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Over the last 100 years, 3 primary methods have evolved to get to the South Pole without mechanised assistance.

* Wind power

* Dog power

* Human power

In this order, here are some observations regarding Cas and Jonesy’s Crossing The Ice expedition …..  (all images from training in NZ).

Wind –

Ronny Finsaas is a chef, a kiter and Norwegian. In early 2008, Ronny decided he wanted to travel from the South Pole, to Hercules Inlet, a distance of 1100 klms. Initially he’d considered using a converted chef’s hat as his parafoil but quickly realised that this was extraordinarily impractical, so ever the Scandinavian, he opted instead for a normal traction kite.

Thus armed with the right equipment, he left the South Pole after midnight on the 20^th of January 2008 and on that first day he travelled 153 klms.

On the second day, he made himself a little snack and set out again and travelled another 153 klms.

This distance was achieved again on the third day but on the fourth day, Ronny thought to himself: “These distances are getting old; tomorrow I am going to kite still further”.

So, on the 23^rd of January, Ronny got out of his sleeping bag, let out a shuddering burst of flatulence and gauged that conditions were perfect and at 9.30am, put his kite into the air. How the day flew!

Hours, wind and ice rushed by and by the time he next looked at his watch it was 9.00am the next day and Ronny likely said to himself – “I need a snack, a sleep and a poop” but before he did these things, possibly simultaneously, he looked at how far he’d travelled in a single 24 hour period and saw that it was 502 kms.

Ronny could not believe what he’d done, so in a typical Norwegian outburst of emotion, he expressed his astonishment at substantially breaking the previous world record and summed up his achievement with:

“Nice”.

With Hercules Inlet metaphorically in sight and rested, refuelled and abluted, Ronny popped the kite for one more session and got to the end of the trip at 8.52pm that day.

Ronny thought: “The 1100km route is normally done in 15 to 25 days; I expected my trip to take around 7 but it actually took 5. Or 60 hours of kiting. The weather gods smiled at me.”

Indeed they did.

Dogs –

The Crossing The Ice expedition sets out to commemorate the Amundsen and Scott journeys exactly 100 years ago.

Like Ronny, Roald Amundsen was also Norwegian and thus being extremely practical was something he valued very highly. Amundsen didn’t do luck. He did practicality and cold logic.

History does not record whether old Roald had any particular animosity towards dogs in general but it’s unlikely. What he did have though was limited sentimentality towards them in pursuit of his ambition to lead the first party to reach the South Pole and if hounds were the collateral damage of his dream; so be it.

In the context of Antarctica and at their most elemental, dogs provide –

* Power

* Food for people

* Food for other dogs

So using this brutal logic, there’s going to be a certain attrition rate built in to the number you start with, versus the number you finish with.

In fact, this ratio was –

* Leave Norway with 100 North Greenland dogs

* Start the trek south with 52

* Arrive at the Pole with 16

* And get back with 11

Not surprisingly, vegans did not feature highly in Amundsen’s cohort as the hapless hounds dispatched along the way provided food for both man and beast, leading to cries of animal cruelty which he responded with:

"Presumably these cries came from tender-hearted individuals who themselves kept watchdogs tied up".

Which is Norwegian for: “Cry me a river ….. “.

The trip took 99 days; one day short of his original plan of 100 and the distance covered was 3,000 km or 30klms per day.

Manhauling:

Wind is strong and powerful; it can propel things – like huge ships at 10klms per hour or Norwegians on skis towing a sled at 50 klms an hour - as Ronny did.

North Greenland dogs are strong and powerful; they too can propel things like sleds filled with supplies, with Norwegians running beside the sleds so as to not tax the dogs – as Amundsen did.

Manhauling though is different. Manhauling is cruelly tough. The sled moves not an inch without the polar traveller leaning forward, straining against the traces, digging their poles into the ice and dragging the weight forward. Then doing the same again. And again. And again.

In Antarctica, there’s no gravity as it were; no sliding down hills that have been climbed like in the mountains. Antarctica is basically flat – even the angled bits like the glaciers are pretty bloody flat. Progress here all needs effort and that effort is human.

It would be inaccurate and unfair to say that using kites makes a South Pole expedition easy. Or using dogs makes the trip easy; Antarctic travel is never easy.

But using kites and dogs are not like manhauling – this form of polar travel is more like the trench warfare of World War 1; a grinding, unrelenting battle of attrition.

That’s why what Cas and Jonesy’s Crossing The Ice expedition is big – really big.

No dogs down south these days, so the furry and tasty friends are not an option; kites are but not dogs.

Crossing The Ice is unsupported, no kites, the Pole and back, just 2 guys and dragging Day 90’s shit with them when they set out on Day 1.

That’s genuine old skool and regardless of the end point, these 2 young guys will have earned their bad-ass badges for life.

Respect to them and follow their trip here …