Regular readers know that, from time to time, I'll review a recent book release that may be of interest to them. Most of the books I've reviewed in the past have been about climbing, such as Ed Viestur's No Shortcuts To The Top or Cliff Willis' The Boys of Everest. This book review is about a different type of adventure altogether.

Lois On The Loose by Lois Pryce is, simply put, a fun, funny, travel book that chronicles the author's 20,000 mile journey, by motorcycle, from Anchorage, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. In essence, the length of the Trans-America highway. Along the way, Lois encounters unusual people, unique stretches of road, and a wide variety of police officers stretching from Canada through Central America, and continuing to the very end of the World.

The book opens with Lois returning to her job at the BBC in London, fresh from a motorcycle holiday in Europe. As she returns to the daily grind, she finds she is missing the open road, and the thrill of adventure. Her mind begins to hatch a plan that would see her quitting her job, shipping her motorcycle to Alaska, and setting off on an epic journey throughout the length of the Americas.

The book is an enjoyable read, and certainly instills a desire to travel. More than once I wanted to purchase a motorcycle of my own, and follow Lois off down the highway. The author writes with a wonderful conversational style in which you almost feel like you're listening to her personally convey her stories to you. Combine this with a liberal dash of British humor, and you have a charming travel tale that reinforces the point of most travel tales - The Journey Is It's Own Reward!

You can find out more about Lois and her adventures at her official website where you can also learn that she recently completed a Trans-African journey by motorcycle as well. After completing Lois On The Loose I can only hope that there will be a follow-up to detail her adventures in Africa. I'm one reader who hasn't gotten his fill of Lois and her motorcycle odysseys, and if you enjoy a good travel story, that is both funny and thoughtful, I have a feeling you might just fall for Lois too.

Yesterday was a milestone day in the fledgeling 2013 Antarctic season. After being grounded for 13 days due to bad weather, the first Ilyushin aircraft was able to touchdown at Union Glacier bringing supplies and support staff to that camp. More importantly however, that plane delivered Richard Parks to the ice, where he'll soon begin his attempt to break the speed record for skiing to the South Pole.

Parks has been in Punta Arenas, Chile for a couple of weeks now, biding his time for the start of his journey. He's now on the frozen continent at last and I would expect that he'll spend a day or two organizing his gear before hopping another flight out to Hercules Inlet for the start of his journey. Ahead of him sits 1130 km (702 miles) of frozen expanse which he hopes to cross in just 23 days. That would be one day faster than Christian Eide's record, which stands at an astounding 24 days, 1 hour and 13 minutes. Whether or not he is successful will largely be determined by his preparation, fitness and the weather. It'll be tough going for sure as Richard will need to average more than 49 km (30  miles) per day to accomplish his goal. That is blistering pace to be sure.

With weather improving across the continent, Geoff Wilson is hoping that he can launch his "Pink Polar Expedition" soon as well. Wilson is skiing to raise funds and awareness of breast cancer and has had to wait out poor conditions before he can start too. He'll be flying from South Africa to the frozen continent and expects to get underway today, provided everything goes as expected.

The Scott Expedition, consisting of Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere continues their long march to the South Pole and back as well. They were the first team to hit the ice as their intention is to follow Robert Falcon Scott's route to the Pole and back, covering more than 2896 km (1800 miles) in the process. Their journey has already been a tough one as they lug very heavy sleds filled with gear and supplies for a 4+ month journey behind them. But whiteout conditions and bitter cold have made the adventure a trying one, even in the early days. Ben and Tarka have already been out on the ice for nearly three weeks and yet they still have a long way to go. For now, they just take one day at a time and focus on skiing ahead as best they can.

Other teams will soon join the chase for the Pole and in a few weeks time the first teams on Mt. Vinson will start to arrive. It looks like it will be a very active season in the Antarctic once again with lots of skiers and mountaineers to cheer on from afar. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Reinhold Messner is arguably the greatest mountaineer of all time. His resume is practically unmatched and his list of achievements is well known. So when the 69-year old alpine legend has something to say, you can bet that the mountaineering community will listen. Recently, Stefan Nestler caught up with Messner in Cologne, where he was able to ask him some interesting questions. The result was a brief, but quite revealing, interview on a host of subjects.

