helped put it up right. we would come to pressure ridges huge piles of massive ice blocks which we had to get over or get around, alan was brilliant at this and generally found a tortuous route quite quickly through the twisted rubble, then we had leads, where the ice has split like a river and we had to find a safe way over it, again alan had a canny knack of finding a route, he really knew what ice was passable and what wasn't. We were incredibly lucky we didn't have any open water or huge leads at any time, we only had two occasions where the ice started breaking up and he noise and power was indescribable, once when we were crossing a lead, it started moving with a rush and roar as the arctic ocean fought the ice, that was amazing i have never seen people move so fast, and aga

in during a crossing where the ice started coming together groaning and crashing and roaring.

we stopped every hour for a drink and snack and relentlessly punched out the miles it wasn't at all monotonous but i can't tell you what i thought about but i was never bored.

we stopped about 7 pm unloaded tents put them up unpacked our sledges, this all took about an hour and a half in minus 25 we dug our tents in with snow and used our skis and poles as pegs then got into our tents boiled water got some heat on and added water to our dehydrated food anything from stew and spuds to pat thai or curry all tasted ok as we were hungary after our exertions then sleep at about 1030 in broad day light and the hours sped by until it was 7.30 am and the routine started again.

part 4 first camp.

as its permanent bright daylight we didn't stop until about 1 am and this was our first camp. the first impressions of the arctic are the vast vast wilderness of ice huge piles of ice rubble making weird shapes like sculptures, i spent a lot of our eight or nine hour pulls over the coming days imagining the ice rubble turning into anything from sculpture in the rodin museum to ludlow castle to forests or ghats by the ganges you name it pork pies mermaids huge breasts pyramids they were all there in this spectacular. scenery

my other abiding memory is of the noise the ice made as we headed over it, it squeaked squealed groaned and crackled all the time, sometimes it sounded like skating on a village pond other times no noise except the sliding skis friction against the snowy

ice and the low rumble of my sledge tripping along behind me....

part 3. barneo.

barneo is a small tented camp 1500 kms from terra firma in the middle of the frozen arctic ocean built by viccaar a private russian organsation run by a very charismatic guy called victor borovsky. the camp is a source of great national pride in russia goodness knows what else might go on there. they set it up at the end of march by dropping parachutists down who recce the best place to put the runway and the camp, then all the tents and and two bulldozers are dropped to make the runway. two huge helicopters then relay out to provide rescue and logistic services taking two days to get out there from murmansk picking up fuel in stashes on the way. a massive undertaking. there were big delays this year due to poor weather and this led to our delays. the camp was finished on april 4th. the camp is then dismantled on april 26th and the arctic ocean reclaims the ice. we unpacked our stuff from the back of the plane had a safety briefing and off we set at about 9 pm in bright sunlight.

Part 2 The flight

this is the plane a russian antonov, it has seats for 24 and the other passengers are behind the net lying on top of al of our sledges bags skis and supplies for barneo. you had a sense the plane was very very full and heavy. the flight takes about two and a half hours its 1500 kms. the plane takes off and lands on avery short runway and had seemingly about three pilots and three other crew, navigators. one of whom turned switches opposite where i was sitting from time to time. i later understood he was changing the radio frequencies. there is only one window in the plane i didn't want to look out....... if barneo had to close and longyearbarn closed due to weather we would have been diverted to a russian military base those are the only three options... the plane felt very solid but i was extremely happy to land on the ice runway and set foot on the arctic ocean at barneo and get a sense of the frozen wilderness which would possibly be home for up to 10 days.

A brief synopsis. part one: a little secret.

so i am at home writing this i can barely believe that i have actually skied to the north pole.

a little secret, i bottled it totally, when we got the second call to fly to barneo the group left for the airport without me, i could not face the fears that had built up in me during the weeks wait, the hideous stories i had heard about all manner of nasties waiting for me on the ice, culminating in our aborted flight to barneo where we were turned back just before landing as the arctic ocean runway had cracked.

