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‘With the free schedule I found myself with after coming off the ice early, I decided to head up to the drifting ice station at the North Pole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneo) to work on a documentary we are producing about the station.  The camera man was already up there and we would be able to get many more interviews and shots working together.  Unfortunately I have been stuck in Longyearbeyn for the past three days due to a cyclone passing through the area.  Winds were predicted at 50 knots and visibility was down to less than 100 meters so we waited for our hourly reports that never improved.

Today we have finally got the all clear and I board the Antonov 74 in a few hours for our flight to the floating station. I will keep you all updated with regular information and reports on the latest from the North Pole.’

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After returning through Canada to her home in London, Christina reflects on her expedition, and her decision to leave the ice:

It is a week since I have been pulled of the ice and only a few days since I have returned home to my flat in London. It is amazing how quickly what you consider normal changes and how quickly your body forgets and heals from the hardships of the Arctic environment. There is no sign of the cracked and bloody skin on the tips of all my fingers and I do not keep checking for my sled behind me. I don’t find it odd to walk around barefoot and I do not miss slipping into my frozen sleeping bag. I do miss the endless light and the magical meander through a world that seems impossible.

A week ago I had a sleepless night as I watched the clouds come lower, the fog from the opening lead get darker and listened to the ice cracking around me. I was not sure that the plane would be able to land the following day and if it did not manage to I would have to keep enough in reserve to continue walking even if that walking would take me on an aimless wonder away from the pole as I followed the lead in front of me eastward.

I was relieved when the plane landed. That relief was multiplied many times when from the air I saw the size of the lead I was searching for an end to. In order to keep walking alongside it the previous days I had to believe that it would narrow and that I would get across it finally making some progress North. Faced with its actual size I thought of how demoralized I would have been if I had been faced with its size after walking another three days with no prospect of a pick-up for several weeks instead of from the safety of the twin Otter’s back seat.

The return journey home was punctuated by a stop at every connection. For one reason or another, what could have taken me 24 hours to travel took me 5 days. I had been so resolved to make it to the pole or at least as far as Barneo and the Russians could get me that I had left no spare clothes in Resolute Bay and was travelling in my salopettes and merino long johns and polar boots. The unusually warm weather slowly boiled me and fermented the stale smell my clothes had acquired. I was able to patch together bits and pieces from the few open shops over the Easter holidays and even had to resort to buying a woman’s shoes from her in the parking lot of the 24-hour Kmart that closed early for Easter 1 minute before we arrived at the door.

We always say that the journey is more valuable than the destination, but few times are you slapped with the reality of this as I have been over the past month. Faced with the Awesomeness of the forces of nature and the extremities of the world we live in, I can no longer feel that my pursuit has the same value. I feel humbled and privileged to have been allowed to travel through such a place, to return intact, and to return to tell about it.

I have had a chance to read through all the comments you have sent and I have been doubly humbled. Thank you so much for each and every one of them, I know that they helped me take that extra step when it did not seem possible to do so.

Leave your messages, and keep up to date with Christina’s next expeditions and news:
On her website: http://christinafranco.com/
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/christinafrancosolo
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/cfranco27

Christina’s North Pole Solo Expedition supports two Charities Motor Neurone Disease Association and Save the Rhino; find out more and donate: http://christinafranco.com/charity/

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Reporting to Expedition HQ, after a period of difficult decision making, and without northerly progress, Christina discovers that her decision is made without regret, as the open water she is trapped by stretches many miles and will take days to freeze.

Now safe and en route to London, Christina will continue to report, in words and pictures, on the last few days of her expedition, and plans for the future. Do leave your messages of support as comments using the form below.

Picture: © Luca Bracali

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Christina wishes John Van Bergen a very Happy Birthday

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Some additional thoughts from Christina, as she takes a look at herself in the mirror for the first time:

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Christina is initially disheartened by the white out which greets her in the morning, and prevents her from progressing;

The skies eventually clear, but too late for Christina to make any progress today. The day is not wasted though, Christina formulates a new plan;

Christina passes on the message to wish Donna Landa a Happy Birthday for Wednesday.

