Ross Maxwell

Ottawa »

1st Posting

1. April 2008

Welcome to my webpage.

This page has been developed so that friends, sponsors and interested parties can follow and participate in my polar challenges. It will also be a valuable tool in my fund raising for the two very worthy causes on the charities page.

 

Many friends, colleagues and companies have helped me in some way and I am grateful to all.

 

So how did this all come about?

I happened to be reading a NZ Multisport & Triathlon mag on New Years Eve (yes sad I know) and spotted a small snippet about some race to the South Pole.

Now that’s a plan!!

I whistled an email off to the race website thinking it may be a long shot as I had zero ice experience other than some diving around the Antarctic iceshelf. New Years day 2008 gave a pleasant surprise with a reply from the race organisers advising they would consider my request.

17^th January I was on a flight to Norway to take part in an intensive training week in the elements. Follow the link to the race website for more on the Norway training.

Tenting in strong winds in minus 20 conditions was no problem but skiing was as I had never been on skis before. Some teams were already formed and individuals like myself had the task of working in different groups to be able to form teams. Jo Oliver and Gareth Ellis, both of the UK, and I have formed a well balanced team with a very strong focus on being competitive in the race to the South Pole which starts early December.  During the week in Norway I discovered that the organisers also did a race to the North Pole in April 2008 and a couple of teams needed a 3^rd person.

Another plan!!

Had to do something about skiing first though so headed for Slovenia where friends helped me get to grips with cross country skiing. Raised a few eyebrows when two weeks later I went on a 6-day 210km cross country ski tour of Slovenia. My technique won’t be used for demonstration purposes but the 210km was done.

Then it was off to the UK for a North Pole training day and to meet my potential team mates. By the end of that weekend I had joined Paul Craig and Oliver Corbett in their very relaxed team The Holiday Club.

Time to get back to NZ and get prepared for the up coming ‘holiday.’

Wasn’t sure where the focus should be in terms of training with such little time remaining so settled for some tyre-pulling around the forest and some long hikes in the bush.

Folks’ reactions to me pulling a car tyre around were entertaining. There were those that went past with dead pan looks refusing to make eye contact in case they might catch whatever disease I had, those that went past grinning without saying a word and then the one-liners….“do you know you’re dragging a tyre” huh??…. “must have been a good crash if that’s all that’s left mate” yeah right…..and those with dogs “we can lend you the dog if you like,”  but the dogs had the dead pan look.

So folks it’s off to Canada this week for some acclimatisation and then catch up with all the other North Pole competitors in Ottawa on the 8^th April.

Hopefully I will be able to post a brief update from Ottawa before we head for the Pole.

Hope you enjoy the webpage.

Ross

 

 Posted on: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 at 11:33