We initially looked at standard television channels, but the cost was astronomical and limited us to the UK, so we then looked online! But online we found all video sites to be plagued with the same problems. In our opinion, great films are not made to be viewed the size of a postcard on a crowded and busy web page, nor catalogued away in a never-ending archive, never to be found again. If you want to know how to deliver film we think you need to look at the experts; TV and cinema. So we set about taking drastic measures to completely redefine viewing film online, by converging TV, Internet video and film festival with the latest in cloud and streaming technologies. It has without doubt been the most difficult challenge we have ever taken on and makes the Southern Patagonian Icecap suddenly feel very inviting!

In a nutshell our new platform, www.itzon.tv, provides film lovers with a huge range of independent films, documentaries and animations from around the world all scheduled into a linear stream. Providing a full-screen, high-definition ‘TV’ experience, available through an Internet browser or Internet-ready TV. And the best bit? It’s FREE!

itzon showcases an eclectic mix of films from all genres, but even if your not an indie film festival goer im pretty sure there will still be stuff you just might like!!! Every week there will be a selection of great adventure, travel and sports films you bound to enjoy. itzon is currently in BETA testing phase, launching our first months festival on the 18th May, when you will be able to catch:

Ten – A Cameraman’s tale: Ski/snowboard freeride documentary, and an insight into the world of freeride through the lens of cameraman Guido Perrini.

Single-Handed: Kevin Shields is known as the one handed climber.  Born with most of his left hand missing Kevin has shocked the climbing world.

Chalk and Chocolate: This beautiful film is of one of the best climbers in the world Natalija Gros, climbing one of the most challenging verticals in Slovenia: Histerija (8c+)

Into Darkness: The secret underworld of caves. Journey with cavers who push through impossibly small passages to some of the final frontiers on earth.

A Fine Line: A cinematic journey that unites the leading edge of winter action sports with avalanche education and responsible backcountry usage.

African Odyssey: A grass roots adventure at its best, 4 ordinary guys, 4 very ordinary motorbikes ride 21,000 km from Capetown to London.

Ascending the Giants: An insight into what motivates the arborists who climb the largest trees on the planet!

The Great Walk of China: our film…for those of you who haven’t yet seen it!

And many more!

You can just arrive and watch what’s playing now, browse the programme guide and digital magazine to see what’s on when, use the itzon Demand catch up service to watch anything you’ve missed and vote on the films as part of the monthly festival competition.

Shameless pleading but…Please spread the word about itzon to everyone you know!! Thank you

(Link to demo vid if you wanted something to embed http://www.youtube.com/user/itzontv#p/u/4/Dz56WUix0kQ )

FIFTEEN speakers from across the spectrum of expeditions, adventure and travel will talk about their experiences (Tarka and I speaking as a pair being one of them) .

The subjects range from rowing oceans, climbing Everest, walking and cycling across continents, crossing ice caps (I think this is us!), trekking to the North Pole (and South Pole) all the way to flying cars, climbing Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair and spending six months living in a tree house.

Each one is an amazing story. But the twist is that each speaker is allowed just 20 slides. And each slide scrolls on automatically after just 20 seconds!! Tarks and I have never spoken before in this style and i think its going to be quite a challeng but great fun for the audience to watch. This format, originally called “Pecha Kucha” in Japan, makes for a high-paced, varied, original evening.

The Roxy Bar is a really good venue for a night out. The setting is informal so you can sit on sofas with a beer or eat a light meal while watching the event. Friendly heckling will be encouraged!

This evening of adventure is being held to raise funds and awareness for Hope and Homes for Children. All the proceeds from the event will go to support the work of this charity. So please come along, bring a few friends, have dinner, and make an evening of it. Put it in your diary today and buy your tickets here!

February 2nd 2010, www.roxybarandscreen.com, London, 7pm
15 speakers
20 slides per speaker
20 seconds per slide
£15 minimum entry. Buy your ticket online here (or below) and just bring ID on the night. There will be a few tickets available on the door for cash only. All proceeds from the door go to charity
Dinner and drinks available at the venue

On a seperate note our Great Wall of China documenatry won the people’s choice award at Dundee Mountain Film Festival…yippie! the weekend before last and was well recieved at the Autrans Mountain Film Festival in France this weekend.