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I was cut off again, so I will try one more time. Today is Monday March 22nd. My position is 84.1836 North and 81.0008 West. This, if you remember is not much better than the position I was on the 17th of March. So it’s not surprising that it wasn’t with the usual enthusiasm that I entered my tent and turned my GPS on this evening. Partly because I had it on intermittently during the day to see with any luck if the sweat that I was producing was being reflected in anyway in my movement forward. Knowing that it hadn’t, I didn’t really want to have the bad news. So I stand 635 Kilometers to the pole, which is right now a treadmill. And I rack my brain thinking of what to do, how to tackle this, and I’m reminded again that, you know, the Arctic is a valiant opponent and that it will throw at you what it wants and it’s not good enough to just show up on the day, it’s much more than that. And now with my heavier sleds since my re-supply yesterday with food and fuel for 37 days, I’m having to double carry through even some of the lower rubble because the over 100 kilos is just almost twice my body weight and it’s just too difficult to maneuver over the rubble. I have felt how intensely I don’t want to fail and every step is motivated by the desire to conquer this but I also realize that it will ultimately be up to mother nature, and if she stops this treadmill, I can move forward and I can progress at a reasonable pace. For now I go to bed absolutely knackered but ready to give it another go tomorrow. That’s it from me, nighty night.

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Happy Birthday to Chris Bodker and Lara Piccioli

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It’s a happy birthday today for Zio Luciano!

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Good evening. It’s Christina on March 17th Wednesday St.Patrick’s Day, and there was nothing green anywhere that I could see, not even in my hallucinations today. My position is 84.1551 North, and 79.0432 West. I woke up with the mighty wind, which has in fact taken me back one kilometer, which is never a good start to the day. So I started out one kilometer further away than I was yesterday when I went to sleep and I’ve managed to do 14 kilometers, which puts me at 641 Kilometers to the pole. It was not a brilliant day, there were lots of pressure ridges, lots of open water to negotiate, well freshly frozen water. Only one point when there was some freshwater and had to make my way around a lot of deviations back and forth, and then at about 4:30 this haze came over and absolutely everything was the same colour. So the sky was impossible to differentiate from the snow, made visibility really difficult because although you can see for quite a while, you couldn’t see what you were seeing. Quite a difficult day, it’s still blowing out side. Be really nice if it stopped because it makes work really cold in your face. That’s what I’m hoping for when I go to sleep tonight and I hope it comes true as well as everything that you’re wishing for tonight as well. Good night from me and speak tomorrow.

Christina wants to wish Guido Costa & Alex Lindsay an extremely Happy Birthday for today!

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Acclimatization to the arctic conditions continues, with Christina gradually increasing her daily distances towards the Geographic North Pole. It is by no means easy going, she has had to contend with vast areas of ice-rubble, open water, thin ice, strong winds, and low visibility, not to mention temperatures as low as -40 degrees C. Christina has had to use her intuition and improvise to stay on schedule; on Day 8 she had to put on her yellow drysuit, and using her sleds paddle across a large area of thin ice to find a suitable area to camp.

Equipment problems persist in the low temperatures, affecting the operation and handling of Christina’s essential tools; “I had a bit of a disaster with my fuel bottle which leaked all over the tent floor”.

A major milestone for any polar expedition is reaching the first degree of progress towards the pole. In her Audio post to Expedition HQ she says: “I’ve hit my first degree!! There are only 6 more to go and I couldn’t be happier.”

Yesterday, on the anniversary of Christina’s Fathers passing, she praises him as her inspiration. “I miss my Daddy very much and he is such an inspiration… everyday was so much harder for him than what I am doing here and I have to remember that.”

Christina’s father battled with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) before his passing, and as a result the Motor Neurone Disease Association is one of Christina’s selected Charities, the other being Save the Rhino. If you would like to make a donation to either of these charities, please follow the links via Christina’s website: http://christinafranco.com/charity/

Thank you to all those that left messages on the ‘Send Christina Your Support’ post. Expedition HQ has collated these, they will be printed and added to her re-supply drop which will be parachuted to her around the 21st March.

Position on 17th March 2010: Lat: 84.0902 N / Long: -78.5019 W

Follow Christina:
On her website, with daily audio diaries and expedition updates: http://christinafranco.com/
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/christinafrancosolo
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/cfranco27

Picture: © Luca Bracali

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Happy Birthday to Nikki Oberholzer!

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Hello, this is Christina, it is Monday March 15th. My position is 84.0137 North and 78.3726 West, and that means hip hip hooray, I’ve hit my first degree!! There are only 6 more to go and I couldn’t be happier. Although I count in Kilometers because I like to see them going faster and faster, reality is that I’m at sea and I should be counting in nautical miles, and there are 7 degrees between where I left off and the North Pole and between each degrees there are 60 nautical miles, which are slightly longer, about 1.1 longer than a statute mile. I don’t like to count in nautical miles because they move too slowly and you see far few of them go by everyday. But nonetheless, ultimately it is a degree that I’ve got count and we’ve hit the first one which is absolutely fantastic news. Today was an amazing day, I don’t think that there were any two half hour stints that were in any way similar. And there was rubble, there was Rolling Rock, there were plains that were so large that you could land jumbo jets on them and quite early on in the morning the haze came in and the whole day felt as if I was more on Mars than on any place on Earth. Not that any day ever looks like you’re on Earth here. It is a magical mysterious place with the absence of colour and sound and smells. It refracts in pale shades which are quite spectacular and hugely mystical. And there are more than one time a day when I am absolutely brought to tears by how spectacular and incredible this place is, I wish I could share it with everybody that I know. I have done 14 Kilometers today which is very very good news. That leaves me nice and tired and ready for bed. I’ve had some Lasagne, not quite like Mommy makes but good enough to feed my aching muscles and make sure that I sleep well, and warm through the night. That’s all from me, speak tomorrow.

