Adventure Magazine

Someone who knows you well how do you think that they
would describe you.? This is from Laura Andrews: Mike is this
incredible guy who’s got a contagious belief that everything is
possible. Despite being a legend himself, he builds everyone else
up around him, making them feel like Olympian’s and inspiring
them to expand themselves. He’s sarcastic, jokey and positive.
He’s incredibly humble, super switched on, and lives life well for
every moment. Mikes is incredibly capable, he has a novel worth
of crazy experiences behind him. The amazing thing is that he can
do these adventures and capture it as the same time. The aweinspiring
content inspires, educates and connects.
"Mike is this
incredible
guy who’s
got a
contagious
belief that
everything is
possible."
How did you become part of this expedition? The expedition
was put on by the Antarctic Heritage Trust — The trust is a New
Zealand-based not-for-profit that cares for the expedition base
huts and approx. 20,000 artefacts left behind by early Antarctic
explorers including Captain Robert Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton
and Sir Edmund Hillary. The reason for this expedition is to
celebrate 150 years since the birth, Roald Amundsen, who in 1911
became the first person to reach the geographic South Pole. Our
team was a joint New Zealand and Norwegian expedition with
3 kiwis and 2 Norwegians. It's the trust's sixth major Inspiring
Explorers Expedition following a crossing of South Georgia in
2015, an ascent of Mount Scott in Antarctica in 2017, a successful
crossing of the Greenland ice cap in 2018, and kayaking
expeditions on the Antarctic Peninsula in 2019 and 2020.
What training if any did you do and how much lead up time
did you have? Skiing 1000km in Antarctica wasn’t something I
knew a lot about and it was completely different from whitewater
kayaking so the preparation was a huge task. I guess the easiest
way to look at it was getting conditioned to be on your feet all
day for 50 days towing a sled and the strain this would put on
your body. I think [the sled] was about 85kgs at its peak. It was
definitely heavy.
To do this I was towing tires as much as possible around in the
bush in New Zealand to try and replicate the drag on my muscles.
Then obviously the gym and keeping fit. It's interesting doing
something like this when you don't have a lot of experience or
know what it's going to be like in terms of the environment or the
toll on the body. It was a huge learning curve, just operating in
that environment under that fatigue day in day out. The other side
of preparation was trying to figure out the equipment, and how
you're going to stay warm and access things on your sled during
the day. If there's a big storm or it's really cold you can't take
your gloves off so you need to learn how to do that with them on.
Even thinking about stuff as simple as what kind of food to take
because most things freeze — these are little bits you need to
figure out before you get on the ice.
Most of your successes have been sitting down how was
the challenge of a walking/standing challenge? Whitewater
kayaking is fast-paced. When you’re out on a kayak mission
you’re constantly solving the puzzle of Whitewater in front of you.
Scouting, setting safety, and then running rapids. It comes at
you all day. Skiing across Antarctica is completely different. The
pace on the snow is slow. Often we were moving around 2,5km
per hour with our goal being prioritizing keeping the team healthy
and in the best condition to continue moving for 50 days on end.
There’s definitely a lot of risks operating in the polar environment,
but it’s a slow burn and can be managed much easier than the
dynamic environment of the river.
The train never stops as Auckland firefighter Laura Andrews navigates the team away from the Ronne Ice
shelf and into the interior of the continent, across yet another wide open plain of majestic Antarctic scenery.
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