Arctic Expedition: -61 degrees and very scared

[berny88925]

you are scared? I would say chill but i don't think that would help

[LydiaPurnell]

@berny88925 ... lol... yeah... i think the sense of humour had kinda disappeared!! Straight after this we tried to set up an emergency camp - the blizzard made it so so difficult... trying to clip the tent up was impossible - our hands had frozen into claws.. they were useless... It was impossible to think intelligently... that's what makes it so difficult.. because panic blinds the mind... still... we got through it!! lol

[berny88925]

@LydiaPurnell wow, and lol at the claw... I know its dangerous but I would really like that experience

[sabu85]

mmmm that looks more like -35 to me, it's too windy to be -61. -61 is possible only when the air is very still and in areas far from the sea(like siberia).

[LydiaPurnell]

@sabu85 ... it was -45 ambient plus wind chill which registered -61 on our equipment.... I think you can tell its windy!... ... please do not think we are exagerating!

[sabu85]

@LydiaPurnell ahahah ok i didn't consider wind chill! :)

[LydiaPurnell]

@sabu85  - that's ok... the wind is what kills... gets through your clothing - no matter how many layers!

[JohQx3]

It gets to -40 Celcius pretty much anually in here (Northern Finland). Its just...nasty temperature. -30 is still tolerable but with -40 you just dont want to leave the house.

[amassi2010]

i love cold weather in my country it's now 48 above zero so it's soo00 hot

[uzi43331]

nikol ni -61 ce ne ta nebi mogu dihat!!!k bi mu pluca takoj zmrznla pa oči tud

[SittingMooseShaman]

@LydiaPurnell... yeah, I can see the 'other world' of your experiences. And I burn with envy... When I was able to hike- the 'world' I explored was around western New York state

and Buffalo... so-oo, I am experienced w/blinding blizzards- in a way. Buffalo area storms are quite localised- though intense! I'd love to get ahold of an Inuit hiking 'rig'- I have once & a while made imitation 'whale-bone' sun shades from carved & slitted maple-wood... if ya cut 'em right they're better;n sunglasses!

[LydiaPurnell]

@SittingMooseShaman ---- I am yet to explore mainland America... I should do. One day...

[SittingMooseShaman]

... I've been in ~20 below ... I swear by some layers of felt/wool in the mix- with cotton against the skin and canvas on the outer shell... I may look wierd- However, it's warm!

[LydiaPurnell]

@SittingMooseShaman - Hey there - I agree with you re natural materials, however, in this situation, when we were out on the ice for a very long time - we needed more sophisticated synthetic clothing - that would be lightweight and 'breath'. We couldnt afford to carry too much weight (our polks were already 75Kg each - without dogs to help!). I was very impressed by the Inuit clothing - seal skin is amazing!

[FloridaRaider]

I'd like to experience that cold even for a moment

[D413373R]

looks like a nice holiday destination. shorts are a must by the looks of it.

[LydiaPurnell]

@D413373R - on the sunnier days we were able to strip naked and have snow showers!

[fairhillnorrie]

my nose and other things would fall off if i was exposed to this... minus 2 and im freezing..

[mmmbilly]

Stay home and do some baking dear!

[Dannepihls]

-61 Fahrenheit or Celsius? I hope Celsius :)

[LydiaPurnell]

@Dannepihls ...Celsius!.. : )

[Dannepihls]

@LydiaPurnell

Ah good! Wow, that's really cold! Nevertheless I hope that you've enjoyed it a little bit :)

[thermaldog]

no place for a woman...so dont complain

[LydiaPurnell]

@thermaldog

Thank you for your comment - I have to admit - at times I did think "this is no place for me" but then I looked around and saw my fellow men and they were saying the same thing... To be honest - its more a mental challenge than a physical one. We all took it in turns to be weak and weary - but a team is only as fast and strong as the weakest member - so we all pulled together and it worked.

[orhun20]

@LydiaPurnell how did you lot sleep at night in that freezing cold ?? right now its -2c where i live and believe me i cant stand this cold.