In the article Messner talks about the aftermath of the massacre in Nanga Parbat Base Camp this past summer and its impact for future expeditions to that mountain. He also touched on Nepal's plans to set up a government outpost in Everest BC to keep an eye on the teams there each spring. He even weighs in on Ueli Steck's recent solo summit of Annapurna, calling it "typically Ueli Steck."

While the interview isn't particularly long, there is a lot of information to be gleaned from it. Messner even addresses some questions regarding Ueli's lack of evidence for a successful summit on Annapurna. As you may recall, he dropped his camera on the way to the top and doesn't carry a GPS with him, so there is no real evidence to support his claims of a solo summit. But, considering this is Ueli Steck we're talking about, most everyone accepts that he managed to top out, including Messner. Apparently there are some rivals back in Switzerland that have been raising doubts about the climb. It should be noted that Ueli's teammates on Annapurna claimed that they could see his footsteps leading to the summit when they surveyed the mountain through a spotting scope in ABC.

Tip of the hat goes out to Stefan for this excellent interview that covers so much ground. Really interesting stuff out of Messner as usual.

Sunday's New York Times did a story on "the next great adventure-travel destination": Kabul. "Even though much of Afghanistan remains dangerous, tourists are beginning to trickle back in, some lured by the thrill of the unknown, others by the pleasures offered by such new tourist spots as the Kabul Serena, an elegant $36.5-million hotel that claims a 'five-star ambiance' in the heart of the city. As many as 5,000 Western tourists visited Kabul last year, Jonathan Bean told me, most of them affluent Europeans and Americans who have traveled to '30 or 40' countries, including developing ones. 'Most our clients are experienced travelers,' Jonathan said. 'They’ve trekked in Nepal, gone on safari in East Africa. Some have returned after coming here in the 1960s and 1970s. They see Afghanistan as the next great adventure-travel destination.'"

I'd love to go back to Afghanistan some time. I'm sure I won't; too dangerous. I first went close to 40 years ago, right out of college. It was a major way station on the "hippie trail" from Istanbul to New Delhi. I was driving a 1969 red VW camper I had bought in Weisbaden and Afghanistan was far more than just a way station to me. Driving across Asia, by the time you get to Afghanistan you know for sure you're not in Kansas anymore, nor in Europe. It was the most foreign place I had ever been. So different from anything I had ever experienced. It felt as much as like traveling in time (backwards) as traveling in space.


There never were any railroads to Afghanistan so the only way to get there before the late 50s was as part of an army. Then the U.S. and the Soviet Union built a road around the country. The U.S. built one from Herat on the Iranian border south and east to Khandahar and up to Kabul and the Soviets built one from Kabul up to Mazar-i-Sharif and then on to Herat. Basically it was the only paved road in the country and now, from what I understand, it is mostly unpaved... destroyed by decades of war and civil neglect.

I drove my van from Meshed in Iran to Herat. It was love at first sight-- mostly with the cheap, powerful hash and the Afghan people who were all stoned all the time. It always boggles my mind now how the mainstream media reports on the wars in Afghanistan but never mentions that every Afghan is stoned-- really stoned-- all the time. It probably has a significant effect on their way of fighting. Herat was like this magical medieval city, completely outside my realm of experience. And the next stop, Khandahar was even more bizarre, most strange, more mysterious and foreign. I felt like I was in Biblical times. Before going up to Kabul I visited some college friends who were in the Peace Corps, stationed in Ghazni. So primitive! But wonderful, warm, friendly generous people. They shared whatever they had.

I spent a lot of time in Kabul. Two Canadians who I had driven across Asia settled in to the one western hotel in the city, the brand new Intercontinental. It was a luxury high-rise in the middle of a basically mud city that looked like it would take a week of strong rain to just wash away. I'll never forget the Kabul River, more like a series of trickles and puddles in the middle of town. I recall standing near the royal palace, one of the few substantial buildings in the city, and looking down at the river. Men were on the bank brushing their teeth, washing their clothes, bathing, going to the bathroom, washing a donkey...


The other new thing in this ancient city that year was the Kabul Zoo. It was a wonder for the Afs... a little rinky-dink for the foreigners. But everyone was stoned and everyone was enjoying everything. Except the Kabul Runs. No one enjoys that-- much worse than Montezuma's Revenge. Up and down Chicken Street there were European and Australian hippies staying in cheap flop houses and sick with the Kabul Runs. The music was great and the hash was the best and the food was fine and everything was so cheap. And you'd sit around and talk with people who had come back from Bamyan and the Hindu Kush and Mazar and the Khyber Pass and figure out where you wanted to go next. The king was still in charge and the Russians hadn't invaded yet. I remember seeing some mullahs, straight from the countryside, outraged that 2 young women got out of a car unaccompanied-- albeit covered head to toe (with just a little grill for the eyes) in a chadris (what they call a burqa everywhere else). They spat all over them. The scene has stuck with me for all these decades.


UPDATE: NOT SO FAST

I slept in my van the whole time I was in Kabul in 1969 and in 1972. But friends of mine stayed at the Intercontinental, the only western style hotel in the city country. Various rebel groups over the past 30 years have used it for target practice and blown it up pretty badly. Now foreigners stay at the Serena-- or at least they did 'til today. The NY Times just reported that some Taliban insurgents blew that up too. Yeah, probably a little early (or late) for Afghan tourism just now.

A thunderous explosion struck a 2-year-old Kabul luxury hotel frequented by foreigners on Monday, and the Taliban took responsibility, calling it a coordinated assault by four men armed with guns and suicide belts.

The Interior Ministry said at least six people were killed and at least six were wounded in the explosion at the Serena Hotel, including two foreign officials it did not identify... The Associated Press quoted an American who was exercising in the hotel gym as saying that she heard gunfire after the explosion, and saw a body and pools of blood in the lobby area and bullet marks in the gym area. She asked not to be identified for her safety. Ambulances and American troops in Humvees rushed to the hotel after attack, the A.P. reported.

Things are obviously deteriorating? You think so?

One Year On And Nothing's Any Better

This is a post from a western woman, a filmmaker, working in Kabul. It very much captures the Kabul I recall, only it's much worse. Is it a place you'd be interested in visiting? I recommend reading the whole thing at the link. Here are some excerpts:

Going out to dinner is always an interesting experience. Fully covered from head to toe and always paranoid about forgetting a headscarf (or having it slip off your head in the car) generally make the experience more worrisome than enjoyable. Add checkpoints and Afghan police to the mix, along with bone-shaking car rides (no paved roads) and you get the picture.

In New York and New Delhi, I savored going out; dressing up, wearing new jewelry, getting to try new restaurants before meeting friends at a local bar for a drink. I don’t miss these things in Afghanistan – I came here knowing full well that my social life would change drastically (after all, I could’ve just stayed in NYC or Delhi if that’s all I wanted). But what I didn’t expect to change was the very vocabulary of my behavior.

In other cities, I have never thought twice about the fact that I couldn’t enter places without ensuring that I wouldn’t mistakenly brush past a man, that I had to give all men the right of way, and that I wasn’t allowed to speak to strangers or look at other men in the face. In Kabul, I do.

My first weeks here were the most painful-- having to unlearn everything I had picked up in rambunctious, loud Delhi. In Kabul, I felt like as if I was a captive-- wrapped around the head with a scarf that acted as a leash that instructed me to behave in a certain way. My first week was a string of commands from my male, Afghan co-workers and crew, who for my sake taught me how to behave on the streets – “don’t laugh too loud,” “keep your hands hidden,” “don’t say things too loud,” “try and keep your chin down,” “stop walking like you own the street!” And the ever familiar, “wear your headscarf tighter, Anita-jaan, it is falling off!”

...Like all local women in the neighborhood, I can’t leave the house alone. People outside of Afghanistan are shocked to hear this – “but the Taliban have left, no?” Yes indeed, but the Taliban did not make these rules. Many of these rules were actually enforced and created during the time before the Taliban by warlords who, bloated with arms and cash from Pakistan and the US (in order to defeat the Russians), fractured the country.

After the Taliban were defeated, those same warlords were brought back into power by the US. The Karzai government resumes must read like a list charges at an international tribunal. The human rights’ violations are endless. And it is thanks to them (and not the Taliban) that I have to live in a capital city shuttered by extreme conservatism.

A male partner must accompany me at all times outside the house. This ranges from the chowkidor to my husband to friends. Sometimes my husband’s translator comes along, humming as he walks ahead expecting me to follow blindly. When I want to stop, I ask the shopkeeper a question-- usually the price of something – making sure I’m extra loud to ensure he has heard me, and will stop humming and hurry over to where I am.

He carries everything after I’m done shopping. Per his instructions, I shouldn’t carry anything since I’m a woman. By month three, I have learned to walk behind him, lift nothing and simply head home as quickly as I can. He is a Pashtun from the south and older than I am.

The same translator is puzzled when my husband asks me what I want for dinner or lunch. He looks at our exchanges quizzically. We look Indian to him, and yet behave so differently from the Indians he sees in the soap operas he and his family watch at home. In that world men and women are often just as conservative as the Afghans, with each gender culturally filling very different roles. The women are meant to be docile, devoted wives, while the female evildoers are the ones who break the mould and wreak havoc among the orderly. My husband and I don’t seem to even understand that we’re different genders. We speak as equals. This is clearly confusing.

In the end, we finish dinner and make our way home through the dark and quiet streets. We paid the bill in dollars. Price-wise it would amount to the same if I had dined out in New York City. “Restaurants for expats charge expat prices,” explained a friend when I first arrived, “make sure you always have enough cash.” On the way home, my housemate reminds me that we are paying for more than just plates of pasta – we pay for the experience of normalcy. Or the closest thing to normal at least. We both agree it wasn’t for the food at any rate. It wouldn’t survive a New Yorker or New Delhi-ite’s expectations of a good meal (for the price we paid). But tastes change once you’re living in Kabul.

The only meals I have coveted here have been home-cooked Afghan vegetarian dishes prepared by a friend’s mother. Seated on their living room floor, with huge slabs of naan to catch the oil and juices dripping from our fingers, I have devoured bowls of red kidney beans steamed with onions and tomatoes and spices with plates of eggplant slices sautéed with tomatoes and topped with a tangy yoghurt sauce.

The third part of Ueli Steck's interview with EpicTV was posted earlier this week, bringing an end to this very interesting and engaging series. In this latest episode he touches on Annapurna a bit but it is more focused on Everest and the experience he had there this past spring when his team had a violent clash with Sherpas. As always, it is interesting to get Ueli's take on the mountaineering world and he offers good insights once again. If you missed the firs two parts of the interview you can watch them here and here.

Looking for some suggestions for gift ideas for your favorite outdoor enthusiast? Outside magazine has you covered with the latest edition of their Gear of the Year list. This time out, it's the best gear for Winter 2014 with suggestions on what to buy for the season ahead.

Some of the items that make the list include Eddie Bauer's new Neoteric Polartech shell, skis from both Rossignol and DPS, a snowboard from Burton, running shoes from New Balance and a backpack from Millet, amongst other things.

If you're looking forward to winter and may need some new gear for your snowy endeavors, Outside has you covered. Most of the gear is available now and should represent some of the best new items available as we head into the months ahead.

It is hard to believe that it is snowboarding and ski season already. Where did this year go? Most of the major resorts will be opening in the next few weeks and snow has been plentiful already across the western U.S. It appears that we should be in for an excellent season. That is, unless you just don't like playing in the snow, which means you're probably not looking forward to the arrival of winter at all. But like I always say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. This list will help remedy that. 

Alaska isn't the typical destination one thinks of when they want to go surfing. Still, that's exactly where Damien Castera went in this beautiful short film. He spent two months on his own there, hiking and surfing along the coast, while fishing for his food and staying in remote campsites. The video is a fantastic mix of surfing and adventure, something that you don't necessarily see all that often. Wonderful stuff.

Damien’s Adventure – The Last Frontier from O'Neill on Vimeo.

It runs in the family, as they say.

John Batdorff II is the son of two avid photographers, and it was only natural that he was "infected by" the same passion. Based in Chicago and in Ennis (Montana), John developed his craft early on by photographing for his family's newspaper, and enhanced it by specializing in landscape and travel photography.

His work has been exhibited in museums and featured in various publications.

While John's galleries include one of India, I'm bucking my own trend this time and featuring his work of Peru.

It's Wednesday! Which means we're half-way through the week, Lost is on tonight, and of course we get a new episode of The Rest of Everest which has returned to regular shows again following the brief hiatus while Jon went back to Tibet.

This episode is entitled Episode 43: 20,000 Leagues Above The Sea. Jon spends much of the episode in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines camp and we get to see what life is like for other teams on Everest. As a military expedition, the team is well funded and equipped, not to mention well fed if the dinner scenes are to be believed. :)

However, their "military spec" computers failed at high altitude so Jon, and his trusty Mac Powerbook had to come to there rescue. Yeah, Apple stuff is just that good! I'm enjoying the return of the regular episodes and it's fun to continue to see what life is like in BC. Of course, we all want to get on to the maincourse, which is the climb, but we see those aspects of Everest all the time. I like seeing the teams interact in the down time, and watching what life is like on a day to day basis as well.

Never fear though, the climb is coming. Jon remarks in the video that we'll start to see more climbing in the coming weeks but for now, it's all about life at Base Camp. After all, this is an "Unabridged Expedition Experience".

We've got a new Himalaya Wrap-up today over at MountEverest.net. With teams in BC on Everest, and high winds forcast for the next several days, it's time to check in on how the teams are doing on other mountains.

Iñaki Ochoa has left Dhaulagiri, after topping out on the mountain, and is now headed to Annapurna. But before he left Dhaula, he wanted to be sure that we were aware of some other summits and pointed out that Gian Paolo Casarotto and Cristina Castagna both reached the top climbing independently, while Joelle Brupbacher, Richard Brill of Germany, and Russian Dmitry Sinev summitted with Kazakhs Samoilov, Sharipova and Shutov. Ochoa is also proposing that Miss Hawley add Sergio Dalla Longa,as well as his wife Rosa, to the list of summitteers on the mountain in tribute to the climber. Sergio slipped and fell to his death less than 150 meters from the summit while Rosa looked on.

Meanwhile, Andrew Lock is already on Annapurna after knocking off Shisha Pangma. He says his plan now is to climb up to Camp 3 in the next few days and help open the route to Camp 4 with a summit bid coming on the weekend, if everything goes as planned.

Annapurna, the most deadly of all the 8000m peaks, has claimed it's first life of the season, as Dr. Uddhav Prasad Khanal, the Liaison Officer for the Spanish team climbing there, has gone missing. After spending some time in BC with the team, he decided to return to Kathmandu alone, despite being warned about the dangers of traveling the rugged area by himself. He never made it to town and is now considered another victim of the mountain.

Finally, over on Manaslu, the teams have set up C2 and are proceeding to C3, despite bad weather. The plan is to establish C3, and if the weather clears, perhaps make a summit bid in the next few days.

I haven't had one of these in a while. Next time I need to choose a better sausage though; I should have gotten the thick pork one rather than this cheese filled one.

Perhaps more interesting was the new Orchard Gateway mall was next to 313@Orchard. It was so small that we walked maybe only 30 yards before we suddenly ended up at Orchard Central. At least it's finally connected now.

I'm still not sure if this is the same chain as the one in Taipei or if it's just a knockoff, but somehow the thought of some salty Taiwanese soybean milk and a youtiao sounded good tonight. So we came down to Geylang, learning the hard way that these guys have since moved up the street near Lorong 27A (517 Geylang Road, 6745-5682). It did the job, but I wish that they had some red chili oil at each table.

I'm a big fan of adventure racing. Especially the longer, expedition length races. I first watched the sport years ago on Discovery Channel when they first started showing Eco-Challenge. Later I would follow The Raid, Primal Quest, and others online, and watch them on TV when ever possible. I've even particpated in a few shorter, sprint races. One of the websites that was most useful in helping to track these races online was, and remains, Checkpoint Zero.

Yak, the site administrator, is clearly a huge fan of the sport. His site has been on the cutting edge in introducing new technology for following adventure racing and helping us to get to know the racers better for a number of years now. And now, after a lot of planning and preparation, he's about to see a dream come true, as tomorrow marks the first ever CheckPoint Zero Adventure Race gets underway.

63 teams will take part in the inaugural race, with a wide range of experience between them. You can follow the race online at CheckPointTracker.com and it should be a fun, exciting race. I wish all the competitors luck and hope everyone races hard and safe. But most of all, I'd like to congratulate Yak for going out and pursuing his dream, and now finally seeing it come to fruition. I hope the race is a smashing success for you and that there will be many more to come!

Last week, National Geographic announced their 2014 Adventurers of the Year, revealing a cast of 13 amazing men and women who have pushed the boundaries of exploration in the past 12 months. A few days ago, they also released this awesome and inspiring video with Fitz Cahall, an adventurer who turned his passion for storytelling and the outdoors into a job as a filmmaker. Fitz's story is a good one and his drive to succeed can be applied to many facets of our lives. His message it to pursue the things you love and don't be afraid to take some risks along the way. The rewards will be worth it.

This video is further proof that anything someone can do on a two wheels, someone else will try it on just one. Extreme unicyclists Lutz Eichholz and Stephanie Dietze head into the Alps to take on the 3400 meter (11,154 ft) Mettlehorn on their single-wheeled bikes. They're both braver than I am, that much is certain.

Tip of the hat to Outside Online for sharing this.

Clearly I fly with these guys too much if I realize that they changed their headphones to the single-pronged ones that they usually give out in economy class rather than the usual noise-canceling ones. Frankly this is a bit better though, since those dual-pronged ones usually had some issues staying properly secured in the jack.

And how nice it was to have in-flight Wi-Fi on the long haul across the Pacific today. It was slow and spotty (and sites like Instagram and Flickr were blocked), but nonetheless, it allowed me to get most of my work done. Interesting to see the new promotional video of them wanting to improve their technology experiences too.

Epilogue: when I flew back on Friday out of Narita, they were using the usual two pronged headsets again. Maybe they just ran out on the outbound leg or something.

As the Spring Climbing Season heats up and we get closer to the inevitable summit attempts on Everest, the community will begin to debate the ethics of climbing on the World's highest peak and who is ultimately responsible for those climbing the mountain.

It is with that question in mind that The Adventurist presents this editorial entitled Responsiblity and Death on Everest. The article, in no uncerain terms, places the responsiblity clearly on the shoulders of the Expedition Leader for insuring the safety of their clients. The argument is that they know the climbers better than anyone, and it is their job to monitor their progress and the conditions on the mountain, and make the judgement call on who is fit to go up or down.

While I won't disagree with this assessment, it's not always that easy. For instance, the article mentions the David Sharp incident from last year, but in Sharp's case, he was climbing independently. He had no guide or Expedition Leader to tell him to turn around and go down. He also was quite an experienced climber with experience on Everest before.

Obviously the guides do have a responsibility to their clients to see themoff the mountain safely, but the climate on Everest is one that has become about money, and it means more casth for their company if they have successful summits. The clients paying those large sums of money are also hell bent on getting to the top. They spent their cash and they expect to get their chance at the summit, with nothing getting in their way. You can point to the Sharp incident once again, when nearly 40 people stepped over and around him on the way to the summit that morning. Sharp was still alive when this happened.

In my mind, the best thing to do is to start limiting the number of permits to climb Everest. However, considering how much money is involved for both Nepal and China, I wouldn't expect that to happen any time soon. The overcrowding is going to get worse, and in the process the risks are only going to increase as well. If something isn't done about the situation, it's likely that we'll soon see a season that will make 1996 look tame.

So here was the vindaloo that I wanted to try from Casuarina. Unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere as spicy as the way that they do it in the UK (or even over at Boat Quay). But I still gobbled it up. If I get roti prata here again, I'd much rather dip it into this than their standard curry.

It was another eventful weekend in the Antarctic where teams continue to struggle with their individual goals. For some of the South Pole skiers it marked a shift in goals and expectations, for others it was a reaffirmation to stay focused on the tasks ahead. For everyone it was reminder that Antarctica is a beautiful, yet harsh and demanding place that will test you at every turn.

The biggest news to come out of the weekend is the end of the "race" that was an important aspect of the 2013 South Pole Allied Challenge. As you may recall, three teams of skiers – Team UK, Team USA, and Team Commonwealth – were all racing one another over the last three degrees to the South Pole. Each of the teams had experienced polar guides leading the way, but for the most part they were made up of men and women who were injured in the line of duty and were now attempting to raise funds and awareness for the Walking With The Wounded program. On Saturday, the teams reached their first checkpiont and had a mandatory 24 hour rest period. At that time the decision was made to put an end to the race in order to ensure the safety of those participating. For those uninitiated to the Antarctic, the pace of the race was grueling and was making things more difficult than anyone had anticipated. So, the leaders agreed to end the competition. That doesn't mean the adventure is over however, as they will all continue to ski on to the South Pole. They'll just do so at a more measured pace that will hopefully ensure that they all reach 90ºS in a timely and safe manner.