We have had brilliant press coverage since our return, which amazingly is still coming! Our first film ‘The Great Walk of China’ was shown at the Dijon International Film Festival last month and will be showing at Dundee Mountain Film Festival next week and Autrans Mountain Film Festival the week after that. We will both be speaking at Kendal Mountain Festival this Friday about the Rivers of Ice expedition for the very time, at 11.30 in the Parish Hall.

For anyone who hadn’t been following the Rivers of Ice expedition there is a very brief summary below;

From the Jorge Montt glacier we made great progress across the ice cap for 25 days. We successfully traversed one of the world´s harshest environments before reaching the most notorious section of the journey two-thirds of the way in. Tent-bound for 5 days in winds of up to 60 knots, we waited for a suitable weather window: we knew the next technically demanding section could not be attempted without good visibility. At this point, the tent suffered a critical failure leaving us to erect a survival shelter as quickly as possible from what remained of the tent.

Despite having multiple exit strategies along the ice cap none were in range without a fully functioning tent. So despite being aware of the difficulty of descending the Spegazzini glacier, we calculated that it offered the best chance ofsurvival due to its close proximity. In total, we spent 5 nights in makeshift shelters as we slowly negotiated the descent from the ice cap via the glacier in storm conditions. We had hoped to leave as we had arrived, by boat, however the unstable nature of the glacier mouth made it unsafe for a boat to collect us. Subsequently, the El Calafelet 42 division of the Argentinian Gendarmarie were called to provide a safe pick up by helicopter. We spent one night in hospital as a precautionary measure and were discharged with mild frostbite to the toes and snow blindness.

Alhough we did not accomplish our ultimate objective of a full crossing, we did successfully achieve the longest crossing of the Southern Patagonian Ice by a British team as well as the longest ever crossing by a woman. We still believe our fast and light approach is an effective way to complete a full unsupported crossing and will be heading back next year for ‘take 2′.

We have finally launched our new expedition.

‘Rivers of Ice’ will depart on the 16^th of August in an attempt to traverse the complete length of the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap with out the aid of sail kites or pre-placed food caches.

The fully unsupported journey will see us kayak, ski and climb 554km across the world’s third largest ice cap in as little as 37 days. Traditionally expeditions across the ice cap have been undertaken with the aid of pulks (sledges) ensuring the ability to carry sufficient supplies for long crossings. However, this makes for an arduous and laborious task having to shuttle loads across the heavily crevassed sections. In contrast we have taken an ultra light and fast approach, undertaking the journey with only backpacks and 1kg micro sleds that attach to the packs. Having reduced the equipment from over 120kg (traditional amount taken on previous attempts of this journey) to 45kg each, we are mobile enough to move fast over the difficult terrain. However, with only 37 days of food rations, we cannot afford any mistakes or delays!

The new ‘Rivers of Ice’ expedition website is finally up and running. I would describe it as innovative and interactive, jam-packed with technical information about the journey and the ultra-light equipment being used to make it happen. Once the expedition gets underway we will send daily updates back to the site as podcasts, allowing for the facts and emotions – be they despair or elation – of the day’s events, to be shared. Between now and departure we will regularly be updating the new website with short videos of our physical preparation, as well as the kit, food and logistical preparations, giving an insight into the pre-expedition work load.

So until mid October it is good buy from the Primal Journey news page but we hope to see you over at www.rivers-of-ice.com

and 1kg micro sleds that attach to the packs.

After a few more long days working away we managed to get camp looking fantastic. The shower was… I want to say brilliant because out in the middle of the Arctic the concept of a shower is a little on the ludicrous side. The truth of the matter is that it brings back floods of memories of being in Africa when you have to contort yourself into unusual positions just to get your whole body wet. Once that is achieved, under the incredibly slow (and short lived) trickle, you have to try and get all the soap of before the water ‘tank’ runs dry. Regardless of all that we can wash ourselves and we have grown quite fond of our little shower.

The kitchen sink has performed fantastically and we can wash up all the dishes after every meal now. It has all become so efficient that we even empty out our meal bags out onto plates and sit around the table to eat them. I have no idea why but they seam to taste much better of a plate rather than in a bag. Speaking of efficiency we have established a routine with the heater now and are able to keep the temperature in our home at a perfect level. We do have a hose to connect the heater directly to a 45 Gallon drum and run the heater continuously but despite the additional hassle we found that we can monitor the fuel far more efficiently if we run the heater from the 5 gallon jerry can on the back. When the Jerry can is full we can run the heater on its lowest setting for between 9.5 and 10 hours. The lowest setting is ample to keep our home warm and when the fuel runs out we can leave it about 2 hours before having to relight it. We have had long debates about the toilet and have agreed and settled that it will stay outdoors in the ice. Cold as it may be dealing with the pluming of an indoor one is just not going to be realistic at this stage.

