Khai's Journeys to the Poles and Peaks

Denali - First Attempt

2010-06-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

I came back to the Bay Area over a week ago from Denali. To go straight to the answer, I did not make it to the summit. In fact, and unfortunately, I only made it to near camp 2. There are 5 camps on Mt McKinley, 4 of which climbers can haul their sleds to. I was sad and disappointed not to be able to proceed to further due to my knee injury condition.

I have had meniscus tear, probably since last year when I did Mt Whitney. It probably so minor that I did not realize. Then came the training sessions for Denali where I carried really heavy backpack while hiking. I have been really careful with my knees, always use trekking poles and never ever run down on the descents. In late March, I started to experience pain on my left knees. At first I thought it was muscle tear and a week of rest would be enough. It never went away and only got worse. Every step up and down (more so on traversing down) any stairs caused some pain on the left knee. I sensed something not right and went see doctors and got MRI scan and X-ray. The doctors could see the tear right away. So before going to Ecuador, I already knew to the full extent of my knee injury, but I decided to continue my training and acclimatization process, in hope the injury would not get worse. I told Pepe about it and we were quite careful about my condition.

After returning from Ecuador, I met my surgeon and scheduled a date for operation. I would be June 17. My surgeon recommended me not to go but I told him I really wanted to do it. So he prescribed me pain killer. At that time, I felt that the pain did not get worse, so hopefully I would not aggravate it. My thinking was since I was going to have a surgery, and have the tear removed, it would not make any difference if I push forward or call off the expedition. You never know until you try.

Air taxi dropped us at the base camp

Jump to the expedition, the hike from base camp to camp 1 wasn’t too bad, despite our super heavy weight of gears, food and fuel (total about 105 lbs each person). However, I got digestive problem. Pepe also had it but his stomach was strong enough to deal with it while I had to take diarrhea medication to stop it. This and the knee injury definitely did not help me on the mountain at all.

Near camp 2, about to descent back to base camp

There was this pretty big slope that we had to hike from camp 1 to camp 2. We started the day at 10am. It was a beautiful day but no wind. On the glacier, with the sun fully blasted its heat and the snow reflected single light ray back at you, this was not so good of a time to hike. All these added up. About half way to camp 2, the knee started to feel more painful and the back of the knee was so stiff. Each step was a huge effort. I did not have a good balance because I would shift all the weight to right leg. When we reached near camp 2, I decided it was not a good idea for me to pursue the climb further up, it became too dangerous. I did not want to get into any accident due to this knee problem. We camped for the night and started to go down the following morning. On the way down, it was more painful than going up, even with the help of the pain killer. Some climbers could even tell I have issue with my knee! At the base camp, Lisa, who helped arranged with flights back to Talkeetna said she had similar issue and that it was the right decision. No one wants an evacuation by helicopter.

The surgery will be a small one, but it’ll take at least 6 to 8 weeks to go back to normal. I do have a plan for the summer and the rest of the year, but the injury has pushed some, if not most of them out, depending on the healing process. Sometimes you can’t proceed with your plan due to unexpected reasons. The mountains are still there, that I know.

Acclimatization Begins

2010-05-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today Pepe picked me up at my hostel at 8am. It was supposed to be 7:30 but he was stuck in traffic. Haven't seen him for two years, the guy looked the same. We left the city and into the suburb of Quito. The ride was not smooth, with lots bumps. The roads were not paved at all. In fact, they were all muddy after a few weeks of rain. I have been unlucky. Since I arrived, it rains everyday, down pouring. Pepe told me the are floods everywhere in low lands. I didn't know there is national emergency going on in Ecuador. Only if I speak Spanish to know this!

He drove me to the the trail of the mountain. It was so muddy that the car wouldn't move. We ended up walking twice the distance to the top. The hike was wet and obviously very dirty. We had to be super careful with each step as it was very slick. My pants were covered in mud and my shoes soaking. However, I didn't realize the wet socks until later. The wool socks are amazing. I felt warm in even they were completely dampened.

At the top, which is about 13000 ft (3900m), the view was okay, most covered in thick clouds and no sun. We chilled there for 20 minutes and took off.

Needless to say, the way down wasn't easier with slippery earth. Once we reach to the car which he parked in the middle of the road where we couldn't move further, Pepe took 0ut his soil digger and started to plant trees. We planted about 8 trees there. It was nice to be part of tree planting program that he's in for the Ecuadorian Red Cross.

He drove me back to his place in a very nice neighborhood of Cumbaya, outside of Quito. It's almost like Saratoga in the South Bay with lots of nice boutique shops and seclusive houses. He and his wife Monique and their children, 5 years old Jose and a girl (11) who I didn't get to meet, live in a beautiful house, very buddhistish with lots of Asian traces such as bamboo trees and paper lanterns. Apparently, Monique is a big fan of India. She's a great cook too, as she served us excellent lunch with pasta sopa and prime ribs.

It was a great first day although the weather sucked (and continue to).

New Journeys

2010-05-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

If you noticed, I have appended the word "peaks" to the tittle of the blog. You guessed it right, peaks are the new journeys I am going to take.

As recent as early last year, I did not even think about getting into mountaineering, let alone trying big mountains. Because South Pole is at high altitude, I needed to train for it. So my first climb was Mt Shasta. The trip went well, and all of the sudden I found myself falling in love with mountaineering. It almost like once you are in love, you never have enough.

I always love mountains and nature and did quite bit of hiking, but all of these are not serious climbing. So last year, I contacted a friend of mine who I met before and after my North Pole trip. His name is Pepe Jijon from Ecuador. He and I stayed in the same hostel in Longyearbyen. We talked a bit while waiting for our flight to Barneo basecamp for a few days. He was off to a last two degree expedition while mine is last degree. He said he had done 7 summits, all solo. This is one of the amazing feat that only a few have done so far. So I asked him if I got into mountaineering, I would like to work with him. We exchanged emails after our trips.

Fast forward to 2009. I decided to try out the big ones, even before my departure for the South Pole. I contacted him again and discussed the project. The first one I am aiming for is Mt McKinley. He did this back in 2006. It was a tough trip for him, but he made it. After Denali, he did Everest and the remaining of the 7 summits. So he's such an experienced mountaineer. In fact, he's quite famous in Ecuador. I asked a few people here in Quito, they knew about him, and talked about him with some respect. It's always nice to know your partner is a professional and well respect person, even in such a small country like Ecuador.

He has been super busy. Recently he was on a climbing tour around Ecuador with Red Cross to promote a youth program to inspire them to be more active and also planting trees in each province. At the end of the tour, he climbed a peak that was never been ascended before and baptized it as Mt Red Cross.

So with the depth of expertise on mountaineering, I am really happy and looking forward to partnering with him on mountaineering.

I am now in Quito (been here since Monday) to go on a training program before Denali. In this trip, he and I will be climbing a few volcano peaks near Quito, ranging from 16000 ft (5000 m) to 19000 ft (6000m). We have a list of peaks we wanted to attempt but the weather has been pretty wet (lots of rain) so the list we're going to climb will change a bit. I will update when I know exactly which one we climb. We will start on Monday and finish by Sunday or Monday the following week. Once that done, we have one week to rest before Denali.

This is going to be very intense climbing but Ecuador will definitely help me acclimatize. In fact. Quito is already at 9350 ft (2850m), quite high for those who live near sea level.

Lots of training, preparation and of course luck are needed in this new endeavor.

Resolute People

2010-04-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

I wish I met and interacted more with Inuit or local people of Resolute. Unfortunately I was there in the deep winter and that means everyone was hibernating in their homes. The hotel was empty, and the very few guests came and went quickly as they were passing through for one night. So this post was not about them because I do not have much to tell. The people I wanted to talk about are those on the expeditions to the North Pole this year.

I was very fortunate to have met/seen majority of those who set out for North Pole quests this year. A lot of them are big names in polar world too. Being explorers, they are very determined. Even those who did not have extensive polar experience were not less strong willed. This year, the ice along Cape Discovery and Ward Hunt looked thin, according to satellite image. That did create some slight unnerving thought but all of them took it as a challenge.

These people, as I have been following them through their blogs and website give me such an inspirational and motivational effect. This year, probably due to the climate change, the ice condition was so bad, lots of wide open leads, pressure ridges and whiteouts. I experienced all these conditions in my trip to the North Pole but in over a week while theirs last 40-60 days. I cannot image how I would deal with these conditions in such a long time.

So far only one team has reached the pole. Richard Weber, the best guy out there for polar travel, the master with epic expeditions did it again, almost in record time with his team of 4. They, like every team on the ice this year, have gone through a lot. Wet clothes due to accidental fall in the water or leaking dry suit, frostbites, southward drifts, cold, storms, etc... He did it 7 times! Simply incredible.

Eric, Darcy and AJ are some superhuman too. Having spent time with them, I know how much resolute they are, especially Eric. He's such a great leader. He has the most experience in the team but yet he would listen to suggestion from his team members. They just crossed 89N, the last degree (same distance as my trip when I started mine). It's just out of this world what they have accomplished so far.

There are two people that I also met in Resolute are Michele Pontrandolfo and Christina Franco. They both decided to end their expeditions but they are not less strong willed. I talked to Christina more when I was there helping Eric's team. She's amazing woman. Very strong personality but yet very sweet. She taught us how to do blanket stitching. AJ and Darcy were not very skillful in sewing, so she was very patient teaching them and would repeat the lesson. Somehow I know these people will attempt the North Pole again in the future. They don't just quit without trying and giving their best.

This morning CNN ran an article about Tom Smitheringale rescue, who almost died in the Arctic water. I did not meet him in Resolute because he left for the ice the day we arrived there. Early in his solo expedition, he already got frostbite on his fingers, but kept on pushing until last week when he was so much in pain that he called his team to arrange an evacuation. But he later decided to keep going. I thought to myself, this guy is a fool. His will power is so strong that it would mask everything, including the worsen fingers that they could endanger his own life or he might have to cut them once he reaches the Pole. Only a fall in the icy water for 10 minutes (which most people would die already) and the suffer from hypothermia would deter him and forced him cease his expedition. Madly amazing.

Other teams such as Sarah McNair's (who I met) and Dan and Amelia (they left before I got to Resolute) are marching hard, racing against the clock, sometimes their own clock (Sarah's team adopted 27 hour day) to reach the Pole in time before Barneo camp close down or have to shell out a stash of money, an astronomical figure 100k, for a pick up from Canada.

Absolutely resolute.

In Rez and Missing Expedition Life

2010-02-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

I finally come to Rez (short for Resolute) tonight. I have been on the run the last few days, except for the time being stuck in Iqaluit. It's pretty cold outside with the temperature about -30C, but feels much colder due to wind, probably below -4oC (according to the weather network it feels like -44C, not that I can tell the difference between the two).

So tonight I am staying at the Co-op, a hotel owned by Inuits. It's completely empty. I am the only guest in this hotel while the other one owned by Ozzy, a business man in Resolute, is quite packed with expedition groups to such as Eric Larsen's Save The Poles , Sarah McNair-Landry's, Catlin Arctic Survey to name a few. In a way it's good because the internet will be faster for one :) But looks like I'm going to switch hotel tomorrow. Not only I miss the expedition life and this would be a place to pseudo-live it, but I want to help out the Save The Poles team if they need me.

Past couple days have been great fun, sharing a room with Eric, Darcy and AJ in Iqaluit. It was not what I envisioned to do when I booked this trip, but it's was a nice alternative. So I have helped them with miscellaneous things like weighing and packing the food. They still have a lot to do before March 2, but from my perspective, having been with them for the last 48 hours, I see the team spirit is high and they are ready for and excited about the trip. And that's a great thing.

I wish I were part of the team. I thank them for letting me live the pre-expedition life again, with all the excitement and some nervousness about the unknowns. Also I appreciate Eric to include me in his update.

Iqaluit

2010-02-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

I did not plan to go Iqaluit. It was supposed to be just a stopover enroute to Resolute. I planned Resolute trip almost a year ago, even before ALE accepted me for the South Pole expedition.

Why Resolute you may ask. Well, this is the furthest point a commercial airplane can fly to in the North America. I used my Aeroplan points, for 25k miles you can fly anywhere in North America. That means it costs the same for flying from SFO to LAX or San Francisco to Resolute. Obviously I chose the furthest point to maximize my points. The ticket to go there is well over 5k from the US. But to get the ticket, you must book so far in advance, 350 days ahead to grab one of very few (if not only one) mileage tickets.

Money aside, I always wanted to visit Resolute, some of the most northern community in Canada, as you already know how much I am interested in these places. So voila, I'm on my way to the town at the tip of Canada.

So this morning I went to Ottawa airport after a night of not sleeping well because of the noise and the bad bunkbed in Ottawa Backpacker's Inn. When I was at the gate, and check out who I saw. It was Eric Larsen. That's right, the person who I was supposed to train with for my South Pole but didn't happen and we met in Patriot Hills. Well, I knew he was going to the North Pole as the second leg of his 3 poles quest for his Save the Poles project. But I did not know he might be on the same flight with me until a couple days ago when I read his blog. It was very cool to see him there, with his team mates AJ of UK and French Canadian Darcy who lives in Winnipeg.

Eric was exhausted from the long road trip from Colorado to Minnesota crossing the border to Canada and across Ontario on less traveled roads in the winter. Not a fun road trip according to him. In fact the whole team looked tired as they didn't have much sleep and lots and lots of things to take care of in short amount of time. Even AJ was the last addition to the team as Ryan Waters (who made history with Cicillie to cross Antarctica unsupported -- I had a chance to talk to them at the South Pole when our expeditions converged) decided not to come. It's amazing how they come this far, ready to hop out on the ice and start their expedition to the North Pole for 50 days (estimated).

Iqaluit

Even before we boarded the plane, First Air personnel advised us that the plane to Resolute was cancelled and we have the choice to stay in Ottawa or fly to Iqaluit and find our own accommodation. We chose to fly.

At their Iqaluit airport, I ran into Marlin, a girl who worked at Patriot Hills. Again, I knew she was going to go to Resolute but did not expect she would be in Iqaluit, also waiting for fly to Resolute. She is a cook for the British's Catlin Arctic Survey expedition at a base camp they are going to set up just outside of Resolute. I also met Martin Hartley who is a member of this expedition.

It was a nice surprise to meet these people here. Since we're stuck here for two days (next flight out to Res scheduled for Sat at 1:30pm), I am sharing a room with Eric's team. Interestingly enough, right after our South Pole trips, I also shared the room with Eric's team (Bill and Dong) in Punta Arenas.

Treasuring Antarctica

2010-02-16T22:29:00.000-08:00

Antarctica is a truly magical place. It has the power to change or has deep effects on most people who set foot there, in many different ways.

After our return to Punta Arenas, I pretty much hung out with Dong from Eric Larsen's team, a young Chinese Canadian business man, all the way to Toronto. He told me his journey to the South Pole has changed him a lot, to be a better person.

Before coming to Antarctica this time, I am proud to say I am pretty much environmental conscious. But I am also not so proud to say it is not all about the environment, but more about my own pocket.

For the last two years since I moved into my current place, no heat or air conditioning has been used, be it in the middle of the winter (albeit winter in the bay area is not that cold) or summer (we do have some super hot days). Every night after work, only one light bulb (CFL - I wanted to change to LED but they are not bright enough) is on in my place. Besides the energy star fridge, nothing else in the house sucks electricity on a regular basis. My PG&E bills are usually less than $25/month.

As far as trash is concerned, obviously we do recycling here. I go one small little step further - only bring out recycle bin when it is really full (and that's like two or 3 months worth of recycle-able materials). Each lift from the trash truck uses some gas!

The one thing I hate to say is I am driving my car daily. California's car culture is almost impossible to get rid of. Also it would take way too long and impractical for commuting using public transportation, at least 1 hour an a half one way. I did carpool before but schedules wouldn't allow it easily. Next car I get will definitely be more environmental friendly.

Back to Antarctica, I was really glad to witness ALE's efforts to protect and impact the least to Antarctic environment. All waste, including human waste in both forms, were brought back to Chile to dump at proper place. It is very difficult just to deal with these kind of issues, let alone others such as safety for the crew and clients. Kudos to ALE.

As for us, we happily carried our faeces in the skiing journey. I never knew I could produce that much. The weight of the sleds practically didn't change much, if not slightly heavier due to the moisture in the bodily waste matter. They only changed when Tanya and John left and we got to dump all of our un-wanted onto theirs.

