The last we heard from the team, they were camped a few km west of the Churchill river mouth, awaiting daylight and a forecast SSE wind so they can head North to Arviat, to join in the traditional feast that happens at the end of this weekend’s Dogsled race. They could have easily headed in any other direction over the last few days but the wind has been “right on the nose” for the Arviat run!

Forecast gives only a day of favourable winds before the wind swings back onto the nose, they will really have to get their skates on if they are to make it to Arviat for the feast! Unfortunately the ice is quite rough here, so it may be a tall order!

Good luck and Fair winds Boys!

Update from Ben:

Not much new in news from the team, they have been tuning the rig, practicing their upwind technique and preparing for the ideal conditions to present for a big run.

What’s it actually like driving a Kitesled?

Driving a kitesled in subzero temperatures is fairly straightforward if you know exactly what you are doing! Here is a list of the sort of things that you need to be in control of if you were thinking of giving it a try:

• The body needs to be properly insulated without overheating - it’s easy to overheat the upper body while the legs freeze, so we wear down filled pants and triple layered boots;
• The face area needs to be well managed, Goggles are easily iced up from breath, and throats/lungs can be quickly damaged from the cold, dry air;
• The Kite needs to be trimmed so that hands take little strain. (as the hands are held above heart level blood circulation is retarded, and frostbite can strike, clenched muscles make this effect worse);
• The kite that is launched needs to be the right size for the wind strength and ice conditions (The power of the kite has an adjustment range, but this is limited);
• Navigation - sometimes you can just follow a coastline, compasses don’t really work this close to the magnetic pole, so we often steer by the wind and sastrugi patterns, with the occassional GPS check;
• Ice conditions - Though the sled can ride over big bumps, we’d be twits if we took every obstacle head on, it can be a gruelling experience spending several hours navigating through giant fields of rough ice and avoiding refrozen melt pools;
• Keeping tabs on the other guy - sometimes he is sitting behind the pilot on the sled, other times he may be whizzing along on skis with a survival pack, pulled by a little “smart kite”;
• Staying hydrated - we usually wear a camelback full of warm water under our jackets, and:
• Keeping a lookout for other dangers such as bears!

There’s even more to consider, but I’d hate to bore you, suffice to say - there is a lot to do, and it’s not really the sort of thing where you can just switch off and listen to your ipod, or whatever.
I guess this sounds very tough and full-on, and it is a very serious business, but don’t forget - we do this because we love exploring these places, in our own way, at our own pace, with out best mates. What I’m trying to say is, It’s great fun.

Fair winds Ben and Dave!

The first thing I noticed about Churchill, is the way people talk about the temperature here. They dont bother using the word “minus”, and they tend to talk in windchill temps, rather than air temps, because, as any one who’s ever been in -35C/40kmh wind will tell you, windchill temp is the temp that really matters. So when i got off the train in Churchill on Saturday, I was told the temperature was, simply, “58″. By which they meant -58C. Sunday was 43, Monday 38 and today, everyone was saying how warm it was because it only hit 33, and the air temp was actually an incredibly balmy 17. Its funny how quickly your perspective can change, I actually caught myself thinking how warm it was today (and it really was!).

The next thing I noticed was the ice. As we expected, the sea ice here is a fair bit rougher that in James Bay, and it is extremely jagged close to shore, partly due to the immense tides here (4.5m!) but seems to flatten out offshore some distance.

Ben arrived today, looking like he’d slept about 5 hours in the last 48, so we took the sled out on rough ice in 40kmh winds to wake him up a bit. Seemed to do the trick for a while, but he flopped very badly at dinner, and is now sleeping it off.

So we’re both finally here, with all our gear, provisions etc, in one piece! Neither of us can quite believe it!

The plan at this stage is to head off tomorrow or the next day, weather permitting, to discover what conditions are really like out there on the bay, and to hone our up-wind technique for a run up to Arviat (approx 200km north). 

