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Cyber explorer Hannah Live from Punta Arenas check point before the South Pole

Oct 25, 2004 16: 28 EST
South Pole is heating up! Hannah was the first South Pole explorer to arrive in Punta Arenas yesterday, sans luggage! That's right; all her gear is lost somewhere between London and Santiago. She checked in at Condor and had a long bath. But she wouldn't be Hannah if she didn't also write up a BIG story about the day. Just over from Afghanistan, we've grown used to her story telling. Well, soon she'll hit the ice and we bet the dispatches will shrink in size!

Here an excerpt from her latest:

"Departure
24 Oct, 04 - 20:08

"Why the South Pole?" Asks the young man opposite me on the train. "I mean it's really cool, but what inspired you to do it." I kid you not, I must have been asked this very question ten times a day for the last year, and ridiculously, I still don't have an answer that satisfies me. The plain truth is that I honestly can't remember why I ever decided that walking to the South Pole would be a good thing to do. I vaguely remember a conversation with my Bavarian friend Bernie out in the Libyan Desert a few days after a particularly horrifying ascent of the 2000m Jebel Uweinat. But I seem to recall that that conversation was simply a catalougue of crazy things to do rather than any statement of intent. However the decision was reached, it all seems a very long time ago.

Going the whole way

I did ponder the option of the last degree for a little while, but only a very little while. If you are going to go to the South Pole and you are physically able, you really have to go the whole hog. I have walked a long way across deserts and have learnt that it is only on your feet that you truly learn the nature of a place. So, that was me decided, I was going to ski the whole way.

Dealing with the logistics

Unfortunately by May I still didn't have confirmation from ANI of my place on the trip and they were getting harder and harder to communicate with. By June I finally got the news that they had been bought out by another company Antarctic Logistics and that they didn't intend to honor my original booking, but that I could rebook through Antarctic Logistics. The flaw in this arrangement quickly became apparent. I had booked the trip the previous year at the price of 47,000$ I was now being asked to book at a price of 67,000$. Next I got wind of the fact that there were some other ex-ANI clients whose expedition was being honored by Antarctic Logistics on account of the fact that their deposit payment had been taken. My own deposit, although proffered the previous September, had not gone through, no doubt due to the confusion of the take over. Starting to feel desperate I managed to get in contact with Mike Sharpe, one of the owners of Antarctic Logistics, and began to plead my case.

He was reluctant at first, but eventually I was contacted by our expedition leader, the delightful Denise Martin, introducing herself and the rest of the group via email. I was finally, really going to the South Pole.

The technology

At the end of July I discovered Contact 3. This outstanding package offered everything I could dream of in terms of remote satellite communication. The pioneers of Contact 3, ExplorersWeb, responded with great enthusiasm when I said I wanted the package and worked round the clock to get it all set up and out to me in time to trial in Afghanistan. After only a few days in the field it was clear to me that this system was going to change the way I traveled forever. I have always kept detailed journals of the expeditions I have joined and then typed them up to share with team mates on my return, but through the wonders of Contact 3 I could now upload my dispatches daily onto my own dedicated website. Not only was this great fun, but offered huge peace of mind to my family and friends who were all horrified at me being in Afghanistan at all.

I arrived in Santiago, my luggage did not

It is lovely to be lying on my bed in the Hotel Condor de Plata in Punta Arenas writing my first dispatch for the Pole. It feels good to be writing, it is so much a part of my routine when I am away, I always really miss it when I get home.

I've had one heck of a journey to get here. Punta Arenas is a very, very long way from London and I'm now very tired and more than a little stressed. My two bags and my skis did not make the flight transfer in Madrid and will, I was assured, be coming along after me tomorrow. There was nothing I could do, I simply had to trust what the airline staff were telling me. So I got my connection to Punta Arenas frighteningly empty handed. I just can't begin to face what I will have to do if the luggage doesn't turn up, without that clothing and equipment there is simply no question of going to Antarctica. Thank god I am here a week early, at the very worst I could still have time to fly up into North America and get replacement kit through my contacts there, oh my goodness, the very thought is making me tense.

Punta Arenas

The good news is that I am in Punta Arenas, in Patagonia, in South America! This is very exciting. In fact the bit of Patagonia I am in is very much like parts of Ireland. It's very green but a bit shabby and it is raining steadily in a way that suggests it has been going for months and will continue for months. The town is built of low wooden houses that make me mindful of Alaska and some rural parts of North America; everything has an earthy, working feel. I leave my surviving hand baggage at the little, family run hotel, and head into town for a few essentials (toothbrush, new knickers, that sort of thing), and then sink thankfully into a deep, hot bath. I'm sure everything will be just fine tomorrow."

Hannah McKeand, Owen Jones, Craig Mathieson, Fiona Taylor, and Denise Martin (leader) will attempt to reach the South Pole skiing from Patriot Hills. They’ll count on a resupply at Thiels mountains. 31 years old, the UK woman has decided to drop everything, mortgage the house, and go for it. And it’s not just a one-off expedition. Hannah is embarked on a yearlong triple-threat that has already taken her to the deserts of Afghanistan and Libya. After the expedition on the Antarctic ice she will take part in a sailing race around the world.

Image of Hanna courtesy of Hanna McKeand

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