So I brought along with me my version of environmental message: "Treasure the Beautiful Gift from Mother Nature". As much as I treasure the place, not because I have set foot there, but also because I want to impact the least on my bank account. I hope you share the view and if not already, start to practice ways to make less dents on your own wallet, and hence environment.

New Year's Eves

2010-02-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

I would never dream about celebrating my New Year's Eve at the South Pole, even in my wildest dream, before coming to Antarctica this time. On the departure day for Patriot Hills, I asked Nick Luis, one of the owners of ALE, what would be the chance of us being stuck at the South Pole until New Year. He was not too amused, "Are you hoping for bad weather?". Of course not but I want to know the odds and my chance to be at the South pole for New Year celebration. To be clear, my goal was anything but a celebration at the pole.

Anyway, as you all know, we reached to the South Pole on New Year's eve New Zealand timezone (Dec 30 Chilean time).

That "night", it was so cold, -40 with windchill. Despite the bitter cold, a few of us, some women from the Commonwealth group, Andy and I went to the ceremonial pole. There were about 8 people already there. Those were the people who work at the station. We joined them, making a circle around the steel ball. This is no Time Square so no ball dropping at the strike of midnight. It is a steel ball that is attached to a pole permanently.

We mingled and chatted in the cold. The guys from stations were really impressed at our expeditions, especially the women team. We did not have a countdown, for some reason. We were busy chatting and forgot to do the countdown. Bummer. But when we realized it was midnight, we all said Happy New Year" and shook hands, with our gloves and mittens on. Some hugging too. After about 10 mins, we dispersed and back to our tents.

That was our New Year celebration at the South Pole - ubercold, no party, sans alcohol, very few people, and no countdown. Yet it was special. Not too many people have been at the South Pole, few of them have been at the South pole at the turn of the year, and among that, even fewer skied there in time for the midnight. I felt very privileged.

The new year did not end there. The Twin Otters came picked us up at the pole on Dec 31 Chilean time (New Year day New Zealand). By the time we got to Thiels for refueling, it was "midnight" again. As the aircraft took off, we had our champagne with the wish for a happy new year yet again. Celebrate twice has always a dream, and twice in Antarctica is even more surreal. And I was in that surrealism.

Today is Lunar New Year's day. Happy the Year of the Tiger, to those to celebrate it.

Coke Ad

2010-02-03T00:06:00.001-08:00

I am not a hardcore coke drinker. I do have crave, however, of coke once in a while mostly for its caffeine content. Especially with those greasy fast food and pizza. In my trip to the North Pole, I got this crave of cola and I blogged about it. Well, in this trip, the same thing happened again.

It’s strange that such environment, cold and all, one can think of a cold can of coke. It could have been I was overheated while skiing and hence I wanted something to cool me down. Or because I couldn’t sleep well the night before and needed some sort of jolt to keep me awake. Or it simply it was the taste of carbonated sugary brownish drink. Whatever it was, all I knew was I wanted a coke while on the ice.

And I wasn’t the only one. Andy too. He was telling me he felt like to have some of cola drink.

When we knew the plane would come to pick up John and Tanya, we actually plotted out a plan how to achieve our goal – obtain some of the magic drink! The plan was I would nicely ask the air crew if they could give us a bottle. If they refuse, we would sneak on the plane while helping load the sleds. And since we know where the food and drink area was (we flew in the same plane to the last degree), we could steal a bottle or two.

And the plane came. I executed our plan A. I asked Shaun, an ALE staff, who was flying to the South Pole to help out those groups who already reached the pole, “Hi Shaun, can I have a coke?”. He did not answered. I thought he did not hear me. He did. I was doing the loading with Andy. We both looked at each other. Time to do move on to plan B.

We did not have much time. Loading the sleds and saying good bye to Tanya and John did not take too long. Just when I thought of climbing into the plane, someone passed out one bottle of light coke. We were joyous. I turned to Andy, asking him if he wanted to drink right away as I couldn’t wait. He said let’s save it and enjoy it gradually. Great idea! After thanking Shaun and the crew for the coke, and saying good bye to the couple, we were off to ski for another few hours.

That night, after meal, we took out the bottle. As if it was precious (it was!) Luis XIII Remy Martin cognac , I carefully poured a little into our cups. We did not even drink the way we drink coke at home. We sipped it. Sip by sip. Talked over coke. For God’s sake, it wasn’t even regular coke, I thought. We made sure we did not drink all and have some for the next day, while we ski.

Before we went to bed, we strategically put the bottle on the side we knew there would be sun when we wake up. That way the drink wouldn’t be frozen.

All went well as planned. The next morning, the coke was in liquid state. We had some more of the taste-bud-pleaser fluid, and put it away in my sled and hoping it wouldn’t freeze away while we ski. Shortly before the break at noon, I took it out. Still good to drink. We again shared it and enjoyed to the last drop.

It’s only in these kind of situation that you know you take a lot of things for granted. A simple bottle of soft drink is nothing but in my trip, it was such a joy and we ridiculously treasured it. The bottle certainly had sentimental value to it now.

Not sure if this is enough to get Coca Cola to sponsor my next trip, but that’s my coke story. It’s real.

Unexpected Birthday Present

2010-02-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

I normally do not celebrate my birthday. It's the day I officially age one more year. I don't care much about the aging part, and to me, it's just another day. In fact I almost forgot it was my birthday today until people sending me birthday wishes on Facebook and private messages.

Last week BBC Vietnamese asked me to write an article about my trip to the South Pole. I have been very busy at work as we were about to ship a new product, so I procrastinated the writing. Actually, it was more like I wrote it slowly. Not only because I didn't have much time, but also the writing was in Vietnamese. As I mentioned in some post before, I could write in Vietnamese pretty well, but it's not what I do often, and a lot of vocabulary and the writing style I have lost over the years.

So the process of writing was very slow. I had to use an online dictionary to get the exact meaning of some English words . And in a few cases, I almost gave up as I couldn't find the equivalent terms, for example, the word expose as in "expose my skin to the cold". You would think all languages should have that, right? Yes, but depends on how you use it too, at least in Vietnamese. I couldn't choose the right word for it because it would sound strange in Vietnamese, something to the extend of "display", "show" or even "strip off" which may have some negative connotation in Vietnamese, while what I was looking for was contact or tiếp xúc in Vietnamese.

Anyway, I sent them the article last night. And by this afternoon, some Vietnamese people at work forwarded me the article on BBC Vietnamese. I was surprised they would publish it so quickly. It was a sweet surprise though. I'm sure they did not know it was my birthday and I did not expect any gift. It was unexpected for both sides. And a nice one too!

Thanks for the gift and birthday wishes, everyone.

Click here for the article (if you read Vietnamese).

More Images

2010-01-24T23:13:00.001-08:00

The following images were taken by David Hamilton, our guide. Thanks David :)

We skied like this everyday (I'm the last in this picture)

I guess the fur really loved my respiration eh.

The team in 10 minute break

Me

Normalcy

2010-01-23T20:56:00.000-08:00

California has been battered by powerful storms. It rained all week, flooded, toppled trees and did other damages. But there was a break today. It was sunny when I woke up. It's nice to see some blue sky after a whole week of gray. I took advantage of the weather and did my usual hiking to Mission Peak. This week I have returned to my work out routines to start my training for my next challenge: climb Mt McKinley or Denali (which appropriately means "The Great One").

I donned my backpack which was pre-loaded before my trip to the South Pole, and brought one liter of water and of course some snacks. The backpack felt really heavy. I was a little concerned. I used to be able to carry my 40 lbs backpack to hike. I thought it could have been I did not carry heavy backpack for a while. I took it easy on my first trip back on the hill.

The trail was muddy but I was surprised to see it wasn't bad at all. Half of the trail was added gravel before the rain season. That helped a lot. I almost did not recognize the lush green grass covered hills. The hike was very pleasant, the weather was cool and the trail is green. On the way to the top, some people asked how heavy my backpack was. I said about 40 lbs as I remembered adding about that much weight before my trip. When I reached to the top, after munching on my snacks, I dumped 3 gallons of water to lighten up my load for descending.

I started to suspect something not right. My backpack was little larger than what I remembered. I checked the bottom compartment. It turned out I had two gallons of water there. It was a sweet surprise. I carried 5 gallons of water and other stuffs to Mission Peak without knowing it. No wonder it was heavier than usual. But I made it to the top without issue nor feeling exhausted. When I got back home and added back the same weight and step on the scale. It was 53 lbs! That is only a few pounds short to my target for Denali (57-60 lbs - roughly half of my weight!). Not too bad for the first day.

This is the benefit to go on such a hard core trip such as the ski to the South Pole. And I think I can get use to this new "normalcy", and must maintain it.

Video Clips from the Expedition

2010-01-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

A break before the South Pole

The very moment of reaching the South Pole (I'm the 3rd from left - obviously :))

South Pole vs. North Pole

2010-01-18T19:39:00.000-08:00

Everyone asked me the difference between the expedition to the North Pole and South Pole. Well, the answer is the two expeditions I did are similar but each has its unique challenges.

As for similarities, they both called Ski the Last Degree, just plug in the destination :). In each program, I attempted to get to the axis of the Earth rotation, or 90 degrees north or south by skis. Both regions of the world are known to have the harshest weather, even both trips were conducted in spring/early summer of the respective hemisphere. The similarities stop there :)

North Pole locates in the middle of Arctic Ocean. We skied on the floating ice that is formed during the winter to reach to 90 degrees north. Because the ice floats on the water, it drift along with water current in Arctic Ocean. Drifting ice can be a great help or deep frustration while skiing depends on direction it moves.

South Pole positions in the middle of Antarctica, which is a continent. The ice has been formed for millions of years. The ice that caps the whole Antarctica does move, but only several meters year so the drifting effect is very insignificant. Since the distance to the South Pole does not change constantly by ice movement, accomplish a goal is definitely less frustrating.

This fact may make skiing to the South Pole relatively easy compared to the North Pole. However, South Pole does pose some big challenges of its own.

South Pole sits on Antarctic Plateau, which rises to over 9000 feet (near 3000 m) and the last degree is well position in this plateau. Because this is at the axis of the Earth rotation, the air pressure the plateau is less than that at the same altitude elsewhere on Earth. In fact it would feel like 4000m instead of 3000m.

So from a sea level, skiers get dropped to very high altitude (at which most people will exhibit some AMS symptoms) and start to pull a heavy sled for a long time, in extreme cold weather. This is a very difficult task.

Also, the snow formation near and at the South Pole is different than that at the North Pole. South Pole is very dry and windy. There is no virtually no precipitation or falling snow. The snow here are formed from of any traces moisture exist in the air, therefore, they do not bind together like the snow found in the North Pole or elsewhere. They are powdery and sand-like and creates a lot of drag. Pulling a sled on hard snow (North Pole) is much easier than soft sand-like snow in the South Pole.

To be fair, North Pole has a lot of its own difficulties too. Since the ice formed during the winter, some surface is extremely slippery and dangerous as the ice may break and creates open leads. Also, when two ice sheets collide, they create pressure ridges which most of the time very difficult to maneuver.

Skiing the North Pole has peaks and slumps in term of physical work. When climb over pressure ridges, it is very physically demanding but rewarding when done.

Skiing the last degree South Pole requires a constant endurance and performance as the plateau is quite flat which can be very demanding as well.

As far as weather is concerned, North Pole seems to be colder, even though the temperature tent to be higher than that at the South Pole. The reason for this is North Pole is on an ocean, therefore, humidity is much higher and the sun tents to be covered by clouds while Antarctica is so dry. Meteorologists will give us a better answer but according to my tiny sample, there seems to be more sunny days on Antarctic plateau.

My experience is definitely I felt colder in my North Pole trip, even though the temperature was ranging from -17 to -30C, which is "warmer" than what we experienced some days in Antarctica. I could not dry my clothes as well as in the South Pole trip in which we were very lucky to get beautiful weather most of the time.

So there, that is my answer.

Home

2010-01-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

I should have known better once home, I will get sucked in the daily life routine and reality, but still it's difficult to adjust to.

I got to the Bay Area on Monday and went straight to work. Good thing I had enough rest along the way home so coming to work right after landing was not an issue. What is an issue was the traffic. My friend Vinh picked me up at the airport in my car but I made him drive me to work. I was a little hesitant to deal with traffic on 101. But I couldn't dodge it forever. Driving home on 880 at night gave me a few heart pounding moments, but thank god all was well.

There are a million things I need to take care of and of course everyone at work was looking forward for my return out of good will, I'm sure of ;) I still haven't had too much time to reflect on the trip. But one thing I must say, this journey was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from it. I will have to post more, gradually :)

This probably is going to be my tradition: after a big trip, one of the first things I do when I get home is having some home made sweet. This time, I had the yummy cookies my sister baked and sent to me from Canada for my trip.

Home is always sweet.

First Few Images from the Expedition

2010-01-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

On the way skiing to the South Pole

Same character, different day

Nubo, Andy, David and I at the South Pole

At the exact 90 degrees

On the Way Home

2010-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

I have been on the road, more like in the air a lot the past few days, making my way home. Being stuck in Patriot Hills for 5 days screwed up all traveling schedule. To be fair, we missed our schedule flight on Dec 29 because our journey took longer than expected. The following Ulyushyn flight was scheduled to come on the 4th but the weather turned bad and we could only fly out the next 30 hours in a small window of opportunity.

I had given myself one week extra in case of delay but this delay was beyond it. All my tickets expired. As soon as I settled in the hostel in Punta Arenas with Bill and Dong (from Eric Larsen team), I hopped online and checked for tickets. Andreas, my team mate, decided to stayed in the airport to sort out his ticket but apparently, he had to come to town to purchase his. LAN airline was fully booked. No seat available until Jan 11th. I knew there was another cheap domestic airline that serves Punta and Santiago. I found a few good last minutes tickets online in range of $1500s, but first I had to get out of Punta. Dong, having checked with LAN and was offered a business class upgrade to his ticket from Punta Arenas to Shanghai for $7666, was very happy to hear my news. He and I rushed to the SkyAirline office to get our tickets to Santiago. We were lucky enough to get them.

Now that we had our flight to the gateway, the next step was to get the tickets home. On the same site, all the ticket went up to $2000 range, less than an hour. We were disappointed, but kept on searching. In one query, suddenly an amazing price popped up, for Aeromexico. It was 1/3 of what we had seen earlier. I couldn't believe my eyes :). Obviously, we quickly made our purchase before the price went up. There was a catch though. For the tickets we bought, we stopped everywhere. One day and a half in Santiago, one day in Mexico City (where we are currently), then Toronto. Good thing Dong and I had the same destination, so I have been travelling with him since we got back from Antarctica. After Toronto, Dong will fly to Vancouver to renew his Chinese visa then off to Shanghai. I'm going to jet back to the Bay area on Monday after visiting my family in Toronto.

Back to the Real World

2010-01-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

This morning when the Ulyushyn aircraft (that plays as the shuttle between Punta Arenas and Antarctica) landed on the blue ice run way of Patriot Hills, we were all so happy. Having stuck in Antarctica since Jan 1, although the ANI staff fed us well with their stunning dishes, we, at least myself, do miss the scene and smell daily human life. With a mixed feeling, we left the white continent, not knowing when we can come back. I did not spend too long time (3 weeks) compared to many others, but I come to appreciate Antarctica even more than before.

Having said that, it must be a cliche to say seeing green patches of grass, yellow flowers in front of the houses and espescially morning rainbow over Punta Arenas this morning as we left the airport was a joy.

Again, this trip was an amazining experience. The trip is longer than the North Pole, not less of challenges, and in a different way. All in all, it's another life time experience I personally think it's worth all my effort to come and make it reality.

Also, as expected, I met so many amazing people. This time around, I had a chance to talk to and interact with them, from the Commom Wealth Women team who I admire so much , the two Danes who became the second fastest team for the route they took, Eric Larsen team who I felt like I knew everything about their expedition, the amazing (and crazy :)) trans-Antarctic journey of Cicillie and Ryan, the staff at ANI including Mike Sharp, Nick Luis, Rob Jarvis, Ronnie, Shawn (and many more), and of course my own team mates Nubo Huang , Andreas Meyers and my guide David Hamilton.

Now that I left Antarctica and back the real world, but deep inside I know I will come back to the white desert. Some day.

Update from Antarctica - Jan 05 2010 20:51:02 GMT

2010-01-05T12:51:00.001-08:00

Finally we're able to fly back to Punta Arenas 2nite. It's been a long wait 4 us.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Cuối cùng chúng tôi có thể bay trở lại 2nite Punta Arenas. Nó được một chờ đợi lâu dài 4 chúng tôi.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Jan 05 2010:

finally we're able 2 fly back 2 pa 2nite.it's been a lng wait 4 us

Update from Antarctica - Jan 03 2010 13:35:33 GMT

2010-01-03T05:35:00.001-08:00

Weather getting better @ Patriot Hills Basecamp. Hope it stays this way til our flight back to Punta Arenas. Going to hike da hills around here 4 few hrs.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Thời tiết nhận được tốt hơn @ Patriot Hills Basecamp. Hy vọng nó vẫn theo cách này til chuyến bay của chúng tôi trở về Punta Arenas. Đi đồi da đi lang thang quanh đây 4 vài giờ.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Jan 03 2010:

wthr gett_i betr @ ph.hope it stays this way til our flt back 2 pa.go_i 2 hike da hills around here 4 few hrs

Update from Antarctica - Jan 02 2010 21:46:07 GMT

2010-01-02T13:46:00.001-08:00

Weather has been bad @ Patriot Hills Basecamp , no flight any where. Our scheduled flight back to Punta Arenas is @ jan 4. Hope weather is going to be good then. In da mean time we just relax & recuperate.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Thời tiết xấu đã được @ Patriot Hills Basecamp, không có chuyến bay nào đó. Chuyến bay theo lịch trình của chúng tôi trở lại Punta Arenas là @ 4 Tháng 1. Hy vọng thời tiết là có được tốt sau đó. Trong thời gian có nghĩa là da chúng ta chỉ cần thư giãn & làm cho mạnh lại.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Jan 02 2010:

wthr has been bad @ ph,no flt ne whe.our sked_d flt back 2 pa is @ jan 4.hope wthr is go_i 2 b gud then.in da mean tme we just rlx & rcp

Update from Antarctica - Jan 01 2010 18:08:46 GMT

2010-01-01T10:08:00.001-08:00

Back to Patriot Hills Basecamp last night or rather early this morning. Now wait 4 flight to Punta Arenas.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Quay lại Patriot Hills Basecamp đêm qua hoặc thay vào đầu buổi sáng này. Bây giờ chờ 4 chuyến bay tới Punta Arenas.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Jan 01 2010:

back 2 ph last nite or rather early this morning.now wait 4 flight 2 pa

Update from Antarctica - Dec 31 2009 11:27:12 GMT

2009-12-31T03:27:00.001-08:00

Happy new year 2010 from da bottom of da world.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Chúc mừng năm mới 2010 từ dưới da của da thế giới.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 31 2009:

happy new year 2010 fr da bottom of da world

Update from Antarctica - Dec 31 2009 04:22:37 GMT

2009-12-30T20:22:00.001-08:00

South Pole station uses new zealand time. In a few hour there will be ceremony to move da mark of geographic South Pole to its new correct location.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Nam Cực trạm sử dụng thời gian New Zealand. Trong một vài giờ sẽ có buổi lễ để di chuyển dấu da của địa lý Nam cực đến vị trí đúng của nó mới.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 31 2009:

sp station uses new zealand time.in a few hr there wll b ceremony 2 move da mark of geographic sp 2 its new corrct loc.

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 30 2009 19:15:39 GMT

2009-12-30T11:15:00.001-08:00

Update from Antarctica @ 90°00'.0"S 87°44'15.0"W

2009-12-30T10:57:00.001-08:00

Greetings from da South Pole :).

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Chúc mừng từ da Nam Cực:).

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 30 2009:

grtng fr da sp :)

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 30 2009 02:25:38 GMT

2009-12-29T18:25:00.005-08:00

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 30 2009 02:25:36 GMT

2009-12-29T18:25:00.003-08:00

Update from Antarctica @ 89°54'42.0"S 130°04'45.0"W

2009-12-29T18:25:00.001-08:00

Day 5. We can see South Pole station from here. Only a few nm to go. Going to have David & Nubo do voice update.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Ngày 5. Chúng ta có thể thấy Nam Cực trạm từ đây. Chỉ có một vài nm để đi. Sẽ có David & Nubo để cập nhật giọng nói.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 30 2009:

day 5.we can c sp station fr here.only a few nm 2 go.go_i 2 hav dv & nb do voice update

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 28 2009 02:15:41 GMT

2009-12-27T18:15:00.001-08:00

Update from Antarctica @ 89°24'56.0"S 94°10'22.0"W

2009-12-26T14:29:00.001-08:00

Was quite cold this morning , -30 but now = -25. Will ski long er hour tomorrow & da rest to try reaching da pole by New Year.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Khá lạnh, sáng nay, nhưng bây giờ -30 = -25. Sẽ trượt dài er giờ ngày mai & da phần còn lại để cố gắng đạt đến cực da của năm mới.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 26 2009:

was quite cld this mrng,-30 but now = -25.wll ski lng er hr tmr & da rest 2 try reach_i da pole by nwyr

Update from Antarctica - Dec 25 2009 23:11:54 GMT

2009-12-25T15:11:00.001-08:00

We cannot ask 4 a better day in Antarctica. Sunny calm brilliant day. Skied 4 5 hour. My cooking day today so our Christmas dinner is alfredo with chicken.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Chúng tôi không thể yêu cầu 4 một ngày tốt hơn ở Nam Cực. Sunny bình tĩnh rực rỡ ngày. Skied 4 5 giờ. Hôm nay tôi nấu ăn để ăn tối ngày Giáng sinh của chúng tôi là Alfredo với thịt gà.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 25 2009:

we !cn ask 4 a betr day in antarc.sny calm brlnt day.ski_e 4 5 hr.my cook_i day 2day so our xms dinner is alfredo wth chicken

Update from Antarctica @ 89°19'22.0"S 91°39'28.0"W

2009-12-25T14:58:00.001-08:00

Ho Ho Ho :) merry Christmas. Hope everyone have a good holiday.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Hồ Hồ Hồ:) merry Christmas. Hy vọng mọi người đều có một kỳ nghỉ tốt.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 25 2009:

hhh :) mrry xms.hope ev1 hav a gud hday

Update from Antarctica - Dec 24 2009 22:52:09 GMT

2009-12-24T14:52:00.001-08:00

Had a small Christmas get together @ our tent. Was nice & cozy. Even had Christmas tree on paper from my niece jocelyna. A tru white Christmas @ Antarctica.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Đã có một Giáng sinh nhỏ được với nhau @ lều của chúng tôi. Đã được tốt đẹp và ấm cúng. Thậm chí có cây Giáng sinh trên giấy từ jocelyna cháu gái của tôi. Một Giáng sinh tru trắng @ châu Nam Cực.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 24 2009:

had a sml xms get together @ our tnt.was nice & czy.even had xms tree on paper fr my niece jocelyna.a tru white xms @ antarc

Update from Antarctica - Dec 24 2009 13:05:41 GMT

2009-12-24T05:05:00.001-08:00

Today is rest day. Going to have Christmas eve lunch & my fruit cake in our tent.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Hôm nay là phần còn lại trong ngày. Đi ăn trưa eve Christmas & bánh trái cây của tôi trong lều của chúng tôi.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 24 2009:

today is rest day.go_i 2 hav xms eve lunch & my fruit cake in our tnt.

Update from Antarctica @ 89°14'4.0"S 89°50'4.0"W

2009-12-23T12:25:00.001-08:00

Day 3 another short day. -20 or so. Foggy outside.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Ngày 3 khác ngắn ngày. -20 Hay như vậy. Foggy bên ngoài.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 23 2009:

day 3 another shrt day.-20 or so.foggy os

Update from Antarctica @ 89°09'40.0"S 88°11'17.0"W

2009-12-22T11:25:00.001-08:00

We !did ski as long as planed & decided to take it easy next to days to acclimate better.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Chúng tôi! Đã trượt tuyết miễn là quy hoạch & quyết định đi dễ dàng bên cạnh ngày để acclimate tốt hơn.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 22 2009:

we !did ski as lng as pln_e & decided 2 take it easy nxt 2 days 2 acclimate betr

Update from Antarctica @ 87°06'3.0"S 87°05'34.0"W

2009-12-21T13:49:00.001-08:00

Day 1. Got 6 hour skiing on sticky snow. Quite tough. Increase 1 more hour tomorrow. Share tent with Nubo & Andy. Take turn cooking.

The above was translated by Kbot.

.........................................

Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Ngày 1. Got 6 giờ trượt tuyết trên tuyết dính. Khá cứng rắn. Tăng thêm 1 giờ vào ngày mai. Chia sẻ với lều Nubo & Andy. Hãy bật nấu.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 21 2009:

day 1.got 6 hr ski_i on sticky sno.quite tuf.incr 1 more hr tmr.share tnt wth nb & ad.take turn cook_i

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 21 2009 21:26:20 GMT

2009-12-21T13:26:00.001-08:00

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 21 2009 21:24:58 GMT

2009-12-21T13:24:00.001-08:00

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 21 2009 21:16:17 GMT

2009-12-21T13:16:00.001-08:00

Update from Antarctica - Dec 20 2009 22:35:03 GMT

2009-12-20T14:35:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow plan is ski 6 or 7 hour to aclimate. We're @ 9036 foot. Share tent with Nubo.

The above was translated by Kbot.

.........................................

Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Ngày mai kế hoạch là trượt tuyết 6 hoặc 7 giờ đến aclimate. Chúng tôi đang @ 9.036 foot. Chia sẻ với Nubo lều.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:

tmr pln is ski 6 or 7 hr 2 aclimate.we're @ 9036 ft.share tnt wth nb

Update from Antarctica @ 88°59'50.0"S 85°35'2.0"W

2009-12-20T14:07:00.001-08:00

Landed @ 89 degree. Beautiful weather. Camp 4 the night before skiing tomorrow.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Đã hạ cánh @ 89 độ. Thời tiết đẹp. Trại 4 đêm trước khi trượt tuyết vào ngày mai.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:

lnd_e @ 89 deg.beau wthr.camp 4 d nite b4 ski_i tmr

Update from Antarctica - Dec 20 2009 01:00:52 GMT

2009-12-19T17:00:00.001-08:00

Forgot to mention David is now our guide. Ronnie un fortunately hurt his back a little so David replaced him. David is an experient mtneer & polar explorer. So we good.

The above was translated by Kbot.

.........................................

Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Quên đề cập đến David bây giờ là hướng dẫn của chúng tôi. Ronnie un may mắn thay đau của mình trở lại một ít để David thay thế ông. David là một mtneer experient & thám hiểm vùng cực. Vì vậy, chúng ta tốt.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:

forgot 2 mention dv is now our gde.rn un ftn_l hurt his back a little so dv replaced him.dv is an experient mtneer & polar explorer.so we gud

Update from Antarctica - Dec 20 2009 00:45:18 GMT

2009-12-19T16:45:00.001-08:00

Returned to Patriot Hills Basecamp @ 11:30am after 3h of skiing. Pack our sleds. Hope weather is good tomorrow 4 flight to last degree so we can start skiing to the South Pole.

The above was translated by Kbot.

.........................................

Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Trở về Patriot Hills Basecamp @ 11:30 sau khi 3giờ của trượt tuyết. Pack Sleds của chúng tôi. Hy vọng là thời tiết tốt vào ngày mai 4 chuyến bay đến mức độ cuối cùng để chúng tôi có thể bắt đầu trượt tuyết đến Nam cực.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 20 2009:

returned 2 ph @ 11:30am after 3h of ski_i.pack our sleds.hope wthr is gud tmr 4 flt 2 last deg so we can strt ski_i 2 d sp

Update from Antarctica @ 80°21'1.0"S 81°18'26.0"W

2009-12-18T16:18:00.001-08:00

We practice today , camp out near Patriot Hills Basecamp. Go bak tomorrow , pak 4 trip. Hope to fly out next day.

The above was translated by Kbot.

.........................................

Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Chúng ta thực hành ngày hôm nay, trại ra gần Patriot Hills Basecamp. Go bak ngày mai, Pak 4 chuyến đi. Hy vọng để bay ra vào ngày hôm sau.

.........................................

The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 19 2009:

we prac 2day,camp out near ph.go bak tmr,pak 4 trip.hope 2 fly out next day

Update from Antarctica - Dec 17 2009 12:50:51 GMT

2009-12-17T04:50:00.001-08:00

Going to have test trip today. A very busy ahead. Met Ronnie , Tanya & John today. Ronnie is da guide. Tanya & John from uk. Also met Nubo , da chnese man yesterday. Now we ready.

The above was translated by Kbot.

.........................................

Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

Sẽ có chuyến đi kiểm tra ngày hôm nay. Một rất bận rộn phía trước. Gặp Ronnie, Tanya & John ngày hôm nay. Ronnie là da hướng dẫn. Tanya & John từ uk. Cũng gặp Nubo, da chnese người đàn ông hôm qua. Bây giờ chúng tôi đã sẵn sàng.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 17 2009:

go_i 2 hav test trip 2day.a vry busy ahead.met rn,tn & jn 2day.rn is da guide.tn & jn fr uk.also met nb,da chnese man ytd.now we redy

Audio Dispatch @ Dec 17 2009 04:37:37 GMT

2009-12-16T20:37:00.001-08:00

Update from Antarctica @ 80°18'4.0"S 81°20'31.0"W

2009-12-16T19:54:00.001-08:00

Arv @ Patriot Hills Basecamp safely.

The above was translated by Kbot.

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Đây là bản dịch sang tiếng Việt bởi Google Language Tools (còn hạn chế và không chính xác):

ARV @ Patriot Hills Basecamp an toàn.

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The following is the original message sent by Khai via satellite on Dec 17 2009:

arv @ ph safely

The Start of the Journey to the South Pole

2009-12-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

7AM: I woke to the sound of my alarm. I set up the phone to buzz me at 6AM in anticipation of the call from ANI people. It turned out my phone is set to different time zone :). Anyway, I got no knocking on my door by the owner of the hostel. We were told ANI staff to call us at 6 to 6:15 if we are to fly today, if not, they would call around 10 for different schedule. Nothing happened at 6. I was a little disappointed but totally understood. This is nothing new. Even for a short flight to a Chilean base at the edge of Antarctica on a tour last time I did was delayed multiple times. I realized a long time ago that we come to Antarctica not to conquer it, but to work with it. I thought there would be no flight today.

But by 9:30, Rene (another person from ANI) phoned and told me the weather report they received was looking good and by 10ish, they would get another and let me know. My excitement level increased just by this news.

At 10:56, Rene called again and said, more delay. We have to wait until noon to get confirmation from Patriot Hills.

Just now, at 12:17 Rene called with great news. They will come pick me up at 1pm, departing for the Patriot Hills. I am totally excited.

From now on, it’ll be just text messages I will be sending from Antarctica, not the whole paragraph. Hopefully things work out for me here. But the main thing is I hope everything works out well for me in Antarctica. Wish me luck. It’s showtime!

Pre-trip Reflection

2009-12-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

I made sure I had a good meal before the long journey with all freeze dried food (this time it'll be Norwegian kind - not sure how it is going to be better that what I ate in the North Pole) and high calorie snacks. Also I have been craving for seafood and this is Punta Arenas, right next to Strait of Magellan, there should be plenty of seafood restaurants. So I decided to go for a feast on sea creatures.

I bumped into Nick on the street. He was going to get some postcards to send home in the UK. I asked him for a recommendation. He knows the town pretty well, so he said I should check out Sotitos restaurant. They have the best seafood in town. It's kind of out of the way, far end of downtown. And true to his recommendation, it was excellent. I had pretty much full course meal (except for dessert -- I would have if I had room for it). I ordered a veggie soup, squid for appetizer, and fish for entree. They were all delicious. I wish I had room for dessert :)

Now I am full and relaxing at the hostel, I suddenly feel the need to write more.

It's been amazing ride for me to get to this point. Although this kind of adventure is not new as I did the North Pole, but still I had to go through a lot of hurddles to get to here.

Firstly, and obviously, the finance. It can be a down payment of a house. I had to get a loan and support from sponsors (not too much but anything helps). I want to thank them for supporting me. When I told people the cost, everyone thought I was crazy, not about the fact that I am going to Antarctica and South Pole, but the way I managed to pay for it.

Secondly, if you follow this blog, I did quite a bit of training. I had an amazing summer when I did my major work as preparation for this. A lot of climbing. And tire hauling. And gym sessions. I want to fully experience Antarctica and a good preparation is part of process. You can never be over-prepared for this kind of trip. I really hope what I done so far helps.

