03-01-2001 : Critical loss of down jacket and equipment By an self-inflicted mishap on the first day of the New Year Gregers lost his down jacket in the strong antarctic gale. Together with the down jacket his thermos flask disappeared + his sunglasses, a day's lunch ration, and one of the expedition's two GPS'es, which are used to read the exact position of the expedition. Hereby the Danish South Pole Expedition got a bad start of the the new year. Kristian and Gregers, without beating about the bush, describe the mishap as foolish, and for a short time harsh words were exchanged in the Antarctic wilderness, when the loss of the equipment was a fact. "On such an expedition there are narrow margins to the tolerated number of mistakes; this is not one of them. We are now working at finding alternative solutions," it says in a grave mail from Kristian and Gregers. The down jacket is specially used when the two members of the expedition are taking breaks. To avoid chilling in the endless Antarctic wind they at once put on their jacket on top of their three-layer Goretex jackets to keep warm, just as the down jackets are almost indispensable when they pitch their tent in the late afternoon. The solution next to hand may be that Gregers as a substitute uses one of the fleece jackets or down waistcoats also brought along - or both of them. The loss of the thermos flask may prove graver because it forces Kristian and Gregers to take one or more longer breaks during the day to boil water for hot drinks. They cannot keep varm from the contents of Kristian's thermos flask. Longer breaks invariably mean shorter day's marches at a time when they do not walk so far per day as planned. They had hoped to be able to walk towards 30 km a day as the pulks got lighter, but in actual fact their pace has varied so much under the very extreme conditions that they have not covered more than 22-23 km a day. The loss of the down jacket occurs at a time when it has got considerably colder than in the first relatively mild month of their walk towards the South Pole. Thus the first of january saw 24 degrees celcius below zero and strong wind of towards 20 m per second. The terrain does not make the walking any easier because of the crevasses in this area, but especially many snowdrifts across the course towards the South Pole.

12-02-2001

THE DANISH SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION ON DR TV

12-02-2001

LECTURE TOUR AND PUBLICATION OF BOOK ON THE EXPEDITION

21-01-2001

THE RETURN JOURNEY HAS STARTED

20-01-2001

THE WORLD'S LEAST HOSPITABLE PLACE?

17-01-2001

ASKING FOR FINE WEATHER IN THREE LOCATIONS

17-01-2001

NEW PHOTOS FROM THE SOUTH POLE ON THE WEBSITE

13-01-2001

DANISH SOUTH POLE EXP. HAS REACHED THEIR GOAL

12-01-2001

ANTARCTIC WEATHER CONDUCTING THE FINAL

11-01-2001

A GOOD DAY WITH 31 DEGREES CELSIUS BELOW ZERO

07-01-2001

SUPREME DANISH ACHIEVEMENT IN THE ANTARCTICA

03-01-2001

CRITICAL LOSS OF DOWN JACKET AND EQUIPMENT

31-12-2000

CELEBRATING NEW YEAR'S DAY BY RESTING

31-12-2000

FORCED TO A DETOUR ROUND AREA WITH DEEP CREVASSES

27-12-2000

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS ABOVE THE 86TH LATITUDE

23-12-2000

CURRY CHICKEN AND BISCUIT CAKE FOR CHRISTMAS

20-12-2000

A LITTLE DEJECTION, MINOR INJURIES AND SOUR SOCKS

18-12-2000

NO MAIL FOR EIGHT DAYS

14-12-2000

LIKE A SWISS CLOCKWORK