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Christmas is the time for good, unhealthy food, but here’s the problem – how do you balance good Christmas food with an attempted healthy diet? Mince pies may contain fruit, but I don’t think that’s a very good excuse! While I just about break even by burning off what I eat during exercise and training, that’s no excuse for eating rubbish!
Just before I go out to the Arctic, I’ll have to put on some weight, as I’ll burn off a significant proportion of my fat reserves by just being in a cold environment. A friend (worried about her waistline) asked me yesterday for three quick tips on what I plan to do about the problem this Christmas. So, I’ve adapted some words of wisdom from fitness coach Vikki Scovell:
- Keep to your exercise schedule; it’s tempting to let the dark nights, cold mornings, endless chores, shopping and preparation get in the way of your usual exercise routine.
- Mark in your diary the times that you will be exercising and stick to them as if they are an appointment. Anyway, for once the gym will be empty and you can stay on the running machine for as long as you like!
- Stick to your healthy-eating plan; just because the supermarket shelves are groaning under the weight of Belgian chocolates doesn’t mean you have to buy them, and keep your cupboards full of healthy things – this is the best time of the year for fresh citrus fruits.
Firstly, a quick apology for the recent lack of updates – the last few weeks have been inordinately hectic. I’m now in residence at university, making spaghetti in the microwave, rushing to and from lectures and still trying to prepare for my polar expedition at the same time.
I thought I was busy back at home! Now I have to go shopping, do the laundry, wade my way through the washing up and go to lectures; my free time just seems to evaporate. I’ve certainly learnt a lot recently: how much I can save buying own-label brands from the supermarket; how quickly I can iron a shirt; and how late I can afford to get up and still make my lectures in time. And, of course, I learn things in lectures, too…
In the Arctic I won’t have to worry about lectures, work, or the electricity bill; it will just be hundreds of miles of ice and me. Ironically, when I’m most alone is when I’m most reliant on the team supporting me – but more about that next time.
“We are unable to announce the weather. We depend on weather reports from the airport, which is currently closed due to the weather. Whether we will be able to give you a weather report tomorrow depends on the weather.”
The above arrived in my inbox yesterday, in response to a rather unusual quest…
I’m busy planning a training expedition to test out a new type of ski which is made of ultra-light carbon composite. We’ve spent months working with experts to develop these, and like most of my equipment, we’re keen to push boundaries, and explore cutting-edge materials and technologies. They’re also a really cool shade of midnight blue.
My support team and I spent most of yesterday scouring satellite photos, looking for snow and ice. It’s not that hard – sea and land show up in black and varying shades of dark grey respectively, and snow and ice are the white patches. At least that’s what I thought. I enthusiastically earmarked several areas of ‘snow’, only to find out that they were, in fact, clouds. You can try your luck with these clearer images. Our logistics team have decades’ experience managing expeditions in cold and snowy places, but due to climatic change, are now struggling to find the snow! So, we resorted to the more scientific method of emailing local weather services, and asking them about the weather and/or snow cover. Until I got the email quoted above.
Maybe I’ll plan my next expedition somewhere that has slightly better weather forecasting services – NASA has discovered ice on Mars and even what may be a glacier. The discovery has been played-down, as it’s apparently not a very big glacier. Well, I only need a small patch of ice to pitch my tent on…
In response to some previous blog comments, here is the day-to-day business that goes into preparing a record-breaking polar expedition. You won't believe it, but today's a quiet day!
06:30 Training run, an hour in the frigid sunrise.
07:30 Shower. Breakfast (six Weetabix), reading yesterday's paper. Interrupted by phone call from Moscow.
07:56 Bidding war on eBay. Now the proud owner of an all-terrain 4x4 remote-control car.
09:00 Meeting in Central London, working (pro bono!) on a DVD to be sent to all schools exploring qualifications and careers choices for young people. Lots of willpower required to resist temptation of chocolate biscuits.
En-route home. Writing sponsorship proposals, interrupted by several more phone calls.
11:00 My expeditions manager and I discuss exciting blobs on maps and satellite images, trying to plan a route. For a change, someone else to answer the phone.
