Arctic Antics–Guess What? It’s F*cking Freezing…: Both Wave Vidmar and Ben Saunders decided not to swim the 50 kms of open water around Cape Arkticheskiy (believe it or not, Dominick Arduin–who’s attempting to become the first woman to solo the Pole–and a French dude, Frédéric Chamard-Boudet (total Wetasses, apparently), are insisting on paddling across the frigid sea), and got helicoptered to the nearest solid ice to begin their Arctic treks. Yes, it means that technically they won’t have completed a North Pole solo (Wave) or a full trans-Arctic Ocean traverse (Ben). But, really, can you blame them? In any case, it’s not making their expeditions appreciably easier. Here are some excerpts from their first days on the ice pack, as they slowly work toward the Pole:

Wave Vidmar: “I’m nestled in my sleeping bag. It’s damp inside because I must sleep in a vapor barrier to keep my body moisture from escaping and freezing into blocks of ice in my sleeping bag. The vapor barrier is like one big plastic bag…It’s also crowded inside my bag, as I have my water bottle, GPS, satellite phone, connection cables, camera, PDA, and pee bottle inside with me – to keep them warm.

It’s very cold out, how cold I do not know yet. My thermometer stopped working at -35f, and it’s colder than that. At these low temps every move is calculated and planned, from getting dressed to eating to going to the bathroom…I skied across lots of thin ice. It feels solid but I jumped up and down (slowly) and felt it give, swaying and undulating from my movement. I also skied over many pressure ridges, though they were relatively small.

Polar bear tracking were spotted, though they were somewhat old and not too big. They are a constant threat, but I don’t worry too much about them.”

Ben Saunders: “I shared my drop off flight yesterday with Wave Vidmar, Bettina Aller from Denmark and her boyfriend Jean-Gabriel. Bettina and J-G set off first, with light sledges (they are being resupplied) and the four of us have been within view of each other ever since…After stopping early yesterday, I passed Wave’s camp site this morning and shouted ‘morning!’ as I trundled past. Very surreal. I guess it will take a couple of days for us to lose each other.

I spent most of today skiing over a MASSIVE area of very new, very thin ice. Great conditions for getting some speed up, but pretty scary on this scale – impossible to camp on and prone to breaking up. I stuck the tent up as soon as it ended…The physical strain is immense, but it’s the mental part that’s hardest to deal with – the self-doubt, the monotony, the loneliness and the fear of failure.

I silenced some of the demons today by listening to my mp3 player. The difference it makes is amazing, and up here, no one can see you playing air guitar with a ski pole…I’m currently at N82’02.2 which means I’ve covered 13 miles since I was dropped off. It feels more like 300…

I keep breaking things – my ski skins are coming loose, I’ve torn part of my left boot off, broken my sleeping bag zip and bent a tent peg. And I’m only on day bloomin’ four…

A tough day today (can you spot a recurring theme here?) and a hard won 3.4 nautical miles in the bag. The ice was worse today – loads of rubble and a fast opening lead (crack in the ice) at the end of the day. It was too wide to jump and too difficult to ski around, so I decided to do something really bonkers. Swim.

I have a specially designed drysuit for this very occasion, but I’d only tried it in Putney swimming pool and in the Serpentine for a photo shoot. Both times, my feet could touch the bottom; here the ocean is two miles deep and black as ink. Gulp. I suited up and edged in, shaking with fear… IT WORKS!! I bobbed across like a rubber duck and clambered out grinning like a loon. Not many people have done that, I thought to myself.”

Pee bottles, drysuits, MP3 players, sat phones and PDAs. What would Robert Peary think?



“These modern guys are such wimps. Now, that French chick, Dominick–there’s someone I’d be willing to share a sleeping bag with…”

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