Walking with the Wounded--South Pole Allied Challenge

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 20 13 1:32 PM

Listen to his whole voice blog: walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/southpole2013/2013/11/20/team-glenfiddichs-duncan-slater-voice-diary/

Team Glenfiddich’s Duncan Slater Updates About Last Minute Preparations And Team Bonding
WWTW | November 20, 2013

Duncan Slater of Team Glenfiddich updates us from Cape Town as the Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge Team’s find themselves held up due to bad weather conditions down in Antarctica.

The teams are using the time to make last minute preparations and adjustments to their kit. They are also enjoying the chance for some team bonding, as once the teams touch ground in Antarctica they will split up into their respective teams as the race is then on to the Pole.

“We are filling our days with final kit prep, a few modifications to goggles and the rest of the kit and also a bit of team bonding.”

Duncan Slater, Team Glenfiddich Member

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 20 13 1:37 PM

Listen to his whole voice blog: walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/southpole2013/2013/11/20/inge-solheim-from-team-us-updates-us-from-south-africa/

Inge Solheim From Team Noom Coach Updates Us From South Africa
WWTW | November 20, 2013

Team Noom Coach Guide, Inge Solheim speaks about the hold up in Cape Town for the Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge start due to bad weather conditions down in Antarctica.

He talks about how the Teams have been making the most of their time in Cape Town, with the whole group taking a hike up Table Mountain yesterday to keep themselves active.

He speaks though on the growing excitement and anticipation of reaching Novo Airbase in Antarctica to get the race underway now. They hope to leave Thursday night – the flight will take around 6 hours to make the final leg of the journey.

“We are now very eager to get going and to get on the ice. Everything is packed and ready, so we are just waiting for that phone call to say that the plane is ready to leave.”

Inge Solheim, Team Noom Coach Guide

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 21 13 9:55 AM

Listen to his voice blog here: walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/southpole2013/2013/11/21/updates-from-novo-via-team-glenfiddich-guide-conrad-dickinson/

Updates From Novo via Team Glenfiddich Guide Conrad Dickinson
WWTW | November 21, 2013

The polar guide for Team Glenfiddich Conrad Dickinson sends an update after five days of hard work in Novo, Antarctica, at -15°C and 65 kilometres per hour winds, to get the fantastic Arctic Truck vehicles ready to support the teams walking to the South Pole.

The teams are planning to leave from Cape Town into Novo Airbase tomorrow morning, to join Conrad and the support team and acclimatise before the race starts.

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 21 13 10:00 AM

Listen to the full voice blog: walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/southpole2013/2013/11/21/ibi-ali-from-team-glenfiddich-talks-about-the-teams-excitement-and-nervous-anticipation/

Ibi Ali From Team Glenfiddich Talks About The Teams’ Excitement And Nervous Anticipation
WWTW | November 21, 2013

As the Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge Teams anticipate the last leg of their journey down to Novo Airbase, Team Glenfiddich’s Ibi Ali speaks from Cape Town about the excitement and nervous anticipation of touching ground in Antarctica.

“It’s slightly frustrating, just because we all obviously want to move forward and move onto Novo and start our preparation and acclimatisation.”
Ibi Ali, Team Glenfiddich Memeber

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 22 13 11:53 AM



Prince Harry and his Walking With The Wounded team are heading to Antarctica to take part in a gruelling 200 mile trek to the South Pole. Report by Anna Collinson.

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 22 13 12:34 PM

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511857/Prince-Harry-finally-able-set-Antarctica.html

Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard checks into the Antarctic flight to get to the race.

Skarsgard and Prince Harry have finally embarked on their Antarctic challenge after a 48-hour delay.

The group was forced to stay over in Cape Town this week as a storm in the south pole meant flights had to be cancelled.

This morning, Harry, a cluster of celebrities and 12 injured servicemen were given the all-clear and boarded a plane headed for Russia’s Novolazarevskaya Station, which is situated at the edge of the Antarctic continent.