Wish us Luck!

Dave

Dave is in the town of Churchill, assembling the sled and tuning gear, Ben is in Winnipeg, about to board the plane to join him.

View Larger Map

 Check out the latest weather chart - Canada is a windy place, and it looks like there may be a good South easterly airstream over the west side of the bay over the next few days….

We know you are craving the fair winds boys, but don’t get too hasty and leave without letting us know more about what it’s like out there!

OK, Imagine you are on a kitesled expedition……you just woke up, the sleeping bag is oh-so-cosy today.
Dave passes you a bowl of oats with an extra 80g of butter in it, he tells you that the wind has come up overnight - Its time to get moving!, But what are you going to wear?
Here is a guide…now swallow that bowl of stodge and get moving!

Training: Variety is the spice of life.

Usually this is where any website of a “modern day explorer”  has pictures of people hauling tyres along a beach, getting their core strength fit for the unique stresses of pulling a dastardly heavy load along in a sled or cart, all day, every day.

Well, we need to do a bit more than that! 

For while hauling is a necessary capability, (on those windless or unkiteable days), an expedition kitesledder has to be ready for grueling sessions driving the sled and keeping their senses sharp at the same time, (Think of the stresses facing round the world yacht racing).

Accordingly: we have their own mix of training activities, these focus on conditioning for:

1.) Specific fitness: hauling, kite-skiing (knee and core strength as well as flexibility)

2.) Aerobic ability: Getting enough oxygen to the muscles and, importantly, the brain - this is needed to “stay in control” and make big decisions (such as route finding and assessing risks while on the move in a dynamic environment)

3.) Mental endurance: Kite-sledding looks and usually is easy…but try piloting a sled over bumpy terrain for more than an hour and staying focussed, especially when the kite has to be “piloted” (that is - flown in a wave pattern) to generate sufficient power to pull the sled. Watch Ben overpower his unladen kitesled 3a and lose it in this video:

So how do we train?

For the physical side of things we usually balance tyre dragging with stretching, long bike rides plus middle distance running (on hard ground) and longer runs (on the sand).

While the best mental training we have come up with is also physical:

• Long non-stop bushwalks such as the three peaks challenge in the Blue mountains, and;
• Long coastal “downwinder” kitesurfing journeys that last for many hours and finish far from the starting point. These are as taxing as they are beautiful and require constant vigilance for a number of unique reasons.

Above all, we make sure to mix it up, the above activities are rarely boring, and can be fitted in around (or into) our jobs and family time. For we feel it would be a shame if we pursued this dream at odds with the other pleasures and realities of our lives…”Single-minded determination” and “giving it all you’ve got with no compromise” is all very well for some people, but a balanced life it does not make for!

We make every decision out of love, If it’s not part of real life then we think carefully about whether we should be doing it!

See you out there!

Pat

Check out our new galleries that we’ve posted up, including our expedition photos to Greenland in 2006, and our Canada trip in 2008, as well as building of the kitesled prototype

View the Kitesled Photo Gallery

This page answers many of the questions that we have been asked over the years…

Sled & Gear questions:

Really well! We built the latest kitesled with the Sastrugi fields of Antarctica in mind. On our Canadian trip we constantly tested the loaded sleds ability to:
A) Maneuver around obstacles, and;
B) Ride straight over the big bumps at speed.
The sled excelled at both, and afterwards showed no sign of wear and material fatigue.

  

Dave writes about our new design

Our MK5 Kitesled has evolved to its current design over 4 years of  designing, building and testing. The design is based on the breakthrough sled steering system invented by Peter Lynn. We’ve tested prototypes in Greenland, Norway, Canada and Australia. This Kitesled has fulfilled all our requirements: It’s steerable whilst flying a kite, lightweight although virtually indestructible, can traverse rough terrain whilst carrying 300 kg of supplies and equipment, and breaks down into smaller components for easy loading onto planes etc…

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