Like walking on the moon

"It feels like I'm dreaming" - Tess Burrows (Team Southern Lights)

"The most stunning place on earth" – Hylton James (Team Due South)

The six teams taking part in the historic Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race have now left Novo, the Russian Base to commence the training phase of the race through 100 miles of hazardous Crevasse Fields.

After arriving in Antarctica on Friday, they spent the weekend acclimatizing to the conditions and preparing their equipment for the race.

They also visited the scientific base, ‘the Oasis’, a bizarre rock formation in the icy vista, and a place which feels like 'walking on the moon' according to race competitor Hylton James.

A few days before their arrival, Novo had been experiencing blizzard conditions, but the teams have since enjoyed three days of blue skies, sunny conditions and very mild temperatures at about -5 degrees centigrade.

It is predicted that these conditions will last until about the 23rd December and then turn more severe.

A few pictures from Novo are attached – Ben Fogle on the edge of a Crevasse / Team Danske Bank testing their equipment / Hylton James at the Oasis.

About the race: The Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole race is the first race to the South Pole for almost 100 years since the famous duel between Scott and Amundsen.

The training phase up the Crevasse Fields will last over Christmas, cover 100 nautical miles of some of the most extreme terrain on earth and take approximately 10 days

The race itself begins on approx 1st January 2009.

The six teams will set off on the Antarctic Plateau to race 430 nautical miles across the largest ice cap in the world to the Geographic South Pole

The racers will face constant challenges throughout their journey: surviving in temperatures as low as -50C, navigating and skiing while pulling a 70Kg pulk (sled), sleeping in tents and climbing up to 9300 ft to the South Pole.

The six teams have two or three people in each and include Mark Pollock, who attempts to be the first Irish blind man to conquer the Pole, double Olympic Gold Medalist, James Cracknell, TV Presenter, Ben Fogle, and Peter Hammond, at 61, the oldest competitor in the race.

Please visit www.amundsenomega3southpolerace.com for race updates, additional information and individual biographies as well as the teams own websites for details of the charities they support.

Training, cake and parties

Date to fly South is December 14th, but that may change.

I'm training hard and it's going well. I need to start putting on some weight, muscle and flab, but don't want to bulk up so much that it just makes training harder on the joints.

Training now involves going to the gym, cycling, wts, circuits, walking and tyre pulling.

Will involve eating cake nearer the off date - poor me!

Big thankyou to all the nurses in Orthopaedic Outpts for all their support, a brilliant bunch who supported my North Pole trip and made a huge difference, and are doing the same this time round.

Particular thanks to Glenda Robson for a great party, (no I won't tell you how old she is!), but also for telling her guests about the S.Pole race, and the Amber trust.

Also a huge thanks to all those who gave some beer money towards this good cause. (Can anyone tell me why I had a sore neck the following day... something to do with a blow up guitar!) And a big thanks to Liz, for all her badgering, patience and support.

My two team mates still do not have funding and I have therefore teamed up with Hylton, my team mate from the North pole. I hope the girls still get the sponsorship, I'm sure they will, but I couldn't hang on any longer, I could not risk having no team.

Picking up my kit on October 5th, wondering if I can fit sled and ski's into my H-Reg Vauxhall Nova!

Back from the Pyrenees

Just had a fantastic week walking in Pyrenees for seven days, end of June. Feeling fit. A knee problem I'd picked up a few weeks before seems to have settled. It's one of the hazards of this 40-year-old, nearly 41-year-old body, trying to up the training as December looms. My tissues just say 'NO', not 'avin it, and particularly tendons, achilles and knee. So proceeding cautiously, went a bit ballistic for a while.

Got a text message whilst away to say that one of my team had pulled out, and then an email the day i got back to work to say the other had pulled out, both due to lack of funds. So officially got no team. But we'll see. Tony Martin who is running the show is very keen to have an all girl Brit team and maybe be able to perform a miracle re sponsorship. Hope so. If they are unable to go then there is at least one other person I can team up with and would be very happty to, but a team of three would be better, not least from the point of view of crevasses, falling in them and being pulled out, but also getting the tent up quickly in a blizzard.

Crevasses training took place weekend of 19th/20th July in Zell am See ( spelling in Austria. A Fantastic weekend. No crevasses because they were full of snow/ ice and we couldn't get into them. So had a couple of days chucking ourselves down steep snow slopes and simulating a rescue. The Austrian Mountain Rescue guys and Brit instuctors were fantastic. Very lucky with great weather and wonderful views. Hard work, lots of laughs, but please don't let me fall down a crevasse, coz chances of not surviving - HIGH. Teamed up for the weekend with my good friend and ex North Pole Team mate, Hylton, who has decided very late in the day that he's gotta go South, and Ben Fogle, all round good egg, who's two team mates had had to come out two days earlier.


This weekend just gone, tyre pulled up Plym Bridge trail on Saturday. Chatted to a few folk who kindly accepted leaflets about The AMBER Trust, which I'm supporting, and thankyou to those who offered me water. I was going for about four hours, hot and hard work. Not managing more than two miles an hour. Rope broke on return leg and had to carry tyre, which added to the general discomfort of it all. Glad it won't be that hot at the Pole. But got a feel for the effort required with the altitude when in Austria, 2700 to 3000 mts, which ids approx where we'll be at in the South. Very different form pulling a pulk at sea level ( North Mag)

Met up with Anne Civardi, of Amber Trust who has talked to parents and children involved and given me a list of tunes the children would like me to listen to, including 'Twinkle twinkle little star, from Verity who is just two years old. That'll be one for Christmas Day.

Endurance races

I did my first long MTB race on Sunday April 20th, Devon Dirt, 70 km.