Due to land later today, they will meet the US and Commonwealth teams to start the period of ‘acclimatisation’ before they set off on a 200-mile trek through treacherous conditions.

On Friday 30 November, once they are used to the altitude and freezing temperatures, the teams will start the race.

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 22 13 5:33 PM

Look what is on his head.



source: marvelandwhimsy

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 22 13 6:34 PM

Money #SouthPole2013 Teams Arrive In Antarctica — in Antarctica.

After a hold up due to adverse weather conditions down at Novo Airbase in Antarctica, our Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge teams finally departed from Cape Town early this morning, heading due South to Novo Airbase.

After a 6 hour flight, the teams arrived safely and as they disembarked their plane the team members took their first glimpse of the Antarctic and felt the cold chill of the weather.

The teams will now spend the next 3 days acclimatising to the conditions before heading to the start line at 87° South. Here, the teams are due to spend four days of further acclimatisation, before the race to the Geographic South Pole begins.

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by elledubya
Nov 23 13 3:26 PM

Virgin Money ‏@virginmoney
Audio Blog: Ivan from Team US talks about landing in Antarctica @noom @supportthewalk #SouthPole2013 ^AS

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 24 13 11:03 AM

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by elledubya
Nov 25 13 9:04 AM

www.facebook.com/walkingwiththewounded
Posted yesterday November 24

A complete #TeamNoomCoach and half of #TeamGlenfiddich (Richard, Kate and Duncan) taking their first strides on skis yesterday in Antarctica. It was grey and windy but warm, today the pressure has been dropping and it is blowing approx 35knots
but is only about 0C hence wet conditions for skiing - miserable!

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 25 13 10:11 AM

Prince Harry and the Royal Family in the South Pole

Prince Harry has joined one of three teams of wounded servicemen and women to trek to the geographic South Pole for Walking With the Wounded South Pole Allied Challenge.

The three seven-man teams from the UK, Commonwealth and USA departed London for Cape Town on Sunday 17th November to acclimatise at Novolazarevskaya Station, Antarctica. The expedition to the South Pole will begin from 87° south on 30th November, with the teams hoping to reach the geographic South Pole by 16th December.

The teams of service personnel, all of whom have physical or cognitive injuries, will represent and raise funds for military charities from the constituent nations: Soldier On (Canada); Soldier On (Australia); Soldiers to Summits (United States); and Walking With The Wounded (United Kingdom).

They will race 335km across the Antarctic Plateau. The distance will be divided into managed stages and checkpoints and each team will have an experienced polar guide and nominated mentor. Due to the hostile conditions and the nature of the injuries involved, the expedition teams will be followed by a support team, who will be on hand in case of emergencies.

Trekking around 15km to 20km per day, the teams will endure temperatures as low as -45°C and 50mph winds as they pull their pulks (custom built arctic sledges), each weighing in excess of 70kg, towards the southernmost point on the globe.

As with previous Walking With The Wounded expeditions, the South Pole Allied Challenge aims to highlight the extraordinary courage and determination of the men and women who have been wounded while serving their countries and to draw attention to the need to help in their career transition.

Before they set off, The Walking With The Wounded teams and Prince Harry met The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh at a reception at Buckingham Palace as they made their final preparations for the 200 mile expedition.

To prepare for the trek, Prince Harry and his team mates undertook a gruelling physical regime, including a training expedition to Iceland and spending a night in the MIRA Cold Chamber testing facility in Nuneaton, where they undertook exercises and camped out in freezing conditions to mimic the conditions they would face on the trek.

Prince Harry was also Patron of the Walking With The Wounded trek to the North Pole in 2011 and the Everest Expedition in 2012.

We have compiled a series of archive images from the Royal Collection Trust, which include a telegram from Shackleton to King Edward VII.

View Album (8 images)

The Royal Family and the South Pole

If successful, Prince Harry will be the first member of the Royal Family to trek to the geographic South Pole, however the Royal Family has a long-held association with the continent.

