Stealth Expedition
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Trapped by the weather
From the outset, at 1200 meters, the skis ran well, but the climb onto the polar plateau was hard. For five days, the boys had to cover triple the distance because each sled had to be pulled by them both. The day stages were no more than 3-6 km for those first two weeks. On day four, they set the shortest distance record, with only 270m before bad weather forced them to make camp.
After 10 days, they had to wait out a storm for the first time. They were already behind schedule. The feeling of lying hopelessly in a tent, while their bodies were coursing with energy and enthusiasm was depressing. Rolf’s routine in such situations kept their sprits up. He knew that patience is an invaluable virtue in such weather; they would always get the chance to make up for lost time later.
From the plateau at 2300m meters, the landscape was at first rolling, but quickly turned into sastrugi. Rolf and Eirik had to cover 1500 km of hard packed snowdrifts on that first stage to the South Pole.
Radical sailing
Rolf was the best sailor of the two, and often did some crazy sailing through the myriad of snowdrifts. Due to differences in contents, Rolf’s sled was often not packed as well as Eirik’s, and there was often a hail of thermos flasks and other assorted equipment flying out of the sled behind the rally-style sailing of Rolf. Once, Eirik found a pair of skis and poles which Rolf was not even aware that he had lost. Eirik didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. Without skis in Antarctica, one can quickly end up like Scott. The worst that could happen would be losing the stove, or each other. At high speeds, and in bad visibility, you can quickly lose touch with your partner.
Despite not having the most high-tech equipment, Rolf and Eirik could certainly call themselves innovators on the transport front. They had with them two different kites each, one of 22 square meters and one of 11. The smallest could be reefed to a 6 square meters if necessary. In addition to this, they had with them two pairs of boots and skis, one pair to sail with and one pair to ski with. The sailing skis were of course subject to extreme forces, whilst the normal skis were lighter models with wood cores and air channels to save weight. Having two pairs of skis spread the wear and tear, and reduced the chances of breaking a ski.
WHY?
What were they doing? What did they want? Why is Antarctica worth so many years of young men’s lives? In their promotion of the trip, Rolf and Eirik formulated the following:
The unknown has always fascinated humankind. We are born curious… Close contact with nature is important for us to be able to understand our surroundings, both physical and psychological…For us, Antarctica has become a symbol for challenge and adventure; a continent which offers many of the most important things in human life; hard work, responsibility, sorrow and happiness... People are different, complex. It is not always easy to understand yours or others’ motivations for reaching a goal. Is it the goal in itself which appeals, or is it the long and demanding journey which leads you there? By exceeding our limitations we will find out –through good or bad– what it means to be a living being. …all development occurs through stretching our limits.
They started to get into a rhythm. Eirik was concerned about frostbite and blisters on the inside of his thighs, the very same problem which stopped Børge Ousland on his first crossing. Mentally, things began to vary. Rolf’s unbelievably stable mindset was a support for Eirik, but also a source of irritation for him. Such a monotonous mood can be frustrating if one regularly experiences bad days, whilst your partner doesn’t. Rolf asserted later that he could not remember a single bad day on the trip, except perhaps the day he damaged his sled.
On one of the first days of sailing, Rolf had pressed on at high speed though the sastrugi, he was trying to catch up on lost time. Eirik was behind and could see the tremendous strain the 10 kg shell of the sled was being put under. He was worried and warned Rolf. It had to go wrong. The sled cracked right under one of the runners. Eventually, the whole runner broke. The situation was critical. They were 25 days and 260km on their way. Without the sled, the trip would have to be abandoned. Repairs were needed.
The runner could be screwed back onto the sled. Empty fuel bottles were cut up and shaped around both sides of the crack. With good help from some Araldite, a hand drill and some steel line, they glued and sewed the contraption to the base of the sled. The repair took a whole day to complete. A previous attempt at the transantarctic record needed supplies to be flown in after a similar incident. Rolf and Eirik had no idea if the repairs would hold. They could not afford for new equipment to be flown in. With only one sled, they would realistically have been in an emergency situation, and would have to have been rescued. The unknown consequences of this damage were yet another stressful thought in their minds.
Luckily, they had with them two sliding boards which could be used to reduce the strain on the sleds. They were the saviors of the whole expedition.
Progress and friendship
The progress improved. For the first month, they had not been close to achieving the planned 38km average per day. On the 20th of November, the log showed 300km covered, 800km behind schedule. The following month, the wind picked up and they often covered up to 90km a day with the kites. From 87 degrees south the sastrugi stopped abruptly, the wind died down, and the boys walked the final 400km to the pole in perfect, soft snow.
Whilst Rolf was the keenest sailor, Eirik began to increase the progress by lengthening the days when the wind was good. They still had 200km to make up according to the schedule, in order to reach the boat in McMurdo in time. Rolf considered it worthless to worry about the finish so soon.
I thought it was too early to start thinking about the finish line when you are 2000km away. That’s why the boat was not in my thoughts. To worry about it could mean risking an accident. I was also worried about my knees. They had taken a battering in the sastrugi. My goal was to get from A to B. If it took 90 or 110 days was of lesser importance.
Eirik continued to worry about the transport anyway. He became irritated over Rolf’s reluctance to lengthen the day stages.
It highlighted our differences; I think further ahead than Rolf in all areas. I even had to plan for parties three weeks in advance in order to structure my training schedules.
Two or One
Børge Ousland prefers to go on trips alone, regardless of whether he is in the Arctic or Antarctic, whilst Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen have come to be an unstoppable partnership wherever they are. Sjur Mørdre, who has experience from both poles, says that being two in the icy waters of the North Pole is more of an advantage than when on the Antarctic continent. Børge Ousland admits there are many advantages in being two, not least of which is distributing the load in the sleds, but he still feels that being alone means going quicker He also adds that it is much more difficult and therefore satisfying being alone.
