Curtis Lieber, Medical Officer on the South Pole Expedition to Launch of the Worlds First Hot Air Balloon on the South Pole.

Survival Equipment - Survival Supplies  

Curtis Lieber's South Pole Outdoor Adventure Continued.

After what seems to be an eternity, we set off from the middle camp driving into a horizon of “white out”. Within an hour we are engulfed by a heavy headwind and the temperature plummets to a wind chill of -68 degrees Fahrenheit. We are within the “death zone” now, and perhaps Mother Nature lulled us here with the days of good weather until this point when she could put us in a frozen tomb like the 1912 Scott Expedition. 

We hit the rugged snow and sastruggi and from this point on identifying a crevasse is impossible, because we can't see the tell-tale signs of unusually uneven snow formations that stretch in a line. We go beyond radio communications with the middle camp, and so for us it is now the South Pole Base Camp we pray to hear on the VHF Radio, but the bad weather knocks down our signal and we only hear crackling of a dead radio waves.

 We make camp January 6 at 11 am. We are at 87* 12. South Latitude. We only made 85 miles today and have 265 miles to go. At this rate it will take three more days to reach the South Pole. The group no longer cares about hygiene, we are mentally and physically worn, but must force our bodies to drink warm fluids and eat more cup a noodle soup. 

As the medical officer, I quickly remind the expedition that the biggest enemy is psychological weakness. Depression or frustration causes the body to breakdown and improperly maintain nutrition and hydration which is being sucked out of us by the high elevation and zero humidity. Once the mind becomes weakened, then the body begins to fail. I must remind myself of this fact because since middle camp, I have been battling whether the decision to go forward was the right one, and have sweat in my boots to the point of compromising heat retention. My feet have been getting colder and colder all day, and now I can't feel them any longer. We eat and drink and quickly make the tent in 45 mph winds and tonight I climb into my sleeping bag with my extreme weather mittens over my feet, in a desperate attempt to get circulation into my feet before we start back again. 

Copyright by Curtis Lieber