Prince Harry's grandfather The Duke of Edinburgh crossed the Antarctic Circle on New Year's Eve 1957, on board HMY Britannia. The Duke paid a visit to the memorial cross to explorer Ernest Shackleton erected in South Georgia, accompanied by veterans of both Nimrod and Terra Nova expeditions.



The Princess Royal has also visited Antarctica twice, most recently on board HMS Endurance in 2007 when she spent seven days visiting various scientific bases. On this occasion, The Princess Royal also travelled by Sno-Cat to Caboose, a local glacier, where she visited a British Antarctic Survey party undertaking mountain training.



n addition to visiting the Continent themselves, The Royal Family also has a long established tradition of supporting expeditions to The Antarctic, not least through the connection to The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) which was granted its Royal Charter under Queen Victoria in 1859, and which sponsored or supported many of the great expeditions by noted explorers such as Scott and Shackleton.

King Edward VII in particular,who was in reign during the 'heroic age' of Antarctic exploration,supported the voyages of Scott and Shackleton, who were both invited as guests to Balmoral where they presented lectures on their voyages. When Shackleton completed his Nimrod expedition to the South Pole, he sent a telegram to King Edward VII to share news of their achievements.
King George V continued the Royal Family's interest in polar exploration when he came to the throne. He met Shackleton on several occasions and presented him with flags before two of his expeditions, including his most Famous on HMS Endurance in 1914. The flag remained with the crew on Elephant Island while Shackleton embarked on his voyage to South Georgia and it then travelled with him on his rescue journeys home. In 1917, Shackleton handed back the flag to King George V, when he was invited to an audience with The King.

This history of patronage for Polar explorers continues today, with The Prince of Wales supporting Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his team with the 2012 winter challenge exploration of the Antarctic.

The Prince of Wales has also sought to address the key issue of climate change, notably addressing the British Antarctic Survey in 2008 to discuss climate change implications for business and society. The event was organised jointly by the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry (Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change) and British Antarctic Survey.

Prince Harry's brother, The Duke of Cambridge, was Patron of the 2012 Scott Amundsen race to the South Pole. This featured teams of British Service personnel racing each other across the continent to raise money for the Royal British Legion.

In 2012, the UK Government named a portion of mainland Antarctica Queen Elizabeth Land as a Diamond Jubilee Gift to The Queen.

www.princehenryofwales.org/focus3/the-royal-and-the-south-pole

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 25 13 10:24 AM

Inge Solheim, the polar guide for #‎TeamNoomCoach gets in touch from Novo, Antarctica. Listen to his inspiring words: walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/southpole2013/2013/11/24/inge-solheim-from-team-noom-coach-talks-about-what-motivates-him/

TeamNoom Coach‘s guide Inge Solheim gets in touch from Novo, Antarctica. Listen to his inspiring words.
“I’m supposed to talk about what motivates me. I don’t really know, because it changes every day. I can say that the most important thing to me is to be out here, and feel the element and experience something extraordinary with special people, very special people.”

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by star collector
Nov 25 13 4:38 PM

From ABC News--

Prince Harry's Antarctic Trek a Getaway From Brother's 'Screaming Child'
By William Denselow | ABC News Blogs – 21 minutes ago

Prince Harry and the entire Walking With The Wounded expedition have been forced to postpone the move to their second Antarctic base camp as bad weather sets in.

The three competing teams racing to the South Pole were supposed to set off today but snow storms in temperatures around -10C (14F) have forced the racers to remain at the Novolazarevskaya Station until Tuesday at the earliest.

"Ultimately we've had really rubbish weather," Prince Harry, a patron of the Walking With The Wounded charity, said speaking in a TV interview at the base camp.

The teams arrived in the Antarctic on Friday but due to the inclement weather, have been unable to take part in some of the skiing exercises designed to help the teams, largely composed of injured veterans, acclimatize to the harsh conditions.

The crews will be facing temperatures as low as -50C (-58F) but Harry joked that his brother Prince William is jealous of his 200 mile race to the Pole.

"I think he's quite jealous I managed to get away from his screaming child," Harry said.

