We discovered just how quickly hands become useless in near freezing waters. Steve Gurney had knocked up for us out of closed cell foam. He has since molded three sets for the trip and these will be our main defence against the cold when paddling. On the day we headed South the Herald featured a piece about the ill feeling that festered in the wake of the Ice Trek expedition. It was a timely reminder to address that aspect of adventuring.
Intense experiences concentrate emotion and can test the strongest friendships.
In the Antarctic we know we will get tired. We will get frustrated. We will see sides of each other that we won t have seen before. So we spent a lot of time discussing the human aspect of the expedition. Over the two weeks we gained some valuable insights into how we make decisions and how we operate as a team.