[LydiaPurnell]

@orhun20 -3 here in Kent.. the schools are shut.. the area has come to a standstill - its amazing as this temperature is 'mild' to the Inuit!... Sleeping that night was emotional to say the least.. by this time my sleeping bag had degraded (feather filled) by my breathing into it and it becoming wet and then freezing - it no longer insulated the area around my chest... I woke up in the middle of the early hours of the morning shaking uncontrollably, delirious and baking hot ...

[LydiaPurnell]

@orhun20 (continued)... Hyperthermia.... Thanks to my tent buddies (Nick Gold, James Ashton and Paul Deegan - all notable), I was 'revived'...

It was the lack of sleep that created the mental torture during the day - one just didnt feel equipped at times to handle the physical gruel...

I wouldnt, however, change anything... I regret nothing, and feel very grateful for the experience and that we all got through it without anyone getting hurt.. .. Wrap up warm tonight @orhun20!

[orhun20]

@LydiaPurnell i think ur a very brave lady to go through such an extreme weather. thank you for sharing ur experience with us.

[LydiaPurnell]

@orhun20 .. thank you for watching... I think my video blogs are a little strange - they were 'performed' - I was trying so hard to stay 'happy' and positive... what I didnt capture was the mental and emotional struggle we all went through - if someone cracked, then the whole team felt it... I think thats when our sense of humour became a little warped! (over tiredness also contributed.. it was like a mild form of maddness!)

[HOPPERFZR]

@thermaldog stupid comment

[LydiaPurnell]

@HOPPERFZR .. thank you x

[pchapman905]

When I was a kid, they would teach us winter survival skills in school :)

[LydiaPurnell]

@pchapman905 We will all need it ... survival of the fittest... being at one with nature - isnt a hippie thing - it is embracing the millenia of instinct that lies within us all

[pchapman905]

@LydiaPurnell It was no joke in Nova Scotia in the 70s, people would regularly get lost and die of "exposure" in the winter. Children especially get hypothermia very quickly.

[Hellraiser8746]

Oh mann!!!Temperature -61 C,is not just a cold weather!!!If you get in a refrigerator you will get impression that you are in a furnace,in comparison with a place of -61 C!!!hahaha :-D

[zaphr89]

To the people that are saying that -60 isn't cold well, there are different kinds of cold. In a place where the air is dry you dont feels as cold as in places where its windy and/or humid. For example where i live (sweden) its pretty close to the see and altough it wouldn't be as cold as -60 in the winter it can feel alot colder (not comparing to the video) than that. Wet cold is the worst thing there is.

[LydiaPurnell]

@zaphr89 ... couldnt agree with you more... wet and cold .. the sensation of evaporation on the skin intensifies the feeling of cold... how we measure temperature should be based on more than just a static tube of glass with mercury within sheltered from the wind!

[AreaQNH870]

@LydiaPurnell we do, its called wind chill and it has quite an interesting formula if you care to research it on wiki :)

[LydiaPurnell]

@AreaQNH870 ... I may have to do that!... thanks!... -61 included wind chill and our National Geographic team members were responsible for recording the temperature and environmental conditions...

[csnu5]

your on the wrong side of the world to experience REAL COLD....temperatures....try a trip to AUSTRALIA AND THEN VISIT THE COUNTRY JUST BELOW IT WITH NO GOVERMENT...NAMELY "ANTARTICA" IT IS THE COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH TRY -112 IN JULY ....SO -61 IS NOTHING COMPARED TO ANTARTICA....ITS 2 MILES ABOVE SEA LEVEL AND HOLDS THE RECORD FOR THE COLDEST EVER RECORDED TEMP -128 IN 1983.

[filipos1990]

@csnu5 the record was -89.2 you cheater -.-

[richig761]

That's without windchill. Those temps are with the windchill factor. it wasn't -61 degrees... It was with the windchill though. It was probably more around -40/-45

[LydiaPurnell]

@richig761 .. thats right... but what matter most of all (to me) was the experience of this temperature - we were in the wind - couldnt get out of it! - so to us is was -61 the whole time - and being in it while trying to get across very dangerous ice while pulling a 75kg pulk... with goggles that were frozen over and gloves that were not working properly and boots that had shaved the blisters off our toes and ankles... the hardest part was coping with the confusion set off by..

