Hsx Antarctica

Day 58 - location - 80.6384S 79.8064W . Weather was white out all day . Temp is -8 wind was 12knots and wind chill was -17 . My song of the day goes to Barry Rood with Hot Hot Hot by KP and the Sunshine Band.... . Well it’s certainly warmer today, went outside and had to answer a call of nature and it wasn’t cold! Well still minus 17 with the windchill but that’s warm for me now. . The forecast is for better weather tomorrow with the clouds clearing and 10knots of wind. We have just under 100km to go so that should take us around 4 hours to kite . To think it really is not long now before the end, the end of an expedition that has been 7 years in the making. The end of an expedition that will have taken 60 days to complete and the end of my ‘South Pole’. Tomorrow I should be able to say that HSX Antarctica was the expedition that enabled the First Scout in the world to ski to the South Pole and Kite ski back. . It’s all down to the weather tomorrow, as always I am at the mercy of the weather. Hopefully a clear day like we’ve had before and just a nice cruise to Union Glacier. Also hopefully the last night of dehydrated food!!! Can’t wait for that to stop!
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Day 57 (20/01/19) - location - 80.6384S 79.8064W
Weather was sunny to start with but now white out. Temp is -16 wind was 15knots and wind chill was -24.
My song of the day goes to Claire Marsh with I want to break free by Queen.
... The original plan was to kite ski back to the ALE camp at Union Glacier. But when speaking with travel safety here they advised not to kite ski the route we wants to due t extensive crevassing. Instead we decided to kite ski to Hercules Inlet. But we would have to potentially wait there for an existing twin otter flight to Hercules Inlet or near that area to pick us up.
However, another option has become available which is to use the route that the vehicles use to go from the ALE camp to the South Pole. We can use this to get on the glacier but we will be 20km south of the ALE camp. We won’t be able to kite to it as the glacier is not wide enough to tack back and forth to kite up wind 20km. We would end up in a crevasse probably!
So we will get picked up once we get on the glacier by skidoo’s! It’s further than Hercules Inlet but to get the chance to kite ski back to Union Glacier is amazing and means we won’t have to wait around for a potential flight either.
We set off today with the hopes of getting to the glacier in one big push! But as we set off after our break the weather came in and it seems that we have a bit of final irony. It’s forecasted to stay for today as well so looks like we are stuck in the tent on last time!!! Hopefully we will get there on the 22nd. Still 148.5km smashed today. As you can see in the photos it’s a complete whiteout here and it’s too dangerous to kite ski in. Stay tuned guys it’s nearly over!
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Day 56 (19/01/19) - location - 81.9733S 79.9545W
Weather was sunny all day. Wind was 30 knots and temp was -15 so wind chill was -31
My song of the day goes to Irene Thomas with C’est La Vieo by the Stereophonics
... 225.1KM or TWO DEGREES! Wow what a day of kite skiing, 9m kite out, downwind and downhill and we managed the most we have done so far and that was in 8hrs and 40mins of kiting. We were averaged 28kmph with a top speed of 45kmph at one point. We started at 1300 and finished at 0100, we normally stop for a dinner break and I had a little trip into the air which lost us some time as well!
The snow was far from perfect though. 83 as 82 where riddled with small sastrugi. Enough that it felt like I was kite skiing on a rumble strip. My knees where in agony and my shins were sore like I’d been on a 2 week ski holiday! But the grin on my face washed away all the pain as I watched the kilometres stumble by on the GPS. Hercules inlet is getting closer and closer now! The end is in sight and it felt so amazing today to be blasting along and getting out of the depths of Antarctica.
But now it’s time to rest, you can see in the picture the snow drifting like mad. I was kiting with the snow drifting up to my shins at one point. Good thing about kiting down wind is that it’s super warm, I was actually sweating at one point. Maybe it’s time for shorts?
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With just over 300km left on his epic expedition there is still time for you to get involved! A huge well done to all of the Scouts out there who've earn't their HSX Antarctica Challenge #badge & there is still time for all of you to get involved if you haven't already.
