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Day 43 - Boxing Day December 26, 2008
15.4 nm today means that the guys have achieved more than 500 nm since setting off 43 days ago. If they maintain around 15 nm a day, they are set to reach the 97 mile point in 13 days time - the 8th January, a day ahead of the original expedition which arrived on the 9th before turning back as the weather deteriorated and team rations dwindled.
We have also received some more photos from the team's Christmas rest day yesterday, including a photo Henry Adams on the Shackleton Ice Falls, and a couple of photos of the guys enjoying their well earned break.
SITREP
1. Sitrep No 43 as at 0816 hrs GMT 26 Dec 08
2. Distance Covered Today : 15.4 nm
3. Total Distance Covered : 505.2 nm
4. Hours travelled: 7.5
5. Daily Average to Date: 11.75 nm
6. Days to RV on Jan 9 at 97 Mile Point: 14
7. Distance to RV: 188.59 nm
8. Distance to Pole: 285.59 nm
9. Required Daily Average to achieve RV: 13.47 nm
December 26th, 1908
Got away at 7 A.M sharp, after dumping a lot of gear. We marched steadily all day except for lunch, and we have done 14 miles 480 yards on an uphill march, with soft snow at times and a bad wind. Ridge after ridge we met, and though the surface is better and harder in places, we feel very tired at the end of ten hours' pulling. Our height tonight is 9590 ft. above sea level according to the hypsometer. The ridges we meet with are almost similar in appearance. We see the sun shining on them in the distance, and then the rise begins very gradually. The snow gets soft, and the weight of the sledge becomes more marked.
As we near the top the soft snow gives place to a hard surface, and on the summit of the ridge we find small crevasses. Every time we reach the top of a ridge we say to ourselves: "Perhaps this is the last," but it never is the last; always there appears away ahead of us another ridge. I do not think that the land lies very far below the ice sheet, for the crevasses on the summits of the ridges suggest that the sheet is moving over land at no great depth. It would seem that the descent toward the glacier proper from the plateau is by a series of terraces. We lost sight of the land today, having left it all behind us, and now we have the waste of snow all around. Two more days and our maize will be finished. Then our hooshes will be more woefully thin than ever. This shortness of food is unpleasant, but if we allow ourselves what, under ordinary circumstances, would be a reasonable amount, we would have to abandon all idea of getting far south.
Day 43 Report
Day 43 - Boxing Day: Overview
- Distance covered:
- 15.4 nm
- Wind:
- 15 mph
- Conditions:
- Very sunny and no clouds
- Temperature:
- -33°C
The Heart of the Antarctic
This is the story of the “Farthest South” expedition, told by its leader. After enduring biting winds, short rations and crevasse-ridden glaciers for over a year, Shackleton’s party faced a desperate forced march to return to their ship, The Nimrod, or face being marooned on the ice.
Taken from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s own compelling chronicle of his first Antarctic expedition, written on his return in 1909.
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