
Things no one tells you before an Antarctic expedition (2015) - montrose
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/11315994/Ten-things-no-one-tells-you-before-an-Antarctic-expedition.html
======
petemir
I was there for a whole year, in a scientific base of my country. Being a
controlled environment, I couldn't relate much with the items, except for

> 10\. Re-entry. > There is often a huge sense of isolation and disconnect
> when you come back to everyday life. For so long, you have been out in the
> wilderness and singularly concerned with survival and mileage, so when you
> get back to the real world and people talk about their jobs, or what they
> did at the weekend, it all feels foreign. You must remember that people have
> their own lives and their own interests. Just because you like Antarctica
> and polar expeditions, it doesn't mean anyone else should give a damn about
> you or what you did.

It was hard to come back to the real life...

~~~
rjsw
People from the Shackleton expedition went straight to the WWI trenches after
returning from Antarctica.

~~~
qume
And many of them died in the war. After IMHO the most extreme adventure a
bunch of men have ever undertaken, where not a single man died.

This book [0] is one of the most astonishing I have ever read. Anyone reading
this grab a copy, you won't regret it. It's quite a unique story in all human
history, and superbly told.

[0] [http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Shackletons-Boat-
Journey/](http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Shackletons-Boat-Journey/)

------
themodelplumber
> A normal man burns about 2,500 calories in a day. We burn between 7,000 to
> 9,000.

This kind of thing is fascinating to me. It reminds me of the guy [1] who took
64,000 extra calories of olive oil along on his tiny-yacht trip across the
Atlantic, because it's so dense in calories. Or the fact that on the day a
climber summits Everest, they'll burn around 20,000 calories. That's almost 40
McDonald's Big Macs worth of energy.

1\. [http://www.yachtingworld.com/extraordinary-
boats/undaunted-t...](http://www.yachtingworld.com/extraordinary-
boats/undaunted-the-42-inch-yacht-still-hoping-to-become-the-smallest-boat-
ever-to-cross-the-atlantic-107559)

~~~
will_brown
Last year I tracked 294 runs and my app calculated I burned 260,900 calories
(over 2,040 miles). Funny enough I calculated my average calorie burn per day
of snowboarding at 8,000 calories right between the estimate provided from the
article.

A lot of people will talk about calories in/out, but the body is far more
complex. For starters diet will dictate the primary fuel source (glucose or
fat), a body that burns fat as the primary source of energy will have nearly
infinite energy supply while glucose store will empty relatively quickly, and
once that’s used up the body will start breaking down the amino acids in
muscle tissue and converting it to glucose.

Like you I find nutrition very fascinating, but I’d take that olive oil
(healthy fat) over 40 Big Macs any day.

~~~
git_rancher
Fat vs glucose being the energy source depending on diet? Where can I find
more info about this?

~~~
dorfsmay
The body switches to burning fat based on insulin levels. A very bad diet can
make you insulin resistant and eventually have diabetes type 2, but it is
reversible.

The difference between a normal person and somebody with insulin resistance is
that the latter will feel hungry for longer before starting to burn fat.

Contrary to what the GP says, you need to be low on fat (think extremely
skinny) before the body starts scavenging healthy non-fat tissues.

~~~
will_brown
>Contrary to what the GP says, you need to be low on fat (think extremely
skinny) before the body starts scavenging healthy non-fat tissues.

The process of converting muscle tissue into glucose falls under the umbrella
of gluconeogenesis.

If you burn up your glucose stores, your body may turn to fat (more efficient
than converting muscle to glucose), but the body can "skip" the fat burning
and turn to the break down of muscle to convert the amino acids (proteins)
into glucose. Hint: its build right into your post...Insulin. If a body burns
up glucose, and there are high levels of insulin in the blood, then the body
will go into gluconeogenesis to breakdown muscle to convert the amino acids
into glucose instead of burning fat.

~~~
calvano915
Hyperinsulinemia ([https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-
conditions/type-2-diabet...](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-
conditions/type-2-diabetes/expert-answers/hyperinsulinemia/faq-20058488)) is
mostly prevalent among those with Type II DM (insulin resistance promoting
over-production of insulin in a physiologic attempt to compensate). I don't
believe all that many "normal/healthy" individuals have this issue. So while
gluconeogenesis is a viable pathway for fuel, in most individuals lipid
metabolism will not be skipped over for gluconeogenesis because as mentioned
previously it is the slowest and least efficient pathway for ATP production.
Someone with a persistent high carb and low fat diet may be in a similar state
but with high demand for energy - such as the conditions described in the
article - the most efficient pathways will be utilized predominantly, unless
the individual went to great lengths to prevent it via their diet.

------
forapurpose
> Middle aged people tend to make better polar explorers. Not so much because
> they are physically more capable, but more to do with their mental capacity.
> Out on the high polar plateau there is nothing but endless white stretching
> off in every direction. You ski for 12 hours a day and because of the wind
> and cold, it’s almost impossible to talk to your team mates. So, in effect,
> you are alone in your head for all that time. By being a bit older and
> having a bit more life experience, it helps fill the blank canvas that is
> Antarctica.

I always wonder if the same would apply to soldiers. A former special forces
soldier I know said that they didn't look for jocks (though you need some
athleticism); they looked for people with the ability to perform as a highly
functional team member under extreme stress and exhaustion - sort of like the
developer who maintains their sense of humor, keeps everyone loose, and still
turns out work to the highest standards after a week of 18 hour days, with a
deadline breathing down your necks and an angry boss. It seems to me that
older people are generally more capable in that regard.

> [the butter] tastes revolting, but then your body just craves the fat
> content and you eat the butter like blocks of cheese.

He needs a bit of better butter. I highly recommend eating Plugra butter
straight, assuming that your heart doesn't need all that blood all the time.
Really; go buy some and you will come back and thank me. I can't even imagine
how good it would taste in the author's situation.

(I have no affiliation with Plugra.)

~~~
nathancahill
> Plugra butter

It's god-tier. I haven't eaten it straight but in thick (1/4") slabs on fresh
bread. Found even better butter in Iceland, flew home with 5 pounds of it.
Somewhere between butter and triple-crème cheese. Got odd looks at customs,
but they had no problem with it.

~~~
lolptdr
What brand from Iceland?

~~~
nathancahill
I don't remember, I think it was a local, no-brand butter. The 5lb was one big
block.

------
dmvaldman
> It may seem stupid celebrating traveling 100km when you have 18 times that
> distance to go, but never underestimate the power of denial.

I think this quote applies well to entrepreneurship

~~~
crispyporkbites
It’s hard to know what to celebrate, as it’s often not as easy to quantify as
a kilometre

~~~
kgilpin
Celebrate bookings, revenue and customer successes!

Celebrate teams who work well together.

Don’t celebrate fund raising.

------
InitialLastName
Is anyone else bothered by the unit switching this guy is doing?

> On the traverse of Antarctica we were trying to cover 1,850km. After the
> first week, we had only done a few miles total and then had to climb 3,000m
> onto the high polar plateau.

That's 3 distance units in two sentences where 1 unit would suffice with
almost no changes ("a few miles" is approximately identical to "a few
kilometers").

~~~
robterrell
Perhaps the second unit is "meters," as in, "climbed 3km onto the high polar
plateau."

~~~
InitialLastName
For sure it is, and that one is almost reasonable, as meters tend to be used
more than miles or km for elevation.

The switch between miles and kilometers with no cause bothers me more than
that.

~~~
Thlom
In Scandinavia at least we use mile for 10 km. Not sure how common it is
elsewhere.

~~~
crispyporkbites
An imperial mile is 1.6km in the UK and USA

------
andyidsinga
not too off topic: I've been reading "The Worst Journey in the World" \-
fascinating!

also, to help with the general mood I bought a bottle of this whisky:
[https://www.whiskyshop.com/shackleton](https://www.whiskyshop.com/shackleton)

cheers!

~~~
drdrey
Great book! You may also enjoy this story :
[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-
dark...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-darkness)

~~~
andyidsinga
Dude, after reading the Atlantic article I remembered hearing about that
expedition. hard core ..and this pic, its timeless
[https://www.newyorker.com/projects/interactive/2018/180212-g...](https://www.newyorker.com/projects/interactive/2018/180212-grann/assets/photo/finals/r31463.jpg)

------
lolive
I would highly recommend this blog about surviving in Antartica (and not
loosing all your SANity points ;)

[http://sme.wikidot.com](http://sme.wikidot.com)

------
bluedino
>> We burn between 7,000 to 9,000. That means supplementing your dehydrated
food with slabs of butter. In the first few days of the expedition, it tastes
revolting, but then your body just craves the fat content and you eat the
butter like blocks of cheese.