Just complete four of the challenges mentioned below - thats it; its that simple! And who knows where it could lead you #skillsforlife
www.hsxantarctica.org.uk for full details
... The Scouts Hampshire Scouts Scout Adventures Scouts magazine One Stop Scouting Ltd Hampshire Scout Youth Council Hants Scouts Present HantsScouts CreativeActivities
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Day 55 (18/01/19) - location - 83.9970S 80.1280W
Weather was sunny all day. Wind was 10 knots and temp was -20 so wind chill was -28
My song of the day goes to Hugh Doherty with Ryan Canning Solo by the Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band.
... And we’re back in the game! 121.4km smashed out! Getting out of Theils was a bit of a kerfuffle, very very light winds and soft snow meant we managed 8km in 1 hour of constant kite looping and hard grafting. But we soon got out of Theils and we’re on the run for 83 degrees.
On our east was these monster crevasses, they were monsters they must have been 50 metres in width and at least 2km long. I was over 15km away from them but I’ve never seen crevasses that big before. Crevasses are generally found on glaciated terrain, shear tension causes these slits to form that can be 1 metre deep or 2km deep! Not something you want to fall down. These ones where caused by the foundation ice stream which is flowing out to the sea ice on the coast.
We also saw the Artic trucks today who were driving back from the South Pole. A load of Chinese tourists came out and too hundreds of photos and selfies with me and @eventyraren. Felt like rockstars! I know two days ago I said not to take selfies whilst kite skiing. Well I figured out how not to hit myself and managed to get some shots!
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Day 54 (17/01/19) - location - 85.0896S 80.7776W
Weather was cloudy all day. Wind was 1knots and temp was -19 so wind chill was -19
My song of the day goes to Josh Rigby with Buck Rodgers by Feeder!
... Well what to do when your stuck in a tent with no wind to Kite ski. Get creative with food I guess! After 54 days of eating the same dehydrated breakfast, blueberry granola has gotten pretty boring. So I thought well why not try and add chunks of chocolate to it. Oh my that was a sensory overload and I’m never going back to the ways of plain blueberry now!
I also though a pack of cherry sweets as well and they were inhaled pretty quickly! Food is pretty important whilst your down here. On average I was eating between 8000-10,000 kcal a day on the journey to Pole and burning in the region of 12,000-15,000 kcal a day. That’s from the cold, the physical exertion and the recovery of all the muscles working super hard to keep you going. Whilst kiting I’m not using as much energy, it’s more concentration than anything so I’m probably burning 6000-8000 kcal a day.
Using the toilet here at Theils I’ve looked at myself on the mirror and I have lost a lot of weight compared to when I was here over 30 days ago. Good job I was almost 10kg heavier than I normally am when I started the expedition!
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get going again and make our way back to Hercules Inlet and complete this expedition!
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Day 53 (16/01/2019) - location - 85.0896S 80.7776W
Weather was white out all day. Wind was 5knots and temp was -20 so wind chill was -22
Audio book of the day goes to Hugh Harper with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
... No movement today! We’ve had variable wind conditions all day, it even was northerly winds at one point today. The visibility has also been none existent as well. Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow but the rest has also been needed.
I’d thought I’d give you 5 top tips for kite skiing whilst I’ve had some time to think down here and learnt a lot from experience (mainly falling over).
1️⃣ Have your ski boots in walk mode - the plastic boots are super cold in these Polar conditions. So having them in ski mode actually cuts off vital blood supply to your toes, in walk mode a lot more blood gets to them. The trade of is control of the skis but you get used to it!
2️⃣ Invest in good ski goggles - kite skiing into the sun all day can be awful. If I wasn’t kindly sponsored my Julbo goggles I would probably have to wear sunglasses under my goggles! Luckily my Chameleon goggles have transition lenses in them so when we go in the tent it’s not like I’m in total darkness.
3️⃣ Snow plough is your best friend - unless your French don’t bother doing a parallel turn. Snow Plough is just as cool, plus your flying a kite you look cool so you can get away with it!
4️⃣ Invest in good gloves - again Rab gave me there guide gloves and alliance mitt. The latter being super warm for when we were a lot higher up! We have to have our hands on the bar at all times and you loose circulation pretty quick but these bad boys keep your hands super warm.