Aside from freezing walks to and from the canteen, to kill time Harry says the U.K., U.S. and Commonwealth teams have been packing and unpacking their bags to prepare for the journey ahead.

While the Prince says he has kept his kit "really basic" and can pack up in five minutes with gloves on, "some people are taking way too many comforts." He added that the Australians are the biggest culprits by taking sticks of butter with them.

Compared to the servicemen and women he is racing with that have suffered life-changing injuries, Harry admits he has "no excuses" when it comes to completing the race. He says his military background will hold him in good stead, but his preparation has been less than ideal.

It was recommended he walk eight hours a day in the hills to prepare for the race, where they are expected to trek some 12 miles a day with 70kg sleds in the freezing cold, but work commitments meant his training was limited. On top of this, a broken toe, which Harry now describes as about 95 percent healed, further hampered his preparations.

Harry joked that he broke his toe, "trying to get out of the trip," adding that it was, "a massive fail." However, he rejected advice from his friends who suggested he go one step further and break his leg to get out of the trip.

Upon arriving in Antarctica on Friday, Harry revealed that his morale dropped to "rock bottom," but speaking today said he was concentrating on the positives. Acknowledging that the trip was "completely mad, and that "his big mouth" had got him into it, he also said that he was incredibly lucky to be a part of the project.

Harry was not the only person to be harboring concerns. According to the prince, Dominic West, star of the hit show The Wire, is also having doubts.

"I know Dominic West is thinking about the negatives but he's on the opposition so that's fine," Harry said.

Weather permitting, the teams will hope to be at the South Pole by Dec. 16.

[wanderingstar78]

Posted by Blue Butterfly
Nov 25 13 5:51 PM

Nov 25, 2013
Prince Harry: William 'Jealous' Of Polar Trek
The prince reveals his brother's thoughts on his South Pole expedition and admits that breaking his toe was a "massive fail".Prince Harry has told Sky News his brother Prince William will be jealous he is in Antarctica, because it means getting away from "a screaming child".

In his first interview from Antarctica, the Apache helicopter pilot also told how proud he was to be alongside such "extraordinary" people walking to the South Pole.

And the 29-year-old also revealed his efforts to reassure his father Prince Charles, who expressed concern ahead of his son's departure to the planet's southernmost point.

The prince revealed that his brother - who has been concentrating on his responsibilities as a new father - was envious of the ambitious trek.

Harry said: "My brother, yeah, I think he's just quite jealous that I managed to get away from a screaming child."

He said the Queen and Prince Philip had taken the time to meet his Antarctic comrades - including Norwegian adventurer Inge Solheim - before the team set off.

He said: "What do my family think of this? I think the last time I said, 'I don't think most of them know about it'.

"Obviously, I took all the guys to Buckingham Palace to meet my grandmother and grandfather, which they absolutely loved, especially Inge Solheim who was very excited, which was fantastic.

"My father was a little concerned, but I obviously tried to keep him calm and explain the North Pole was the dangerous one because we're walking on a frozen ocean whereas this time there are crevasses.

"But hopefully the guides will take us around that. Apart from frostbite you should be able to look after yourself as long as you just head south."

The South Pole Allied Challenge which hopes to raise money for injured service personnel, also aims to inspire those injured in battle, showing them what you can achieve post-injury.

Harry said: "Every single person who takes part in this challenge is extraordinary. The fact these guys have made it to this point is extraordinary and I count myself incredibly lucky to be part of it."

The fourth in line to the throne also spoke about his broken toe - calling the mishap "a massive fail" and how the other British team members rib him if he ever mentions it.

He said: "I obviously broke my toe hoping to get out of the trip, that was a massive fail on my part.

"Friends of mine said I really should have gone that step further and break a leg, but I chose not to.

"My toe is now 95%, so I'm fine and even if i mention my toe I see Duncan turn around laugh at me, mock me, so whatever setbacks I've had is irrelevant against these guys, it was always going to be."
The British, Commonwealth and US teams are due to head to the start of the race tomorrow and begin their 210-mile (337-km) race to the South Pole at the weekend.