Our Coldest Journey - Follow Cat on The Coldest Journey

Walk the Winch Line

Your D6Ns and fuel scoots are separated by 500 meters and a tricky crevasse field. How do you bring them together? With maybe the longest winch in Polar history. See how the Ice Team conquers another challenge in Antarctica.

Lowering the Tent

Here's a service job that's not to be envied. The Cat Finning mechanics show what it's like to work in wind chills of -70C (-94F).

Breaking Through

Traveling over treacherous blue ice and avoiding crevasses has become a way of life for the expedition. Watch how the Cat D6Ns help the Ice Team navigate its way through one of the rough patches.

Into the Unknown

The Ice Team finds itself moving slowly because of the presence of crevasses. They find the problems and put the the Cat^® D6Ns to work to solve them.

Stuck

Challenging weather conditions are occasionally bringing the expedition to a stop. But household chores still have to be completed. Remember this video the next time you complain about taking out the trash at home.

The Off

Ice Team member, Ian Prickett, marks the official start of The Coldest Journey with a video showing him preparing for months of perpetual darkness and temperatures that could reach as low as -80°C.

1 Day Blow

Ian Prickett shows just how quickly the snow can bury the expedition team's equipment and the hard work that must go in to digging them out following a severe blizzard that lasted one day.

The Depot

After a month of perseverance, the expedition set up their fuel depot in preparation for the start of the Coldest Journey. Cat Finning engineer, Spencer Smirl, takes us through the essential process of crevasse repairs that the Cat D6Ns will be used for on the expedition.

THE DRIVERS

Take a look at the latest video of the Cat D6Ns and the Cat Finning mechanics dealing with the punishing elements of Antarctica. And remember, it's not even winter there yet.

SNOW DAZE

Ice team member Ian Prickett talks about the challenging weather conditions The Coldest Journey team has already encountered in Antarctica. In this case, they were unable to move on the top of a mountain pass for a couple days, stopped cold by a blizzard. Relentless snow drifts left the D6Ns and other equipment fully covered, just before the team started ferrying materials to the top of the peninsula.

Further complicating matters was the realization that expedition leader Sir Ranulph Fiennes had developed frostbite and needed to be evacuated.

The dangerous conditions delayed Fiennes evacuation for three days.

I'M NOT HAPPY

Sir Ranulph Fiennes says goodbye to his ice team and talks about his disappointment about leaving the expedition.

Days earlier, