Lou’s Journal

Ice Tusks (Log #31)

Ice Tusks (Log #31)

Day 32 in Antarctica. Lou wakes up to relatively good weather with a strong and steady wind and wind chill dropping to around -30C by the day's end...

The Parhelion (Log #30)

Day 31 in Antarctica. Lou wakes to great weather. The sun is out, encircled by the frozen halo of a parhelion...

The Bird (Log #29)

Day 30 in Antarctica. It's a clean sock day as Lou pushes on up towards the Polar plateau. He meets patches of sastrugi but also finds himself zipp...

Do Not Go Gently... (Logs #27 & #28)

Day 28 in Antarctica. That's four weeks on the ice for Lou Rudd. Brutal going with another whiteout day and more sastrugi. Lou begins to feel some ...

Weather Warning (Log #26)

Day 27 in Antarctica. Lou wakes up to a weather warning from ALE - a big weather front is coming in. He pushes on through howling winds and zero vi...

A Good Day (Log #25)

Day 26 in Antarctica. A good day all round. Clear visibility, an unconcealed sun and light headwind. Over the course of 11 hours Lou makes good pro...

Headwind (Log #24)

Day 25 in Antarctica. It's day of strong winds and low temperatures. A strong headwind hits and passes. It blows around 30-40mph for a couple of ho...

A Day For Music (Log #23)

Day 24 in Antarctica. A day of poor visibility and monotony. Whiteout conditions return and the horizon empties. Lou spends his day with his compas...

A Friend Overhead (Log #22)

Day 23 in Antarctica. A day of good, stable weather, light winds and great visibility. Around lunch Lou looks up and spots ALE's Basier plane passi...

The Long Climb (Log #21)

Day 22 in Antarctica. After a night in his wind-hammered tent Lou steps out expecting raging katabatic winds. The hammering has eased off in the mo...

The Charge (Log #20)

Day 21 in Antarctica. Three weeks into the journey, Lou charges on between pockets of soft snow, trudging hard up to higher ground on firm sastrugi...

Trust In The GPS (Log #19)

Day 20 in Antarctica. Tough conditions after heavy snowfall. Mild temperatures hover around -10. The fully loaded pulk becomes lodged in snow after...

Snow Wading (Log #18)

Day 19 in Antarctica. A challenging day wading through deep and soft snow. Lou stays positive, reminding himself that the sastrugi has mostly fill...