Last but not least, the support of my family and friends. For the North Pole, most people worried about me, but I made it back safe and sound. It's a proof that when you take a good care of yourself and well prepared, you can be safer. This is Antarctica, nothing is guaranteed and the fact is it is a big risk to take to do this kind of expedition. Preparation lowers the risks but does not eliminate them. That's the fact. But anything in life you do always associates with some risk, so while this seems to be riskier than others but if you know them and mitigate them, they can be part of the enjoyment you'll get.

Patriot Hills

2009-12-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

Aerial view of Patriot Hills (image from Wiki)

We hope to fly out to Patriot Hills base camp tomorrow. In the mean time, a little info on this base camp. This camp is set up by ALE, on the edge of blue ice near the range of the hills around the camp that is called Patriot Hills. This camp is operated seasonally. However, the tents, equipments and food are stored in the ice caves for use annually. All human wastes are flown back to Chile for dumping. They also have a solar panels generate most of the base use. Today Nick went through images of Patriot Hills camp, it looks quite good. In fact Nick said this base camp is the greenest among all the base stations in the Antarctica. Time for the Antarctic station to be greener now. They added more facility year after year. But this is still a very basic camp. The philosophy here is leave no impact on the Antarctic environment.

Blue ice runway

There are main tents for the staff, dining "hall" where it is required there should be no phones (not sure why, maybe people want to enjoy buffet style meals thoroughly without ringtones), a "hospital" tent (which no one wants to occupies) and areas for people who go on expeditions. There are food storage caves as well. These caves have enough food for 300 days for the base.

Toilets

One of the most important tent is toilet. This year they built a nice platform for the toilet (see picture). They separate solid waste and liquid. So we were told do the number one first, then number two :). Women can use either the sitdown or a funnel for the "stall". The reason for separation is on the plane, the waste may thaw out, so the liquid containers are handle differently from the solid ones.

Nick claimed the chef at the base is fantastic, and he cooks the best food. I will have to experience that and let you know my own opinion :).

Gear Shipping

2009-12-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

This morning we had a briefing session at The Club Croata (Croatian Club) in downtown Punta Arenas. Nick, one of the owners of the ALE (Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions - a mother company of ANI Adventure Network International) . He went over Antarctic safety guidelines, how to preserve the pristine environment, and all other good stuffs.

So for our trip, we have to pack all our solid waste. Good thing they will be frozen and packed away in the sled, not like those mountaineering trips where you put them in your backpack :)

We were told to allow max 30 kg (66 lbs) of checked in lugggage (ie, gears). Any extra kilogram will be charged $60 -- very expensive even compared to those American domestic flight. They will pick up my luggage first, cuz I stay furthest. Most people stay downtown, but me. I go cheap staying in a bed and breakfast a little, out of the way, 25 mins walk to downtown.

I rushed back to hostel and check my luggage again. I packed them yesterday. Together they definitely weigh over 30 kgs. I had to take out and exchange a few things (non essential, including some of the cookies :( - I still have a lot of them though, enough to last me for the trip).

They just came picked up the luggage. Total was 32 kg. Mark was nice enough to let me know not to worry about the extra weight. Thanks guys.

I also met the German guy. His name is Andy. I didn't have the spelling of his last name. He's an avid downhill skier. His "extreme" trip would be backpacking in the Sahara dessert and went to the North Pole on an ice breaker. He said to prepare for this, he went to ski slopes in the Alps to get some altitude exposure, and obviously skiing. Seems like a nice and fun guy to hang out with.

I didn't have a chance to meet the Chinese person. There were a few people from China at the briefing as well, but most of them are going elsewhere, not the ski to the last degree.

The British couple are already at the Patriot Hills. They custom made their trip, going to the Patriot Hills earlier to practice.

My guide is also at the basecamp currently.

So tomorrow, if the weather is good for flying, Mark will call me at around 6am and I have to be within 15 mins. If we cannot fly out tomorrow, he would let me know at 10, and a tentative schedule for the next flight.

I just have a few last thing to do, and one of them is sew the nose beak on my new pair of googles.

Now I'm expedition ready.

Gear Checking

2009-12-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

So one of the staff from ANI called the B&B and looked for me when I was out for lunch (I couldn´t lounge around waiting for a checkin and I was hungry, so I stepped out for a bite). They left a message with Mary, the B&B owner and asked me to call back. I was happy to see their message. I called them back and again, Mark, the person who called, went for lunch as well. We played phone tag :) Finally, he called when I was napping and said he would drop by in 20 mins to check my gears.

I laid out all my gears, he and I went over the list. We checked every single item and I got everything except for one missing pair of googles. I was looking all over and couldn´t find them anywhere. That was when I remembered that I left them at the Santiago airport :(. No shops opened at late hours. I was was tired, sleepy, hungry and thirsty. I took out a bottle of cookies from my family from the bottom of my backpack where I put the googles on top. They must have fallen under the chair that´s why when I packed everything again, I didn´t think I miss anything, or I might be too tired to focus on anything. Oh well, sh-t happens. Not big a deal but now I have to shed some money to get a new pair and have to sew a nose beak on. Not so fun.

While checking the gears, I asked Mark about the group. Now I know where other people are from. One male from Germany last named Major (may not be spelled this way), one couple from the UK and one guy named Huang from China. So the group will have 5 skiers and one guide.

Tomorrow we are going to group at a club house downtown Punta Arenas to go over everything for about an hour and a half. Most likely in the afternoon we are going ship all our gears to Patriot Hills.

And if weather permits, we´re flying to Patriot Hills basecamp on early Wednesday!

Punta Arenas

2009-12-14T03:59:00.000-08:00

After a long wait, and short 3 hour ride, I arrived in Punta Arenas. The town is empty, just like I remember it 4 years ago. The weather is ok here, cool and high humidity. I got to the hostel at 7:30, woke up the lady who owns the bed and breakfast by the door bell. She didn´t seem too upset the fact I arrived so early. But she seems a little frustrated and confused, of course, with my so very broken español. I had to use the back of the Lonely Planet Chile to look up vocabulary for my sentences. I got frustrated at myself too :) We managed to understand each other at the end. In fact, I managed to ask her about a few things including how the tourism in Punta Arenas is doing. She said this year is no good due to global recession and the pandemic (swine flu I supposed - I couldn´t find the spanish word for pig in Lonely Planet :)). We talked, or rather I conversed in choppy spanish words over breakfast (very sweet fruit cake and te) .
I´m now waiting for the room (only check in at 11, darn) to be ready and so ready to crash. It´s been two days I didnt have full sleep. I need to contact the ANI office in Punta Arenas today to find out what´s going on, but now I want to hit the sack so badly.

Next Stop Chile

2009-12-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I'm in Miami, a layover before my flight to Punta Arenas. As I mentioned before, the journey to Punta Arenas is quite long, I will only arrive there on Monday morning! So not looking forward to be on the plane.

Miami is so warm, in the 80s! It is too hot and balmy, on the opposite side of thermometer compared to Colorado. And worse yet, I carry my winter jacket around, looks totally out of place while everyone in shorts and flipflops. Just a few hours flight away and the weather changes drastically. I don't mind the warm weather but this probably won't help me too much at this time. May be I should crank up the AC. Not!

I'm departing for Santiago early tomorrow morning.

Keystone

2009-12-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

It turned out the day I arrived in Colorado was the coldest day of the year. Its been warmer (relatively speaking) since, in the 10s and 20s Fahrenheit. I did get to ski in Keystone, about 1.5 hours away from Denver. It is such a beauty country there. Even though it was cold and all, there was not much of snow because this is just the beginning of skiing season. There are a few ski and snowboarding slopes open but most still wait for a major snow fall to start their business. For cross country, it requires lots of snow too. Luckily the trails where I skied was on higher altitude so there was some snow to stride on. And due to lack of snow, I only have to pay for gear rental but not the trail usage. From the Nordic center where I rented the gears to the trail was a 20 mins drive, very scenic. The drive passes through this tiny "town", of 20 houses, called Montezuma. It's a historic town where there was a silver rush back in the day. Most of house were destroyed because of wood stove. Some managed to remain. It's not a ghost town but quite interesting to see some remnants of the past still standing. On the first day of skiing, the snow was nice but there were a few icy sections. I slipped into one of this section on the way downhill back to the trail head. I was wet. My fleece pants was wet but somehow ok, but my hands were practically holding two ice cubes for about 40 mins because my gloves were soaking wet! I learned my lesson not to wear fleece gloves when there may be icy water on the trail :)

The town of Montezuma

Introducing KBot

2009-12-09T23:12:00.000-08:00

It is my pleasure to introduce you KBot, a helper to assist me while I am on the ice and away from civilization. The helper, or the bot, will help me on a few things, making it easier to follow the expedition. These are the tasks that my robot performs:

1) Tirelessly awaits for my messages that I will be sending via satellite phone. It will "sleep" a little though, and check for my dispatches every minute or so. Hence, whatever you see on the blog will be about one minute delayed. You can't get more live than this :). Depends on what messages and commands I send, it will perform the tasks accordingly.

2) Plots my location and path on Google Earth. This allows everyone to know exactly where I am on earth. So there's no "where the heck on earth are you" anymore. It's quite scary to let people track you, but hey, this is different :). It also summarizes my status and calculates how far away I am from the South Pole, and updates it on the blog under Status section. So if you want to see the progress, you'll need to download Google Earth plugin for web browser or download the KML file and view it on standalone Google Earth.

3) Translates my crypted messages into readable (more or less) English. I had a lot of complaints from last trip to the North Pole that it was impossible to understand what I said. So those who complained will be pleased this time around :). It even goes further to translate it into Vietnamese as some don't speak English. The Vietnamese translation is done by Google Language Tools, and let just say they have a lot of work to do.

4) Learns new shorthands and uses them next time. As of now there are about 480 entries in the dictionary that KBot uses to translate my messages, but I'm sure there will be more that I need to add as I go along. I will send it new short forms and it's meaning as needed. It will take new definitions and add to its dictionary and next time I use the shorthands again, it'll know what to do. This task is invisible to you though.

5) Posts my voice dispatches on the blog. I'll do audio update in this expedition, not as much though as it can be costly. It's going to be quite interesting to hear the Antarctic noise - or may our own noise (hopefully not an embarrassing one :)), depends on what it picks up at the time.

6) Sends out tweets when messages are posted to this blog. If you follow me on Twitter (khai_nguyen) and using your phone to receive tweets, this is yet another way to follow the expedition, by the minute (only when I send messages :)).

7) Reports to me the status of the tasks. This is a crucial piece of information. As I send information back, there is no way I can check the blog, twitter and everything else so I have to rely on the reports KBot sends me. If something goes wrong (as always happens to a piece of software), at least I am aware of it and will attempt to fix, either by me directly or have someone to look into this.

8) Recovers from bad inputs. I am the only user of this program but on the ice, there are a million things I need to worried about and I'm sure I will make mistake or the communication might break somewhere from phone to the satellites hanging out at 480 miles above us. So if there are some missing tasks or I do not receive the status report in a certain amount of time, I will send a special command for recovery. If all fails, only human can do the job. Let's hope I do not have to send and SOS to someone to fix the bot.

As I wrote this program (yes, from scratch!), I almost felt like those mission control engineers who work on software for rovers, but in reverse. The rovers are controlled by engineers from a civilized location and I, somewhere in Antarctica, control my bot which resides in the well connected world.

It took me almost 2 months on and off, at night and on some weekends to implement (and research on the technology as most of them are I haven't touched before such as Google Earth, blogger, etc) and test it. There's some last testing I need to do before declaring it's completely ready. I really hope all the work pays off as I spend quite a bit of effort on this. But, I should expect the worse when things go wrong and no one could help me fixing it. That's when I will have to fall back to my old, trusted method: send directly to blog with crypted messages; and I'm sure people will have fun decrypting them :)

First Stop Denver

2009-12-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

I have been at Denver airport a million times but never set foot outside. Today is my first time really being in Denver. It's cold. When I arrived this afternoon, it was 3F (-16C). Two hours ago when I was outside driving around looking to buy a camcorder and hotel accommodation, it was -5F (-21C). This condition is perfect for me. I should get used to the cold before it only gets colder in Antarctica.

This trip to Colorado is for training purpose.

First, ovbviously the weather. Colorado can be quite cold as it is on higher altitude. I talked to a hotel staff, she said it's been pretty bad, temperature wise, and lots of snow. Usually it is warmer, as in the 20s (-6C) and wet. The weather turned nasty lately, through out the west coast and here. I don't complain tho :)

Secondly, altitude acclimatization. Denver is called mile high city for a reason, it is elevated at 5281 ft (1609 meters). But I am going to be in Keystone, a ski area which has trails near to 9000ft, almost the same altitude as the South Pole. I did quite a few mountaineering trips and hiking over 14000 ft, so 9000 is not too much of a concern but it's best to get some acclimation before the big trip. I was told due to the extreme weather at the South pole, 10000 ft can feel like 14000. I'll have to find out, soon enough.

And last, to practice cross country skiing again. Since the North pole trip, I did not have a chance to do any cross country. Although how we ski to the pole is not really skiing, let alone cross country. It's almost impossible to glide on the hard, rough sastrugi (ridges formed by snow, everywhere in the polar region) unless there is some smooth snow surface which is quite rare. We found a few place in the North pole we could do that but that was on thin ice! The Antarctic, however does have some as reported by Eric Larsen, who's three weeks into his expedition. Will see what we will find when we are there. Back to the practice, again, it's good to get back the skills, and certainly (and hopefully :)) develop some muscles that were not used in my other trainings (tire pulling, stairmasters, hiking, etc..).

I probbaly do not need to have this training, but hey, I need to give my all to make this expedtion as succesful and enjoyable as possible, right?

GoPro

2009-11-28T23:49:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to receive the "wearable" GoPro HD Helmet camera. I accidentally stumbled upon the site and let me tell you, I was blown away by the demo clips. Simply amazing. So I decided to get the camera for my expedition to the South Pole. I know it's not gonna be the same coolness cuz I will be moving at a snail pace while the demos have lots of actions. Anyway, I got it this week week and couldn't wait until my training day last Thursday to test it out. It turned out I didn't quite know how to use it yet (talking about being technical :)) and I captured nothing. Today I brought it again to my training and shot some videos while doing my usual thing around on the beach.

The videos from today are not too impressive. I do think it was the sports that were used in the demos make it so great. The quality is just ok, in my opinion. I am using full HD mode with 30 frames per second. The clips are a little bouncy as I wore the camera on my head. Next week I definitely want to test it again in different setting (snow) in Colorado, and will mount it before my chest. I think the bounciness should be reduced.

Below is the one of the results from today. It was *very* windy and quite "cold" (to Calif standard - in the 40s (8C) without windchill). If you're looking for something interesting, it's not :). There was not much going on on the beach, just deserted as usual. However, people can go for horse back riding as you can see in the clip (besides hauling some dead weight like me :)).

The test GoPro video clip

Blast From the Past

2009-11-22T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not my past but these North Pole photos are taken from Mark Abouzeid, a photojournalist who went to the North Pole at the same time as I did: http://www.markabouzeid.com/blog/featured/the-north-pole/

He also has a post that has my picture (and a paragraph about me :) ) Longyearbyen – day 1

Prep Works

2009-11-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have done a lot of preparation, since the beginning of the year but somehow I still find myself having too much to do before the departure. I guess part of it is this time I do a lot of things myself, from custom made stuffs for the expedition to technology support. I pretty much multitask right now. Here's my typical week day and weekend.
- Weekday: go to work, hit the gym after work, then either work on an application I called kbot (a helper which I will explain later) on in a meeting for work with remote site at night.
- Weekend: Hit the beach for tire pulling, shop for additional stuffs I could think of, make some custom items for the trip.
Of course there are other things I do too, like going out or catch a movie, but these activities are rare.
One good thing is I know what I want for this trip. And I want lots of good cookies. Actually cookies are not the only things I will be eating. More like mix with others like chocolate, candy, salami, powerbar, nuts and dried fruit. I will bake some, to my own taste but I have my family send me their creation too. Cookies are going fly in from all over the place, from Toronto, Guelph (Canada) to LA. It's going to be Christmas after all. Looking forward to eat good stuffs on the way to South Pole.

Beach Again

2009-11-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Just want to post a couple of pix I took yesterday on the beach pulling a tire. Good thing Half Moon Bay beaches at this time of the year is quite empty. And yet, people stopped me to ask what I was doing. It's funny one lady said "did you realize that you are pulling a tire?" I laughed, I was fully aware of it.

