737 Leg 6 The North Pole - Day 111

The guys in charge here think they have found a suitable flow of ice and today they are going to drop skydivers out of the plane and snow ploughs in big parachutes on to the ice to start building the runway which could take anything up to 1-3 days.

Then they send the big plane in with suppliers to build the Barneo camp, which will be the exped hub to launch all expeditions from.

It’s an amazing set up, they need an ice thickness of 1 metre 30 to build a runway, that’s not actually that thick but that is apparently what they need! That’s pretty phenomenal!

Today there is a storm system coming in to Longyearbyen and it has been skirting around -30c. Today we are using Russian tents and stoves and taking them out in the cold testing all our kit thoroughly.

Because there is a lot of moisture around, a lot of people do not use down kit. I have the choice to use a synthetic sleeping bag, a Russian brand but I am still choosing to my Rab Andes 800 sleeping bag which is down but made using a fabric called pertex endurance which is light, breathable and water resistant. I have chosen to use that still above the recommendations of the Russian crew as I have so much confidence in my Rab gear. It’s equally as warm, a third of the size and a third of the weight. I will protect it against moisture with my Rab pertex bivi bag as a vapour barrier. That is a system I used in Greenland and I have spoke at length with team and designers at Rab and that’s what I am sticking with.

Steve is excited and looking forward to getting started too. Leading in to this leg I was starting to feel the effects and a little jaded and run down and it’s been a real boost to my morale to be joined by Steve and we are bouncing ideas, systems and energy off each other and it is really cool to have him here with me.