Surviving A Trip To Hell And Back
The Age
Thursday March 4, 2004
Two men took on the Great White Chaos and won. Paul Kalina reports.
PETER BLAND knew he and partner-in-adventure Jay Watson would have to wait in their tent while the fierce storm abated.
The two Melbourne residents were already more than halfway through their quest to become the first explorers to make an unsupported crossing of the Antarctic Peninsula; a 315-kilometre stretch known as the Great White Chaos. Despite many setbacks - a late start, traversing icebergs with the consistency of Slurpies, unseasonal white-outs and the current storm - they were on track to make the crossing and enter the record books.
Watson readily agreed with Bland's decision to stay put. Bland stepped out of the tent to get lunch from one of two sleds. In the minute he was out of the tent, an avalanche swept him away.
He was thrown 50 metres down an ice-face, the distance of a 14-storey building, and ended up on his back deep inside a crevasse.
As soon as Watson, alarmed that Bland had not returned, looked out of the tent, the signs of the avalanche were evident. Watson found the crevasse and, at enormous personal peril, descended. For three days, while a rescue team made its way to them, he kept his unconscious childhood friend warm.
Bland remembers nothing of the fall, nor of the following six days when his life hung in the balance.
``I remember being taken by the avalanche; that's the last memory I have. I knew it was something, but I don't recall giving it a name. I remember the rumbling under my feet, the shaking, the earthquake sound, scrambling back to the tent. But I didn't make it. The next memory I have, six days later, is of six people putting my hip back in; four people holding me down and two putting my leg back."
Bland's accident and his heroic rescue made headlines the world over, as did bitter wrangling over who should cover the cost of the rescue. Bland and Watson had not taken out rescue insurance and had disregarded the Australian Antarctic Division's warning not to attempt the crossing.
Their remarkable journey has been edited into a harrowing, at times exhilarating, three-part series, aptly titled Hell on Ice. Bland and Watson, a cameraman and photographer, had always planned to film their Antarctic crossing. ``For impoverished explorers, making a documentary is part of the equation of funding the expedition," says Bland.
They agreed in advance to spend one hour each day filming. ``When you're taking on 16 to 18-hour days just to get from point A to point B that's quite a challenge," Bland says.
``People who have seen Hell on Ice ask, `Who was your camera person?'," he remarks with pride as he recalls one of the documentary's most spectacular sequences, scaling the 45-degree gradient of Victory Glacier. ``It was so steep you couldn't pull your sled, the two of us had to hook on to one sled and crawl using the icepick and crampons. We did about 20 steps and I said to Jay, `Geez, mate, this would make a great shot.'
``One of us would scramble up the mountain, take a battery out of his pocket, put it in the camera, set the tripod up, slide on his arse back down. By the time we actually got back up there, nine times out of 10 either the 20 steps weren't in shot, or the battery died, or the tripod fell over. So every shot we got was gold," he says.
After returning from Antarctica, Bland spent one year being, almost literally, rebuilt. With the help of speech therapists, trauma counsellors, physiotherapists and surgeons, he spent six months recuperating. When he did return to work, ``it was only to prove that I wasn't brain-damaged and could hold down a corporate job", he says with typical bravado.
Damage to his femur made it near-impossible for Bland to walk. ``I couldn't play with my kids. I was angry because that's not Peter Bland. Peter Bland can do anything. What the hell is going on here?"
He has since had a hip replaced, and is on a daily regimen of ``swimming like a fish" and bike riding. Three weeks ago, his wife gave birth to their third child.
His quests, he insists, are not just about physical endurance. ``I always say that though I might travel a long way physically, it's the journey within. What is the mettle of Peter Bland, what is the mettle of Jay Watson, and what can they achieve? You don't challenge those extremes in normal Western society."
Talking to Bland, one easily understands why these days he is a much-in-demand lecturer, motivational speaker and life coach. ``This is about a passionate dream, following it through and loving it.
``You can say that the cold air takes your breath away but you wait until you wake up one day and look out at the Antarctic Peninsula to the east and the west and the Southern Ocean rolling forever for 360 degrees and there you are with your best mate on top of a 6000-foot plateau saying, `Mate, we've done it.' Wow."
Hell on Ice premieres on the ABC on Tuesday at 8pm.
© 2004 The Age
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