Dragging a tire with additional weight attached on wet sand can be quite tiring (a tire is tiring, duh)

My tracks on the beach

Christmas Treats

2009-11-02T22:33:00.000-08:00

The expedition will span over Christmas so I want to have some Christmassy feel at the bottom of the world. I asked my family to bake me some cookies, make sure to load them with lots of calories. These will be my "meals" at each break on the way skiing to the pole. I will also bake my own, too. Another thing that reminds me of the holiday is Second Cup apple cider (Canadian da best!). I love this drink, especially with a cinnamon stick. I can't wait for a hot and steamy cup of cider mixed with wonderful aroma of cinnamon while it is completely white outside. I'll have my family send me this for sure. Maybe I'll find some cinnamon sticks in Punta Arenas?

I also think I should bring a tiny Xmas tree with me, or maybe just a paper pine tree, the kind you find people hang in their car :)

Tentative Itinerary

2009-10-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

So I bite the bullet and and buy the darn Air Canada ticket, the last leg from Toronto to San Francisco on the return trip from the South Pole exped. Been checking the price but they're not on sale, not as much I would like to pay.

Here's the latest itinerary with lots of flying and waiting time in between. Not sure if I am looking forward to lots of layovers in between.

Dec 8: San Jose - Denver
- Cross country skiing
Dec 12: Denver - Dallas - Miami
- Stop over in Miami
Dec 13: Miami - Santiago
- Stop over in Santiago
Dec 14: Santiago - Punta Arenas

Dec 16: expedition officially starts
- Lots of things happen from this point
- Fly to Patriot Hills base camp
- Skiing the last degree
- Fly back to base camp
Dec 29:
- Fly from base camnp to Punta Arenas

Jan 3: Punta Arenas - Santiago
- Lay over in Santiago
Jan 4: Santiago - Mexico City
- Stopver in Mexico City
Jan 5: Mexico City - Toronto
- Real rest in Toronto
Jan 7: Toronto - San Francisco

Custom Made Gears

2009-10-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

This week I emailed Eric Larsen on the training we were supposed to be doing by the end of Oct or early Nov. Unfortunately he could not spare much time as he's going to depart for his Save The Poles project on Nov 5. That leaves him virtually no time with all the preparation he has to do. Apparently he's going to lead a team to ski from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole (730 miles or 1,175km). This will be the first leg of his quest to complete the 3 poles within 365 days. Amazing guy. Too bad I don't have the chance to work with him and learn from him. But hey, who knows if our paths cross in Antarctica this time. His trip will last about 60 days, by the time I start skiing, he's about 40-45 days into his expedition.

One thing I asked him was the nose beak. I wished I had this when I was in the North Pole. The balaclava did not work so well, it was almost impossible to breathe. The ice would form outside where you want the air coming in. I found myself pulling the thing off my nose to gape for air and pulled it back up to protect my face from the cold wind. The nose beak would hopefully block some wind and leave enough gap at the bottom for me to respire.

The nose beak is not available anywhere. I have done search online and found none that serves the purpose. So it'll be custom made. I did buy some fabric for this but not sure how it would work in cold and windy condition. I asked him some tips on the material. It is nylon and fleece. So this weekend or next I will be making this nose beak for my goggles. And extra ones, just in case I need a replacement. That also means this time I have bring along repair kit (needles and threads) and be a good mother when little things break :). By the way, this is the standard kit any explorer must bring along, for fixing the tent or ripped clothes.

Another item I need to sew is the fur for my jacket hood. I bought a jacket for the trip recently but was too cheap on spending another $160 to have fur attached on the hood. Instead I am going to re-use the fur from the jacket I wore in the North Pole trip, but some customization needs to be done.

And the last big one is the VBL for my sleeping bag. My down bag is rated at -40F (also -40C). Down bag works well when it's dry. When you sleep, unless you are really cold, you will sweat and it gets into the bag. To prevent the bag from getting wet, people use a VBL, vapor barrier liner, made from nylon or plastic, to stop the sweat from vaporize from the skin and gets into the bag. As a result, sleeper may feel dammed but this problem is easier to deal with.

All of this I will have to make by myself. People who are in this kind of trip have to be able to do everything from cooking, sewing to a lot of hard work.

Two Months To Go

2009-10-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

60 days before the expedition starts. I am excited about it but I can't say that I was in the same excitement and nervousness level as I was for the North Pole. I think mostly because having been to the North Pole help and also I have been preparing for this since the beginning of the year.

Having said that, I do have a lot of things to prep for this trip, strangely. From additional gear acquisition to technology, everything is still not yet in place.

I bought a new anorak 3 days ago (and on its way to me). The one I used in the North Pole is goretex which is not suitable for South Pole apparently. Goretex is waterproof and breathable. But since South Pole is going to be super dry and breathability of goretex stops working under -20C, there is little use. The new anorak is made of nylon and been tested (as it was said and recommended by ANI) so I have no option but trust it.

On the technology front, it was unfortunate that I cannot rent a tracker. The only place I found on the internet that (used to) rent out this device is in Australia but they no longer do so. They only sell the device along with monitoring packages. If I was richer, I probably would purchase it and use away. But even if that's the case, I still have to improvise the battery or recharge it somehow because the battery life only lasts 8 hours.

So instead, I will use my satellite phone and GPS to do it manually. I will dispatch my GPS location every night. This was part of the plan anyway but the plot will not look as smooth and web followers will not be able to see my movement every hour or two.

Speaking of this, I still have to develop my own Java application to handle the messages I'm going to send and plot the traverse path on Google Earth or Google Map. It'll be some work too. Hopefully two months is enough to write and test the app before I go. I also have my brother in law to host this app for me so in that sense I have someone to take care of any outages or hiccups with the program while I am on the ice.

Lots of more things to do but not sure it's its too little time. It remains to be seen.

Mt Whitney - Photos

2009-10-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Sign the log book

Next to the plaque

One view from the top

Stand before the stone house

Mt Whitney - Second Attempt

2009-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

We got back to LA on Monday and to the Bay the following day. Rest was what we needed. I then talked to my coworker about our trip. She told me her husband was going to do Mt Whitney day hike on the weekend with a bunch of friends. They had one extra permit (one person in the group dropped out). Mind you, obtain permits to hike Mt Whitney requires luck. They have the whole lottery system going on. However, permits in Oct are pretty to get.

So I was really tempting to do the hike even while I was not fully recovered. It would be 3 days apart to the next trip to the same mountain! I talked to my work and finally decided to take this opportunity to "redeem" myself. The weather was going to be excellent, even better than the time I was on the mountain. It would be cold but sunny and not windy.

Friday came and 5 guys and I happily hopped on the freeways aiming at the direction to the same mountain I failed to scale a few days ago. These guys are young and motivated as some of them had attempted this feast before (some failed and one succeeded).

We did not get to the campground right outside of the trail head until 6pm. We pitched the huge tent that would fit all of us and organize our summit-packs for the early hike in the morning. We went to bed at 8pm.

At a 2:30 wake up call, we got out and prepare our breakfast to start our hike. By the time we finish eating, drinking hot cocoa, last min preps and be at the trail head, it was 4:30.

It was still very dark at this time. Everyone had their headlamp shooting the powerful rays on the trail, helping us maneuvering over the rocks and other obstacles. This was my first time hike in a the dark. It wasn't bad as the trail was very well marked and it was almost impossible to get lost.

After almost 4 hours and 45 min with a few breaks in between, we reached to the Trail camp where I camped for the night 4 days back. I was happy to see the lake ice free. I refilled half a liter and treat it with iodine table. Needed to have enough fluid for the summit and back. I had 3 liters of water with me. From Trail camp on, there is no other source of water.

The section right after Trail camp has the (in)famous 97 switchbacks. These are known to be the killer. These would lead hikers to ascend very quickly. A lot of people would turn back during or after these switchbacks.

After recharging myself with lots of water and food at the Trail camp, I headed out the to the first of the zigzags. I was surprised that I could take on these guys with ease. I kept on walking up and up and did not stop much. I found myself finished about 80 of them before I really needed a rest.

At the end of the switchbacks is the Trail Crest (13777 feet or 4199m). This is the section where the trail drop 500f and the rest would be up hill battle. Why dropping 500f seems nice to let the muscles recover from the brutal climb, this means on the way back, hikers must climb this much. Not a good idea.

At this point I already had headache, due to altitude. I was not out of breath but breathing heavily. Good thing it did not worsen as I did my breathing technique I learned from Mt Shasta and Rainier climb.

I met this couple who were on the way back from the summit. They told me it would be only about an hour or so away. It was 11:30 and I would beat my own goal to reach the top by 2pm the latest. I was excited. It turned out not true. The trail winds behind the east face of the summit, looking west. It is very rocky and would go up and down. Also the real peak is not visible that means there is a long way to go from there.

It took me 2 hours and 10 mins to reach to the summit at 1:40pm. The stone house is such a small shelter but seeing it from the bottom of the peak was such a relief. I finally reached to the top of the highest mountain in lower 48!

I took a few photos and signed my name in the log book and descending the peak. Reaching the summit is just half way as I have learned.

The way down is uneventful except that the sky turned dark so quickly. Half of the descend was in total darkness. My headlamp now came to rescue. One frustrating thing about going down in the dark my perception of distance deceived me. I saw car light, especially red break light, and would think i was so close to the trail head and gave me hope. I found myself disappointed so many times to learn that I had hours to get down!

I reached to the portal at 9:30pm. A total of 17 hours in this marathon hike. 22 miles round trip with 6100+ feet (1860m) elevation gain. Few days apart of the the first attempt. It was quite a bit of work there. All I think of was a bowl of hot soupy noodles and a nice warm bed.

I expect to be this tired in the South Pole. Everyday.

Mt Whitney - First Attempt

2009-10-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Mt Whitney (14,505 feet or 4,421 m - the highest peak in the mainland US) is the last mountain I climbed as part of my training before my departure to the South Pole.

The weekend of Oct 3, my friend and I made our attempt to scale the mountain. Unlike most people, we did not plan this trip for a long time (some planned a year ahead). We got our multiday hiking permits in August. The plan was to do backpacking style. We were going to backpack to the the Trail Camp and spend the night there and ascend to the summit the next day. We did exactly that. Our backpacks were quite heavy. Hers was about 30 lbs and mine was almost 40 cuz I volunteered to carry our tent and cooking stuffs. My friend had not been training as much so it made sense for me to carry more.

We started out from Los Angeles at 5:30am on Sunday (10/4) and drove to Whitney Portal where the trail head starts. The drive was about 4 hours and mostly smooth except for one almost-a-misery event.

As we we passing along the freeways, we found so many gas stations so we figured there was no need to worry about the half full (or empty) gas tank. Little did we know, as we entered the stretch of the desert land on highway CA 395, there was no gas station when the gas tank light was on. There was no sign saying that there would be no gas for the next so ad so miles, at least not that both of us could see.

We were pretty much driving very conservatively, turning off everything, no fan, radio, AC and put on neutral on downhill and even on one small uphill section. We were driving in such stressful mode and I was so ready to push our car should it stop running. The highway was empty too. It was Sunday morning in a desert land after all.

After more than 20 miles of driving on warning- light-on, we thought to ourselves that it was it, we could not last any longer and there was a blue sign with some sort of a structure standing alone on the left of the road in the distance.

Expecting for a disappointment (as we passed a few building structures earlier and they turned out to be ghost or abandoned farm house), we found a savior as the sign growing bigger with the word Mobil. This gotta be one of most happiest moments in our lives, at least mine. We pulled over and filled the tank as full as possible. It could have been a disaster if we didn't find this little station. It's interesting that this tiny place carried free postcards of its own. I guess a lot of people had been in similar situation. We collected the cards as our souvenir for the trip.

We reached to the Whitney Portal before 10 and prepared our hike. It was a beautiful day, quite cold, about mid 40's F (7C). We donned our backpacks and put away all extra food and scented items in a bear locker (turned out it was a trash bin I didn't realized later!). We started our hike at 10:50.

The hike was very nice as the weather was cool but sunny. I was impressed with my friend as she didn't train for this hike, at least not with heavy backpack. She set the pace for the hike and it was a pretty good pace.

As we winding our way up the mountain, we met a lot of people who were descending. All of them could not make it to the top due to pretty bad weather the night before and the wind gust at the top. Apparently the wind was so strong it went at 70 miles/hr. It would definitely blow people off the trail. This was not a good news for us. Another bad news was we were told there was no water at the Trail Camp where we were going to spend the night. The lake at the camp was frozen. Despite the news, we kept going because the sun has been out all morning and hoped some of the ice were melting.

After a long 5h 30 mins we finally reached to the camp site. Carrying heavy backpack on a 6 miles long hike was no easy task. Now time to pitch the tent and prepare dinner. My friend job was to get water and I build the tent. This was not my first time pitching this tent but did it in the cold (in 30s or 0C) is no fun nor easy.

With some small struggles with the poles, I managed to erect the tent, just in time my friend came back with water. It turned out she had to hack the ice to get water by the edge of the pond. Her filter didn't worked as the water would freeze inside the tube. So I told her to forget about the clean water. We just had to boil it to kill bacteria and or things. Both of us were pretty much freezing but I think she was colder as she dealt with water while I was fighting with the tent.

Finally we started our stove and begin to boil some precious water. The tiny portable stove didn't mean act as camp fire but traces of heatwave on top of the kettle helped our blood to circulate in our hands. By the time the water boiled and gave off some steam, we poured it into our freeze dried food packages for our dinner. Boiling water on a high altitude (the Trail camp is at 12000f or 3657m) in cold temperature did take forever. I managed to boil some more of the water that I myself got from the lake. By the time we finish our dinner, the sky pretty much dark and time to retreat in our tent.

That night was cold. I had 0 degree (-18C) sleeping bag and was in two layers of clothes. So did my friend. Actually she put more on, pretty all she had. We were both cold in our bags and could not sleep well. I started to develop headache, first symptoms of AMS. I was not sleeping the whole night until my alarm went off at 5am. We "woke" up and exchanged our idea for the day. Turned out she had headache too and was not able to sleep. So I decided stay in until 7 and would make up our mind whether we should ascend.

By 7, the sun was out completely. The air was crisp and cold but fresh. The headache did not go away as I had hope for. We both decided not to take the risk and push ourselves. So down was the way to go. We broke the tent and packed up. It took almost an hour before we could descend.

On the way down, the sun shined brilliantly. Such a beautiful day for hiking. I did have a little regret that I could not go further up, but that thought was quickly dismissed. There was only two of us, we had to go up or down together. The mountain is here to stay and there will always be another time.

Also while zigzag-ing our way down the mountain, I realized that my refilled lake water was full of algae and dirt I could not detect last night. What could one do but drink it while the untreated water off the stream was more susceptible with problem. At least I had extra protein and fibre in my drink :)

We got down to Portal shortly before noon and called it a hike.

More Training Pix

2009-09-22T17:16:00.001-07:00

Lately I upped the ante by increasing the frequency of hiking and climbing. Yosemite, Mt Tallac, Mt Rainier, Mt Tallac again and upcoming Mt Whitney. Hopefully I'll be in even better shape by the time South Pole expedition takes place

Mt Rainier (9/7/2009)

Mt Tallac (9/19/2009)

Commitment

2009-09-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

I finally sent the huge check to ANI on Monday last week. Although this is supposedly to be a great news but the stress from a loan/spending this kind of money in one shot definitely overwhelmed my excitement. It took me a few days to slowly digest the matter.

So I'm fully commited.

There's only one direction I'm looking at now: The South Pole.

I just want to let everyone know I am still looking for sponsorship. Do let me know if you know one. Any tip/lead is really appreciated.

Weekend Pics

2009-08-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Yosemite:

Me at the Upper Yosemite Fall trail head

Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley

View from the top

Half Moon Bay:

Get ready for the beach

Carry the tire

Beach walk

Pull

A small hill to climb

Maneuver

Successfully pull the (darn) tire to the top

Weekend Activities

2009-08-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Weekends are for training as usual, i.e. hiking and tire pulling. This weekend was a little more fun.

I decided to go Yosemite National Park with my friend Peter, hiking up to the Upper Yosemite Fall. While this is not the most challenging hike in Yosemite for most people, it is for me because I had my 40 lbs backpack. Most people bring two or 3 bottles of water and snack which usually weight a less than 10 pounds.

The trail is 3.5 miles, with 2700 feet elevation gain. Average person can do it from 6-8 hours round trip. Upper Yosemite Fall trail is steeper than Mission peak which is 2.8 miles and gains 2100 ft.

We started out Friday after work, drove to Groveland, one hour away from the park. We got lost a little but managed to reach to our motel at 11:30pm. Earlier in the week we couldn't book a cheap room so we decided to sleep in a tent the motel offered. Apparently a lot of people do that too, to save some cash.