I waved the group good bye and went to pack. but following two calls, the advice of Ed and two dear friends and a call from the team i pulled myself together and went to join them at the airport. i am not ashamed to say i was bricking it, but for the support of the team i would not have gone and would therefore have missed one of the most incredible times of my life. lesson one there is nothing to fear but fear itself........

we did! it we did it! we did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi I am back in longyaerbarn we did it the team got to the north pole and back !! absoloutly incredibly amazing i truly can't believe it i am so happy so so happy we had amazing weather it was an average of -25/30 but you get used to it cobalt blue skies and sun little wind we covered over 100 kms in 5 days unbeleivable we were truly utterly taken care of by powers much much more powerful than us i am beyond happy beyond thrilled beyond anything to be honest. i have skiied to the north pole unbeleivable but true!!!! the team were brilliant alan chambers our guide totally the best a polar legend, jeremy gane who organised it all was as ever utterly brilliant at arranging it all, (call him at charity challenge he will arrange any adventure you wish!) i will write a little resume later at the airport but thank you for your support i am the happiest man on earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have been to the top of the world i have stood on the north pole its the best feeling ever ever ever, amazing fantastic yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drama

last night we were told the runway had split at Barneo and we were going to have to stay at the north pole for another two nights before being collected... sleepless nights...

luckily however we were picked up this morning, the runway seems to now be fixed (??!) and we're due to leave in 50 mins, hopefully heading home! more to follow...

HE'S THERE...HOORAY!

No sooner said than done I've just had a call, they've made it, Johnny is at the North Pole, how fantastic is that! They are camping overnight before flying back to the main camp tomorrow. No more details apart from the ice is cracking really badly... No doubt there will be some stories to tell...

Will update again tomorrow as soon as I have more news but WELL DONE JOHNNY! So very proud of you! Hurry back safely!

lol Katie xxxx

he's nearly there...

Johnny rang this morning to say he was only about 14 kms away...they've had amazing weather and able to make fantastic progress AND if all went well they were hoping they might make it sooner rather than later...

Katie

Hanging around part two (day 8)

unbelievable... there was a chance we might fly today this morning but there is, believe it or not, a north pole marathon, 40 "Runners" are due to run at barneo. they all arrived a few days ago the run was supposed to be run on Wednesday but with the delays they were stuck along with us. the long and short of it we have been bounced off the plane by them, we were first in the queue, they left this morning in a hurry and we are still here, so guess what we are still waiting..... 8 days.............. maybe tonight?alan is doing his best.

Hanging around

Golly gee, this is getting agonising, as i have alluded to in past blogs i am pretty nervous about this trip. i am in the best hands possible no concerns there, its the unknowns which prey on my mind and there are potentially many. but worries are magnified by the waiting. we thought we might go tomorrow, at lunchtime we were told to be ready at 8pm we were, then wait, more news at 9 pm, none wait until 10 pm none then at 1030 pm no the flight isn't going. no criticism at all of the russian at barneo and here, that team are doing their very best but they simply won't let us go up to barneo unless its a 100% safe and it plainly potentially still isn't. i guess you have seen the huge crack a cross the runway which stopped us getting up yesterday, in the papers? they are sending the plane up with no passengers on a test and probably to bring prince harry back.. tomorrow at 10am we will have another update and we may head off tomorrow but our issue is we have been here waiting over a week and time is running out the window to get to the pole is short and barneo closes at the end of april as the sea takes over again and the ice melts.

Nightmare!

We boarded the plane took off and we were on our way hugely excited and extremely nervous in equal measure, crammed into this russian jet laden with 20 people and all our gear, people in seats and others perched on top of the kit piled up behind a huge net. over two hours into our flight 20 minutes before we landed on the frozen arctic ocean on an ice runway carved out of the frozen ocean we had to turn back, a huge crack had appeared on the runway and had we landed (as is wrongly reported on the internet apparantly) we would all be at the bottom of the arctic ocean. so i thank god that we didn't land but none the less it is bitterly disappointing.
we now have to wait at longyearbarn to see if they can fix/move the runway. of course there are people up there whose only way back from a frozen ocean is by this flight, three flights went up ahead of us, they are effectively stranded until the runway is repaired (including prince harry)
without sounding all mawkish or a bit of a nit, this is what adventure is all about, highs and lows and potential significant risk. but i do think as travellers we have a certain amount of hubris to think we can just rock up 700 or so miles from the mainland and land in one of the most inhospitable hugely un predictable remote wastelands and head towards the pole without risk in many many different guises. the ice is unpredictable, highly unpredictable we are skiing on a frozen ocean after all and ice melts even up there.
any way it is clear our time window is running out we defo won't get up there for two more days at the earliest and even that is highly uncertain,
the one thing though, i can guarantee, the russians who run camp barneo (and who i see very unfairly criticised by one very high profile group who are currently on the ices blog a totally unjustified criticism which exemplifies the hubris and arrogance referred to above..... grrr makes me very angry!) are the loveliest most thoughtful, organised team you could imagine their paramount concern is for our safety and they as well as our guides alan and mickael and the legendary jeremy gane who arranged all of this, as far is possible manage some of the many risks we face so don't worry we are in very safe hands and i will not do anything at all i don't feel comfortable with.
this type of trip doesn't come naturally to me i have to say and i forget how nervous i get but the adventure comes in many parts broken down into preparation and execution, i just seem to frequently find the execution part is thwarted by unseen circumstances!
any way otherwise all good stunning day here, the team are nursing sensational hangovers but, dear reader, surprisingly not me... it was a beautiful clear night and i walked back to our hostel at midnight surrounded by snowy mountains on the clearest crispest lightest most beautif

