• I have an extra year of fitness and team development
• I have an extra year to secure and maximise the "activation" funding
• Fully funded, we will be able to properly plan a series of "ice training" events.
• Our drive to maximise the impact of technology can now be fully exploited
• We can fully engage with our education partner - Eco-Schools
• We can maximise all our sponsor returns
• We will work on new sponsors and re-engage with those that could not get onboard for a 2011 exped
• We can plan an 18 month "activation" program
• We can maximise the filming potential of the expedition
• I can go off to New Zealand to watch the Rugby World Cup next week without great pangs of guilt!

Yesterday it was Nelson Mandela's birthday and if anyone ever showed
courage it was he!
He sacrificed 27 years of his life for a cause, and on release, stayed
focused to achieve his goal. I know he would have enjoyed a "family
day" yesterday - the whole World wishes him well!

It is a great quote.
It is OK to be afraid.
It is OK to share that you are afraid.
But it is conquering that fear where strength and courage come from.
On our expedition, I know there will be times when I and my team mates
will need to show "Mandela Courage". To understand the emotion of fear
within, to express it in a way that then allows us all to gather round
and conquer the fear and the challenge.
Crossing a snow-bridge over a bottomless crevasse certainly makes my
heart race.
To say I was not afraid would be to deny a real emotion and so not be
able to tap into the strength that comes with it.
With understanding of an emotion, comes control of that emotion.
With control comes strength.
Uncontrolled or denied emotions paralyse.
Understood and controlled - activates!

Hurrah
Manley

Charlie and his team have devised a particularly painful and demanding
day and a half.
We will dine together on the Thursday evening and enjoy each others
company and a small libation, but at 06.30 on Friday morning, Richard
will take us for an early "beasting" in Richmond Park before we spend
2 hours with Sarah and Juliette for our psychological assessment. -
lest we imbibe too heartily!!

But on the Thursday, amongst a plethora of tests and tweaks, Charlie
has inserted the frightening words of " a simulated pulk pull with
depleted oxygen"!!! What depraved sadistic madman thought of that? The
London Dungeons will seem a breeze compared to a day with Charlie and
his team!! But there is a reason for everything, of course.

In Antarctica the plateau is at 3000m (over 9,000 feet) - the
equivalent of putting the 3 highest peaks in the United Kingdom on top
of each other - Snowdonia, Scafell Pyke and Ben Nevis - but due to the
elongation of the atmosphere at the Poles, that is equivalent to 4500m
(14,700 feet) at the Equator.

So we will spend 30 minutes each on an inclined treadmill with 30kg
weights on a pulley system breathing through a tube fed with the
depleted oxygen one would expect on top of the Matterhorn - where each
painful step can take minutes! And, as we do this, Charlie and his
team will prick holes in our ear lobes and extract blood for their
devilish tests - lactate levels actually!!

Anyone fancy joining us??

Hurrah
Manley

With Tabasco our various freeze dried and pre-packed meals were deemed
to be edible, with some saying they were "quite good actually"!! Hmm,
they would not be where I normally eat! Still it felt good to eat,
talk and check our tents. It was the first outing for the "prototype
tent" with scope for improvement it was to prove to be a good cover
for big Matt P and I and a splendid dining establishment the following
night!

It is hard to sleep comfortably with just a quarter of an inch of
compressed foam between your hip bones and rock solid glacial ice. I
tossed and turned all night feeling I had no sleep and being envious
of the deep snoring coming from Steve's tent (poor George) - at one
stage Steve's nocturnal rumblings drowned out the closing sound of the
mountains caving in to the might of the glaciers!

Call of hands at 07.00. Whilst Matt P and I can almost stand up in our
palatial tent, the other pairs endeavour to get dressed in cramped 2-
man affairs trying not to touch the insides of the frozen and damp
tent lining. We appear with loud shouts of "Morning all, sleep
well"? ,with all replying in the affirmative regardless of the truth!

A quick breakfast, melting ice to fill our water bottles we are eager
to get back on our skis and tackling the distant ice falls to our
right. I change our teams around at each stop to see how well we work
with each other and to give myself a chance to work with all. There is
a big variation in our skiing experience and I want to see how we
cope, roped up, working as a close team. It is good!