Saturday morning we got inside the park by 8. The park was pretty empty. We were told it would get packed later in the day. I couldn't complain. It was nice with less people.

We got to the trail head at 9 exactly. After a few photo ops, we started hiking. At first the weight seemed ok for me. I was used to it. But boy, about half way, the sun was out and it was hot, right at the section there was no shade. I was dying pretty much. At the beginning, we try to make a steady pace, and have 10 mins breaks every 50 mins. After the 3rd one, I requested more frequent stops. Good thing Peter drank a lot of water but that didn't help too much off loading the weight on my back. He asked me jokingly why I was torturing myself and that he found such a great deal on this trip. Usually carrying water up the trail is a big thing for people. I carried all our water (obviously) and when he finished his, I just refilled his. Never have to go stingy on water! About 2/3 of the way, i was pretty drag my foot. I was in exhaustion and Peter suggested me to dump some water. I refused. We finally made it to the top by 1:15. Man, it was such a relief, literally :) I could finally take off my backpack and lie down on the rock. Such a great bed at that moment.

We stayed there at the top of the fall for one hour and 15 mins to lunch and rest and enjoy the view. Beautiful view from the top though it could get better if there was sunshine.

On the way down, while I had no issue (now that my backpack was half the weight as I had dumped the some water), Peter was in misery. His knees couldn't cope very well with the descending, especially on the rocky trail like this one. It was his turne to request frequent stops.

We finally reach to the trail head at 5. We were glad with the result, though this trip was not to time ourselves, not with the backpack I had anyway. Peter runs but doesn't hike so this was his big one since forever.

We stayed Sat night in Groveland again. We took it easy as the town has nothing to offer.

This morning we drove back to the Bay area to "my" training beach. I told my friends how people react when they see me pulling the tire but none had joined me to the beach until today. As usual, some people looked and we ignored them, some were curious and talked to me. It's just part of the routine and in fact it makes the training less boring :)

Because this time I was with someone, I had a lot of pictures taken. I'll post some pictures and video of the hike and the beach tomorrow when download them to my computer.

All in all, hiking national park and beach bumming in one weekend is not too shabby, eh.

Fund Finding

2009-08-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

The biggest challenge is getting funded for the trip. I haven’t done much on sponsorship. This year in particular is not a good year to go around asking for money to get a person to an unimaginable place. So if I want to go, I have to explore other options. I am exploring getting a loan. I am trying to work out the details on this plan, how much financial risk I can take and how I am going to pay back, and that how much it will affect me. I must have everything worked out by the end of the first week of Sept, before the deadline to send ANI the big cheque.

Let me tell you, finding funds is no fun.

Beachcombing

2009-08-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

Part of my training is pulling a tire (or two). I have been slacking in this department but the trip is not too far away. I really have to get back to tire pulling training. So I went to Half Moon Bay yesterday.

It was such a beautiful day, not too hot (high 70's ~ 26C). There was heavy traffic to the beach at 2pm when I went there. I spent like 20 mins driving around along CA Highway 1 to scout for a relatively empty beach to pull the tire. Last time I did, people really looked at me weird. I did not want to explain to people what I am doing so an empty beach would be nice. Also I don't have to run into people or dogs every few steps. I finally found this beautiful spot, quite empty.

I donned my long sleeve shirt, attached my hiking pants' legs, slipped my feet inside the almost-6 lbs mountaineering shoes, applied some sun screen and voila I was ready for my first day back to pulling.

An ugly picture of me. You can see how empty the beach is

Along Northern California beaches are cliffs. This one is no exception. The access to the beach is quite steep, especially when you have stiff mountaineering shoes and carrying a tire. I managed to come down fine.

There was just a few people on the beach. Some with dogs. I started to pull the thing. I was surprised I didn't find it too bad as the last time I tried it. Maybe I have improved a lot? I combed the beach back and forth for about 1 hour 15 mins and I wasn't dead tired. I was very happy about it. Next time I probably could attach some weight to the tire or maybe add another one.

As I moved along the beach, there was a few people looked at me but I ignored them. But when I finished with my laps, I ran into this couple. The wife asked me what I was training for. I said to simulate pulling a sled. She then went on asking where I was going. I told her about my plan to the South pole. They showed their surprise and interest and asked me a lot questions. They seemed to be the active kind. The husband did some winter camping in Maine and the wife really worked out quite a bit. Anyway, they wished me luck when they left. I do need it in the Antarctica.

I have a tiny video clip. Enjoy the beach :)

Beachcombing

Misc.

2009-08-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted as much as I want to lately. Been so busy with work project. Finally one was done last Friday but a new one started today, lots of new material to digest. Its good to be busy in recession, as everyone says.

I still stick with my training program, at least trying to. Still climb the boring stairmaster, lift some weight and hikings on the weekend. Yesterday I carried almost 45 lbs (20.5 kg) of weight to Mission Peak. It was pretty hot but I started out early at 7:30 so it wasn't too bad. There was a little bit of breeze so it helped tremendously. This time around I learned my lesson, carry cold water. I put lots of ice in the two bottles. It definitely felt good to drink cold fluid on a hot trail. With all that, I managed to cut down the time to the peak by 30 mins. Still have a lot of room for improvement but I wasn't panting to go up. I did make a few quick stops for snacks and drinks. Some people jokingly asked me if I planned to stay up there for a week. The pack is half of my height and not too far from half of my weight! Some people got heat stroke or got prolem hiking up without a backpack. Ambulance sighting on the trail is not unusual. A few weeks ago, I even spotted a helicopter come for a rescue (see videos)

But yesterday there was this little kid, around 8 years old made it to the top with his dad and uncle. Amazing kid. He made it to the top shortly after me and got back down at the trail head at the same time as me. Amazing thing is he didn't appear too tired, and full of energy. I don't know what his dad feeds him with but I could see a potential great athlete. A lot of adults can't even make it half way, let alone the summit and back down with energy and in such a hot day (at the time we were at the trailhead, it was over 90F - 32+ Celcius)

Today I checked Eric Larson's blog. Eric is the polar explorer who is doing the 3 poles this year. He just did Denali early July as a training for Everest. Apprently he was in the Bay area to promote his Save The Pole program and some advertising for Sierra Designs gears at REI. I couldn't believe I missed his presentations. I could have connected with him in person. Oh well. But anyway, we still plan for the polar training. He was thinking of Yellowknife or Colorado or even Churchill. That would be in late Oct or early Nov when it's cold enough. He'll let me know the time and location. Hopefully there are other people as well, to cut down the cost. The training will be about 6 days.

In less tha a month I'll be climbing Mt Rainier. This is going to harder than Mt Shasta. I have bought quite a few more gears for this, all top of the line. Hopefully this will be the one time investment deal. I do not want to spend more for the same item later. The only thing that I am looking for is a light 4-season tent. I know the models I want to get but they are really expensive. Guess I can wait on this. Another item is an expedition parka. I do have one, in fact two, one from the North pole trip and one I just bought recently. The one from North Pole is was too heavy for mountaineering cuz it is filled with synthetic material and not so good. The one I bought recently is down filled parka, a decent one but I think that one might not cut it for extreme cold. Will see when I test it in the training.

Shasta Climb - Part 3

2009-07-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

It wasn’t a pitch black night (or morning) to start the climb. On the contrary, it was beautiful. The moon was near full. The sun light bounced from the surface of the moon to the surface of the snow created strange, but beautiful, may be with a little bit of eeriness. We each donned our gears on, soft shell pants, crampons, helmet, head lamp, ice axed and of course the backpack. This time the pack was lighter, about 20+ lbs, because we left everything not needed for the climb at the camp.

We were divided into two teams. Jason led Walter and Burr while Lynnette took the rest. This is their usual practice. They would group climbers based on their performance up to Helen Lake. I was in the stronger performance team. Honestly, it’s difficult to tell how the altitude will affect people. Burr and Walter practically did not have any AMS symptoms. They took Diamox. I had headache in Horse camp and David had been complaining about his headache since dinner. I have to say I was a little concerned too, due to David’s AMS. If one of the team member could not make it, everyone would have to come down. This was a team, we climb as a team. There is no “I” in the word “team”, as Lynnette repeated to me the slogan in her high school gym. I agreed with her.

We took Avalance Gulch to the summit

Four of us were roped up and started to climb the steep slope. We went pretty slow I thought. The goal was to gain about 500 feet per hour. This is about the average speed. It was a little cold up on the mountain at the wee hours. I sweated a little in my shell jacket as we climbed. At the first break, we found some exposed boulder to sit on. There we eat and drink to recharge, and the Jason’s team joined us after 5 mins. They left for the slope about 10 mins before us. I was surprised. It turned out Burr had some problem with his hip. They probably had to break somewhere. Since we were two teams, we said hi to them and on our way to higher ground. About a few mins, Jason was on walkie-talkie Lynnette saying that they would go back down to the camp. Jason (and Burr) decided that it was too dangerous for Burr to climb further due to his hip problem. At that time, David still had his pounding headache. Lynnette asked us whether anyone would want to join them to come down because this is the only chance. Obviously I wanted to continue. David replied that he could handle it at the moment and that in 10 mins, he might have different answer. Not a too comforting answer. We moved on.

We took two more breaks before we reached to the Redbanks. At this time the sky started to brighten up. It was cold. It was at this altitude I started to feel my headache. And It was cold and windy.

This is a little gross but I found strange was at higher altitude, I produced a lot of gas J At first I thought because my pasta meal or carbs. It turned out it was HAFE (High Altitude Flatus Expulsion -- they even have a scientific name for this as it happens to most people). The air pressure outside is less than the pressure within human body, so our body need to have an equilibrium, and hence, the gas expulsion. At first I was roped in the 3rd position and Kate was behind me. I did has some gas but really embarrassed and hoped she didn’t have suffer from it. Good thing there was the wind. Later I was roped at the end and I could gas my way up. Maybe that’s why I could speed. :)

After reaching to the Redbanks was the steepest section, the Chimney. At this section, we really had to work twice as much. Every step was 3+ feet high. We had to use the ice axe. And lots of kicking in the snow to secure ourselves. This was the most technical section in the climb. Once we passed it, it was morning sunshine and a plateau from where we could see the pinnacle. We were so please to see it. But it got so windy and very cold that we couldn’t enjoy the view. My jacket was helpful but I definitely could use a warmer one.

The next one big challenge was Misery Hill (13,200’) . It was name as such for reason. At this time, my AMS didn’t get much worse but about to. David was in even worse shape. I had to rally the team, especially David that we could make it and I joked that this was a piece of cake. He said I was too optimistic while he didn’t have any delusion. I think being optimistic helped. I learned this from my North Pole trip. After all, I did not want to go down without summit the mountain. I guessed the rally helped. David and us scaled the Misery hill, even though he was very slow and started to get more severe AMS.

It was short hike to the pinnacle after Misery Hill to the summit. Kate seemed to be ok. Of course Lynnette was fine. My headache was getting worse as we went higher. I tried to ignore it. I know it’s dangerous to, but that’s a way to make it. It was not too much more before we could reach to the top. Also, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. David on the other hand, started to a little disoriented, but he kept going.

When we reached to the top at around 11am, I was so excited. A great view from the top. It was a sunny day, but really windy at the summit. There was this guest book that climbers signed their names at the top. We quickly signed ours and took a few photos. I congratulated David and said I was so proud of him and that he was my hero (It’s true. If he decided to go down, all of us must go down without reaching the top.) All I got was a blank stare back. I thought it was weird. It turned out he got overwhelmed and also due to his disorientation. We spent about 5 mins total at the peak before we rushed down to safer altitude for David.

Climbing up is only half of the way. Descending was not less difficult. We rushed down to Misery hill and took a break. David felt a slightly better.

We were supposed to go down the same way we climbed up but apparently it was cold that day so the snow had hardened and would be too slippery to us to glissade. Lynnette decided to take us to different route, through the gravel instead. The gravel was not fun to walk on. I was pretty gliding down the slope on my feet. I fell a few times too. It was very difficult on this kind terrain. I told Lynnette this was my least favorite section by far. Finally we reach to the snow slope, from the right side of the Heart. We needed to cut across a little bit before we could reach to the glissade section. Here Lynnette decided to make me go down first and she last. We were roped up. This way she could anchor us if we slipped. I didn’t think I was a great leader. I couldn’t see too far because I didn’t have my glasses on. But we managed. This section was very steep so I fell on my butt two times and Kate, who was behind me fell a few times. But the hard part was paid off when we got to the glissade-able slope.

Glissade is a term in mountaineering to describe going down my sliding on your butt. While it can be fun but it is quite dangerous. You need to be able to control the speed using your ice axe. We learned the technique in the snow school but this was the real deal. I was quite nervous. Anything with fast speed and not much of control I would be. Good thing Lynnette was in the front. She would be our cushion if you went out of control. Apparent we did need her. I was the 3rd in line and Kate was second. I bumped into Kate a few times and she bumped into Lynnette. It was really fun. Much like riding water sliding in a theme park. I had such a great time. I acted like a kid too :)

We reached to the camp after glissading our way down the slope. At this altitude, my headache was gone. It could be the glissade fun I had too. We got to our tents and I was not surprised to see Jason’s team already left. It turned out Walter was very pissed that he couldn’t go further. I would be too but again, he was told about the team policy. Apparently they went back and hung out the whole day. They were bored so they did not want to wait. At first I didn’t see my tent, I was happy and thought they were nice enough o pack the tent with them. Turned out they only took the poles and the tarp. And my portion is the whole tent. While this actually was my portion that I carried up, the still, I was so tired to carry more weight. What could I do except pack the whole thing up. The backpack was back to normal weight, ie, back breaking weight.

We spent about an hour at the camp to rest. In fact I thought we rested too much. But David needed it. It was here that I got to talk to Lynnette more. She made a comment I thought very nice of her that she wonder how she could last the weekend without me. I thought she was a great guide, not because of this compliment. I learned a lot from her, the techniques and the attitude on the mountain.

On the way down to the trail head, we were pretty much gliding down the snow. Again, it wasn’t too easy for me, but it was much better for the knees on the snow than on the ground. Struggling my way down, we got to the Horse Camp and then wound down to the trail head.

It was shortly after 8pm that we reached to the Bunny Flat trail head where I parked my car. I was so happy to take off my shoes and it was time for flipflops.

Shasta Climb - Part 2

2009-07-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

After oatmeal and cereal breakfast, we departed for Helen lake which is at 10443' by heading to the Causeway - the rock steps created by a caretaker named Olbermann. The causeway look nice and neat but not good for hiking, certainly not with a heavy pack. At the end of the causeway the trail started to get very steep and soon enough we entered a snow slope, up the Helen Lake and beyond.

The climb was not bad for me. A few in the team though had some problem, mostly because they were not used to carry that much weight. This was when I appreciated the gym and hiking sessions I have gotten so far. I could keep on going while others requested breaks to catch up with breathing. I was also glad my headaches were gone. I must have been something else.

We reached to Helen lake 2pm-ish. The day was beautiful and sunny. We scouted the snow slope for area to pitch our tents. Not so lucky. We had to use the shovel to dig some area to make it flatter. Jason and Burr were doing the digging while Walter and I doing the stampede to pack the snow and even it out. Shortly we had a nice little sweet spot where we called it home for the day and we could all take a power nap before our snow school.

Trying to pack the snow for the tent

The snow school was supposed to be on the first day but since Horse camp had no snow, we did today. Jason was our instructor. We learned a lot in this, mostly basic climbing and snow traversing techniques, and most important thing, how to rescue ourselves. It was a fun session. However, in one of the practice of falling on the steep snow slope face down, I had spasm on my back. At first when it happened, i was like, Oh no, this is it, I broke my back. It was so painful that I could not even speak when Jason asked me if I was ok, I could only let out a few words. As soon as it happened, I rolled over on my back, using the snow to ease the pain and made sure one hand holding on to the ice axe (or I would slip down the slope). Magically, after like two mins, the pain went away and I felt like almost nothing had happened. Everyone was happy for me cuz they were really concerned. So was I. this would be my first taste of the danger of snow climbing. Now looking back to this little incident, I am glad I handle the way I did. I was so much in pain but still able to stay calm and made the right decision. This is one of the most important things to do on the mountain.

Me in front on our tent

After the snow school, we were starving as there was no lunch. Good thing Lynnette prepared a pasta dinner for us. A very early dinner at 4pm. It's here we started to melt the snow for drinking water. The snow here is not a pure as the one in the North Pole. It has interesting taste, might be due to the fungus on the surface of the rocks that the snow covered, so might be other stuffs we did not want to guess. Mind you that the park has a very strict rule on human waste. All solid waste, ie. poop, will need to be packed and brought down to the designated bin at the beginning of the trail head.

