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Dispatches: Mind the gap - Thursday, 15th April 2004


Day's Statistics

Expedition & Environmental Statistics:
Position:85.43.5N 94.06.1E (view route map)
Daily distance:12.4 nm
Total distance:235.1 nm
Distance to go:672.3 nm
Travelling time:10 hrs
Temperature:-17°C
Conditions:pans followed by open leads and rubble; clear turning to whiteout with slight to moderate north-easterly
view large image
view large image

Today kicked off with a few beautiful pans (flat areas of ice) before deteriorating into large fields of rubble, deep snow and dozens of new leads (cracks in the ice - see pic). I skied for ten hours today and considering the state of the ice, I'm more than happy with the mileage. Odd that the sledge still feels as heavy as it did on day one, though.

The weirdest moment came in the early afternoon. Admittedly, I had the Foo Fighters on perhaps a tad too loud and might have missed hearing any early warning signs, but it wasn't until I stepped onto the surface of a large, freshly frozen lead that I realised something was up. The far bank, perhaps 30 metres away, was moving towards me quite quickly, almost at walking pace. The surface was vibrating, cracks were appearing in places and the ice on my side was disappearing under the thicker pack ice. I wanted to get the video camera out, but there was a little too much water around for me to feel entirely safe and by the time I'd reached the far side, the show was over. Amazing.

Today is dedicated to Stef. I was cracking up laughing today at memories of the summer we spent sharing a flat. See you soon, mate.

Visitor Comments


# Great Job.

Keep it up, young man. You are an inspriation to all..

By Chuck on Monday, 19 April - 08:31 pm -0700


# Camels

One foot in front of the other, will be doing the same as you next week in Greenland. Only the conditions under foot will be a tad more stable ! Remember, "when nose of camel get through tent door-rest soon follow."

By Polar Challenge Team on Friday, 16 April - 01:29 pm -0700


# One by one

Ben,
Nice one.
Great mental picture, you listening to Mr Grohl and the boys out there.
Keep your chin up, or down, as required.
Bruce.

By Bruce Archer on Friday, 16 April - 11:49 am -0700


# An Ocean Below

Hi, Ben
Great photograph, everyday your world changes, especially the topography! Excellent work, dipping into the 600s, and pressing on through pans, leads, polar bears, and bird poo. Thanks for bringing your adventure, into thousand's of homes and schools, this is much better than television.
Best,
-Scot

By Scot Morrison on Friday, 16 April - 12:43 am -0700


# Getting easier.

Spoke to a scientist today.
You are close to what he termed "The flat bit at the top" and most of the uphill work is over.
Obviously, with the ice moving towards you, you are still heading slightly uphill (comparable to an East Anglian hill, with much the same variation in scenery).
After the "Flat bit" the downhill run will be much easier, care will have to be taken regarding sliding ice coming from behind you. Suggest change of music to Hayley Westenra......

Still no word from BBC.

Ken. (Superflid)

By Ken Powell on Thursday, 15 April - 10:34 pm -0700


# 85 Degrees

anothr blip on the map Ben.

Brill........!!!!!!!

Made my day.

By Jessie on Thursday, 15 April - 10:20 pm -0700


# Teaching, coaching, leading, designing, reporting, etc.

Ben: All of your experiences are so exciting! This one today was good to have been ice and not a bear coming to greet you! So many leads!?!? Is that normal for an arctic summer? Oh by the way, did you have enough dark time to see the Northern Lights that have been so brilliant of late?

I understand that if the planet as a whole warms by one degree, the poles will warm by about three degrees. Which is just what you are probably experiencing.

I have learned that ice covers about 15% less of the Arctic Ocean than it did 20 years ago.

We must promote the young scientists and explorers and encourage them to find ways to help us heal the horrific things we are continuing to do to our planet--perhaps you could lecture or speak.

Our addiction to fossil fuels releases awful amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, this fuel does not only run our vehicles, it provides us toys, equipment, clothes, heat, etc. At the least we could find a substitute for the fuel that runs our vehicles.

Ben, there are many things you mentor to others as you traverse the Arctic and relate your adventures. For people like me, it is a curiosity that is tweaked to learn and encourage others to learn.

We must somehow inspire people to gain the courage to create the changes needed for a better world.
Cissy,
Texas

"We are not helpless and there is nothing wrong with us except the strange belief that we are helpless and there is something wrong with us." - Donella Meadows

By Cissy on Thursday, 15 April - 10:09 pm -0700


# Marketing madness & necessaries

Ben: I know we can all relate to your not missing the ad blitz we receive incessently about what we cannot/shouldn't try to live without. We all succumb to varying degrees of this. My Aunt Mildred passed away about 12 years ago at age 85 and she swore all any of us needed to stash away for emergency life essentials were: beans, soap and toilet paper!You are wonderfully out of synch with current lifestyles. GREAT! Keep up the inspiring journey! Sue

By Sue Zaninovich-Eyraud on Thursday, 15 April - 09:50 pm -0700


# The Flat

I do miss the flat and associated debauchery - especially the Gasoline Triple Strength Egg and Sprout Curry Suprise at 4 in the morning after a heavy night's drinking!!!! Great to see you are making some serious progress now - you're cruising - and, as Richard Richard and Eddie Hitler would say - Absolutely NOTHING can go wrong!!!!

By Stef on Thursday, 15 April - 07:59 pm -0700


# What a great story...

...from Master Wright! Thanks for sharing...it's a very charming story! :-)

By Nikki on Thursday, 15 April - 07:04 pm -0700


# "I feel the earth, move, under my feet..."

Nice mileage today, Ben...great job! These pics never cease to amaze me...really. The posting on explorersweb today show almost identical shots of you and wave...it's pretty funny...have you seen it? You'd probably appreciate it...you seem to have that kind of humor!