The debate about the progress was a recurring theme. In mid-December it turned into a complicated discussion about enjoyment and friendship. Rolf told Eirik that he was more comfortable with people other than Eirik on trips, like an echo from Mallorca. It was quite a confession, there, in the middle of all that ice, hundreds of miles from anywhere. It was quite a message to Eirik to receive, and according to his diary, he found it brutal but honest.
Once again, it was the fundamental differences in personality which were highlighted. Rolf and Eirik knew from the outset that they had different mentalities and rhythms. They had discovered that on the kayak trip in the Mediterranean; they had discovered it at the most stressful times during the preparations for the trip; all four of them had noticed it during the long winter, and now these differences reared their heads once more. The South Pole was within reach, but they still had 2000km to go to the main goal: McMurdo. Was it possible?
The discussion ended with Rolf having responsibility for arranging alternative transport out of Antarctica if they didn’t reach the boat in time. Eirik accepted that fact that all the talk of staying on schedule and progress was only stressing Rolf. Both agreed that it was better that things were discussed openly.
That’s the important thing with communication: get it out in the open.
Never bored
If we are to believe Rolf and Eirik, and I guess we have to, they say that they almost never argued. Even Frode and Børre at the Troll station found it difficult to believe how harmonious their relationship was. The discussion about the progress was important to have, and important to get out of the way. What else are polar explorers concerned with?
Everything, absolutely everything, says Rolf. It was amazing for us, after 11 months we thought we would have covered everything, but on the trip there was never a boring evening. We always had something new to talk and laugh about.
The internal humor which develops between people who live close for long periods of time is difficult to explain. Magical moments seldom return. Those of us who were not there with them just have to imagine them, hundreds of kilometers onto the ice, dirty and tired, hunched up in the tent while the storm rages, laughing their heads off.
Time
The monotony is all-encompassing in Antarctica. “On the prairie you see something because everything else is the same,” an American writer once said. The same applies at sea, and surely in Antarctica’s endless wilderness. A whole new perspective of time is opened to those who wander through these places. Antarctica hides millions of secrets, because millions of years are preserved down through the thick ice. Above lies a star filled heaven, which stretches billions of years back in time, in front of you lies an endless plain of ice.
Different polar explorers have differing perspectives of time. The Norwegian author Odd Harald Hauge wrote of “completely empty days” in his book “Cato Towards the South Pole”. "I desperately rummaged in my brain for something concrete to think of. Maybe it is a privilege to have such time to peruse life’s mysteries, but the chill, the physical effort and the monotony paralyzed much of the creativity."
After her solo trip to the South Pole, Liv Arnesen wrote: “Time alone is not necessary like food or sleep, but it is important to experience loneliness and silence to make contact with oneself. Everyday life is often so busy that it becomes difficult to fully think out one's thoughts.”
Whilst Børge Ousland talks about "a zone where I become one with nature". "Time kind of ceases to exist."
Eirik made his own observations about how he passed the time.
At home, you spend a lot of time doing small, meaningless things, and little time doing the things which really mean something. In Antarctica, it was the total opposite.
Antarctica can, at the same time however, make the small, meaningless things seem incredibly important. To loosen a knot in the sail lines can suddenly be the only thing you can focus on, and it is crucial for further progress, or melting snow for water and making dinner. When everything is in order and you just plod endlessly on, you can get into an almost meditative state, the thought process almost ceases to function. This clears out a lot of space for new thoughts, or it gives you time to think over a lot which has happened to you throughout your life which you would otherwise just forget.
Something which all polar explorers share is an extreme closeness to nature. Some try to read deeply into this oneness. Rolf just shrugs his shoulders at such suggestions. He will not say how ‘religiously’ inspired he was down there.
I just thought that everything was clean and perfect. Once, whilst pitching the tents, the wind suddenly disappeared. Complete stillness. Just like a perfect Easter day in the mountains of Norway. Not a breath of wind, no ants, no flies, nothing but pure happiness.
A cleansing brainwash
Going on a ski trip in Antarctica must be the closest one can get to space travel on earth. Cold and lifeless in all directions, with only the tent and your clothes as thin shells between you and eternity. The only thing you know is to repeat your movements over and over, one ski in front of the other, one pole in front of the other.
In addition, you have to steer a large kite in a lot of wind, with bad skis and zero visibility, through tall snow drifts, for hundreds of kilometers, week in and week out – all the while, your body is weakening and your mind is alone. A trip to the South Pole stimulates the senses in a way of which most people are unaware. Trivial things at home in the middle of civilization are blown away by the surroundings, where humans do not really belong.
Two beings, making their way through eternal wind, eternal snow, eternal cold. It can be called brain washing, in a positive way. Instead of feeling bloated and lazy, you are hungry and sharp. You are balanced between things which strengthen and weaken you. But you have to stay focused. If you sprain an ankle at the pole, the Red Cross will not come to the rescue. The South Pole can eat you alive.
It doesn’t have to be dangerous if you do like Amundsen recommended; be prepared. The drama is in the air, in the cold which draws the life from you if you are not protected, in the distances to safety and from help, in the hidden crevasses. “The Devil’s Dance floor” is what Amundsen called the worst areas, riddled with crevasses. Each snow bridge is like a prehistoric animal trap. The trip is a balancing act, between a heavenly life and a cold hell.
A wise fisherman on a Caribbean beach once said: “There is no such thing as good or bad luck. If you put a foot wrong and trip, it is because you were not looking where you were going.” He had probably never heard of Amundsen, but the message was the same.