We are planning to leave from here in a few hours; the flight has been confirmed, later tonight. It is a bit cloudy now but very nice weather. I‘ve been trying to download the track from Gisli but the connection is too unstable.... (the connection was cut off)
Friday 2. Jan 2009 at 12:40
Hjalti
After having driven the last 500 km in 40 hours, we rested at the old start line. We are now up again and driving towards a new start line. We will find a good spot to land on and then go back to the old start line get some fuel that is there and move it to the new start line. The weather is good and the snow conditions fine.... (the connection was cut off)
Thursday 1. Jan 2009 at 19:30
Dr. Ian
We are at 82:22S and 17:11E, 35 km from the fuel drop, it has been going very well but we are all extremely tired. The altitude is now 2564 meters. Since yesterday evening we could keep up to 50 km/h using the cruise control. I try to keep the speed down to reduce fuel consumption and to protect the low gear. About 40 to 50 km back the conditions got heavier and we have been keeping about 10 km/h since then. The thermometer in the car is not reading right (snow packed around it) but it feels very warm now I would guess it was only minus 5 centigrade. We are going to continue to the fuel drop and have a rest there. The start line has been moved 70 km south and it is now unclear when Hjalti and Tony will catch up with us, they returned to the ETL but I have not heard from them since sometime yesterday. Tomorrow we will need to begin moving fuel to the start line to have fuel ready there when the airplane with the competitors comes in. Until Hjalti and Tony arrive we will probably have to go back and forth transporting the film crew and equipment along the race line.
Our best, Gisli.
December 31st, time 12:10.
We are back with the competitors at the ETL. The weather has been really bad and it has not been possible for the airplane to fly and pick up the competitors and move them to the start line. We now have a food for a very long wait and we will stay with them until a flight is confirmed. We are now looking at 2nd or 3rd January for the flights. As this delays the start by 3 days I‘ve also decided to move the start line closer to the South Pole to keep the scheduled flights with the competitors back from the South Pole. I‘ve asked Gisli and Kenny to find a good landing spot for the airplane about 70 – 75 km further south of the old start line / the fuel drop. They will now have to do our job until we can catch up with them.
Wednesday 31. Des 2008, at 12:00
Tony (the race organizer)
We are returning to the ETL, the weather has now delayed the arrival of the airplane 2 or 3 days meaning the competitors waiting there will have to start using the reserve food. In case of any additional delay we need to stock them up with more food. The past two, three days have been a total white out and our progress has been limited anyway so we will save our energy and head back towards the start line as soon as the weather improves. It is only minus 10 now.
Hjalti V. Hjaltason
We are at: 78:29:631S and 13:14:290E, we are still above 3000 meters, the GPS shows 3065 meters. The snow conditions are fairly good, we are sinking about 15 cm in and the surface is even. It is fairly easy to drive but we are really trying to keep the fuel consumption down so we limit our speed to 15 km/h. We have been driving 100km since 2am this morning and we intend to continue driving for the next 30 hours aiming at being at the start line when the airplane brings in the competitors. We now have about 450 km to go. I‘m taking a rest, Dr. Ian is driving now and we will take turns. The temperature is -21 and some wind, the visibility is a bit heavy but still I could see the last fuel drop 4-5 km away. I heard from Hjalti yesterday and they were moving 15-20 km/h but they still have not reached the 400 km mark. I could not install the Garmin software on the notebook computer we have got so there is no easy way to send the track back to Hjalti but I will call him and give him they way points. But if the visibility is not good he is not going to be able to find our track anyway, even Kenny could not see or follow my track even though I had a rope to his car, the wind fills the track in a few seconds.
Gísli Jónsson