ul midnight walk you could possibly imagine, grateful to many for the fact i wasn't at the bottom of the arctic ocean!

OK, I am off!

See Y'all soon! I'm logging off, your thoughts and support of this insane eNdeavour mean everything to me send positive vibes and pray for good weather, and a safe return!! Hopefully katie will keep the blog updated as she gets news. we will call in every night but not sure news will get to London quickly.
all my love Johnny B XXXXXXXX

The lucky hat

Ed will hate this pic...... but this is my lucky hat bought up here hasn't left my head since I got it which will come attached to my head on top of all the other hats balaclavas etc hopefully to the NP.

Departure up date

well it looks like we are leaving to be at the airport for 2.15 and hoping to take off at 4 or 5 pm eeeeek! see yah xxxxx

the extraordinary trips people are doing

our trip although hideously daunting, and that expression isn't for effect, i am both daunted and quite nervous i have to say, pales into insignificance in comparison to what other people are doing. for example richard parks a welsh guy is climbing all seven summits, and going to the north and south pole in 7 months, when, if he makes it to the pole, he goes straight from here to kathmandu to attempt everest and on he will go until he does the lot. an ozzie guy is starting from the north pole traversing around to canada in 40 days then 2 marathons a day to run all the way to chile to then go to the south pole in the autumn of this year. the walking wounded team are going further than us and are already up there. they left in a mad rush the day before yesterday, they were the first to go, head of the queue. we are in a back log, a week long back log of groups going up basically in the order we all arrived.

negative/positive drift

a little geography lesson. one of the many hurdles, weather, breaking ice, cold etc that we have to contend with is negative drift, this is where the tide pushes the ice away from the pole, unfortunately this is currently what is happening, barneo, which they started building a week ago is now 9 miles south of where it started, so we can have a situation where we ski say 10 miles (that would be a good day) go to sleep and have moved back some of those miles which wouldn't be great for morale.
of course there is a much more attractive possibility and that is positive drift which will push us towards the pole so please pray for that!

Sledge/possible departure

Here is a pic of my sledge all packed up and ready to go! Its sitting at the hangar waiting to be loaded on the plane. Its called johnny b good, the sledge that is not the plane. it is alarmingly heavy but hopefully will slide along nicely. chubbah thanks for your message, in fact thanks everyone for messages. but chubbah, no polar bears and no father christmas yet but i certainly wouldn't mind a lift in his deluxe sledge!
we are due to leave this afternoon at about 3 or 4 but yesterdays flight didn't go and was delayed to this morning and it still hasn't gone this morning so we will wait and see what happens. if you stop hearing from me you know i have gone and then katie is in charge of updating the blog. but our timing is looking ever more precarious we have been here for nearly a week and our contingency days have gone so we really have to get up there, but impatience is useless, there is nothing i can do about the weather and the logistical nightmare of actually getting to barneo.