Loved it and will be using MTB, road bike, Endurance Races and maybe a bit of triathlon as a way of getting fitter, along with the tyre pulling.

Brian Thurston, a GP colleague and a talented organist, arranged a concert in Emmanuel Church near Mannamead, last night. Beautiful music with a fantastic Soprano, Kate, and a brilliant Clarinetist, Richard.

Raised £150 for Amber trust. Very grateful to all of them and Joan and Phil for their part in it all.

Didn't have a lot of time to publicise the event but very much hope to have another concert and will let people know in good time.

Plan to meet some of the children of the Trust who are busy choosing pieces of music they would like me to listen to on the South Pole Race. Can't wait.

Treking is so passe

Training has now increased.

I have a very busy April to get out of the way and then it'll be a run down till November and the Pole.

Hope to catch up with my team mates Hannah and Felicity, both currently helping out on a North Pole Race and should be back sometime in May.

Wanted to say high to Josh and Zac or is it Zak, two lads who I met on a recent eight mile tyre pull up the Plymbridge trail.

Zac had a go at pulling the tyres, three of them, using the harness which I will be using on the Race. Seemed to have no problems, perhaps a future Polar Racer in the making.

It was a beautiful day, couple of Sundays ago, and lots of people stopped, or rather slowed down to my pathetic two mile an hour pace to ask what I was up to.

I don't have a TV so am not aware of what's on but it would appear there has been a load of stuff about people going to one or other pole.

The question is no longer ' what are you doing?', but 'are you training to go to the Arctic/ Antarctic?' Seems like everybody's at it. it's sooo passe.

I do want to see the Clarkson bit.

Gotta go

More later

-30C in Norway

I had a fantastic week in Norway from 18th to 27th of January.

Flew out to Oslo on the Friday morning for a press conference and launch of the Race Sponsor, Amundsen Omega 3.

They are supplying sponsorship and as much fish oil as we can eat between now and the race. It's supposed to be good for you.

I'm not a taker of supplements but I'm gonna give this a go. If it helps keep me well as the training increases, then I'm all for it.

If it gives me a face like a tuna fish and a desire to consume algae, not so good.

The press conference was held in the Fram museum, and it took me a while to realise the significance of this place. It contains the Fram ship, used by Amundsen and loads of artefacts from his race and also stuff related to Nansen.

I was completely blown away by it, and, perhaps because of no sleep for 48 hours, a bit emotional.

Then off to Dombas, north of Oslo, hill country, where we were going to be training. Stopped on the way at the Fedor Hotel. Blown away again, because this was completely unexpected.

The owner had heard about the race and insisted we stop off for some dog sleding, fantastic, beautiful animals, dinner and a talk about the hotels history.

Scott based himself there to trial his motorised sledge, nearly 100 years ago, apparently it worked brilliantly for about 15 minutes, and pulled several dozen villagers up the hill, until an axle broke.

It was quite something to look at the stunning views around the Hotel and realise they were the same views as Scott had looked over. He said he loved the place and had wanted to return but died before that could happen.

Then onto training. Based in Dombas military camp we had two days of lectures and kit sorting.

I spent the first night sleeping out to test the kit.

Temp recorded as -30C but I think it was more like -20C. Bit chilly, even in a -20 sleeping bag.
Spent the next four days practicing crevasses rescue (I do not want to fall down a crevasse, I don't care how pretty the colours in the ice are) and skiing, using GPS, night skiing, pulling sleds, camping and eating my own body weight in chocolate and cheese.

The Norwegian teams, one all boy and one all girl team, were very good on skis.

They'll take some keeping up with! We had a mixture of calm weather, strong winds and white out conditions, all good interms of training. All the Norwegians we met were lovely, friendly, hospitable people.

I now have a team. An all girl Brit team including Irish dynamo Hanna Shields who among other things summited Everest last year, and Felicity Aston English Dynamo who organised a race across Greenland on skis to kite back, 1200 kilometers or something like that, and as we speak is off to ski across a Siberian Lake, 700 kilometers.

It's great to Team up with these two awesome birds.

The talk on the North Pole race a few weeks ago raised £250 for the Amber Trust, so thank you to all who came along.

Now, where did I put those tyres.

Feeling tyred

I'm on a training week in Norway in two weeks time where I will hopefully find out who my team mates are, and find out what James Cracknell and Ben Fogle are like on Ski's. The third member of their team is yet to be announced.

The week will involve two days of lectures and then a five day mini expedition pulling sleds and sleeping under canvass. We will meet the Norwegian teams as well.

As part of my training I'll be pulling tyres around Plymouth and the Plym Bridge area for The Amber Trust - a charity that supports music, instruments and scholarships for blind and disabled people.

So if anyone sees me and wants to donate then all money will be gratefully accepted, I don't mind the extra weight!

I am also hoping lots of people will come to my talk on the North Pole on the evening of Thursday, 31st January at Derriford hospital's Postgraduate Medical Centre at 7pm.

Parking and food will be available, and people will find out about polar bear defence, loo stops in minus 40, losing weight on a diet of nuts, chocolate, sweets and cheese, burning 6000 calories a day, lots of pretty pictures, skiing 320 nautical miles across the arctic wastes, navigating through ice rubble in a white out, midnight sunshine and views to die for.

Tickets are just £2, and there'll be a raffle with all proceeds going to The Amber Trust.

If necessary donations can also get to me via The Physiotherapy Department, Level 7, Derriford Hospital, PL6 8DH, or go to www.justgiving.com/rachesouthpole where people can read a bit about the North Pole and look out for updates.

www.thesouthpolerace is the site for info on the Nov 2008 race itself.