I wonder how many sticks they eat a day. 1 stick is around 800 calories.
Eating a stick of butter is a popular food challenge video on YouTube, but
some guys eat 4 sticks (1lb) without any problem, in just a few minutes.

------
z3t4
-30C is actually not that bad when the air is dry.

~~~
dpc59
it's also much easier to stay dry, and thus warm, at -30 than at -2

~~~
z3t4
Try -30 and 75% relative humidity. It takes a few weeks for the humidity to go
down, but during those weeks you will freeze your ass off.

------
wufufufu
Why not peanut/almond butter instead of butter?

~~~
ttonkytonk
Turns to rock in the cold

~~~
pvaldes
Almond could have also a small amount of cyanide. Bad idea if you plan to eat
a lot of the stuff.

~~~
sneak
AFAIU only bitter almonds, which are not used to make almond butter, contain
significant amounts of cyanide. You could eat pounds of almond butter and not
have an issue.

~~~
pvaldes
Is interesting, so I did some calculus.

If we assume a 75Kg standard male human the lethal dose of cyanide would be
37.5 mg (0.5 mg by Kg)[A]. A Kg of sweet almonds has more or less, 25mg of
cyanide [B] therefore if you eat 1,5Kg of almond butter in a short space of
time you could reach the lethal dose.

Is a lot of butter but:

1) If you eat less you could still vomit or have stomach problems that could
lower your chances of survival in such hostile environment.

2) the maker could had used some cheaper bitter almonds in the mix to lower
the price. Bitter almonds have much more cyanide so even a few could lower the
lethal oral dose.

And 3) there is a possible interaction with vitamin C suplements, that turn
amygdalin in cyanide [2].

[A]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3793392/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3793392/)

[B]
[https://www.almonds.com/sites/default/files/content/attachme...](https://www.almonds.com/sites/default/files/content/attachments/2014aq0004_amygdalin_publication_overview.pdf)

~~~
sneak
That is 3.3 imperial pounds of sweet almonds. I offer that one would not be
readily able to consume even half that much.

~~~
pvaldes
Eating half of the stuff wouldn't be so difficult in a diet that needs to
replace 7000-9000 calories each day. 750 g of almond butter has around 4600
calories. A reasonable value to eat if choosen as the main source of fat in
the diet.

------
deepGem
Middle aged people tend to make better polar explorers

Perhaps for the same reasons they tend to be better entrepreneurs.

~~~
antisthenes
Like having access to capital?

------
fizixer
Good for that guy but by 'Antarctic expedition' I was expecting something
different.

I'm a lot more interested in going to Antarctica, spend a few months there as
part of some scientific research team. Or maybe just go there as a part time
low skill worker, so that my whole trip is funded and at the same time I don't
have to work more than a few hours a day. I just want the feeling of having
lived in Antarctica for a few months. (internet access is a must).

~~~
Thlom
They need electricians, technicians, mechanics, carpenters, cooks, probably
sysadmins and much more over there. It's absolutely possible to get work in
Antarctica and other remote scientific research stations for "normal" people.
The American station at McMurdo have a population of 200+ people in the winter
months and over 1000 in the summer months.

edit: See this link[0] for some information about life in Antarctiva and how
to get a job.

[0]:
[https://www.coolantarctica.com/Community/find_a_job_in_antar...](https://www.coolantarctica.com/Community/find_a_job_in_antarctica.php)

~~~
fizixer
Thanks. Looks like a very useful url (saving for future).

------
spodek
> _putting in 12-14 hour days of pulling a sled in minus 40C, you have to_

Oddly they include the redundant "C" for -40 but don't include it, or the "F,"
in the next paragraph:

> _by running outside naked in minus 30 and rubbing yourself down with snow_

Then they restore redundant ones a few paragraphs later:

> * It may be as low as minus 40C outside* . . . _which in minus 40C is quite
> high_

~~~
magic_beans
This is quite the nitpick.

~~~
lostlogin
We have had the units nitpick for distance and temperature now. There must be
another, wonder if we can get a third?

~~~
Symbiote
On this page,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17055920](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17055920)
is the nitpick for energy.

