Ben: I can feel the weight of the sled biting into me
Carrbridge polar hero Ben Weber is facing temperatures of -25 degrees as he trudges his lonely way to the southernmost point of the planet for Cancer Research UK.
In his latest report home he records: "Blue skies, some light headwinds and 16k/10miles travelled.
"Slowly does it!
"It has been great to get up the first steep climb up from Hercules Inlet – I am around 900m altitude now and it will stay like this for a while which will be nice. 15km travelled yesterday and another 16km today… slowly increasing!
"It’s not easy though – the terrain is anything but flat."
The sastrugi – parallel wave-like ridges caused by winds on the surface of hard snow – are everywhere, he says.
"And every time I go over them I can feel the weight of the sled biting into me.
"I have reached a nice landmark though..."
A series of nunataks – isolated peaks of rock projecting above a surface of inland ice or snow – called the Three Sails are right in front of him.
"From here I start to make my way slightly southeastwards to 80 degrees west. The curved route until now has been to avoid major crevasse fields which would not be pleasant to go through!"
Hopefully he will be able to increase speed further, though he will have to be careful.
"As I travelled today I started to develop a bit of a neck ache which got very bad by the time I camped.
"It was nice to have a couple of iboprofin for some pain relief though hopefully this doesn’t get worse as I ski. I imagine the weight of the sled is not helping!!!
"Anyway, hope everyone is well!"
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ben-weber1