Richard Parks remains in his race against the clock however as he struggles to attempt to set a new speed record to the South Pole. He's now five days into his restart, and while he's  making good time, it hasn't been easy. Soft snow is causing him to make slower than expected progress and as of Saturday he was still 1051.9 km (655 miles) from his goal. Obviously since then he has managed to knock off more distance, but just how much remains to be seen. Parks hasn't updated us on his progress since then, but he has been covering about 33 km (20 miles) per day, which quite frankly isn't fast enough to break the record. Things should get better once he tops the Antarctic Plateau however, and if he can put the soft snow behind him it'll help too.
Parker Liautaud and Doug Stoup have  launched the skiing portion of their Willis Resilience South Pole expedition. After spending the first week and a half of the journey driving around the Antarctic in a specially modified vehicle, collecting environmental data and core samples of the ice, they will now begin their attempt to ski to the South Pole with an eye on doing so in record time as well. They're hoping to complete the journey from the Ross Ice Shelf in just 22 days, although their distance will be much shorter than Richard Parks, who is making a full ski journey from Hercules Inlet. His expedition will cover more than 1150 km (715 miles), while Parker and Doug list their route as 640 km (397 miles).

Liautaud was also hoping to become the youngest man to ski to the South Pole but it looks like he may get trumped in that regard as well. Lewis Clarke, the 16-year old from the UK, continues to make good progress on his own expedition to the bottom of the world. While he still has more than 655 miles (1054 km) to go, and a lot can happen over that distance, he is doing well so far. Yesterday, Lewis and his guide Carl Alvey knocked off a respectable 15.1 miles (24.2 km), which is a solid pace for six days into the journey. It's not going to get easier this week however, as the forecast calls for gale force winds to arrive in the next day or two. That will certainly change the dynamic of the expedition.

South Pole cyclists Daniel Burton is finding it hard going, although he did manage to cover 15.5 miles (24.9 km) on Saturday, which is his best day yet. He indicated that the pace is slower than he had expected and that he'll need to pick things up soon if he wants to make a serious run at reaching the Pole on his fat tire bike. He says that his sleds are simply too heavy, but he has a plan to redistribute the weight some that he hopes will start paying dividends as early as today. There is a bit of hope that things are improving however, as Burton noted that it is getting easier to ride than to hike-a-bike, which he has done a lot so far as he works his way up to the Plateau.

Finally, Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere, collective the Scott Expedition team, are continuing to struggle with progress on the Beardmore Glacier. They have left the snow behind for now while they deal with hard, smooth and dangerous blue ice instead. In order to deal with those conditions, they've swapped their skis for crampons, although progress remains slow. It may be hard to believe, but the boys have now been out on the ice for more than 45 days, and yet they still have a long way to go on their attempt to complete Robert Falcon Scott's route to the South Pole and back to the coast again. As of yesterday, they still had 1257 miles (2022 km) to go before they are done. Hang in their lads!

That's all for today. More from the Antarctic soon I'm sure.

Photo Courtesy WIRED-All Rights Reserved
I'm far from being a geek or remotely resembling one, but I still like gadgets provided they're useful and have a purpose...which brings me to the iPad.

Unless you're traveling in North Korea, you must've heard that Apple is launching its iPad in its stores this coming Saturday. I live not too far from its 14th Street store and I intend to walk by just to see the gawking crowds.

The New York Times' David Pogue has an interesting article (and well-balanced) titled Looking At The iPad From Two Angles which I found to be the most intelligent of whatever has been recently written about the device. He concludes the article with this:

"The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine. The only question is: Do you like the concept? "

And that's the question. The iPad is really a "looker" not a "doer"...in other words, like its midget cousin the iTouch, it'll be mainly used as a reader, as a viewer of text, of website (minus Flash), of emails, of pictures, and so forth. Its success or failure is also dependent on the available applications, current and future, which I understand are close to 1500 in number already.

So far, I haven't seen any merits for photographers to get one. I read somewhere that an enterprising photographer will buy a few and, when asked for his portfolios, will send them out to his best clients instead of the old-style books. I'm quite certain that the iPad will be great in impressively displaying our images, but that's all.

Will it be fun to have an iPad? Of course, but will it be useful? I don't know. I'll wait and decide in another 6 months. Let others be the testers.

WIRED has a roundup on the first reviews of the iPad.