Speaking of waste management, we were given two small packages in which we have a sheet of paper printed with nested circles, much like a dartboard, some substance like cat litter to absorb the moisture and the smell of the poop. The technique for this is to squad down, aim at the center and do your business. Once done, apply the litter on top and grab the edges, sorta folder the sheet and put it into the Ziploc bag and tow it out of sight in a black garbage bag and carry that garbage bag inside your backpack.

We went to bed at around 6pm after packing for the summit the next day. We only packed the most essential items for the climb and leave everything behind inside the tents. The plan is to get up at 1am and have quick breakfast, put on our gears and hope to leave for the summit by 3am the latest.

It was so hot inside the tent because it was a 4 season tent and the sun was still out. My sleeping bag was 0F degree (approx -18C) rating, so that did not help either. That night, Burr did not need to pee as much but snored. Despite my attempt to put myself to sleep, the heat, the light, the snoring and the anxiety of the climb and possibly the altitude kept me awake pretty much all night. Again, we had wake up call soon after I started to actually falling asleep.

Shasta Climb - Part 1

2009-07-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

I left work at 7pm on Thursday heading north to Redding for the night and Mt Shasta the following day. The traffic was really bad. It’s expected however, cuz this was the long weekend. I brought my leftover from lunch, so-called Americanized fried rice from Yan Can (Cook) and some stirred fried vegetables. Driving and eating fried rice is not the best combination, so I pulled over on the side of a road waiting out for traffic to easy off and filling my stomach. The dinner didn’t take me long and I was off on the road again. I did not get to Redding until 11:30pm, one hour later than I expected. Checked in this shady motel, with some interesting looking people in the lobby and I was off to bed.

9am on Friday, I was at the meeting place. I got introduced to the guides, Lynnette and Jason and other team members. We went over our stuffs and rent the missing ones. It turned out I packed more than what I needed and rent more than what I wanted to. I spent total of $270 (ouch!) for the rentals and gears. I brought along my sleeping bag and mountaineering shoes but unable to used them. My sleeping bag is too thin for the mountain (I actually now think it would have been ok too if I took the risk) and my shoes are too new for this big trip (I later really appreciated my decision to rent a pair of used and well worn shoes). So I rented these gears along with ice axe, trekking pole and crampons. I got ripped off on the glacier sun glasses and some other stuffs but I had to get them. I had thought I could get away with what I had but Lynnette is too tough :)

Lynnette is our main guide. She’s about my height, but boy, her voice projects. One of the loudest girl I met. She’s been guiding this trip for 3 years. She’s a very interesting character and seems to have gone through a lot. She works as guide for the summer and odd jobs such as sales person at a gear shop, substitute teacher and others for the rest of the year.

Jason is the “sous-guide” (I made up this word, after sous-chef). He is quiet, definite not as loud as his mate. This guy has better work schedule than Lynnette. He works at a ski slope in Alaska for the winter so that works out great for him.

The group has 5 people: Myself, David and Kate - a couple from Pennsylvania and Walter and Burr - two guys from Orange County. David teaches in a college and has PhD in economics. His wife Kate just quit her job to return to school for her PhD on immigration. Walter and Burr are buddies and both are cosmetic surgeons. All of us are new to mountaineering. Kate and David however have taken some mountaineering course in Colorado prior to this trip.

After settling with our gears and instructions, we packed them and put the backpack on for the first time. Man, it was heavy. It’s gotta be at least 50 lbs, and that we had been on the trail yet. That scared me, how the hell am I going to carry this piece of rock on the mountain? Besides the weight, my backpack was a little too big for my size. I tightened the belt – all the way to the point I couldn’t anymore - around my belly button but it kept sagging down. So it was like the pack rest on the upper part of my butt. Not a good posture. I wish I had bigger hip for once. After adjusting the straps and all, it felt better but still it didn’t fit me too well. Nothing I could do anyway, so I moved on.

We drove to the trail head at Bunny Flat and started the climb. It was 12:30pm. All of us started to feel the weight. And the heat! This was crazy, carrying huge backpack and in the middle of the day. The trail to the Horse Camp was actually not that steep but the weight and the heat could kill. So about a quarter of the way, we stop for the first break and Lynnette told us to introduced ourselves, and what mountaineering experience we have had. She also laid out the climbing plan. It was different from what people received prior to the trip. We were supposed to climb to the first camp, get some lessons, move to higher camp, more lessons and the last day is the summit day. Lynnette said it changed to climb to Helen Lake (higher camp) on the first day, get learn some techniques, second day to the summit and back to camp, and the 3rd day for descend. Most of the team was surprised to hear it but no objection to this new plan. We continued the 2 mile trek to Horse camp.

The Horse camp situated at 7800 feet, at the base of Avalanche Gulch. The camp was a refuge, built in the 20s of last century. Simple tiny stone house with nothing much in it. I don’t know if they really allow people to sleep in there. When we reached there, I was so tired and hungry. I did not have proper breakfast and certainly no lunch yet and carry the heaviest bag ever in the heat. You can imagine how I ate :) The huge turkey with cheese sandwich I bought before the coming to the Bunny Flat disappeared quickly in my mouth. At this time, it was clear to Lynnette and Jason that there was no way this group could make it to Helen Lake in time, so they changed the plan one more time, back to the original. Everyone was glad to rest but we were definitely concerned about the crazy 3rd day.

We setup the camp site and pitched the tents. This is when I felt the AMS. I got pounding headache. I couldn’t move too fast and was not as active. I kept on drinking water. Burr offered Diamox to fight it but I refused. I drank just too much water that evening, total of 4 litters, kept on peeing. Good thing I have other things to eat too or I would lose all minerals. Drinking that much water in short amount of time is very dangerous. Good thing nothing happened to me.

Walter, Burr and I shared a tent. That night we went to bed at 9pm so that we could get up early the next day at 5. I could not sleep at all, the headache still bugged me and plus Burr kept waking everyone by going in and out of the tent to pee. The guy is older (he’s 62) tall and of bigger frame, so he kicked things and us around while crawling in and out of the tent. Only when it was late (or early in the morning) that I could get some rest. But that’s when Lynnette had the morning call. The only good thing was my headache disappeared. Not able to have a good rest is definitely a bad thing on trip like this. You need all the focus for the climb and do not want to make mistake.

The trail head where we started the climb

To Mt Shasta

2009-07-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

Well, time to put all the training into real work. I am leaving for Mt Shasta tonight. I will stop for the night at Redding, a small town roughly an hour away from the mountain. I could drive directly to Shasta, which is only 4 hours 30 mins away but the hotel cost is almost double for the same chain. I will meet up with the group at 9am tomorrow, not too early (albeit I have gotten out of bed very late these days), so I have plenty of time in the morning.

I packed last night, only bringing the essential stuffs for the trip, and the weight of everything is less than what I have trained for (40+ lbs). I was glad for a moment but realized that that's not all I will be carrying. There will be tent, cooking stuffs and food for 3 days. Will see if it is a back-breaking trip :).

The plan to meet up with the group and guides at 9am. We will go over what we have and rent what we don't. I will need to rent crampons, ice axe, trekking poles and sleeping bag. I am bringing along my sleeping bag, but have no idea what sort of temperature rating. I bought this bag like 13 years ago for a summer camping in Algonquin Park in Ontario. It is required to have at least 20F bag. I doubt mine can cope with this temperature. I was looking to buy one online, man, they're no cheapo. I should know what I am getting into.

Anyway, once we're settled with equipments and all, we will start hiking to our first base camp. the guide will teach us some basic mountaineering techniques. The second day is pretty much the same, hike to a higher camp and learn some skills. On the last day, we will start the climb to the summit early, at 1 or 2am and hope to get back to the entrance by late afternoon.

It should be fun and I'm excited about it. And this time I will post some pictures (if I don't forget to recharge my camera battery). The blog must have been quite boring, all text, no photos, no sound and no bling bling :)

Back to Normal

2009-06-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

As I said in earlier post, I was concerned about the setback in my workout. It was a legitimate concern to me cuz next weekend is my first reality check, on Mt Shasta, to all of my training so far.

Anyway, so last week I did my usual hike to Mission Peak. This time was with the new backpack, a huge one and with 4 gallons (33.36 lbs) of water, plus other things. I made it to the peak, at 2 hours and 30 mins. Way slower than normal speed. I had to take breaks in between and did not think I could make it to the top. Some people on the trail said I was crazy and joked that the pack is was bigger than me. It's almost true :). But in the end I was extremely glad I made it there and with no back injury. I exceeded my goal by a bit.

This weekend I will repeat the hike, and definitely need to cut down the time and breaks.

Insurance

2009-06-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

One thing that is different about this trip than the North Pole is I will be more responsible - to myself and loved ones, not that I wasn't or haven't been :) - to get travel insurance.

I never bought any insurance for my travelling. I believe in responsible travelling but I also believe that things happen for a reason. I am by no means a spritual person but I do think fate brings one to the circumstances they are in.

Anyway, back to the North Pole trip, I wanted to get some coverage but couldn't find any that is reasonably priced. I searched all over the net and did my homework comparing them. The cheapest I found at the time was almost $2000. I know 2 grand was just a fraction of the overall cost but for me, every dollar counts. So I decided not to get any kind of travel insurance. Actually it was recommended but not enforced, so I opted out. It wasn't a really smart thing to do, I'll admit. Especially for North Pole. Many things could go wrong. I could break my ankles during the ski and need an evacuation. I could fall into the water. Etc. Thank God nothing happened, not even frostbites!

South Pole trip is going to be different though. I cannot affort not to have any insurance, because ANI requires all participants to be insured. Also, I think it's better to pay a little to get peace of mind (for my family at least). I asked Angie (from ANI), she gave a few names and one of them was AIG. When I heard that, I couldn't help but joked that we already bailed them out (of the financial collapse), time for them to pay back and why I have to give them more money.

Anyways, I did some research on those given by Angie. One carrier seems to be really good and well priced. They claim to cover the whole world, even remote regions. However, they never explicitly claim they cover the South Pole, so I chatted up with the help desk. The operator told me since they cover the whole world, South Pole will be covered. I hope this is true. You really have to understand what they mean by "the whole world" and if there's any fine prints. So the cost is amazing. For one month, it'll cost roughly $500. I'm gonna have to take up on this deal, but not now. I'll get it when I turn in the rest of the forms to ANI. Really hope they don't increase the premium by that time!

Airfares

2009-06-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

I was looking into the airfare to Punta Arenas for the SP yesterday. Airlines tickets are outrageous these days. From SFO to PUQ (Punta Arenas) trip goes up to $2000+. They must be smoking something. Who would pay at that price.

Anyway, I decided to use my miles on the outbound for this trip. I have collect enough miles over the years and it's time to use them, especially in this economy.

Antarctica is not a place where you can count on planning and schedules. Everything operates with the cooperation of mother nature. One should expect long delays (I have experienced this in my trip to the Antarctica in 2005). So the return dates of the expedition will most likely change. I will buy the ticket back to the US after I complete the expedition. So it's a one way ticket! Doesn't sounds too good eh? :).

I made the reservation for the outbound. Man, airlines really know how torture their passengers when it comes to "free" stuffs they give. It takes 2 days to get to Punta Arenas from the US with 5 (five) flight segments! I hope it doesn't wear me out so much that it would affect my expedition. I have until June 15 to finalize this booking.

Looks like I will have go with this itineray as this is the cheapest way to reach to Punta Arenas.

A Setback

2009-06-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first full day back to the US. I did not have much of jetlag thanks to a good sleep the night before (though I had to work right after I got home from the airport from 1am to 3am!).

I went to the gym at my usual hour and did my rowing routine. I did not complete it, only 3/4 of it. That is not good. At the end of the routine, I felt just tired and no energy to pull the handles.

I did expect the trip will set me back a little but not able to complete my easy routine is a little of concern. I guess not eating well on a trip (lots of unhealthy but really yummy pastries from Portugal) did not help too much. Or do I simply need a few days to adjust to normal?

Hope I will get back to the level I was in quickly as Mt Shasta trip is coming up soon enough. It is the first test of the training.

One Down

2009-06-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

This week was quite hectic for me. The project got intensified, both with milestones and issues we are facing *and* I am working remotely from Lisbon Cisco office. This is not my first time doing workation, but not with this pace. It's a little crazy. My work day starts at 1 or 2pm and goes until midnight in a foreign country.

Good thing this is Portugal. Such a beautiful and safe country and not yet a major destination in Europe. Portugal has become one of my favorite destinations. So many things I want to see but no time. Next time then.

Anyway, today I got a message from the potential sponsor I sent the preso to few weeks ago. I could count them out, unfortunately. C'est la vie or the Portuguese would say "Que ramido".

Weisure

2009-05-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

Weisure (wē'zhər, wĕzh'ər)
n.
Blurred line between work and leisure.

This is what I am doing now. Actually, it's rather workation.

I arrived in Madrid this morning, starting my trip to Spain, Morocco and Portual. I'm not going to spend a lot of time in Spain. The main focus of this trip is Morocco and Portugal. But (there's always a but!), I have to work too as I said I have been busy at work. I had to cut my vacation time and work remotely from these countries in between. Morocco is a little iffy, so I opt for Casablanca, which is a business hub in Morocco and hope I can work from Cisco office. Will see. I will not post anything on this trip here as they are not related to the South Pole. Just thought there may not any post on South Pole for the period of two weeks when I am in Europe/North Africa. Until next time.

Sponsor(s) Needed

2009-05-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

I have been super busy, with work (two projects at the same time and year end performance review), planning for the Morocco and Portugal trip and on sponsor proposal.

Regarding sponsorship, I contacted one potential sponsor early last week and they came back asking if I could provide a small presentation. Of course I will have to come up with one and justify why they should sponsor me. The problem is with all the busy work going on, I have to write in Vietnamese. I'm fluent in Vietnamese, but never wrote anything that is formal like a PowerPoint. Well, I spent a lot of time last night (after skipping my gym day) and today to finish it. Don't know how well they will receive it and if they will even consider sponsoring, but I thought it doesn't hurt to try. Wish me luck.

The Spot Is Secured

2009-05-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

I spoke to Angie in ANI today. Good news. They received my deposit to secure my spot in the program. Phew. I had to wait one week to send them the cheque because of it took time to transfer money from one account to another. They gave two weeks to make a deposit. So now they got it and everyone is happy :)

Last day to pay the total amount is Sept 17.

I chatted with her a little bit too. I asked her if there is anyone near where I live joins the program. And the answer was no. It would be nice to know your partner(s) ahead of time so we can train together and that could cut down some cost. I have done everything by myself so far.

I was also curious to know if there are any (past and present) participants who are of Vietnamese origin. She promised to look into it but so far no one she could recall. But it'll be difficult to tell. Maybe when I have a chance to visit them, I'll check the list myself :). ANI is pretty much the only non-government outfitter that organizes trips to the South Pole, so what they have is pretty much everything.

Communication Plan

2009-05-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Besides physical training and gear acquiring, I am looking at different aspects of the trip such as technology and communication.

For the North Pole, I relied on satellite phone to keep in touch with family and update the blog. This time it'll be the same, and more.

First, nothing can replace a satellite phone for voice communication in polar regions. That's for sure. And I will continue to do that in my next trip.

Second, blogging. Last time I dispatched messages directly from the phone to the blog. It is cool and all but the problem is that all I can do. Now I will build a middle layer, that takes the messages and posts them for me, so the blog will be more consistent.

This middle layer will do more than just posting. It will be able to send me the messages people enter on this blog (in Contact Me section - which currently sends emails to me) to a satellite phone and also understands some commands I will ask it to perform. All via messages. Will see how this whole thing goes, but I know exact what piece of software I need to write and the technical tools to use.

I hope to have a live tracking system for the expedition as well, and currently looking into the available technology. I will update when I know more about it.

White Christmas

2009-05-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's not even (officially) summer and yet I am talking about Christmas?

Well, Christmas is a magical time for many. And a white Christmas is always an ideal. Waking up in a nice toasty room on Christmas day, looking out of the window to see an empty street with a thick layer of snow covering everything from the roofs to the trees. It truly is a beautiful picture.

Everytime I go back to Toronto to visit my family for the holiday, I always love to see a white blanket of snow covering the whole town, hiding all the ugliness of the gray concrete. The downside to the snow is when it melts, the town is even uglier than without it. Black (sometimes yellow or colors you don't want to guess :)), sloppy dirty snow, salt and sand everywhere. None of this will happen in Antarctica.