5️⃣ Don’t try and take selfies - from plenty of experience this does not go well!
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Day 52 - location - 85.0896S 80.7776W
Weather was sunny all day. Wind was 15 to 5knots and temp was -14 so wind chill was -20
Song of the day goes to Levi Sadler with Fuel by Metallica.
... I wish I had never said a ‘mere 68km’ yesterday. That statement came back to bite me. How foolish I was, the wind had very different plans for us today. Started off with a strong 15knot katabatic wind and we had the 9m kite out. All was good for about 30mins and then it died down to a 10knot wind. Okay we thought let’s get out the 12m kite and we were cruising on that quite happily for an hour and a bit.
I then saw a monster downhill coming, I had remember this on the way to Pole and was psyching myself up for full de-power on the kite and good old snow plough to control my speed. The hill was so big that the wind actually blew over the top and was hitting the small uphill on the other side! So much so that the wind died completely and I had to relaunch that 12m about 15 times just to get to the windy section. Then the wind died against o about 5knots. I had to repack the 12m kite. Walk back and forth along the 65 metre lines of the 15m kite, which you can see in the photo is a huge distance to go back and forth and then we used that to scrape our way to Theils.
Never ever again will I say a ‘mere’ distance to kite again! Still the scenery was stunning. Never have I see Halos around the sun like I did today, it was there all the time and as frustrated as I got, that view was priceless. Always look on the bright side of life eh! And now we are halfway to Hercules Inlet! Starting to feel like the expedition is getting closer to finishing now!
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Day 51 (14/01/2019) - location - 85. 7019S 81.4125W
Weather was sunny all day. Wind was 12knots and temp was -18 so wind chill was -27
Song of the day goes to Caoimhe Connor with Lets Go Fly a kite by Mary Poppins!
... Well what a day! 145.1km BOOM! But my legs are shaking and hurting now. It didn’t matter at the time though as we were out of Sastrugi and heading down the hills towards theils. The kilometres just passed us by. We tore down the hills and swiftly made our way back up the hills on the other side but we were constantly descending. We are now at 1500m above sea level, I feel like I can swim in the oxygen down here!
After our stop half way through the day, we pitch the tent and eat dinner and have a good rest before kiting again, we saw something. It started off as a small ridge of black bumps. Within minutes it was getting bigger and bigger. It was the Theils Mountains, they looked massive with the sun shining on them. On the way to Pole they were always in the shade but kiting this late meant they were lit up by the sun. Honestly flying the The Outward Bound Trust UK kite and seeing them on the horizon was truly majestic. Something I will never ever forget and I was telling myself to soak this up. I’ll never get to see this again.
It’s crazy to think it took days for those mountains to disappear and within a couple of hours they had turned from a tiny blip to these soaring peaks. Tomorrow we will head to a Theils and have a bit of a rest there. A mere 68km of kiting tomorrow but some big downhills between us and Theils. Should be fun!
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No wind in Antarctica today for Joe yet on Day 51 so why not head over to the website and see what the HSX Antarctica Scouts Challenge Badge is all about.
Fingers crossed for wind later & over night
Who has already earn’t there’s?

Day 50 (13/01/2019) - live location - 86.9973S 81.7505W
Weather was sunny day, temp was - 21 wind was 18knots and windchill is - 30
Song of the day goes to Paul Thomas with Traffic by the Sterophonics!
... A day of two contrast. This morning we entered back into Sastrugi national park, I’ve been dreading this since I went through it on the way to the Pole. Imagine trying to fly a kite, drag a pulk and ski all at the same time! Well this morning it was almost too difficult for me, I was all over the place. I went airborne a couple of times and crashed equally the same amount of times. Battered and bruised and trying to get out of the sastrugi was hard work. I felt like it would take days to get out of it and I was starting to feel that I wouldn’t be able to kite in the wind strength we had.
After 5hrs and 30 minutes we had done 50km. We stopped for some food and a break in the tent and I was feeling pretty demoralised. But after some useful tips from Christian I was determined to ski better on the second stint! We hit more sastrugi, kite skied down huge downhill sections that felt like red runs and climbed back up big hills on the other side. I was concentrated though and my brain felt like it had 110% attentional focus on just kiting.