We have taken to a regular fitness regime and every day we walk, ski, run or hike up at least one of the hills. I was so excited when we reached the top of one of the big ones to see that there was a clear run of snow down one side. Although the bindings and boots are not exactly designed for skiing and I didn’t execute it in the most graceful of manners I couldn’t resist telemarking down.

Excuse the change in tense here but the story was written in staggered instalments.

After all the work we put into getting our home up and running we then got a devastating call from the London head office… we are coming off the ice!!! For a whole host of reasons it has been deemed that our job is done and we are on our way home. Our extraction was synchronised with the main resupply for PAM and we then had to completely disassemble our home. We all felt a little shocked and sat in silence for a while, I suppose each of us was thinking the same thing one way or another and then starting to get on with job. The flight was delayed by a day giving us enough time to return the whole place as we had found it ( Well not exactly as we found it, we didn’t fill the cabins back up with snow. We actually took great care to board up the doors and windows to protect them) and then Charlie hopped on the plane as it came through on its outbound leg to go on up to see Pen, Ann Daniels (mother of 4) and Martin (sweat cheeks) while Katie and I made final preparations for departure. Once everything was packed and out by the runway Katie managed to get her very first glimpse of an animal, a wolf. The wolf was actually rummaging around the bag with the cameras in so we couldn’t get a picture but Katie was very excited to see her first wild polar animal none the less. The plane was late on its return leg and Katie and I had taken to trying to guess the song that we were singing songs through our emergency whistles to try and stay warm. The flight home was quiet and sombre and we all sat staring out of the windows watching the polar ice below (and Katie wants me to mention the enormous pink moon).

The latest instalments have been; a new kitchen with sink built into the worktop, a shower cubical with changing area, coat rack and boot area, fuel bund with dispensary taps, and an external home for the generator (with chimney for the fumes). Last night we even put up a dining table, found a few old plates and I made us beans on toast … who could ask for more!

Even with all these luxurious home comforts we have surrounded ourselves with, life isn’t quite like being at home, there is always a longer process involved in receiving the end goods. The shower for example. If you decide you want to have a shower you must first collect a bucket of snow, leave it by the heater for several hours to melt, then fill the bag with nozzle attachment with the water and put it up on the top shelf over the shower, then leave for several more hours for the water to warm in plastic bag. We purposely built the shower right next to the heater hoping sufficient hot air would rise to the roof of the porta cabin and heat the water sufficiently to take the Arctic chill off it. Tarka is about to try the first shower this evening so we will see…! Another example, Charlie pointed out to me the other day as he came in laughing at the randomness of cold weather living, was when he could hear sawing and wondered in to see what I was creating next, only to find that was in fact sawing away with the large wood saw, but what I was desperately trying to cut through was the weeks rashen of cheese!

I even managed a short run this morning up and down the runway, my poor lungs were the only thing to suffer, with every freezing inhalation causing a deep burning pain. Couple more days and I am sure they will have got the gist.

We are working on the video of camp but having a few technical issues…will keep trying.

The great news of the day is that Pen, Ann and Martin managed to get their resupply and they all seem in very high spirits as they continue along their journey Northwards. The not so good news is that our flight out onto the ice has been delayed again due to bad weather and the aircraft is not available over the weekend… so we are now all crossing our fingers for a Monday drop off. In a bid to try and overcome the irritation of having to patiently sit and wait for our flight back onto the ice we have started training for our next trip. Oh yes… of course it was never going to be long before we decided on our next trip and true to form here we go. Unfortunately I cant tell you what the project is just yet but I can tell you that it requires us to be exceptionally fit and strong and of course it is a world first!!! What possible better training ground could we ask for than the Arctic for such an endeavour?

We have been devising a training schedule that will fit in with our surroundings and daily work whilst out on the ice. Staying fit out here is considerably harder than it sounds because you have to be careful about sweating and the intense cold. We’ve spent most of the afternoon pulling our pulks over huge blocks of snow and ice and I caught this photo of Katie wrestling her 110kg sledge up and over the boulders.

