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Part III of III: Hannah McKeand, from the desert to the ice to the sea

Jul 23, 2004 17: 45 EST
Today is the final installment of our three-part interview with Hannah McKeand, who is about to set off on a series of adventures taking her from Afghanistan to Antarctica to an around the world race. She speaks with ExplorersWeb about the South Pole, the yacht race, and beyond. We also find out a little more about what makes Hannah tick.

ExWeb: Then, just a short while after Afghanistan you've got the South Pole. You seem to be going from one extreme to the other - what's the scoop?

Hannah: Ha! Scoop! You make it sound like ice cream. Somewhere in a small corner of my head Antarctica will always be the ice-cream continent from now on. Thanks!

Well, I’m not sure really. At some point I got fed up of telling people I had been traveling to the second biggest wilderness on the planet and thought it was probably time I went to the biggest. I’m a bit of a space junkie I guess. I spend quite a lot of my life feeling rather big in the world, I’m 6’2” and bump into things a lot and sleeves and trousers are too short and I get such a kick out of feeling really, really small.

I also really love a challenge. I’m definitely more of a tortoise than a hare. I really like walking across big areas; it’s only then that you can really know them. I wrote something about this in Libya last November, I’ll send if over to you.

‘In the desert, something of interest can be found on every square metre of ground, your eyes become attuned to the detail. But a desert is meant to be walked in; it has its own pace, its own rhythms. You can drive through hills or dunes or mountains and the big elements of the desert’s character can hold their own, it can still speak to you, even though you pass through it at speed; but plains such as these are the quietest, oldest parts of the desert, the end of erosion.

To cross these by car, day after day, renders them featureless, voiceless, truly forgotten, condemned to loneliness. How many millions of stone tools and quartz shards and wind-shaped pebbles and fragments of bone and fulcrite shafts do we pass oblivious each day in this car? Who on earth, if not us, will ever stop and listen to the soft dry whisper of this desert’s stories?’

ExWeb: What are your biggest concerns about the South Pole?

Hannah: Letting the rest of the team down - I’ve been training since January, but it doesn’t stop me assuming that I will be the least fit person there. Silly I guess, I just really want to be a positive force for my teammates and not a burden. And then the monotony, I’m afraid that it’s going to be much more of a mental challenge than even the immense physical one. I imagine it will be spectacularly beautiful, but that by day 40 or so we will be pretty much over the whole Antarctic landscape thing.

Then Frostbite, I don’t have great circulation and suffer from cold hands and feet at the best of times, so I shall be taking great care of my extremities and doing a full fingers, toes and nose count every day!

ExWeb: What are you most looking forward to experiencing down there?

Hannah: The peace and space. Working as part of a team. I’m going with some really great people. Denise Martin is our leader; she was the first Canadian woman to reach the North Pole and was co-leader of the British All-Female Artic Relay. She is fantastically experienced and a great person to be taking care of us.

Then there are Fiona Taylor and Craig Mathieson from Scotland who are proper adventurers and have just done an amazing trip across Greenland and finally Owen Jones who is a Brit living in Tokyo and seems like a real character. I can’t wait to get to know all these wonderful people and I’m sure we are going to laugh a lot!

ExWeb: Music, lots of skiers bring music, or books on tape type of things to help pass the time skiing - what's going to be in your walkman or Ipod?

Hannah: Yeah, I’m an Ipod girl which means I get to take heaps of aural diversion with me. I’m very excited to hear that I will be able to charge it via my Contact 3 kit. I shall be skiing away to a very varied mix. Everything from Turin Brakes to Alabama 3 to Eddie Izzard and the Brahms Violin Concerto. I’m pretty eclectic in my listening tastes.

ExWeb: Ok, so let's fast forward to next year, you've got the desert and the ice covered, now you plan to take to the sea. What inspired this?

