The moment we stepped of the plane we felt it, your breath all moisture in your nose, hair, throat, beard would freeze in 30 seconds, we landed in resolute bay, we knew it was going to be tough, minus 30 to minus 20, if you had your hand out of your glove for more than 30 seconds it literally began to go numb!
Weather wise we were fortunate, no snow storms, but when we were in the North Pole region two Norwegians were out there and fell through the ice and died, which just brought home how dangerous this is! They were 3 miles from us when they fell through the ice!
We became more cautious at this terrible news! Our leader was more on red alert, we could tell where the ice was thinner the pigmentation of the snow and ice changes, we also stayed within 100 or 200 meters of each other.
Scenery: The whole thing was incredible it was like a lunar landscape miles and miles of undulating white terrain, cravaces, snow ridges, where the ice edges have met and pushed each other up, the barrenness, nothing grows there, nothing! And yet your constantly on red alert for polar bears, wolves, wherever their are snow ridges there are seals and that naturally will draw wildlife hunting.
So a number of us including myself had a shot gun ready and loaded at all times.
Any form of heat, wake up in the morning inside of tent is frozen, when you cook you put water into the food, so its rehydrated food, the steam from the boiling water condenses on the tent and by the morning the tent is frozen inside and out, you wake up and your face is freezing cold.
The game on the magnetic north pole was an acheivement and sense of relief, it was a bit of an anti climax because its a bit of snow so a hugh sense of relief. The game and record the following day however was euphoric, to have potentially become a Guinness world record holder, when we turned up the site was a vast area of snow, we had hour and a half hours to mark out the pitch, get changed, celebrate, get the spectators in…… so to play rugby at the North Pole something no one has ever done was surreal and an emmensly proud feeling to have.
We had to stay for 2 days and then a plane with skis got us back!
Our fundraising target is £300,000 and we still need people to donate, if they could go online and support the challenge.
Anything people can donate to this is much appreciated! Details below
So please give to this cause and follow the trek on the following links
Tweet: Support @charityspoon #ArcticChallenge 2015! Upload your bobble hat selfie http://bit.ly/1Dsam10
Just Giving Page: mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/oliverphillips1
www.arcticrugbychallenge.org
twitter @olliephillips11
www.olliephillips.com