Communication

Once I get up there I have a sat phone with me i understand that you can send texts to me on this phone. it doesn't cost any more than a mobile cost. its not 100% reliable apparantly but the number from thursday hopefully is, 00 (or +) 881632568367.

news

it looks like we will head up to the ice on wednesday at some stage weather permitting. we go up in an antonov cargo plane (Russian) i think it might have seats but not sure! Its engines are on top of the wings and its designed on land on ice, lucky that........ we pile ourselves our sledges or pulks as they are professionally known on to the plane and fly for three hours up to barneo the ice camp, no in flight movie, seats or cocktails how will i manage? we have started packing up our sledges we put our own clothes food and stuff in individual water proof bags and load them up, then I have a tent, fuel, a stove and a shovel not sure how much it weighs but it felt heavy today during our practice run, it is not like pulling a tyre really not! its quite different a bit more jerky.
the gear we have is really really brilliant very warm and tons of it. we can't expose any skin at all up there or we risk frostbite.
we had a ski today for 15 kms which went well the others then descended into an ice cave which I didn't fancy. did another tent erection practice we are getting good!
prince harry leaves this evening for barneo they have been delayed nearly a week. I spotted him yesterday.
thanks for following! will update in the morning.

Food!

Hey!!! I have seventeen followers on my blog hoorrayy!! hi alfie, chubbah, albert! and the loyal groan ups it makes such a difference honestly!!!
here is a photo of my daily rations ...just add water which we have to boil from the snow. i will mkae sure not to boil yellow snow.

polar bears and ski doos

alan chambers our guide photographed on this blog with gun has to carry a gun when we sally forth out of town on skis in case we get attacked by a polar bear its a big risk here, the other one is getting hit by people on skidoos which are really just snowy jet skis, some are driven sedately by groups and other really souped up ones hurtle past, it looks quite fun. Its pretty much the best way to get around here in Nybyen where we are staying on spitsbergen.

ski practice.

we had a ski up the longyearbarn glacier yesterday which was great, its beutifull up here as you can see from the photo in the last blog. we go on skinny cross country skis and had a bit of down hill on the way back which caused chaos as skinny skis are really not great for down hill! no injuries except to pride i think.
morale is good just a bit dull waiting and its a bit depressing looking at the weather and just praying we don't get a spell of this up there!

Longyearbarn part 2.

Very stormy indeed today. we were supposed to be going on a 8 hour ski up to some ice caves but its too cold and windy. in these conditions en route to np we would hole up in our tents for the storm, its 24 hour day light so we can go ski day or night, we practiced putting the tents up in the wind which was quite hilarious if it wasn't quite so serious!! they are really impressive large and quite easy to put up. any way we managed well. met the russian guide mikael yesterday quite a dude, he has a siberian boxer with him who he is guiding whose first words were on meeting bonita imagine heavy russian accent, "girl, girl too dangerous to take girl to north pole" he was still not convinced when we told him she had summitted everest! he looks very like a siberian boxer and i suspect may behave like one too.
its still a waiting game we may go on wednesday but really don't know. the photo is off longyearbarn from above the town.

Barneo, The Ice.

Barneo is our penultimate destination before the north pole, its a camp, set up by Russians as a research station. It is built at the end of march and taken down at the end of april as the ice breaks up. they fly the camp up and parachute it all out and build it they then parachute a bulldozer to make a runway on the ice. there has been a problem this year, the weather has delayed everything and the camp is still not "built". as its the reception area for everyone heading to the np this has potentially caused a back log of people (there are probably five groups due to do different trips to the np in the weather window of april) waiting to get the flight on a russian cargo plane up there, most famously prince harry team who are causing quite a stir here! The first group were supposed to leave today we were due to go up on monday. we think it may be two or three days delay here. we are staying in a sort of lodge/hostel thing and had a cross country ski today practicing.all went well. Its all pretty good although it is very very cold so that gives me something to worry about. Im chilled (ha ha) about the delay it gives more time for preparation. the other teams we have seen all look so expert and explorer ish i did think what the hell am i doing here!
will keep you posted!

Longyearbarn, Spitzbergen, Norway.

We arrived last at 1130 pm still light and minus 23! first thing i noticed everyone is so tough and macho up here no one used trolleys in the airport! The last few minutes on the plane were incredible, monachrome white mountains and frozen ocean absoloutly stunning. Longyearbarn is a harbour town with multi c0loured wooden houses weird fact it houses the world seed bank a university and the usual mode of transport is ski doo, there was a huge coal mine here and it was a whaling port many years ago. but it looks very pretty and very cold. there are five of us me lucca who i have trained with, hazel who i also trained a bit with bonita who is the youngest british girl to have summitted everest and rob who is english lives in new york and by weird coincidence used to work with a good friends of mine who i had dinner with night before i left strange but true! our guide is called alan chambers and this will be his 9th north pole trip, he has done a lot of polar stuff both north and south including in 2000 the first uk unsupported trek from canada to the north pole, he certainly inspires confidence!

