Recruitment for nextyear's trip is open. If you are interested, get in touch with me and I can forward your details to the right person. Its great fun, honest!

THE FINISH!!!

If only we had followed this advice!

Nick Gold, restaranteur, style icon and gentleman. He just couldn't grow that beard, although as you can see from the photo he had loads of hair growing out of his ears.

James. Well, at least I think its James. We all looked the same when we had the full kit on.

Our leader! He had just farted. How we laughed.

I love this picture. It gives you a great idea of the terrain. That is snow rushing across the ground.

Jamie finds his supply of loo roll!

Another picture of our hero!

This picture gives you an idea of what it was like when it was windy. Actually, its not that bad on this morning. Cameras froze when it got really cold.

Jamie falls in the toilet hole!

Jamie and Lydia. Jamie is on the right.

Paul and Jason following.

Martin! He had a nickname. But I am not allowed to tell anyone. It wasn't very nice. But he did deserve it.

Jason! He always managed to get the best icey bits on his beard.

The moment when we were told that we weren't going to make it to our destination. Click here to view. We had lost three days because of bad weather and had we contonued along our planned course, then there was no way we could be extracted if anything else had gone wrong. It was a very sad moment in a way. We had got half way, and then had to trek all the way back. But we had no choice. You get an idea of what the weather was like, but that was actually one of the easier days. Only about -40C in the wind.

Who is this handsome chap?!

James Ashton, of the Daily Mail, finds a quality newspaper in a small supermarket in Incaluit. He must be reading the business pages. Top marks to the Independent on Sunday's distribution department!

James Ashton of the Daily Mail in typically heroic pose. He really is the housewife's favourite.

I think was on about the second or third day.

Me and my tent posse. That's Jamie at the back, Ben the womble in the front and Mark Davey, group leader, on the right. What a team!

See, it wasn't all terrible!

The Northern Lights overlooking the hill on our first night. Alot more to follow!

Hi everyone,
Well we are back in the UK - more of less in one piece. The flight landed at 6:30am this morning and amazingly wasn't delayed by blizzards, caribou on the runway or any other Arctic obstacles. When I get over the jetlag, I will write a full report of our trip here.
Right now I am going back to bed!

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We met our extraction team yesterday afternoon about 5:00 & after a very uncomfortable 4 hrs, ___ arrived back into town. We spent last night in the InnsNorth(?) Hotel. Had a lovely hot breakfast this morning. Flying out this afternoon back to unpronounceable name & then back to Ottawa on Sat morning. Hope everyone is well, looking forward to getting back.

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So we now heading back the way we came, back to our starting points. We're hoping to be extracted on Wed afternoon. We should have enough time to get back. If the weather does not get bad again. But everyone's phoned it's folks(?), no major concerns & something to look forward to. Getting back to the UK on Sun. Bye.

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Yesterday was the worst weather yet. I've been walking in a village ___ mile & I hope, perhaps camp early. Perhaps, gather with the day we lost before we got here it's the right flight. Now that we don't have no time to reach our destination, so reluctantly we've decided to head back to the starting point through the valley & then the snow mobile back into town. Everyone's at this point, but there's no real ___ we've ___ the luck with the weather.

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Hi everyone, 3rd day on the ice now. 1st day was very, very tough some very tired & exhausted people but all in good spirits now & looking forward to a day's ___ ahead of us. Temperature is minus 58 with a wind chill, there is a nice layer of ice on the inside of our tent as I speak but wonders of hot tea are keeping us going. ___ bye.

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Hi everyone, the weather has got really bad so we've been stop in the ___ today we should of phone up to our starting point this morning but hopefully the blizzard will break more & we'll fly tomorrow morning. All is well & Lydia said lots of love to Isabel & Jessica & Ben(?) & Charles & I say lots of love to Hannah & keep reading. Bye bye.

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The good news is, we've arrived in Canada. The bad news is, we're not in Ottawa where we suppose to be, but in Montreal. Our flight this morning is cancelled, we spent about 8 hrs waiting at Heathrow but we're now here. So we're just gonna get some high vehicles & drivers ___ & we will be back on schedule.