[LydiaPurnell]

@richig761 (continued)... all our senses out of kilter - couldn see.. couldn feel - but what we did feel was painful and tired... hunger, thirst... frightened and without perception of time through lack of sleep... This blizzard continued for 3 days... the rest of the time it was about -40...

[richig761]

-61 is cold... -128 is just fucking nuts. Try living in a country that normal people live in lol. Then -61 will be cold.

[kid43332]

@richig761 -128? In Mercury?

[FadoDeo4444]

@csnu5 "-112 in July".... LMFAO!!!!!!!! you DO know that July is winter in Antartica, so it gets SIGNIFICANTLY warmer during January, right? Oh.. and before you speak about "real cold"; try spending a week in -61 weather before you speak about "real cold"... and educate yourself on the way seasons work in this world which I assume you live in.

[LydiaPurnell]

@csnu5 Hi there.. You are right. Some members of the team are arranging the Scott Centenary Expedition to the South Pole- namely Antony Jinman - you can google him and see what he is up to... Not sure it will be right for me to join him as my family commitments have changed - but I am supporting him everystep of the way!

[selfishgenome]

I thought a Canada Goose Expedition Parka should do the job at -60

[LydiaPurnell]

It would normally - but we had been wearing them for some time, sweat and moisture built up while we warmed up in our tents every night, which then the next day froze. This cycle meant they were eventually only half as effective.

[LydiaPurnell]

Ooops I forgot to say - we wore Rab!!

[Zorica12]

@ selfishgenome: They didn't wear Canada Goose. They wore: "we wore Rab!!"

I'm not sure what Rab is, but I think next time they should use Canada Goose! I will guess that Rab is synthetic down. I'm pretty sure if they used Canada Goose their expedition would have been a little easier.

Bonus: Merino wool for base layers also help to insulate, regulate body temperature, and if wet will help you stay warm. (Try it‼) ☺

[pippuzzu1981]

@selfishgenome Hi Selfishgenome actutally is the Snow mantra parka much warmer.

[Zorica12]

Was your parka a Canada Goose? And if so, even STILL didn't hold up to the temps??? Wow, that is hard core! Next time I guess you better stick to all fur and seal skin to really help protect you and keep moisture away from you.

[LydiaPurnell]

Fur and seal skin would have been far better - I agree... Have to say that even though our clothes were saturated, as long as we kept walking, we were ok - ish... my boots were a big problem. Being a girl - my feet are a size 7 (40) and quite thin... The boots we were given to wear were unisex. Too wide and heavy for me. I had to get a different pair in Iqualuit - but they werent 'hard core' enough. Cold feet whittle at the soul, the pain of walking on them for 140miles - I will never forget...

[Zorica12]

Wow! Yes, I find just the winters in southern Ontario to be 'whittling at the soul'. lol. But good job on the expedition. I too one day would like to go on an arctic expedition. (Even though I prefer summer). lol.

Good luck on future expeditions!

[jestarsrace06]

you make -60 look harder then what it really is.

[LydiaPurnell]

To be fair -60 isnt too bad when you have somewhere warm to escape to - but it is bad when your clothes that got damp from being in a tent every night and have now frozen, you've been walking for over 100miles into the wind and cant see for the blizzard - the end of the road to an expedition that took 2 years to organise - the emotions are shredded... This snow storm took the last of our reserve fuel and made us turn back for base ... we fought the idea... it was very sad

[deltaalpha21074]

You are wearing the wrong thing all together....

Dress liek you are going to ride a snowmobile at 50 mph....Helmet...Super Sold weather suit ....

[dinnerandashow]

what camera works in -61????!!!

[LydiaPurnell]

It was a Casio Exilim - and it took 18 seconds before it froze - hence the vid is so short. The rule with electronics in such temperatures is this - AVOID condesation at all costs. The National Geographic photographer who was with us advised us to either keep the camera cold OR warm and not to it suffer the opposite for any length of time because moisture builds up inside. My choice to keep it warm, (next to my skin) was to help the battery life... (I had four batteries on me)

[Mostnorthern]

The coldest I have been in is -62 f. Their was no wind. Just downright cold temperature

[NameTaken1000]

After a certain temperature Synthetics begin to lose their ability to repel cold and retain warmth. That is why the Inuit people wear fur for such weather. Nothing is warmer than animal fur there. That must of been damn cold for you. I can not even imagine that type of coldness.