12:30 Lunch, while wading through my inbox (68 emails) and the post.
13:00 Attempting to resolve a website technical issue. 13:05 Both website and I are thoroughly confused. 13:10 Forced to call technical support. Apparently it's raining in Mumbai.
13:30 A spot of domesticity.
14:00 Studying - I am a student, after all! More phone calls interrupt.
15:00 Equipment testing - are my skis strong enough to bridge a crevasse?
15:30 More equipment testing. Is this GPS unit really waterproof, bombproof, idiot-proof? It's definitely idiot-proof, because I can use it! It's only 4332.92 km to the North Pole from here.
16:30 More training - this time, two hours hurtling around the neighbourhood at breakneck speed. Seven missed calls.
18:30 Dinner and catch-up with friends. Interrupted by phone call from USA.
20:30 Writing more sponsorship proposals, emails, and this blog.
22:00 Check the weather forecast and diary for tomorrow. Turn off phone.
Déjà vu, but lacking slightly…It was pointed out that all my previous blog posts have been about me (although that is the idea, rather than just plain selfishness). So for a change, this week’s blog’s about someone else.
Lewis Gordon Pugh (of swimming at the North Pole fame) was attempting to kayak to the North Pole from the Svalbard archipelago, but has had to stop prematurely at just 81°N. The Arctic is a frozen ocean (no land), and Lewis was travelling through cracks in the sea-ice, which are becoming increasingly common as climate change causes the ice sheet to break up. Ten years ago, this ice sheet was solid, all the way from Canada to Siberia, but it’s no longer solid nor does it reach both continents.
This story is even more poignant as, just one year ago I was standing at the exact same point as Lewis is now– a thousand miles north of the Arctic Circle, on the Arctic ice sheet. The difference is that last year the ice beneath my feet was three metres thick – Lewis has encountered ice just one metre thick.
Thinning ice is a huge problem for me next year – I’m fully expecting to encounter these stretches of open water, and even have a special ‘drysuit’ to swim across them. If I told explorers of a hundred years ago that I needed to swim part of the way to the North Pole, they would have thought I’d lost the plot completely!
I spent this afternoon in search of blackberries (the kind you eat, that is), although after an hour wrestling with brambles at the bottom of our garden I had more cuts and scratches than fruit to show for my efforts! My mum then worked her magic in the kitchen and they somehow turned into gorgeous deserts, which are something I will definitely miss when I move to university next month – I’ve got to master the kitchen myself. Well, the tin-opener at least.
I spent most of yesterday talking to a top nutritionist about food for the North Pole. Food might be a bit of an overstatement actually, as what came out of the packet looked more like dried compost than anything actually edible. I have sampled similar fare on previous Arctic expeditions, it’s dry and horrible and when you add hot water it’s still dry and horrible. I’ll have to eat 8,000 calories each day though (equivalent to about 11 full-size meals) just to survive, and half of that will be pure fat – lovely. The good news is that at -30C, food is so deep-frozen that it has neither taste nor texture. As long as you don’t break your teeth on it, that is…
Speaking of which, I’ve got to visit the dentist next week, so should I tell him I’m going to the North Pole? If he has any sense, he’ll use it as an excuse to charge me extra: the amount it will cost me for a check-up at the dentist would buy five meals at uni, but would those meals be any good if all my teeth have fallen out? With all this talk of eating, I think I’ll find it hard to keep my mouth open for 10 minutes without stopping to put food in.
As of yesterday, I am now legally allowed to drive, so stay off the roads, people! I’ve dutifully torn up my L-plates and have replaced my green licence with one in a rather fetching shade of pink.
On the subject of licensing, I have to take a rifle to the North Pole, and so need a licence for that too. The police (who issue firearms licences) had never seen “Going to the North Pole” on an application form before, so it caused considerable confusion. This is understandable, as they’re used to shooting club members; members of shooting clubs that is, not shooting members of clubs! They have to find someone to corroborate my story. If I was a member of shooting club they could just contact someone else at the club, but who can they contact at the North Pole? This is actually a real problem: the North Pole – and the entire Arctic ice sheet – is uninhabited. I was tempted to suggest Santa.