Two of my best friends just left Corporate America and I'm still stuck in this cube...so I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart of sharing this part of your life with us, because it gives me a chance to escape, dream and really get my head together about passions I want to pursue and make happen. I didn't realize how much life was inside me until I started reading about your expedition and your dispatches. I know I will be a different person going forward. Thank you. -- Nikki :-D

By Nikki on Thursday, 15 April - 07:01 pm -0700


# An easter egg for Mr Pen

Dear Mr Ben, I am sorry I have not been in touch for a few days but I have just finished the last of my Easter Eggs! It was great to read your story about Mr Pen and the Easter egg! (Hows that for the title of a book!) Now Mr Ben , I have a funny story to tell you. My Daddy Peter, My Mummy Joy and me drove 120 miles to "Rheged" near Penrith in the lake district to see My friend Mr Pen do a lecture on his North Pole expedition which he completed last year. Now I have to tell you the weather was a little on the rough side. We had gale force winds gusting up to 60 - 70 miles per hour! This made driving to say the least a little hairy! Any way nothing was going to stop us seeing Mr Pen so we all just took our time and we all made it to Rheged. By now it was 5.45 on Sat. 20th March. So here we all are waiting for Mr Pen to arrive when 30 minutes after arriving, Robin the curator of Rheged informs us that Mr Pen is stuck on a train in Birmingham and it had been cancelled due to the "wrong kind of wind!" It is at this point my daddy gives out a big laugh. As you can imagine everyone looks at him, some are not amused! Daddy points to a picture of Mr Pen in full flow as he tries to pull his pulk over a huge ice ridge, (The photo is stuck on the reception desk.) Everybody by now gets the joke! Here is a man (like yourself) hauling a pulk 648 mile across frozen ice and sea. He encounters life threatening dangers every day of his journey, polar bears, ice leads you name it, just like you he faces it head on! So here we all are 150+ of us waiting for the hero to arrive and guess what hes stuck on a train, the whole situation is completely out of his control, it was just so absurd, what else was there to do but laugh! Now our local news paper ran the story for us with the headline "Polar Explorer Halted By Wind!" What Mr Pen made of the headline I dont know! Anyway as for the Easter eggs. Daddy had taken some Easter eggs for Mr Pen, Mary,wilf and freya. We bought Mr Pen a chocolate bunny with a little bell round his neck. Daddy said it wasnt a bunny really but an Arctic Hare! Now because Daddy couldnt give the eggs to Mr Pen personally he sent them to the Polar Travel Company directly. Daddy, says he wishes our Easter Eggs to be dedicated to. Mr Pen from you. So Mr Ben, Mr Pen got an Easter Egg from you after all! Hope you are keeping well and warm. Best Wishes from Master Daniel (Aged 5)and his Daddy Peter.

By Master Daniel Wright on Thursday, 15 April - 06:54 pm -0700


# Wow...

Great photo and day's reporting. How strange that must have been to see the ice moving like that. Watching it, and standing on it, would have made me dizzy. Fascinating....

Hard to tell from today's photo - is the lead just below you? It looks as if there could be quite a long drop between your skies and the water, but it may just be an illusion.

Don't really expect an answer. Just thinking out loud.

Glad you're doing well, and covering such great distances the last few days.

Stay safe and press on, Ben.

By Gwen on Thursday, 15 April - 06:01 pm -0700


# A Moving Experience

HI

I suppose you can now say the earth really moved for you on this trip.

Keep pushing out the mileages.

Regards

Marc

By Marc @ Serco on Thursday, 15 April - 05:51 pm -0700


# I Just Amazed

I'm just in awe at what you've done so far. I've been following you since the beginning and am in wonder of your mindset and your athletic ability. Keep your tunes going and your feet moving.. Gods Speed
Diana

By Diana on Thursday, 15 April - 05:48 pm -0700


# GREAT!!

Great photo and great mileage - GREAT

By Alex and Thomas on Thursday, 15 April - 05:44 pm -0700

Dispatches Archive


The following dispatches are an archive spanning the 4-5 months that Ben spent prior to the expedition, the expedition itself, and the returning home period.


Polar safari

Polar safari - Tuesday, 13th April 2004

It was really warm today. According to Tony, who receives the temp. along with my position from a small satellite beacon in my sledge, it was -14 degrees C. It felt even warmer - the sun was blazing and there wasn't a breath of wind. It probably ...read more

Captain caveman

Captain caveman - Wednesday, 14th April 2004

Up here I lead an incredibly simple existence, something I reflected upon this evening as I put my tent up and found a particularly nice patch of snow to dig up and melt for drinking water. As I filled up my bag with blocks of snow, I felt a ...read more

Mind the gap

Mind the gap - Thursday, 15th April 2004

Today kicked off with a few beautiful pans (flat areas of ice) before deteriorating into large fields of rubble, deep snow and dozens of new leads (cracks in the ice - see pic). I skied for ten hours today and considering the state of the ice, I'm ...

Falling down

Falling down - Friday, 16th April 2004

Not only the title of a great film, but something I was doing rather a lot of today. The ice was terrible (that wasn't the exact word I used in my daily phone call to Tony, but this is a family site after all) - tons of rubble, giant pressure ridges ...read more

The 'f' word...

The 'f' word... - Saturday, 17th April 2004

I think I've avoided using this word until now, and I can't believe I'm about to say it, but today was definitely fun. It all started after about two hours, when I came to a lead that I had no choice but to swim across, wearing my drysuit. Until ...read more

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“You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” - Ray Bradbury