All mapped out - 121 Days to Go

121 Days. 

It sounds a long time and, to my children, it is an eternity. Far too far away for them to think about. We have to get through several birthdays and Easter before my trip so I am resigned to playing second fiddle to more interesting events. #ArcticRugbyDaddy will just have to find ways of engaging them along the way. Personally, I have no such luxury of letting the world pass by over the coming months. There is plenty to do. Indeed, without a significant amount of planning and training already in place there is no way we would be ready to go in time for mid-April.

Today is the first of many milestones, I woke up and realised it’s the last day that the Arctic Rugby Challenge is ‘next year’. Tomorrow there will be no hiding from the reality that we are going on a gruelling journey of hardship and in order to make it through to the other side steps need to be taken now or risk failure for myself, the team and the charity. The old adage stands true “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. Let’s hope it never comes to that.

With this in mind, I thought it might be a good idea over the coming days to provide a little information on our plans, route and the challenges we may face. It just helps drum home the enormity of the task ahead and, to be honest, gives me the opportunity to let reality sink in a little more.

The last six months have seen our dedicated support team, including expedition leader Jock Wishart, spend many hours of preparation on the best route to the Magnetic North Pole, what kit we need to take and what training we need to undergo in order for us to survive such a barren desert of ice and solitude.

When I first met Jock all I knew about him was that he was the man whose hands my life would be in should we get into a bind. At the time, I remember looking at those hands and being reassured that they still had all 10 fingers! No mean feat for a polar explorer of his experience and accomplishments. You only have to look at Sir Ranulph  Fiennes so see the ravages cold can inflict on the hands and body.

As a starter, below are two maps of the area we will be navigating, the second giving the planned route out of Resolute Bay to the Magnetic North Pole. The global view map shows in grey the approximate winter distribution of ursus maritimus (Polar Bear) and you can see that we’ll be trekking right into the middle of their territory, where today, 25,000 to 40,000 polar bears roam the Arctic. (source: Polar Bears International)

That last fact should be enough to permit me an extra glass of New Year’s Eve cheer this evening, just to help me get to sleep you understand.

Enjoy the celebrations.

James Harding

Arctic Rugby Challenge