Hannah: Reading Ellen Macarthur’s Vendee Globe account, what an absolute inspiration that girl is! As I mentioned earlier I’m pretty scared of the sea, but after reading ‘Taking on the World’ I realized that there is too much fun to be had out there to continue entertaining such a limiting phobia. So, I booked a week sailing around Scotland on one of the BT Global Challenge yachts and thanks to Challenge #32, her wonderful skipper, Jonathan Bailey, and gorgeous first mate, Miles Wise, I realized this was something I would really like to have a go at doing. John is hoping to skipper one of the Clipper Round the World boats and by the end of the week had persuaded me to sign up.

All the berths are full at the moment, but I’m on the reserve list and Clipper say there’s every chance I will get on as people drop out all the time. I’ll get to do the training anyway, so that will keep me diverted anyway when I get back from the Pole and I’m waiting to hear.

ExWeb: How competitive do you foresee this race to be?

Hannah: Very! It will be the ultimate team event. The crews’ lives will be consumed by the race for the best part of a year. Every single man and woman involved will be committed to giving 100% of their physical and emotional resources to the performance of their boat.

ExWeb: The South Pole is really quite a challenge and can be grueling at times - do you perceive the sailing to be along the same lines, or more of an enjoyable-type adventure?

Hannah: If I’m lucky enough to get a berth, I think The Clipper will almost certainly be the hardest thing I will ever do, but maybe also the best. I’ll also send over what Clipper says about the race, judge for yourself.

‘The sea, however, always presents a challenge and particularly for a small yacht. Its surface is constantly changing. Moving weather patterns build waves from different directions; the winds can make progress in a sailing boat easy or hard; survival thousands of miles from the nearest port calls for careful logistical planning. This and its unique route, is what makes the Clipper 05-06 race one of life's last real challenges in to-days world.

This challenge is not for an elite minority, it is specifically designed to create the opportunity for the amateur and total novice sailor to compete with the professional on the world's toughest stage. Clipper believes in professionalism however and before the boats set off in September 2005, each of the crews will have been given instruction and a thorough grounding in sailing and the basic seamanship required to be a useful member of a racing crew. It is not just sailing skills that the crews develop. Living with 15 fellow crew members, only the skipper is a professional, in a confined space for an ocean crossing creates a team spirit and friendships that survive long after the race finish.’

ExWeb: So what then? You've touched upon some great adventures all within such a short period of time - will it be back to the normal world, or do you plan on making these trips more a part of your everyday life?

Hannah: No one who’s ever done these things will ever get it out of their system I don’t think, I will keep going as long as I keep thinking of new things to do. I write a great deal about all my adventures and I would really like to reach a point where I can put that writing into a forum where it might be enjoyed and maybe reach a point where it could support the travelling.

Mind you, I am aware that at 31 I’m reaching the point in my life where I will have to start thinking about having a family soon if I want one or decide that I’m not going to. Although I’m not at all broody, I think I would be really disappointed if I missed the chance of having children. As my old friend Raymond said today, “Particularly for a woman, having children is perhaps the greatest adventure of all.”

ExWeb: What book are you reading right now? Do you find yourself preparing for this stuff by reading previous accounts of around the world sails and polar expeditions?

Hannah: Yes, I’m reading Joshua Slocum’s book ‘Sailing Alone Around The World’. In 1895 he was the first person ever to do it, it’s a wonderful read. I’m also reading ‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’ by Eric Newby and ‘Anil’s Ghost’ by Michael Ondaatje as a bit of fiction on the side; I just want to live in every sentence he writes. Nothing Antarctic on the go at the moment, although I’ve just finished Katherine Hartley’s book ‘To The Poles Without A Beard’ which is another brilliant read and made me hoot with laughter.

ExWeb: How are you feeling right now, about to embark on the start of a series of journeys. Is there any one thing that you feel apprehensive about right now?

Hannah: A little bit nervous, but very eager. Finances are always a worry, but I’ll soon forget about that once I’m out on the ice I reckon!

Hannah plans on leaving next month for Afghanistan, and then will go for the South Pole this fall, and will then finish up the trifecta by hopefully competing in an around the world sailing race.

Image of Hannah courtesy of Hannah McKeand.

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