We march on across the gently undulating ice field until near the
massive ice falls we see a deeply crevassed stretch of ice we need to
cross. The 2 teams take different routes. I am leading one and take
what I judge to be the least crevassed. George leading the other has a
different approach and seems to be seeking out the most crevassed
route to "try out our new skills for real"!! At one stage, George's
team of 4 has to "sprint ski" across a series of narrow but bottomless
crevasses!! All safe and sound we traverse across a ridge to the steep
sides of the glacial valley and start a very steep ascent of a deeply
moguled ice field dodging ski touring parties going...

A. This website is good for knots: http://www.abc-of-rockclimbing.com/howto/learn_climbing_knots.asp The main knots to remember are Figure of 8 on the bite, Clove hitch, Italian hitch & prussic knot.

B. I will shortly forward all the crevasse rescue techniques when typed up.

C. A short story:

The Story:

1. Q: Anyone seen Canadian geese fly overhead? How do they fly?
A: In a Vee formation.

2. Q: Why do they fly like that?
A: Aerodynamically, the lead goose breaks the wind so that it is easier for the geese behind him/her. By the time you get 3 - 4 geese back, they are having todo about 50% less work to keep up. This formation adds 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone. Whenever a bird moves out of formation it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and it quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.

3. Q: So, what happens over time?
A: The lead goose gets tired and peels off. They share the leadership.

4. Q: What do they sound like as they fly overhead?
A: Honk, Honk, Honk! Constant communication. Watch the next time they fly by. Just before they change formation they get very noisy. Animal behaviourists tell us they are figuring out who needs to go where, when will the switch etc. Those who honk from behind encourage those in the front tp keep up their speed and strength.

5. Q: What happens if one gets sick or injured and has to drop to the ground?
A: Two geese go with it. They will stay with the goose until it either heals and is ready to fly (in which case there are three geese to make the formation) or it dies or they determine it will not heal in time for the season. If they leave it alive, they will stop back the next season to see if it survived.

Lessons from the Geese:
Geese demonstrate one of the best models of teamwork that exists.
1. They share the leadership.
2. They encourage one another.
3. They communicate constantly.
4. They share a common direction or goal.
5. They have a shared community.
6. They travel on the strength of one another.
7. They accept help when they need it.
8. They look for ways to utilise others to make life easier and to support others in the same way.
9. They stand by one another, helping one another in difficult times, supporting one another to regain their place in the community.
10. They have a plan, a leader and each goose knows its place in their formation before they take flight.

D. Thanks for the experience last week and I look forward...

I complained that I was running out of superlatives on the ice and
now, 2 days later, I am still struggling. It was all of the above.

Last week I took my team to Chamonix under the guidance of the amazing
Peter Golding with Matt Price for a spot of "ice skills training" and
"team development".

What I wanted was an opportunity for the Ice Team to come together and
start to feel like a team. I wanted them to deeply understand what it
is that we have committed ourselves to. I wanted their ice survival
skills to be learnt and tested. I wanted them as individuals to feel
some real pressure and I wanted them as a team to achieve. All of this
happened in a few short days in Chamonix, France, and above all, we
did not just enjoy the experience, we loved it! It was fun, real fun;
the banter was fast and furious, yet inclusive and forgiving - testing
and challenging yet enabling us to grow!

After a frustrating day trying to find boots big enough for Matt P we
were kitted out and ready to go. A team dinner at the local bar - The
Office - in Argentiere enabled us all to drop the barriers and start
to understand each other. Working with Matt Price we studied and
learnt about "Relationship Awareness Theory" based on Jung - all part
of our mental journey of self and team awareness and management. We
understood more about what motivation drives our behaviour and how we
react in conflict - conflict is not just an argument, we can find
ourselves in conflict internally when we are far removed from our
comfort zone - a place that will become foreign to us as this
expedition develops.

I wont describe each and every moment of the 4 days on the glaciers, I
will let the team share that in their own words, but I will try to put
some words down that express some of the emotion of the time on the ice.

You realise the limitations of language and the human ability to
express ourselves when confronted by the raw power of nature. We were
witnessing geography on the move - a planet in the making. All around
us was the constant thunder of rock and ice falls as we climbing on to
the base of the Mer de Glace glacier. Discreet signs stating the
previous level of the ice shocked us all as we had to climb down newly
erected ladders some 20 meters from the 1990 height of the glacier -
the ice is retreating, it is real! It is humbling and frightening!

In the cold cloud covered crystal river we focused on picking the best
route between the massive suspended boulders and the yawning
crevasses. Working as a team...