[LydiaPurnell]

indeed... the inuit have lived there so long and have adapted so well - the saddness lies in those who wish to destroy their culture for the sake of seals whose existance is not threatened - its just because seals are "cute".. its pathetic - anyway - thank you for watching - I feel very honoured to have experienced being so close to the north pole and all the beauty of raw nature - the northern lights were mesmerising... I bid you a very good day

[NameTaken1000]

I agree the Inuit people have a right to seal, but not only that. As a people with ancestry of fur and ivory trade, they should also be allowed such rights. The US, Europe and many other countries have banned the importing of seal products, which in a way is what the Inuit specialize in. Their craftsmanship with furs,ivory, and certain ocean mammals is one of a kind. It is a damn shame they banned their means of economic growth through their traditional skills. I hope to visit the arctic oneday.

[Oceanproject]

Ceci est incroyable! No kidding -61??? REALLY? nahh...maybe -40 with winds drops it down to -50 BUT -61 WOW! This aren't times to take a "leak" out on the open...sure that it would turn to "ice" before it would hi the ground lol! My...do i ever have the ideas this morning in Montréal! lol Nice thank you for posting Lydia! I love the arctic must be a intense cold...the worst i have known was -40 in a "exceptionnal cold winters days" in Montréal in 2007. ouf

[Quatermass64]

Wow... even under all those layers of arctic clothing, you're still as cute as a button! :-)

[12valvepower1]

yo ulook great dear

[north61]

Like the whole series. I lived 9 years in Nunavut and spent a lot of time on the land. Had mostly great times mixed with some really scary moments. When you push the envelope it can get dicy fast and -61 ( I am assuming that's wind-chill aided) is pretty far out on the envelope. Thanks for this series Lydia, very nicely done.

[LydiaPurnell]

Thank you very much - kind of you to comment.

I am now very much involved in organising other trips in the new year(not that I can go - family responsibilities)and also one to the Antarctic which should be enormous!...

I will never forget the fear and the mind numbing enormity of living on the ice, it opened my soul.

[12valvepower1]

ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow

[LydiaPurnell]

WEENY?! yeah right!.. the bloomin camera frooze it was that cold.. we were entering an area where there was zero satallite coverage and the chances of rescue - almost none!... our equipment was failing... our clothing saturated with ice... we awoke the following morning with 5 members on the brink of hypothermia... !!!! (thanks for seeing it anyway!)

[alanorrchusaulei]

Hey sister, big props to you, you're not a "weeny" in the least. It's so easy for some fool to shoot their mouth off on the internet.

-61 degrees? That's insane, people could DIE in that kind of temperature. It's no picnic lol.

[LydiaPurnell]

Thank you... -61 does very strange things to one's mind... its odd... you cant think about it.. but then you cant think about anything really .. very difficult to concentrate and hard to physically erect the tents and set up camp - even setting up and lighting the stoves was impossible... little mistakes can mean death.. and when you are that cold and that tired from being out on the ice for two weeks in these constant bad conditions..

[LydiaPurnell]

.. (Continued) we were lucky nobody did die - that is because our exped leaders were amazing.. we had Mark Davey, Martin Hartley and Paul Deegan - all renowned for their bravery and daring expeditions (Paul Deegan was part of the team who got stuck on Everest - you may have seen/read Into Thin Air - he was stuck in that storm and survived pulling two to safety)...

but strangely I would go back ... I need to do more.. its all very odd...

[Triachus]

you weeny

[LydiaPurnell]

WEENY?! yeah right!.. the bloomin camera frooze it was that cold.. we were entering an area where there was zero satallite coverage and the chances of rescue - almost none!... our equipment was failing... our clothing saturated with ice... we awoke the following morning with 5 members on the brink of hypothermia... !!!! (thanks for seeing it anyway!)