In 3hrs 20 we managed 50.7km with me in front leading the whole leg, we didn’t stop at all just kept skiing. We are now nearly out of sastrugi national Park! Amazing what a bit of determination and focus can do! Today was defiantly the hardest day I’ve had in terms of being right on the edge of what I can do. But I came out of it on top! 100.7km done today, tomorrow is a little more sastrugi but more downhill to come!
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Joe is currently somewhere scooting across Antarctica with his kite..... 🎿 updates to follow #technicaldifficulties but why not check out his website and find out what the #HSX2018 The Scouts Challenge Badge is all about 🇦🇶 and how to earn yours #Scouting #antarctica #kiteskiing

Day 48 - Live location - 88.9996S 81.1930W
Weather was misty all day, temp was - 27 wind was 08knots and windchill is - 33
111km in one big push yesterday! WHOOP WHOOP! We skied a whole degree and we are now at 88 degrees South which is amazing. We left at 1400 yesterday and then skied till 1920, had some dinner and then skied a bit more till 0100 and we were at 88 degrees!
... The wind was just strong enough for the 15m kite, we had to work it a lot as we were going downwind and we had to loop the kite to generate more power to go forward. It was absolutely incredible though to move at speed though and get out of the last degree!
That feeling of freedom and being able to move at 20kmph was just amazing, even though I was super knackered by the end of the day I had a massive smile on my face!
My downwind foot got super cold though so we both had to stop for a couple of minutes hold the kite up high and just shake our feet to get some blood down in there! Just one of the differences when kite skiing!
We need to make the most of this wind we have got so we are going to do another big stint today and try and get into Sastrugi national Park. This will be the most difficult part of the kiting, skiing over huge lumps of snow and ice will be tricky and we will need to take it slow!
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Day 47 - live location - 90.0000S
Weather was misty all day, temp was - 25 wind was 03knots and windchill is - 27
So we couldn’t leave today, unfortunately there was a lack of wind but we are hoping for better wind tomorrow! We need about 5-10 knots of winds to get our biggest kite up in the air and move us and our heavy sleds!
... The added problem we have is that the snow at 89 and 88 degrees has a lot of friction in it so that’s why we need that wind speed. I’m softer snow we could probably love in 4-6 knots of wind! . I have three kites that were very kindly lent to me by Leo Houlding who is also an The Outward Bound Trust UK Trustee. They include a 15m Chrono, a 12m Hyperlink (Outward Bound branded) and a 9m Frenzy. That covers us from wind speeds of 5-30 knots of wind. The higher the wind, the smaller kite we use to fly otherwise we could be over powered which means you start going airborne which is pretty dangerous!
I am so so looking forward to getting going and most of all getting the #Outwardbound kite in the air! What a moment that will be!
Our kite pulks are all packed now, we are well rested and I’ve been trying to eat as much as possible for the next part of the expedition. There will be no routine like our ski to Pole. We will react to the wind and ski when it is there. This could mean 10-20 hours of kiting a day and we will sleep when there is no wind. It’s going to be a much shorter trip so we can afford to loose out on some sleep. Just all of you at home keep your fingers crossed for some wind!
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Amazing response from everyone over the last few days #thankyou Check out hsxantarctica.org.uk for today’s blog The Outward Bound Trust UK The Scouts Neoteryx Box-it Rathbones Investment Management Rab

Day 45 - live location - 90.0000S
Weather was sunny all day, temp was - 32 wind was 02knots and windchill is - 34
My song of the day goes to Ste Carey as he sent this to me first (although a lot of people said it) I would walk 500 miles by the Proclaimers!
... IM AT THE SOUTH POLE!!! 914KM over 45 days of blood, sweat and tears and I am at the bottom of the planet! I can’t believe, it I cried as soon as I got to the Pole. This hard been a dream, a project, a massive rollercoaster for over 7 years now. There are not enough words to describe how I feel right now that I am stood at the South Pole after all those hard times.
