Ben Saunders - Polar Explorer, Motivational Speaker

Monotony

This is the first time I've skied on the plateau of a major icecap, and I think I underestimated how mentally challenging it would be. There is almost nothing in the way of external stimulus - a 360° flat horizon, ridged snow extending as far as the eye can see in every direction, a cloudless blue sky and a sun that turns in a tight circle but never rises or sets. Nothing living. White and blue.

All my previous expeditions have had a touch more in the way of variety and excitement - last year's Greenland expedition was along the length of a mountainous valley, and my three North Pole expeditions have all been over the surface of the Arctic Ocean - a skin of sea ice that's constantly drifting, breaking up and refreezing; a giant assault course that keeps you permanently on your toes.

Even on those trips, I've noticed my dreams become more vivid and colourful - perhaps as a result of the lack of visual stimulus during the day. It's a theory that's borne out by the epic dream I had last night; a full-on technicolor bonanza involving marauding polar bears, pack-laden donkeys, kukri-whirling Gurkhas, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, a Royal Air Force base and the entire staff of the Field & Trek store I worked part-time in when I was sixteen…

Tony says his dreams seem to largely revolve around the consumption of Callipos (i.e. he's dreaming of orange ice lollies while lying on top of several million tons of ice). I'm sure they'll have a few extra cast members after several hundred miles of the famously featureless and barren Antarctic plateau later this year.

{ Filed under Greenland on Thursday, May 25th, 2006. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site. }