The Coldest Journey was a 2013 Commonwealth-supported expedition to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

with the aim of becoming the first team ever to cross the Antarctic land mass during the polar winter. The endeavour aimed to raise more than $10 million for Seeing is Believing, a global charitable initiative which aims to eradicate avoidable blindness in developing countries. The team used cloud-based web technologies to connect with schools across the world as part of an educational programme designed to inspire a new generation towards high achievement. The project also performed scientific research and collected climate and weather data from Antarctica during the expedition to further the understanding of the

effects of climate change Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an Instrumental temperature record, overall warming trend, Effects of climate change on the ...

on the

polar regions The polar regions, also called the frigid geographical zone, zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North Pole, North and South Poles), lying within the pol ...

Team

The expedition had three main components: the Ice Team, led by Brian Newham after Expedition Co-Leader Sir Ranulph Fiennes had to pull out due to injury, the Marine Team led by Anton Bowring (Expedition Co-Leader), and the Operations Team led by Tristam Kaye (Global Operations and Programme Manager). The Ice Team was made up of Brian Newham (leader (formerly traverse manager)), Robert Lambert (expedition doctor), Ian Prickett, Spencer Smirl (lead mechanic/driver), and Richmond Dykes (mechanic/driver). On 25 February 2013, Fiennes abandoned the expedition and was evacuated to Princess Elisabeth Station, due to

frostbite Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when someone is exposed to extremely low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occ ...

suffered while attempting to fix a ski binding without gloves at . The rest of the team set off from Crown Bay on 21 March 2013 under the leadership of Brian Newham. They had until the September equinox to complete the traverse successfully in winter. Most of the expedition was carried out in complete darkness and in temperatures as cold as or lower.

Journey

The team detected many

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...

s on its way to south pole. The progress was very slow and the team covered only (of a planned ). It found a crevasse field extending up to 100 km and the team concluded that it was too dangerous to attempt to cross these crevasses with heavy equipment. On 18 June 2013 the team officially halted its expedition to cross Antarctica and decided to focus the remainder of the time on scientific experiments.

References

External links

The Coldest Journey
{{Polar exploration, state=collapsed Antarctic expeditions United Kingdom and the Antarctic 2013 in Antarctica