Its Departure Day!

So 31st March has suddenly come around, gear packed, last hang over for some time fogging my brain I am off to Norway and then hopefully the north pole . We already have logistical problems, the temprory base that the russians build for research during april we fly too from spitzbergen is not established yet, this has been widely reported as Prince harry and his team are stuck in longyearbarn so we may have a bit of a delay to actually get to "THE ICE" but that adds to the excitement! can't really believe it actually happening....

Secret Donation

Last night at Downing Street a wonderful supporter of Louis Dundas Centre For Palliative Care and good friend of Ruth and Bruces has made a big financial pledge on the very understandable condition I actually make it to The North Pole! Superstition forbids me from actually adding it to the totals until I make it so I need even more positive vibes!!! There is a lot riding on this and if any one else wants to speculate in this way I am up for it!!!!!!!

Downing Street

Last night I felt incredibly honoured to be invited to number 10.....Great Ormond Street Hospital Palliative Care unit including Louis Dundas Centre had a small reception last night at number 10, it was a special evening, we were invited by Samantha Cameron who gave a particularly good speech folowed by equally inspirational speeches by the professor of childrens palliative care and other GOSH people, not only was it pretty amazing to be in number 10 and enter through the incredibly shiny front door and ascend the staircase with all the photos of past PMs but any doubts and worries I had about what lies ahead were dispelled by the incredible work GOSH does in managing pain in children with terminal prognosis or severe illness. I cannot begin to imagine how hideous it must be having a child who is so ill and who you can't help when they are in such pain, it is unimaginable and sadly is a fact for many families. There is absoloutly no doubt at all that The Louis Dundas Centre for Palliative Care and GOSH are making significant inroads into managing pain in children and your pennies are making it possible to achieve the massive dream of actaully being able to manage that pain, what a dream! So much inspiration coming from Louis example and of course the Camerons little boy Ivan whos courageous life has also inspired so many people and of course the countless unknown children who have gone through so much but whose courage and examples have also inspired their friends and families to aspire to this dream. Please give generously!

Training Part 2 introducing the boots!

Jeezo two and a half hours in the park today towing the tyre with Lucca really good feel pretty strong I have to say not too stiff after the pull and I am now sitting in my boots which Lucca delivered today. I am proudly told by the attached leaflet that They are warm to - 100! comforting to know my feet will be warm as the rest of me freezes solid! I am not certain they fit I think they might be a bit tight so I am clumping around the flat in them. The rest of the gear is being made in Russia by a company called BASk it is pretty impressive stuff and I should get it next week, I know the coat will make me look like cartman and some poor wolf has given up its life to line the hood and many geese have had their finest down removed to keep me warm, very kind of them.
any way as ever give generously!!!

Training

So training is a little undignified, I have to tow a tyre behind me which simulates my sledge on the ice. Tyre is attached to an elaborate harness I will try and post a photo so you can share the joke/indignity. I think my tyre is a little big but I do feel comforted that it came from a Bentley. I get very strange looks in the park I think I should have a banner saying I am not mad I am training as I am going to the north pole but that is like an oxymoron statement if there is such a thing. I have trained with Lucca and Hazel two of my four team mates, they are super fit in fact eddy and I met Lucca by chance last night as we walked Kevin, lucca was trudging around the park in the dark with his tyre, Kev widdled against it (Tyre not lucca) but he was happy that his daddy is not the only weirdo in the park! I am meeting lucca on sunday for a training session I am afraid he will see how unfit i am and its 29 days to the off.......! Please give generously!!

I'm back!

Having said i would never do another adventure again the lure of the north pole has proved irresistable as has the opportunity to raise funds for some favourite people of mine and their extraordinarily effective charities. I'm happy to take the pain but please can you support this endeavour! My part of the bargain is this, this is the big one, on skis towing a 100lb sledge slogging across one of the most unhospitable terrains on earth in highly unpredictable weather and ice conditions dodging hungry polar bears and ensuring i don't fall through the ice in temperatures of up to - 50 i will spend up to 14 days with two guides attempting to reach the north pole, all i ask in return is that you sponsor my efforts....!