How cold is it? - Current Resolute Weather

camping under the stars - Fri 28th April

No student diaries tonight I’m afraid – we are taking all the students out for a night under the stars instead. Unfortunately our proficiency at building igloos has not improved enough to build an igloo good enough to sleep in and so we will be sleeping in two tents and a snowhole. One tent will be for the girls and one for the boys – we had thought about sharing but the girls are not surprisingly a bit worried about using a pee bottle in public – I’m sure they will tell you more about what this entails. Tara helpfully decided that over lunch would be a good time to tell us all about the ins and outs (hopefully more ins than outs although they have been given a towel just in case!) of using it – I don’t think I will be able to look at fish and chips in the same way ever again.

Lots of people have emailed us about a couple of things in last night’s diary.

Number 1: Sarah Rogers had a good time but I am sworn to secrecy
Number 2: Lucy’s tongue has recovered (look at the picture carefully)

This morning has consisted of setting up tonight’s camp which is located in a gorge a couple of miles from the hotel. This involved a ski for most of the team apart from Sarah who hitched a ride on a skidoo and Tara who announced she was getting bored of skiing and so walked. The students also had to get their equipment to the campsite and so we hauled two sledges behind us which included a large and heavy shotgun for Polar Bear protection.

Our huge thanks to Tony Martin from Polar Challenge (www.polar-challenge.com) who has lent us a lot of his equipment as well as giving us instructions on how to use the tents.

This afternoon once again saw us experience the hospitality of Qarmartalik School when the students and staff treated us to a lunch of Caribou stew and Bannock (a type of deep fried bread – very tasty). This was followed up by some more throat singing. We have decided that in return for the experience of listening to them throat sing we should perform a couple of songs for them on Monday when we say our farewells. Hence the Polarquest Choir has duly been formed and we shall be practicing all weekend – watch out Wet Wet Wet and Bananarama (I may be a little out of touch with the current music scene).

The students are now getting some well earned rest before tonight’s adventures. Despite encouraging them to have an early night last night a card school was set up courtesy of entertainment manager Miss Dry. All was going well until forfeits were introduced – hope the frozen, defrosted and frozen again Pringles tasted good Andy, interesting outdoor pole dancing Sarah and I’m sure Ady’s frostbitten toes will warm up soon.

Thanks for all your support for the Polarquest website, apparently we are currently getting 10,000 hits on average every day. To be fair 9,000 of these are Lucy and Harry checking the site to make sure their hair looks good in the photographs.

Happy Camping

Andrew

Previous Logs

More Antics from Resolute Bay - Thurs 27th April Unfortunately tonight’s log may be a little shorter than you are used to. This is partly because we are all absolutely shattered after all the exercise, late nights and early mornings but mainly because our very hard working network manager, Sarah Rogers has a blind date. We wish her all the best and hope it goes well. Seriously though, Sarah has had the massive job of uploading all the material and photos to the website as well as keeping me calm when we have had difficulties getting the pictures and messages through. She has worked hard every evening and the team really appreciates her efforts. The postcard is in the post!
Ski Mountaineers Are Us!!! - Weds 26th April Unfortunately the weather got the better of our plans today. The North Pole was not to be as the flat light gave limited visibility for our plane to land. So being full of beans and some strange red juice that I refer to as loopy juice that by the way has become Andrews latest addiction, we needed something exciting to do.
High Praise for Students - Tues 25th April There is praise and high praise and today Geoff who is an Inuit Ranger and a very quiet, unassuming but highly skillful young man said that our students were really tough on our trip out to Griffith Island. They had made full use of their short time there even though the wind was very strong and blowing a lot of snow around but despite it being very cold and uncomfortable on the sledges no students complained about the conditions.
Komatic riding across the Arctic Ocean - Mon 24th April After another hearty breakfast (everyone is well into fried breakfasts now) the day started really well with a trip to the school to see some lessons and have the opportunity to meet students from Resolute Bay. We visited a range of classes from Kindergarten through to senior school and spent recess there with Matt showing off his piano skills and Harry teaching them guitar.
What a fantastic welcome! - Sun 23rd April It’s a chilly morning with poor visibility but that isn’t going to interfere with our morning cross country ski. Everyone’s flying now, either gliding elegantly across the snow (Harry and Kizzie) or flying face or bum first (Lucy, James, Andrew - Davis that is! and even Ady) or flying through the air Liane!! (See photos)
First Day fun in Resolute - Sat 22nd April After our late arrival in Resolute last night we made the decision to make the most of every single moment up here in the High Arctic. Therefore it was an early rise at 7am for breakfast which consisted of a hearty fry up to provide plenty of calories for the days full program of activities. The wind was whistling past the window which was a sure sign that it would feel pretty cold - indeed our measurements of wind speed and still air temperatures showed it to be -32C.
Arrival in Resolute Fri 21st April Have made it to Resolute Bay after a bit of a horror 6 hour flight on a small plane that felt like it was never going to end - it even stopped for fuel on the way!!! Very tired and weary!
Out & About in Ottawa! Thurs 20th April Have safely arrived in Ottawa and are now settled into Adam's Airport Inn all ready for the flight North tomorrow. Temperature in Ottawa is an abnormally high +23C So the students went out in shirt sleeves tonight for tea - some even had shorts and flip flops on.They will experience a huge temperature change tomorrow as in Resolute it is currently -22C.  No more flipflops I suspect!

Thanks!

Now would seem like an appropriate time to thanks all those that have supported this expedition. Even though only 8 students are going to the North Pole, 10 students have made up the team and the two reserves have played their part in supporting the team with both dignity and enthusiasm – thanks to Katrina and Alistair we will be thinking of you when we get to the Pole. Thanks to the students and teachers at Exmouth Community College for taking part in fundraising events that has helped us achieve more than £26 000 towards the expedition. In particular, to Paul Jeffery who has been a massive help and to Pete, Sue, Angela and Paul who served on the PQ Management Group. Sarah Rogers and her ICT team have also been invaluable in helping to build the PQ website and advice and training on the laptops and cameras we have brought with us, as well as keeping the Ice Log up to date. Thanks also to The Pain trust and Adventure Trust for Girls for their financial assistance which has been crucial. Exmouth Town Council have also been very generous along with, ROK Construction, Faber Maunsell, Citizen Project, Ashfords, Fulfords and Bradleys Estate Agents and the Rotary Clubs of Exmouth who have all made donations which are allowing the students this once in a lifetime experience. Our sincere thanks goes to all those individuals and organisations who got involved.

Once we reach Resolute Bay we will be sending daily e-mails to report on the activities that we have been getting involved in so please keep logging on to this space to find out what we are doing. If you want to get in touch with us please e-mail the team - polar.watch