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Summit Team Building

Union Glacier to the South Pole

December 24th�-We were able to fly out of Union Glacier today and make it to our South Pole ski starting spot. Flying took a good part of the day so once we arrived we skied a very short distance just to get going.

December 25th – Today I was up at 6:45am to start water for breakfast then to pack up our camp.� We were on our skis by 8:45am.� We skied for 4 hours and did about 10km. The last hour there was a lot of sastrugi and it was difficult.� It was about -30 with a strong wind.� My hands got very cold a few times today and hurt when they warmed up.� We had dinner in the tent and I am now going to make water for the morning.

December 26th – Robert Scott upon arriving at the South Pole in 1912 wrote in his journal � great god, this is an awful place�. Today was kinda like that for us. It is about -30 and there is a very strong wind so the windchill is -50 or more. We skied for almost 7 hours and only made about 11 km. We had a lot of sastrugi making the surface very slow and difficult. The wind made break time difficult. We got to camp at 4 pm and struggled to set up our tents in the strong wind. We are somewhat comfy inside but it is quite cold and I am shivering as I type this. I hope tomorrow is a better day allowing us to make better progress to the South Pole. We have 48 nautical miles to go which is about 90km.

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