On another note, I was lucky enough to hear the Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow speak a few weeks ago. Apart from being in awe of his matching socks and tie, I liked an answer he gave that was sparked by a question about the war on terror. He pointed out that we’ve already lost the war on drugs and the war on illegal guns, and now we’re fighting another noun: terror.
The moral of the story is clear: don’t fight nouns. So, one noun I’ll leave be is “bureaucracy”; after all, it’s hard to fight a war without a firearms licence…
Everyone is being bombarded by Olympics coverage from Beijing at the moment. The TV schedules have been annexed to make way for all the coverage: the highlights, the re-runs, the repeats… and then more highlights just in case you missed the first ones. My train driver announced the start of the windsurfing yesterday (very useful), and you have to duck under flags to get into the local library; just a shame they’re Japanese flags! Don’t get me wrong, the Olympics are great, but I’m currently in danger of needing an inoculation against Olympic fever.
So, I’m going to attempt to make this blog a Beijing-free zone. Despite this first paragraph… On my training reps round my local park this morning, there were an inordinate numbers of joggers (inspired by the Olympics?), and even a group attempting Tai Chi (definitely inspired by the Olympics). Hmm, no escaping the Olympics then. Admittedly, they have slightly inspired me to increase my training for the North Pole. Watching the highlights and seeing people breaking world records makes me want to try! Time will tell.
The title of this week’s blog is borrowed from British wheelchair racer Tanni Grey-Thompson’s autobiography, aptly titled “Seize the Day”. It means that you should set you sights high, even if you hit the floor, and if you suffer setbacks, you should set yourself new goals, and start trying again. Be that at the Olympics or otherwise…
So, how exactly do you go about preparing to trek solo to the North Pole? In addition to all the physical training, logistics, fundraising and kit design, one of the most crucial elements is survival. How can I cope on my own with only a limited caché of supplies and no immediate help if anything goes wrong? By way of finding out, this blog is coming live from a remote, wet and windy hilltop, where I’m currently on a training expedition.
I don’t enjoy wading through peat bogs and rivers any more than the next person, but the only way to find out what you’re really capable of is to push yourself to the limits. Trying to send back a blog from the middle of nowhere is a challenge in itself, and provides a brilliant excuse to test out some high-tech satellite equipment I’ll be taking to the North Pole.
Technology is what makes this expedition so special; I’ll be sending back live blogs, photos and videos every single day from the North Pole. Transmitting this blog from an isolated hilltop via a satellite makes me feel a bit like James Bond; if only Q could invent some gadget to stop the rain. In fact, a beautiful blonde swooping out of the sky in a helicopter wouldn’t go amiss, either… By the way, good luck for next Thursday everyone. And if you ask me, there’s no point worrying about the results now: it’s too late to change them!
My name’s Nathan Allen, and I live in south London. In April next year, I will attempt to become the youngest person to trek solo to the North Pole; an epic challenge described as 10 times harder than climbing Everest. Plus, if all the training, preparation, research, fundraising and logistics for a polar expedition wasn’t enough, I’m currently studying for my A-levels (chemistry, physics, maths and further maths – ouch!), and have an offer from Cambridge for September.
Why am I taking on this challenge? On my first expedition to the Arctic, I was bitten by a bug, and as soon as I set foot on the plane home, I knew that I would return. I’ve been on this planet for 18 years, and have relatively little to show for it: a few GCSEs, a small collection of sport silverware and some really embarrassing photos from when I was younger. I’m not an athlete, explorer, or hero; I just wanted to do something to break the mould. I am also going to be raising awareness of climate change and raising money for charity.
I’ll be updating this blog every week, keeping you updated about my progress onwards and upwards, both in education, and geographically towards the North Pole. When I’m (hopefully) en-route to the North Pole next year, I’ll also be providing daily updates about my ordeal live from the Arctic ice sheet. Have a look at my website too, www.solonorthpole.com, to find out more about the trip.
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