Arctic Agony–Skivvy Break: It’s been a while since we checked in on Englishman Ben Saunders, who is skiing solo across the Arctic Ocean, from Russia to Canada via the North Pole. We didn’t miss much. It’s cold. It’s hard. It’s white. But yesterday Ben came in with a pretty good description of how much effort it takes to be out there skiing and pulling a sledge. Plus, he’s been out there four weeks and is almost at the 100 mile mark (just 814 to go!; click here for a route map). So, over to you, Ben:

“A new record today – nine hours of skiing. The mileage wasn’t spectacular, thanks to a dozen or so enormous pressure ridges, but I’m happy – a shade under seven nautical miles, my boot repair held together and I’ve just had beef stew for supper. Mmnn.

To get a rough idea of how my day went, head to your nearest gym, turn the air conditioning down to -30 or so, find one of those cross trainer machines and churn away on the highest setting for nine hours. To simulate the pressure ridges every 30-40 minutes, fill a plastic bathtub with the entire dumbell rack, head outside, drag it up the steps of the fire escape until you’re on the roof, lower it down the other side, stop to break the icicle off your nose and return to the cross trainer.

In a weird way, I really enjoyed today and I can’t believe I’ve been out here for nearly four weeks. Time to contemplate my first underwear change, I suppose…”

Interesting info, Ben. Apparently Arctic adventurers endure the same pair of underwear for roughly the same amount of time Southern Ocean sailors go without a change. Coincidence? The main difference is that Ben has a much higher risk of a highly inconvenient frostbite when he makes the swap…



What About Peary?: “Underwear? Underwear? We didn’t even wear it!…Which of course helped keep the polar bears away.”

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