Trio takes on Polar Challenge for charity

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Local resident Rob Gregory tells his tale of training, turmoil and triumph in the Arctic

It started with a harmless invite to a party. In March last year my wife introduced me to a friend who was having her "send-off" party just days before she was to fly to Canada. She was going to participate in an event called the Polar Challenge - a 350 mile expedition race across the Arctic to the Magnetic North Pole. Despite the party being in full swing I was glued to the TV, intrigued by the programme showing the previous years race. I guess the rest is history. With a new challenge in mind my workouts now had a real purpose and a renewed enthusiasm that I hadn't felt for years.

It's a team event, so I had to find two partners. As my brother, Ian recalls, first I ask him, "Do you want to do London marathon together?", then a week later I say "Do you fancy going to the North Pole instead?"

Like all good teams, we felt the third member should add to both Ian's and my abilities (anyone who had been camping before would have filled this criteria). Not many of our friends got past thinking we were mad, let alone considering being part of the team. But we got lucky when Chris (a friend of a friend), who had been in the SAS and clearly enhanced our skill set, succumbed to our gentle persuasion.

After several months of early morning workouts at The Park Club, I thought it a good idea to see if our fitness was improving. To our collective surprise the 'Human Lab', specialists in assessing fitness levels, told us our training intensity was too high and completely inappropriate for the task at hand. We were burning virtually all carbohydrate and no fat. Not the ideal metabolism for an extreme endurance event. With our programs corrected our workouts continued at much more comfortable pace.

Our first real experience of what we could begin to expect was a week's training in Austria - all part of the package. Luckily it was very cold, -24°c during the night. Bleary eyed having had virtually no sleep this was the first of many times I questioned my ability to do this. But the fun didn't stop there. As the chosen team member to do ice dip, I jumped naked (apart from my boxer shorts) through a hole in the ice in order to practice what to do in such an emergency. Nevertheless we all returned to London at the end of January, safe, elated but slightly anxious. With two months to go before it was our turn to board the plane for Canada on April 5th, the weeks flashed past. We were still trying to raise sponsorship to pay for the trip, get donations for our chosen charity, holding down a day job, and of course training in our spare time.

Our first stop on trip was Ottawa and also our last night of luxury. From here onwards the planes got progressively smaller and much noisier. 2100 miles later, 555 miles inside the Arctic Circle, we landed at Resolute Bay our final destination. Resolute is home to about 200 Intuits and is as desolate as you would expect it to be. As the most northern point in Canada receiving commercial flights it is the 'step off' point for anyone with business farther north (so its usually not that busy). The bay itself is of course completely frozen at this time of year and presents a surreal landscape for those not used to it.

We now had a further week of training. This included lectures, shotgun training in -40°c and mini expeditions from Resolute. The full on blizzard we experienced on our first excursion came unannounced. In fact the weather was so bad that all the teams got separated, some lost equipment, two people got frost bite and no one made it to the rendezvous. This was an early and stark reminder that along with the Antarctic, this is the most unforgiving place on the planet. If injured or without proper equipment your survival time in this environment can be less than ½ hour. I thought I knew my limits in life, both physically and mentally but I knew I was just about to explore boundaries I never thought I had.

With 350 nautical miles before us (a nautical mile is very annoyingly a bit longer than a normal one) Day 1, seemed it would be easy. In fact Day 1 became one of my worst. My goggles constantly steamed up and together with a faulty ski binding forced me to stop every 200m. We soon became acutely aware, trouble for one member of the team was trouble for all. My stopping, slowed them down, made them cold and agitated. Among other things tent time was always time for repairs so I set to work as soon as we stopped. Four hours was about as long as one could stay asleep before the cold woke you up.

The second day was also an eventful one and one that put our team effort at risk. After 8½ hours and 15 miles battling in a strong side wind, Ian's pace slowed considerably. He had become close to hypothermic and was exhausted by the time we made camp. Along with another four competitors he took the decision to withdraw from the expedition as this was the last opportunity they could safely get back to Resolute for the next 5/6 days. We had never considered this scenario and it was a clear lesson for future planning. Chris and I reflected hard on Ian's departure. As a team of two we now had to carry more weight in our pulks which already weighed 140 Ibs.

We had our ups and downs during the next five days. It was still very hard going and always seemed impossible if you thought about how far we had to go to reach the finish line. But I was starting to habituate to the environment, the routines were becoming easier and we were more efficient. But Chris seemed uneasy and less confident following Ian's departure. Feeling that our safety was comprised he also unfortunately decided to withdraw, after having completed 75 miles and just under a quarter of the expedition. This effectively ended our team effort. Twenty six of the original forty two competitors as either teams of two or three actually made it to the Pole. And I will never know whether I would could have got there or not. I felt that both Ian and Chris could have completed the challenge and it was our team dynamic at fault - and I played my own part in that. You can train forever, but it is not the same as pushing your team to breaking point. This is what we hadn't anticipated or prepared for and we had paid the price.

Despite the frustration the expedition will remain an amazing adventure and one that I will never forget. The Arctic is one of the most incredible places on the planet and I am privileged to have been there and immersed in it. I came back not really being able to express what it was like. All that mattered there was surviving and it made all the distractions and anxieties we experience in our daily lives seem really unimportant. Its fuelled something inside of me that continues to call to my desire to test myself again - and it won't go away. Perhaps with a couple years break I might just go back and try it again.

We are delighted that we have been able to help others through our efforts and the support of many of our friends. Proudly we presented a cheque for just under £25,000 for The Shooting Star Children's Hospice, our chosen charity.

Rob Gregory

August 1, 2006