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Itinerary for the trip

Saturday 17th March

Heathrow flight departs 1030hrs

arrives Halifax 1420hrs

Depart Halifax 1705hrs

arrive Ottowa 1758hrs

Sunday 18th March

Ottowa flight departs 0905hrs

arrives Iqualuit 1215hrs

Monday 19th March

Iqualuit flight departs 0800hrs

arrives Qikiqtarjuaq 1015hrs

Transit to North Pang Fiord by snow machine and make camp

Tuesday 20th March

North Pang Fiord - Owl River

Walk and make camp

Wednesday 21st March

Owl River - June Valley

Walk and make camp

Thursday 22nd March

June Valley - Glacier Lake

Walk and make camp

Friday 23rd March

Glacier Lake - Summit Lake

Walk and make camp

Saturday 24th March

Summit Lake - Thor Peak

Walk and make camp

Sunday 25th March

Thor Peak - Crater Lake

Walk and make camp

Monday 26th March

Crater Lake - Overlord Cabin

Walk and make camp

Tuesday 27th March

Overlord Cabin - Pangnirtung

Walk and lay my weary head down on a real bed at Auyuittuq Lodge

(Wednesday 28th March

Spare bad weather day, for any extra travel needed through delays.

Or alternatively another night at Auyuittuq Lodge)

Thursday 29th March

Flight departs Pangnirtung 1855hrs

arrives Iqualuit 1955hrs

Friday 30th March

Flight departs Iqualuit 1345hrs

arrives Ottowa 1650hrs

Saturday 31st March

Flight departs Ottowa 1830hrs

transit overnight

Sunday 1st April

Flight arrives Heathrow 0625hrs

This is a picture of Martin, one of the expedition leaders (see below). Martin is out in Baffin Island right now setting things up. The picture was taken five minutes after Martin ventured outdoors.
I am now officially bricking it. Ho ho, we all thought, lets go to Baffin Island, it will be fun. Oh yes, bound to be a bit chilly, but nothing too brutal. Well, according to the weather forecast, its expected to be -61C on Sunday when we set out. That's with the windchill taken into account you understand. Only -30C otherwise. Still, it will be colder than the freezer in your kitchen. Exposed skin will go black after a few minutes and any minor problem can become life threatening very quickly. Suddenly this jaunt has got very real. None of us going on this trek has ever experienced anything like the conditions out there.
After the months of preparing to go to Baffin, there are only a few days left before we fly out. It has become impossible not to think about it anymore. I don't suppose I have trained enough and I am nervous to say the least.
Any last minute donations will be much appreciated. Click here to go to the Justgiving page. Be generous.
Thanks to the nice people at Spinvox, I will be updating the blog every three days or so while I am trekking across the ice. I will ring a special number from the satellite phone we will have and Spinvox converts by voice message to text. The results are not perfect, but they are not bad (see below).
I think they call this sort of thing a "Once In a Lifetime Adventure", because you would have to be insane to do it twice.
So please keep coming back to this blog to check up on our progress. Assuming I get back with enough fingers to be able to type, I will provide a transcript of my Ice Diary when I return. Until then, thanks for reading and wish us all luck!!

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This is a test. It's Mark Glogg(?). Let's hope it appears. Bye.

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Hello Andrew, this is Marc Harris leaving a test message of you Spin-my-Blog Service. I hope to see this on screen on your Blob site shortly. Thank you.

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Well, the final countdown has started. In 10 days or so I will be standing on Baffin Island. Frankly, the whole thing has got a bit scary.
Anyway, the launch party is tomorrow evening. You too can go. Click here for details.
Photos from the event will appear here by the end of the week.

A few pics from the weekend in Wales. Boyo.


This is Jason. He is the one doing the yoga (se previous post). Don't ask about the hat. It would take too long to explain. Really. He is quite happy at making it out of the car park.

The back of James Ashton (Daily Mail). We did this wading through icy water quite a lot! I think I was standing just to the right of James, cursing like a naavy with my trousers rolled up to my knees.

The gang on top of a quite a large hill. From left to right: Mark, Jason, Me (sitting), James, Lydia, the other Mark and Jason (sitting). Mark on the left is the expedition leader. He is actually as bonkers as this picture makes out.

Marching up the mountain with a fake injured colleague.

From left to right: Mark, Jamie, Jason and me!