Freight has now finally arrived, well some of it, so we are at last back up to full steam ahead in the art of list making, sorting, re-packing, sewing on sponsor badges, dividing daily food rations…etc etc. In saying that, i was actually in bed with flu the day all the kit arrived and missed out on the process of lugging a couple of tonnes of kit back from the airport late at night in miserably cold conditions. Now I am sure some of you cynics out there would probably think i had planned it that way! I however, am just incredibly grateful that i was able to feel like death whilst in the warmth of a hotel bed next to an on-suite bathroom and NOT on the ice at -50ºC.

With only a few days to go before we get flown out onto the ice I should probably be telling you about all things Arctic. However I’m sure you’ll be hearing about enough Arctic and cold weather related stories over the next few months to fill a lifetime so instead I will tell you about South Camp! South Camp Inn is the name of the place we are staying at right now. Not only does it consist of the most eclectic amalgamation of décor and styles but it also happens to be run by a fantastically colourful team. The whole place is run and owned by Ozzie, an entrepreneurial business man from Tanzania of all places. Quite how a Tanzanian business man ended up right up here in the high Arctic is anybodies guess, but he has done, and very successfully at that. Over the years passing expeditions to the North pole have left kit here and Ozzie has accumulated a veritable Aladdin’s cave of goodies. No matter what you might need you can guaranty that it will be hidden in the back of one of the rooms. The other long standing member of South Camp is Randy… an accomplished chef from Bermuda!!! I wont even begin to try and explain how he ended up here but the long and the short is that I am very grateful he has as i have now found his muffins are equally exquisite as his chocolate brownies . There is also a fantastic amount of space, so we have been able to spread all our kit out and organise it into the various drop-offs and categories that we will need on the ice. For all its diversity and good points I heed a word of caution to all who will venture up here in years to come… BEWARE OF THE STATIC! It is quite unbelievable but a combination of aggravating factors has made this building a living Van de Graaff generator! On average you can take about 10 to 15 steps before you have generated enough static to give yourself a shock. We are not 100% sure on whether the building is earthed and to add a little spice and variety to your day all the metallic objects are covered in a tiny coating of paint, enough to disguise it so that you unsuspectingly brush past it, but an insufficient amount to insulate it. A few days ago I managed to walk almost the whole length of South Camp without coming into contact with any metal and when I reached for Ian’s door handle the shock was so intense it felt like the spark from my finger momentarily lit up the dark corridor. I have now taken to running my hand down the walls and deliberately touching as many door handles as possible as I travel around camp to avoid any significant build up.

One of the biggest problems out in the high Arctic (And I’m sure most of you know this) is communications!!! Not only does the cold bring everything to a grinding halt but our sole communication uplink is via a satellite system called iridium. Whilst people have managed to send back videos from the Arctic before during expeditions, it is an incredibly difficult , time consuming and tricky job. For those of you who are lucky enough to remember internet when it was in its infancy and we all had standard dial up connections (52kb/s), it took the best part of 10mins to get up the most basic website and video was inconceivable. Well our connection on a good day is about 5 times slower!!! Thankfully we are in a unique position in that the expedition is relatively static and we are not limited by time and weight. We will be doing our absolute best to send back regular videos for you through out the trip to show you what life is really like out on the Arctic ocean. However you will have to bare in mind that despite the fact that we are filming the whole trip on a broadcast camera the footage we will be posting on the site will be quite low quality. Hope you enjoy the videos and please be patient during our first few weeks as we iron out our teething problems that we will inevitably have.

To all those who have emailed in the last year asking where and when they can purchase a copy of the DVD, it is now available HERE. The successful completion on the film has been in no small part thanks to Pangaea TV, with whom we have been working on the production with and so a big thank you needs to go to them. The other big thank you goes to all of you. Without the constant emails and phone calls asking when it would be ready it probably would never have been finished

When I watch the DVD back, now it is complete, I’m just amazed at how far I have come in the past 3 years. I look at my self in the beginning of the film, and just wince at how completely out of my comfort zone I was, crying and complaining about everything and anything. Then by the end of the film I can see a change, despite the near vertical cliff faces and Siberian blizzards, I was able to look at each day with a positive attitude even if I was feeling less than ‘comfortable’! But now, as I am currently organising and gathering kit for my departure to the Arctic Ocean, my tent away from home for the next 3 months in temperature of -50°C, I am able to see how one, 6 month journey transformed my outlook on life. More than anything I have realised, what we are ALL physically and mentally capable of, and how stretching yourself beyond your usually capability makes the achievement or reward seem so much greater.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt