Pre-Expedition Ponderings from Sam and George Ratcliffe:
Sam Ratcliffe:
It will all be new to us. We have never seen or been in conditions like we are about to experience before. Mountains are one thing–walking accross a frozen ocean that we can feel move as we walk is another. It is stange to think that we will be in this white tundra for 10 days, no landmarks,just ice and there will be the 9 of us.
I am both excited and nervous; I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the group, what tricky little obstacles to be overcome and how we will do as a team.
George Ratcliffe:
The most exciting prospect is that everything we will be doing on our journey to the North Pole will be a first, from putting a tent up in Arctic conditions to going to the toilet! We will spend 10 days in a landscape that is so unknown to us and probably the only time we will get to do so, as a team – who are relatively new to one another. However it will just be the nine of us and a lot of walking, aches and pains, with little other worries. I look forward to it hugely now, so lets see what I have to say once I am out there!