I want to thank so many people for believing in me, supporting me and giving me this opportunity that very few people on this planet get. First and foremost thank you to my girlfriend Jo Thomas for being there for me every step of the way, I couldn’t have done it without your support before and during the expedition! I love you so much for that ❤️. To my Mum, Dad, Sister and Grand Parents you’ve shaped me from the very start into the person I am now! But also to my Welsh and Irish families who have never doubted me and always told me to keep going and never to give up! You all played a part in this success whether you were aware of it or not!
To Matt Prince who’s been a part of the Antarctica team from the start and is the mastermind behind all the social media! To Jamie Kelly and Russ Parke for being the cornerstones of HSX and have mentored me from the start with this expedition!
A humongous thanks needs to go to The Outward Bound Trust UK. I have never worked for a company that is so supportive. They have been the catalyst that has enabled this expedition to happen! Without the support of its Trustees and the Trust itself, this simply would not have been possible. I will be forever be indebted to the Trust and to fly the Outward abound flag down here was truly emotional for me. A moment I will never forget. A moment I will not let anyone forget.
Without the support of Hugh Harper (my unofficial uncle) I would have not have the funds to kite ski back at all. He came in just when I needed it and gave so much of his time to helping me ma
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Day 43 - live location - 89.6707S 76.2517W
Weather was sunny intervals all day, temp was - 23 wind was 02 knots and windchill is - 24
My song of the day goes to Ian Furlong with immunity by Jon Hopkins
... It’s hard to get across how vast Antarctica is, it goes on and on and on. A never ending sea of white as far as the eye can see. My brain really struggles sometimes to understand that I am getting closer to the South Pole. It’s not like climbing a mountain where the top is the top and you can see it’s getting closer. Out here it all looks exactly the same, nothing is on the horizon except for more snow!
The only thing I could compare it to is being out at sea and not being able to see land. Antarctica is just huge frozen sea in my mind. I feel so small out here. I managed to get the drone out yesterday and thanks to Christian he got some amazing shots of me from the sky. It really does make you feel super small when you look at the images.
I’m trying to look for the South Pole on the horizon but I won’t see it till it’s about 15km away. We are aiming to get to the Pole for midday on Monday. The snow has been super difficult to get high milage done, we are don’t want to ski into Pole super late on Sunday. I’d much rather cherish that moment with some energy in my body and not be completely exhausted! And today we managed another 24.0km.
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Day 42 - live location - 89.4558S 79.1669W
Weather was sunny intervals all day, temp was -27 wind was 1 knots and windchill is - 27
My song of the day goes to Chris Hoyle with Superstition by Stevie Wonder!
... Some times to get to your highest highs you have to go through your lowest lows. 24th of December was my lowest low. Since we left Theils my Achilles on my left foot had been playing up. When I ran the Jurassic triple a couple of years ago it got really sore, when I went to a doctor he reckoned I tore it slightly. But rested it and then I ran marathons again and it never hurt again.
The pain was getting worse every day however. I would take my skis off at the end of the day and I would hobble around camp. My heels would swell up and I would get throbbing pains all night. Pretty soon I was eating Ibuprofen and paracetamol all day. The pain was being caused by heel lift from my boots. As we did so many hills my heel had to go so low down compared to walking up a heel it was tearing the Achilles again.
That day on the 24th we started our first leg up a monster hill. Within 10 minutes I was yelpling like a dog when you accidentally stand on their foot every time I lifted my heel. Within 20 minutes I was crying. I’ve never cried in pain like that. I kept going till I got to the others who looked extremely worried. This was my proudest moment, I don’t get proud often but in that moment I decided that I would do something and not let this end my expedition. After 5 minutes of self talk and looking around the problem we made a heel riser for my ski. Within 10 minutes of skiing I was in a lot less pain and I knew that this would help for the rest of expedition and it has my heel is super now!
Pretty soon I’ll be at the Pole, going through my lowest low will mean getting there will be my highest high. If you don’t go through your lows then it might not feel like a big achievement. To get through those lows you’ve got to look at what you can do to get out of them and not continue to be in them.
24.0km done today, the Pole is getting closer!
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