...When Seb and the others did the 2013 Shackleton Epic expedition (Ed-Elephant Island to Grytviken, South Georgia in a replica of the James Caird, wearing period clothes) they literally couldn’t keep the sledging hoosh down. It wasn’t being fussy, Seb said, it was literally unpalatable and made people sick, not a good thing when you are watching ration intake and need to keep your liquids up and not a good thing when bobbing around in a small boat in the south Atlantic
BB:
So, no pemmican or Nut Food?
RS:
Certainly not,dried rations, chocolate, high calorie food. In the Antarctic your body canes through 3000+ calories a day before you even start really strenuous activity. Our food is very high in calories; a fist sized portion that can be eaten in half a dozen spoonfuls is 800 calories. People add oil, butter, sugars to that to bulk it even further. You need fats and you need sugars. One of the huge myths about polar exploring is that you need to be whippet fit and whippet thin. That’s maybe because you see polar explorers being interviewed after their expeditions, when they are thin. The modern idea of body fitness, toned abs, no body fat would be utterly useless at the pole. You burn through so many calories that the biggest challenge you have is calorific intake. If you started the expedition with no body fat then from day one your body would be consuming muscle. This is not a good thing if you need those muscles to perform. I estimate that your average Men’s Health model would last approximately 10 days on the ice cap before we’d have to get him out or have to monitor his heath.
BB:
So perhaps sponsorship from Greggs might be an idea (Ed – Greggs, a UK baker, famous for their savoury meat pies and pasties, In the UK the consumption of pies is synonymous with the putting on of excess body fat)
RS:
LOL, yes, the other point about food is morale. It’s actually very lonely when you’re travelling in Polar Regions. Although you might be in a party, during the day you are marching in single file often into the teeth of a freezing gale, talking – shouting is an additional exertion you don’t need. You can’t listen to music on an iPod or similar because even if you could recharge the battery, the cold is too severe for the batteries to last more than a few minutes. So you plod on, listening to the screaming wind and the drift ice rattling across the surface of the snow. When you stop, communication involves unwrapping faces and exposing skin to the elements. When you camp everyone is exhausted and preoccupied with their housekeeping – skis and sledges to be secured, tent pitched, ice melted for tomorrow’s water (this takes a long time), food prepared and cooked and then sleep. Even though you are with people there is a lot of time for reflection.
99.