Sleeping bag

Hi,
Thank you to all of you out there, just gone through the 500 subscription mark!
Had some excellent news this weekend, Mr Ben Saunders ( http://www.bensaunders.com/ ) has agreed to be our patron, and will be offering advice and maybe some kit that we might need.
On to this weeks bit of kit: The sleeping bag. After reading through mountains of expedition reports, books and many reviews, I decided on getting the Rab expedition 1100. This is the bag that the British Antarctic Survey use for there deep expeditions into the Antarctic. This bag, although it is fairly heavy, is good for a comfort temperature of -40 which may seem a little over the top, but, I prefer to err on the side of caution. There are a couple of handy features that come with it, two internal pockets for food and another for a bottle in case you get caught short in the middle of the night! If you are wondering about frost forming on the outside of the bag during the night, then it has a Pertex shell that will keep the down filling of the bag dry, also, it has a pertex inner, so no need for a vapour barrier liner.
As this expedition takes off, it is gradually building momentum, can’t wait for our meeting next month with our guide, so that we can establish a proper training programme.
See you soon folks.

Hi folks,
Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, been having problems with my Internet connection.
Had a couple of interesting e-mails over the last week, one from Judy, this is a very extraordinary Lady, she’s going on the trip of a lifetime, you can read more about her trip here: http://www.alpinechallenge.info/ and I am trying Judy.
Anyway, back to my little journey, fired of a few more sponsorship e-mails this week, trying to update some of my kit, jacket, boots, down trousers etc.
Back to the training, just pottering around really at the moment, until we get a proper schedule, I’ll just do what I think will benefit me. Still cycling, running and need to get myself into pulling those tyres!
Food, a friend of mine at work, (Hi Roz) has told me about a great web site that has just about every type of diet supplements that you can think of, so if any of you are seriously into any kind of sport please go have a look. http://www.myprotein.co.uk/ I will be using the powdered oats and the flapjack through out any of my excursions in to the outdoors from now on.
Some people have been asking about the kit that will be used on the trip, well I’ll try to go through my stuff one piece every week. This week the tent:
The one that I have decided to take along is the Mountain Hardware E.V.2. Above is a picture of the tent, before I have had it customized. When I get it back from Antarctica tents http://www.antarcticatents.co.uk/ it will have snow flaps fitted, for holding the tent down in high winds, and also a trapdoor put into the groundsheet, for when we need to use the stove inside the tent, (a very hairy experience with liquid fuel stoves the first time that you do it!). Mountain Hardware tents, are purposely designed for the type of journey that we will be doing, and are absolutely bomb proof. I spent months reading reviews and looking around before I made this selection.
That’s about it for this time folks; hope that you found this entry worth reading.

sponsors

Hi folks,
Well, here’s got to be one of the hardest parts of any expedition, begging. How do you approach somebody and ask them for there cash? Do you go for one main sponsor, and risk them pulling out? Or, do you ask various company’s for individual components? Me, well I’m going for the latter. Here’s a letter that I sent this week.
Dear !!!!!!!,
Please allow me to introduce myself, and the unique opportunity that I would like to offer you and your company.
My name is !!!!!!!!!!!!, as you are aware, I will be attempting a crossing of the Greenland Icecap. Please let me give you a brief insight into what I would like to achieve.
A classic crossing of the vast Greenland Icecap-one of the 3 big polar Expedition's.Following the line of the Arctic Circle between Isortoq and Kangerlussuaq, we will attempt a ‘full crossing’; that is from coast to coast. Instead of being flown onto the Icecap, we plan to start the expedition at sea level on the West coast, and finish on the shores of the fjord in Kangerlussuaq. Traveling by ski, hauling all our equipment in sleds, the crossing is likely to take around 27-35 days. Starting with heavy loads we will make our way up the initial steep slopes onto the icecap, from where the slopes gradually ascend to the summit, before gradually losing height until we reach the terminus of the ice on the East coast.Instead of being picked up there, we will continue on foot to the seas’s edge-the final stage in making a complete crossing of Greenland.
As we discussed the other day, I would also like to raise some money for a local charity, namely ‘The children's hospital in Sheffield’. There are two ways in which you can sponsor me, (or you could give to both?) firstly, giving money to the Sheffield children's hospital, or, there is sponsorship of the expedition itself. If you chose to sponsor the expedition, here are some of the benefits that you could use to your advantage:
I believe that the expedition would make a interesting article in the internal newsletter, which if sent out to our customers in the construction industry, would generate interest and hopefully encourage them to contribute to the children's hospital charity fund.
In addition the partner (!!!!!!!!!) will be incorporated in the following marketing activity:
I will embed !!!!!!!!!’s logo and a link to it’s web site,onto my web-site (with the web site subscriptions gaining momentum every day, and some of those in Canada and the U.S.A, you will be placing !!!!!!! in a global showcase widening your profile to an audience that you may have not thought of before). So far I have got 170 people subscribing to it, and growing daily. To view the site please go to http://the66thparallel.blogspot.com/
I will state !!!!!!!! as the expedition sponsor in any newspaper articles that I will be featured in.
!!!!!!!!! patches to be worn during expedition, and used in photos while promoting the expedition, and also when handing over any money to charity after the expedition is completed.
All that I require for the sponsorship of the expedition, will be the cost of my flights, using the carrier of your choise, too and from Greenland.
Yours !!!!!!!!!!!.

Thanks

Wow,
Quite a few people have now subscribed to the site, if I can get more, yippee! (80 plus so far) So please forward the site to all your friends and colleges.
Decided to go up a gear on the training, and have rigged up a harness and tyre, Pulled said contraption around the yard at work for a couple of hours yesterday, and all that I can say on that subject is, if any of you are thinking of doing a similar trip to this, you can’t start soon enough !!!!!!!!!!!!
The one thing that people are e-mailing about is food for the trip, so as my knowledge base of it expands, then I’ll put a bit more in about it. The consensus seams that I’ll be need 6000-7000 calories per day while I’m out there.
When I get my camera sorted out, I'll start posting photos of kit, training etc, but at the moment it needs fixing after a accident in The peak, the other weekend.

training part 2

Hello again folks,
Here's a bit of advice that I've been given from a guy who's just crossed Greenland,

"Ive been back from Greenland now for a few weeks and I am still recovering from the massive weight loss (I lost over a stone) and I am still exhausted, you know that feeling when you are a bit jet lagged. I was fine for the first week and then it started to hit me.

I had an incredible time, the experience and journey is indescribeable, so much so that it is taking me a while to write it up and do the experience justice.

Without going in to detail adnauseum, here are some key pointers.

Training
A bit different for me as I had cycled 9 hours a day for 30 days the month before I left so I had a great aerobic base and therefore concentrated on weights and tyre towing on wet sand for the 4 weeks before I left. If you have a good base then concentrate on building strength around the abdominal's and lower back. If you are going in the spring then you will probably be flown up onto the icecap and then make your way all the way across to Kangerlusuuaq to 660. So you wont have to negotiate the crevasse fields of the East coast - these took us 3.5 days to get through, on one day we did 300m in 5 hours! So strength is what is needed more than fitness, and you will get fit quickly once up on the ice cap and you have built up to the 30km per day marching.

My one comment would be to ease off on any high impact exercise a good month before you leave i.e. running as you will want to save your knees, as you wan to avoid any muscle or tendon niggles while on the trip, so swimming and cycling are good"

Also I've spoken to Sheffield children's hospital today, and I am hoping to raise some money for them on the trek (kids from all over the country are sent to them, so its not just benefiting the local community).