Archive for March, 2010
March 30, 2010 at 22:31
I’ve been in Spitsbergen for 2 days now. Monday, I took a flight to Oslo and from there on I flow to Longyearbyen the next morning. I only spent one night in Oslo, but that was long enough to realize how expensive Norway is: 35 euro for a 5 minute taxi ride.
In the mean time, I’ve moved on to Spitsbergen. And the first day was pretty cold. When I arrived around lunch time the temperature was about - 15 degrees Celcius. That temperature combined with some wind means that even here you need to be carefull for frostbite.
I was the last one in the team to arrive and now I’ve met Troy and Perry as well. They were the only two that I’d never met before. I’ll be sharing a tent with Doug and Perry. Doug also volunteered me to pull a big sled. There are 4 big sleds that weigh a few kilos more. These bigger sleds will be used as a boat when we need to cross water. Yesterday, we took the sleds out for a little tour for the first time to test the equipment. And that went pretty smooth. It was cold and there was a little wind, but as long as you keep moving, you can keep yourself warm.
Longyearbyen itself is a little town but now that the polar season is starting you can find a lot of future polar travelllers here. And we ran into Uma Thurman. She’s working as a waitress in the Svalbar so Doug and me made it our local during the couple of days we will be spending on Spitsbergen.
On Friday morning at 10 am, we will be getting on a flight to Barneo. Barneo is the base that the Russians are setting up on the ice. When we arrive there, we will be getting on a helicopter that will drop us at the starting point. The team spirit is good and we’re all ready for this trip. Now all we need is reasonable weather and ice that drifts in the right direction.
March 28, 2010 at 22:36
Tomorrow, I will be leaving for my next expedition to the North Pole. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be giving an interview on Radio 2 Antwerp. And after that, I still need to work my last day. But around 8 pm my flight to Oslo is leaving. The rest of the team has already left and will be arriving in Spitsbergen tomorrow.
Douglas called me last night to tell me that there were issues with his flight. The airline was looking for another airplane. There is something about Douglas and flights. This is the fifth time that something goes wrong with one of his flights on his way to an expedition: either the pilot is drunk, or there are technical issues or there is a wrong date on his visa. During the expedition, you couldn’t wish for a better team member but it’s better not to be on the same flight as Douglas 
.
On Friday, I’ve completed a last training with Raf, my personal trainer. This time, we focused on the back muscles. The training sessions are starting to work out better each time. My endurance is pretty good, but certain muscles are going to require quite a bit of training for my next K2 trip. The next couple of weeks on the North Pole will be a good physical training as well.
Yesterday, I went for a swim and today I went for a 10 km run. The intent was to run 20 km but my agenda was pretty full for today so I ran out of time. The 10 km went pretty smoothly anyway. If the km on the Northpole would go as smoothly, we would reach are target very quickly.
For more information on the North Pole expedition, check out www.thenorthboundquest.com.
March 21, 2010 at 0:29
Slowly but surely, we are getting closer to the start date of the North Pole expedition. On 29th March, I will be flying to Oslo. From there, I will continue to Spitsbergen, an island above Norway, the next morning. There I will meet up with the rest of the team and we will stay there for a few days more for the final preparations. If all goes well, we will be flying to a base on the Polar ice on the 2nd April en 10 days later we should be on the North Pole.
You will be able to follow this expedition via this blog as well. My brother will write about my adventures every day. You can also find more information about the expedition and about the other team members on www.thenorthboundquest.com.
On top of that, the expedition will be probably be aired on Belgian television. Exqi is making plans to create a documentary about our trip. Yesterday, they came to shoot one of my training sessions.
Since a few weeks, I have picked up the regimen of training session with my persional trainer Raf. That means an hour of pain and exhaustion every week, followed by some relaxing in the sauna. Allthough I’ve kept training since K2, it is very obvious that some muscles have not been challenged thoroughly in the last couple of months. And that shows during the weekly training sessions.
Today, my salellite phone has arrived as well. I have my own Thuraya satellite phone, but that doesn’t work on the North Pole. So for this expedition, I’ve rented an Irridum phone.
I have also given a few more lectures in the last couple of weeks. First I did one in Oostakker and last week another one in Retie. There is another one planned for Tuesday, 23rd March. I will be giving a lecture in Hoegaarden about “Life in the deathzone: Climbing 8000 meter peaks”. In this lecture, I will talk about my expeditions to Cho Oyu, Everest and K2. The lecture is in Dutch and starts at 8pm.
