The Newbie

So after a couple prods from the boys to write about my first night, I have finally sat down to write a little bit of my experience from the first couple of days.

Firstly, first major issue, convincing the pilot of the plane to change the whole safety start up sequence in order to film some cool close up external shots...... no chance. Next major issue was putting my gloves in the bottom of my pack for when we arrived on the glacier... then crawiling around in the snow with my t-shirt and my dog-eared trekking trousers.... took a while to get feeling back into all things attached to my torso.
The next fun was the sledging up a hill.... now, I cant ski, but all of a sudden, I am clipping my hiking boots into ski's and hauling a heavy sledge up a hill.... WHAT a MISSION.... talk about 2 steps foward and 3 steps back... took me like an hour to climb about 25m in height gain.

So we're now at the top of the little hill and have set up our BC. that was pretty cool..... while the boys went back to get the next load, I was digging the largest hole of my life... but we now have a BC that puts the main BC to shame.... like tent city now... :)

Last night was freezing, could have put on a warm jacket but was using it as a pillow... and did'nt fancy using the sat phone hard case as a pillow and just froze all night instead...

Oh yes... a piss bottle. the first time I have used one, pretty interesting using it, but well worth it in the cold. But woke up this morning and had like a litre of frozen piss staring at me.... (was using the warmth of the bottle to warm my hands up, but that did'nt last long)

SO now I am wanting to walk around and take pictures of the lovely sun rise.... BUT my boots where frozen and could not even put them on. Geeee... can things get any worse..... Yes they can..... while stumbling around in boots that felts like 6 sizes to small, I was setting up the solar panel which...yes... you guessed it... all the terminals had frozen too.... :) easy problem to solve, right? yeah you just suck on the terminals and melt the ice.... SHOCK...!!! its a 12Volt supply stupid! hahaha

Breakfast time, boots have melted and my feet are slowly thawing and started feeling happy that I could walk around without pain, when all of a sudden I was hobbling around in pain... the boys where laughing their heads off... yes ... Hotaches..... WOW... had it on my hands before but when you standing on your feet and get it...different story completely..

Tonight, I am going to find another pillow and actually wear my £360 down jacket and wear every item of clothing I own. I am going to sleep with my piss bottle and the boots... not quite figured out what I am going to do with them... perhaps one of the boys has space in their sleeping bag for my boots...

Dave (The Pap)