ONTO CHECKPOINT 2 (By; Sutherland Point - King Christian Island) Via: The Mclean Strait
NOTES:
The weather is starting to turn very fast with a horrendous storm brewing!! For the next 3 days we will encounter 35mph swirling winds, snow blizzards & complete white outs.
During this time you can even struggle to see your own hands in front of yourself let alone your teammates that are next to you. At all times you have to be even more on high alert as the dangers from this are as follows:
· You cannot see where your next ski will land or even if there's a huge cliff in front of you
· Possible navigational errors that could through you off course from the bad weather
· It’s very important to ensure you keep hydrated and the calorie intake and listen to your body.
· Most importantly you have absolutely no idea if there are any Predatory Polar Bears coming from behind or in front to attack!!
It's a very dangerous time and completely exhausting and at times navigating is almost impossible, but you still have to keep going!
There is a time limit between each checkpoint you must arrive by or you will be eliminated from the Polar Challenge race. Even though we had to push on through the bad storm we were still operating between 19 - 21 hours per day non-stop which was totally exhausting.
In our rest periods from inside the tent we would regularly check every 30 - 60 minutes the outside of the tent and also shovel the snow away that starts to build up quickly against its walls.
See some of the pictures below and the conditions we had to battle through!