Christina, calling in last night, wanted to wish Ian Player a very Happy Birthday for Monday

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If you would like to send Christina a note please do so by making a comment at the bottom of this page where it says ‘Write your comment here…’

All messages received by Tuesday 16th March 12 Noon GMT will be sent to Christina. Please only send one message per person.

Thank you, Expedition HQ.

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Good Evening, this is Christina, It’s March 11th on thursday evening. My position is 83.3526 North, and 78.0412 West. Today I rejoined the frozen lead and carried on until I hit the dunes of sand, well that’s what it felt like even though they were snow and I did a remarkable 16 kilometers and I am now 716 kilometers to the pole. I feel absolutely knackered. I’m enjoying some wild west chilli. My feet are being warmed by a hot water bottle inside my sleeping bag and I am ready to hit the hay very shortly. I got to camp, I had a bit of a disaster with my fuel bottle which leaked all over the tent floor, made me cough and almost throw up from the fumes that it then released but all was sorted and now water is on the boil. Today was a remarkable day and that the sun is starting to set for a very long time. So the Red sunset went from about 4 o’clock til about 8 o’clock making everything the most extraordinary shades of reds and pinks for as far as you could see. It’s incredibly still and quiet and sometimes mesmerisngly so because you stop and the crunch of your shoes and your walking sticks on the snow, and the sleds bumbling along behind you peaces, and you just listen to nothing. And there’s never a time in our lives when we hear absolutely nothing and it is mesmerizing. I could just sit there and listen to that for hours but then I get cold and you have to keep going. I’m looking forward to a really good night sleep and then hopefully put in some very good miles tomorrow. That’s all for me. Nighty night.

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After being held in Resolute Bay with weather conditions delaying the take-off and landing of the final plane journey, Christina was able to set off on her expedition on Wednesday 3rd March at 19:00 GMT. From a drop off point in McClintock Inlet, Cape Discovery, where the temperature was reported to be -40deg c, the first days of the expedition have brought unseasonal ice conditions, with wide ‘leads’ in the ice to negotiate, fog, and strong NE winds causing fast drift for the moving plates of ice close to the coast of northern Canada.

In her first expedition week she has remained in good spirits, acclimatising to the extreme cold and building on her training and expedition experience from 2009. Daily progress has been good, consistently covering about 5 nautical miles a day. To deal with the rubble of ice blocks she has adopted an effective technique of pulling one sled at a time before returning for the second one – a technique allowing each sled to be lighter and easier to handle amongst the broken ice. Speaking yesterday in her daily audio diary, Christina commented; “…it is just broken ice the size of three story buildings, and dragging my sled even one at a time was absolutely exhausting. I go through the day with a mixture and cocktail of emotion – fear, hunger, pain in various sizes.”

Position at 10 March 2010: Lat: 83.2035 N / Long: -77.4122 E

Follow Christina:
On her website, with daily audio diaries and expedition updates: http://christinafranco.com/
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/christinafrancosolo
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/cfranco27

Picture: © Luca Bracali

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Good evening, it’s monday 8th march, my mommy’s birthday so she looked over me all day long. My position is 83.1622 North and 77.4302 West. Today was one hell of a day, it was absolutely dreadful. So to sit down in my sleeping bag and see that I have actually made 5 km is an absolute pleasure. At about 3 O’Clock I didn’t even think I would find some place to sleep, it was just broken ice the size of three story buildings, and dragging my sled even one at a time was absolutely exhausting. I go through the day with a mixture and cocktail of emotion – fear, hunger, pain in various sizes. Today was particularly difficult, it made me very happy to know there were so many messages on the website, I can’t get them to respond to each and every one of them right now but I got a smattering of them from my mom and it was fabulous, it made my day after a very very difficult day. So I’m off to bed, even though I’m in a little area only about the size of half of a football pitch. Everything is moving around, I don’t suppose I’ll get much sleep but at least it’s what I call home for tonight. Good night and speak tomorrow.

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