It's about 7 months from now but it's not too early to plan for it. That's what I have been doing. Yes, I will be spending my Christmas holidays on the white desert. The official date for the program I am joining is from Dec 16 to Dec 29. Although it'll be a true white Christmas, everything is pure white and there is no ugly melting snow, it's going to be very different. I am looking forward to it.

One Step Forward (to the Next Challenge)

2009-05-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

I received Melanie's email yesterday informing me that the doctor finally approved my application and that no further information is needed. Good thing there is no more approval in the process, only money talks now.

She also sent a spreadsheet with cost breakdown. There is not much to it, just 3 lines, one for the cost, one for the wire fee (bank transfer) and the total. Very simple but the information it carries is excruciatingly heavy, equivalent to a 2009 Porsche Boxster.

I need to put down the deposit first to secure a spot, and this money is only refundable (less a hefty admin fee in case I cannot make it) 3 months prior to the expedition.

The total cost must be paid in full at least 90 days before the beginning of the trip.

Time to get the finance stuff going.

In Search of Cookie Recipes

2009-05-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

I am not about to open a bakery or impress anyone with my baking (although so far my co-workers loved my baked goods :)). I am looking to create a good recipe for power cookies.

In the North Pole trip, I ate a lot of cookies besides dried fruit and nuts during the breaks when we skied. Some of them from a local bakery near my house, but most of them were provided by Vicaar. While they were pretty good, they did not give the most calorie possible I needed to recharge myself. So for South Pole, I plan to bring my own cookies, with all nutrition needed (fat, protein, carbohydrates and fiber), all packed in a small cookie that is not literally a stone to masticate in -40 degrees.

So far I have created two batches. First batch was terrible, I chucked them all after a few cookies. The seond from two weeks ago was pretty good. I still have them now and plan to consume them all. I used them for my hikings, before/after my workout. So far they work pretty ok but I think these cookies can provide better. I am going to keep trying until I find that perfect recipe that gives me the kick plus keeps me going like the bunny in energizer battery commercial :)

Ingredients for the current recipe:

flour
eggs
oil (olive and vegetable)
butter
mixed nuts
flax seeds
honey
sugar
dried milk
cocoa
whey protein

Gear Collecting

2009-05-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

By now I should have known very well what I am getting myself into. Well, I do. But didn't think my pocket could deplete at an accelerating speed like now.

I have been looking to buy gears for mountain climbing, which is part of the preparation for the SP. Summer is the outdoor season, so it's difficult to find anything on sale for mountaineering gears. Luckily there are online stores that usually have sales/coupons and no tax and/or free shipping. The only problem with this is you don't get to see your merchandise. Often time you could guess but sometimes you get something not what you think it is. I bought this pair of booties from backcountry.com a few days ago. I checked carefully the size chart, and thought they would fit me. They turned out to be too tight and this store doesn't have other size because they were on clearance. I had to send them back, so there goes my free shipping saving.

Everything is so expensive, even after the sale and no tax. I am buying this pair of mountaineering boots from Raichle. Never heard of this brand (I dont much about the climbing business yet) but I read the review, they seem to be great. The local REI doesn't carry this brand so I don't know how they would fit me. Hopefully they work out for me, as I'll find out sometime next week when they arrive. So this pair was 50% off from $329. I got additional 25% off so my final price was $123. Not bad at all but this gotta be the most expensive pair of shoes I ever bought. Just hope they work for my purpose (Mt Shasta and Rainier). For other peaks if I want to climb, they require different types too! (Will deal with it when it comes). I have other alternative too, like renting the gears. But the rental is not too cheap either, so might as well own if I do climb often.

I also bought some other things like fleece, headlamp, mid and base layers. This is just the beginning of the shopping spree. I can't blame no one but myself :)

Georges' Nationality

2009-04-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

There's this thing bugging me that all of the articles on my North Pole expedition have this inaccurate detail (besides many). All of them, from Nguoi Viet, Tuoi tre to Thanh Nien, for some reason, "awarded" Georges Baumann, one of team member in the expedition, a French citizenship! He is not a French man. He is a Swiss. I thought I would "give" back his true nationality here :) He is supposed to be on a historic expedition crossing the Arctic from Russia to Canada via North Pole this year. I am not sure if he did it or not. Nonetheless, I wish him luck. By the way, the picture in is homepage was taken in our trip. His face mask is very well built, but it resembles (a little) Dr. Hannibal's mask :)

Raising the Bar

2009-04-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

I detailed my workout and training plan to Steve and Christoph and asked for recommendations. Well, my plan is apparently a bare minimum for SP! Here's what I said:

3 times/week on cardiovascular (more on stairmasters) for 1 hour each session
2 times/week on weight lifting
Hiking on weekend with added weight backpack - By July I must be able to carry 30-35 lbs to hike up the mountain near my place (Mission Peak or Mt Diablo)

Here's what the experts says:
From Steve
- Mountaineering expeditions
- Winter camping
- Cross-country and touring skiing
- Tire-pulling
From Christoph
- Need to go out, camp, ski, sleep, wash, anything, in bad winter weather

Advices are taken seriously.

I have now plan for two climbs this summer: Mt Shasta and Mt Rainier. More hiking trips to Yosemite or other places will be done this summer/fall. Right now I hike two times a week. My god, it's not that easy. Last week I had small problem with my left knee so I only had 3 bottles of water in the backpack. Yesterday I had 1.5 gallon of water and today I added more to 2 gallons. 2 gallons is about 16.5 lbs (7.5kg) of weight. Just half of what I need for Shasta. So my plan is each time increase by half a gallon. It seems small but it is killing if you do it consecutively. Mission peak is now my weekend hang out place. It is only 2517 ft (767m). The trail is 2.8 miles (4.5km). So far I did it within 1h 20 mins straight with no break. First I need to get the weight up, then speed.

Another hangout spot is the beach. It sounds nice if you go there just to chill. "Lucky" me, that's where I do my tire-pulling. I pulled the tire around my neighborhood last week. Some people looked at me weird, like I have some mental issue. I didn't care, kept on pulling. But pulling on asphalt and concrete is pretty easy, so I "raise the bar" today. I went to the beach after the hiking, starting to pull. I did get a lot of stares, that for sure. Some poeple gave me thumbs up, not sure if they know what I am doing ;). Pulling the damn tire on the sandy beach is damn tiring. It really drains you. I could only do 30 mins this time. I need to increase the duration. One thing I could see that keep me going is the fact that I was on the beach and it was very nice. There weren't that many people today as it was quite cold, but it worked out great for me. I was hot!

And for training, I have increased cardio exercise duration and frequencies. I now do on the weight day too, but shorter. So hope all of this will help. One thing I could see change immediately is I eat a lot now. All those calories burned need to be refilled.

Good thing I see progress, everytime and everyday. Don't know where I am going reach the ceiling but I need to keep on pushing. Sometimes it difficult to self motivate but I think having a goal in mind really helps to raise the bar.

Speed of Email Response

2009-04-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have shot a lot of emails to contact people and also received initiating emails. Some I got really quick response, some still waiting. All of these related to the SP. Obviously I would love to get fast responses but its not always the case in the reality as we all know.

1) Slow
I started the application to the SP back in Feb! Only now I got accepted and yesterday I sent in my booking and medical information forms. They were passed on to ANI doctor for another round of assessment. I was told I would be in touch soon but haven't seen anything yet. Guess another phone call would do, as always.

2) Kinda Slow
I contacted Christoph Höbenreich, my guide for the North Pole two weeks ago, asking him for tips on training. I thought my email was lost as I kept on waiting. Tonight I received his email. Turned out he went on a historical expedition: Ski across Nambia sand desert. This is the first of its kind. I've been to Sossouvlei (Namibia) and climbed the sand dunes in the spring. It's quite harsh there in the desert, especially it is winter. Congratulations Christoph, very cool.

3) On Going
I replied Eric Larsen last weekend, and I have not received his words. I hope I didn't catch him at a wrong time. I think he might have gone off to the second leg of his quest, the Everest. I'll give him a call tomorrow to see what's going on. I need to know the schedule for the training in order to plan ahead.

4) Fast
When I booked for Mt Shasta early this month, the guy at Shasta Mountain Guides was nice and all and promised to send me information regarding the gears through email. I received it within few days. I shouldn't call this is fast but faster than a lot.

5) Super Fast
I talked to Chip Popoviciu, a Cisco guy who climbed Everest last year regarding the mountaineering. He was very helpful and very patient with my questions. He recommended Eric Remza, who also scaled Everest and works for major outfitters such as International Mountain Guides. Eric contacted me even before I did. So now I am asking him if he could accommondate me to one of his climbs to Mt Rainier in Sept. everything happenend within a few hours. I'm sure I learn a lot of him.

Update (Aprl 26)
- It seems Eric Larsen has gone to roof. I called him on his cell but it went straight to his voicemail. Hope he's doing well. On this leg of his quest he has support, I wonder what kind of support it is.
- You know the slowest of email reponse I had? It's gotta be from Mr Zhao, the guy who paid 2.1 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett last year. He is the hedge fund manager in ShenZhen and Hongkong. He paid the money just to fly up to the North Pole. We met in the helicopter on the way to the pole. Anyway, he took picture of me and promised to send me when he got back. I emailed him a few times and he said he would send it. Only one year later he sent it. I'm not complaining since I can be very slow too and I can't expect this guy who is so rich, why would he care about someone he met at the pole.

The Beginning to the Bottom of the World

2009-04-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

South Pole Last Degree - it's almost official.

Last Friday Steve Jones (the manager at ANI) sent me an email saying that I am accepted for the program. I did not know it could be this difficult just to get into the program. It's like meeting certain standards for an admission to a university in North America or an entry exam in Asia. Whether you have money to pay for tuition or are able graduate is another story, but first you must pass the test or meet their criteria to get into the school. But I finally made it. I am now working with Melanie, a staff at ANI, to complete registration process.

It is just the beginning of a long journey to destino South Pole. Next 8 months will be time for training/preparation, or studying (in school terminology). Would I have enough time to prep for this? I don't know but I think this is quite a long preparation and hopefully it is enough.

Now the next deciding factor for this journey is $$$. I do not have the money for this yet. I need sponsors. Anyone knows who might be interested in sponsoring me (obviously I need to do my part of the sponsorship), please let me know :). I really appreciate it.

Or if I could join the Russian crew this year to the South Pole, then I don't have to raise money. I can only wish.

Eric Larsen, a world renown polar explorer also contacted me last week regarding a training in preparation for this much challenging expedition. Hopefully I have a chance to work with him. This year, he's on a quest for something that has never been done before, 3 poles in the span of 365 days: North Pole, South Pole and the Everest. The roof of the world is considered the third pole in the world of explorers. An impressive quest indeed.

A Year Later

2009-04-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Time flies! It's exactly one year since I last posted anything here. I said I would post some stories from the North Pole expedition but haven't done so. Partly because I have been busy, and partly lazy. But most of all, I think I will save them for later, maybe in a form of a book, or maybe a website. I have no plan for these yet as things started to get even busier for me. So I have to apologize to those who'd been asking me for this, especially one of my friends from Toronto.

Last week was the "anniversary". I did not celebrate it, but it was very nice to see my story published in two newspapers in Vietnam (Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien) exactly one year after the date I arrived at the pole. Actually last summer a Vietnamese paper in Southern Calif (Nguoi Viet) already ran an article about this trip. Thanks guys for picking me out of obscurity. Also, I want to thank those who left comments, here or in forums on the internet.

Well, a year has passed and time to look forward to the next challenge: the South Pole.

Decryption

2008-04-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

A lot of people told me that they did not understand those messages I sent from the satellite phone while I was on the ice. I guess I have to decrypt them :)

April 2:
ARV@BARNEO SAF.AM GOOD.-35.ICE DRFT SOUT FST.WHE 2STRT TMR NOT KNOW.AMZN SCNE

We arrived at Barneo (base camp) safely. I am good. It's -35 degree. The ice is drifting south fast. Where to start (ie, the location where the expedition starts from) tomorrow is unknown. Amazing scenary (at the base camp)

April 3:
SLEEP OK.STIL DRFT SOUTH FST.STAY@BASE EXPL AREA 2DAY.-35 & WNDY.STAYIN WRM

I sleep ok (ie, I had a good sleep). The ice is still drifting south fast. We stay at the base camp. We will explore the area today. It's (still) -35 degrees and windy. I am staying warm.

MCKUP TRP SURND.WAS GOOD,QUITE TIRING.WIL B INTRESTNG NXT 7DAY.HAD GOOD INSTNT MEAL.DRFT FSTER 14KM SINCE YESTRDAY.STRT@ICE@11AM TMR

We had a mockup trip in the surrounding area. It was good, but quite tiring. It will be interesting the next 7 days. I had a good instant meal. The ice drifts faster, 14km since yesterday. We will start on the ice (ie, start the skiing) at 11AM tomorrow.

April 4:
GEORGE(G) JOIN TEAM GRT HLP.HELI DRP@89 D40'.CLD BUT MOVNG HLP STAY WRM

George joins the team. It's a great help. Helicopter dropped us at 89 degree 40' (where we start skiing). It's cold but moving help staying warm.

April 5:
YESTRDAY WLK 1.5K.2DAY 7K NOT MCH DRFT.LOONG DAY.MAYB BTTR TMR.DNNR & BED SOON

Yesterday we walked 1.5 km. Today we walked 7km. Not much of drifting. It's a (very) long day (for me). Maybe it'll get bettter tomorrow. Going to have dinner and going to bed soon.

April 6:
CORCTN YESDAY WLK 12K WO DRFT.2DAY SLWER DRFT 300MPH.WLK 7KM W DRFT.32K 2 NP

Correction: yesterday we walked 12k without drift. Today it's a slower drift, 300m/hour. We walked 7km with drift. It's (about) 32km to the North Pole.

CKNG DNNR BCON W NDLE.YUK BUT NEED FAT.MIX HOT PWR DRNK CHOC &MLK BUT MLK TSTE LK CHEES ANOTHR YUK :)

I'm cooking dinner, bacon with (instant) noodle. It's yukky, but I need the fat. I (also) mixed hot power drink, chocolate and milk but the milk tastes like cheese. Another yuk :)

April 7:
TUF TERRN 2 NAV LOTS RDGES.WLK 7K WO DRFT.29K FR NP.ALMST NO DRFT.2 BIZ NOT BAD AS THOT :)

(Very) tough terrain to navigate, lots of (pressure) ridges. We walked 7km without drift. It's about 29k from the North Pole. Almost no drift. 2nd business (number two) is not bad as I thought (it would be) :)

CK MEX CHLI W BCON NOT BAD.CRVE 4 COKE WHLE WLKNG WEIRD EH.A GD AD 4 COCA

I cooked Mexican chili with bacon. Not bad (at all). I craved for (a can of) coke while walking (on the ice). Weird eh? (This would be) a good ad for Coca Cola.

SWET LOTS WHLE WLKNG TNT LOOK LK LNDRY EV NITE.BOIL LOTS WTR,DRNK LK CMEL.BED SOON

I sweat a lot while walking. The tent looks like a laundry place everynight. We boil lots of water, and drink like camel. I am going to bed soon.

April 8:
EVDAY&NITE NICE DAY TIL 2DAY.FOG LOW VISI.CMP WAIT 4 BTTR WTHR.NICE&WRM@TNT

Everyday and night here is a nice day until today. There's a fog and it's low visibility. We are camping out waiting for better weather. It's nice and warm in the tent.

DRFT STRNG AGN 600MPH.HEAR DOGSLDGE TEAM ARND.NICE 2KNW PPL NEAR

The ice drift is strong again, at 600m/hour We hear the dogsledge team around us. It's nice to know people are near.

HAD GD RST.WTHR NICE NOW.MB STRT WLKNG 2 CTCH UP

We had a good rest. The weather is nice now. Maybe we will start walking (again) to catch up.

April 9:
DIDNT WLK TIL MRNG.BTFUL DAY 4WLK.ONLY 5K 2DAY.HELI PCKUP TMR 4 NP THEN BK 2 LAND.BIG DAY.XCITD

We did not walk until (this) morning. It's a beautiful day for walking. (We only accomplished) 5k today. Helicopter will pick us up tomorrow for the North Pole, then back to land (ie, Longyearbyen). (It will be a) big day. I am excited.

April 10:
GRTNG FR THE NORTHPOLE :)

Greetings from the North Pole :)