Each day is the same out here, wake at 6:30am (24hr daylight so I have to remove eyepatches), if it is my turn for breakfast, I slide out of my warm sleeping bag, pull on my clothes that have been in the bottom of the bag to keep them warm overnight. I unzip the inner chamber of the tent and a draft of icy air wakes me from my sleep. I pump the fuel bottles (wearing gloves as the metal is so cold my skin would stick to it) and fire up both burners, in 5 minutes I'll have boiling water and a cup of welcome coffee. I shake Shaun awake and tell him there is water for brekky. I shovel snow into the pots on the stoves to make our drinking water for the day. Even though the bottles live in thermal jackets, I have to fill them with boiling water or they will freeze by the end of the day's march. I pour hot water from a thermos into my boil-in-the-bag breakfast, today is lamb mulligatawny, 800kcals worth of protein, carbs and fat to fuel me until the first break. After only 12 days the 10 different varieties of food all taste the same - it is not food anymore, just fuel and I need 5800kcals per day.
Once breakfast is cleaned away, I put on my outer layers, strangely enough, I only need, thermals and Gore-Tex bibs on my legs, one pair of socks, a thermal, thin fleece and Gore-Tex jacket for my upper body. This is enough clothing to keep me warm in -35c when I'm marching and generating heat, when I stop however a down jacket has to be put on quickly. My face and hands are a different matter, I wear a thin 'buff' to protect my neck and to stop the metal zip of my thermal top freezing to my neck, then a wool balaclava, then a woolen wind proof hat, then a neoprene 'Hannibal Lector' style face mask, then my goggles which also has a neoprene nose guard. Hands, 3 layers some times 4 depending on wind-chill. For those that are into their out door gear, I have no synthetic material against any of my skin, it is all Merino wool. The key difference being that when it is wet, the wool stays warm, sweat trapped between layers will freeze in minutes when you stop, so even when damp you stay warm (well warm out here is relative!)
We have had a string of abysmal days with temps down to -35c, I can't describe what this feels like as the wind cuts through you, there is nowhere to shelter, for even a second - all you can do is quicken your step and put your head down - you could put the tent up and call it a day, but that would be giving into the Antarctic spirits that swirl around you all day long whispering in your ear to give up and call it a day. You can't help but bring to life the heroes that have walked here a 100 years before you, Shackleton, Crean, Scott and Amundsen and use them in defense of the onslaught of the elements.
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