Distance to the Pole (straight line): 215 nmi
Total distance travelled: 482.1 nmi

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO REPORT

In Association with the Royal British Legion

Henry Worsley delivers Day 51′s report for the Amundsen team. Henry obviously went to the Michael Fish School of Meteorology as his prediction of fine weather couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, the guys experienced a “shocker”, with white out conditions and winds of up to 19mph. At least the temperature was relatively warm at just -20 degrees, a marked improvement on the -49 they experienced three days ago.

Henry reads from Amundsen’s diary, which always helps to put things in perspective. The guys end the day on 12.2 nautical miles, which means they’re still on target. Keep it up, chaps!

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MAP & SITREP

Please keep pressing the ‘play’ button to advance to the next slide of the presentation.

SCOTT TEAM

Distance to the Pole (straight line): 305 nmi*
Total distance travelled: 468.5 nmi*
* No sitrep today – exact progress unknown

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO REPORT

Team Scott is unfortunately tentbound again on Day 51, but it is never without good reason. As Mark explains in his audio report, there’s just no messing around when you’re navigating crevasse fields and enormous chasms. The guys play it safe, which is absolutely the right thing to do. 

Listeners can hear for themselves the harsh wind outside the tent. The conditions causes some interference in the satellite link, we apologise for the poor quality of the audio in places. 

Mark adds on a second message explaining some of his remarks in his first message. We don’t feel that he really needed to explain himself, I think every reader understands what he meant the first time and after 51 days, we’ve all got to know Mark and the decent chap he is, and no-one would ever think he meant anything badly! Bless Mark for worrying, what a good bloke he is. Just you chaps concentrate on staying safe and getting to the Pole in one piece! (Or three, as it were).

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MAP & SITREP

Unfortunately, the sitrep from Team Scott for Day 51 did not come through to us here in the UK. As such we cannot give you a sitrep today, however from the audio report, we understand that they haven’t moved that far from yesterday’s position. We hope to have a sitrep for you tomorrow. Many thanks for your understanding. 

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NEW: LETTERS FROM HOME

We give voice to the loved ones of our intrepid adventurers. This week, it’s the turn if Mark’s father Ken and his wife Jude:

Hi Mark,

We are sitting here on the Costa Blanca thinking of you in the Big White of Antarctica as you steadily make your way into history. I am not surprised that you should choose such an amazingly difficult challenge as to literally follow in Scott`s footsteps. I recognised your rugged determination when you were a small boy at St Lukes (now Sandcross) Junior School in Reigate. To say that we are proud of you is an understatement. You are an inspiration to many.

You will try to finish first I know, but first just try to finish.

With all our love and admiration

Dad and Judy xxx

If you’re a family member or close friend, and would like to send your message out to all the readers, please do email Andrew Gough (webmaster) at info@scottamundsenrace.org.

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PETER’S PICTURES

Here are some more pictures from Peter Otway’s archive, showing the areas through which our teams are now passing. The images show an aerial view of “Old Man Beardmore”; the great Sir Walter “Wally” Herbert looking down on Shackleton Icefalls and Buckley Island; an aerial view from Plunket Point looking towards the mouth of the Beardmore Glacier; a view across the Wild icefalls; and lastly, Wally Herbert’s shaded map covering the area from the Axel Heiberg Glacier on the left to the Beardmore Glacier on the right, and their relative sizes. Thanks, Peter!

Click on any of these images to see a larger version. Please be patient if they take a few minutes to load, the high resolution versions are quite large!

Aerial view of the neve of the Beardmore with the Polar Plateau stretching beyond. Forbidding country!

REFLECTIONS

Part 1: ‘Shanks’ Pony vs. Shaggy Dogs’

A series of reflections on Antarctic travels past and present, by Peter Otway. In the early 1960s, Peter surveyed much of the areas through which our teams are now passing. In this, Part 1, Peter compares the use of dogs with manhauling.

“As I have followed Teams Scott and Amundsen on their long slog across the featureless Ross Ice Shelf and now, heaving their way up two very different but equally treacherous glaciers leading to the South Pole, it has taken me back half a century to the days I was in a team exploring and mapping much of the same terrain as part of the New Zealand geological and survey mapping programme with Brit Wally Herbert as our experienced and inspirational leader. Perhaps more than most, I have felt their highs and lows as they battle every obstacle and hardship the Antarctic can throw in their path, and their dogged determination to achieve their goal whatever the odds.”

Click here to read Part 1 of Peter Otway’s Reflections in full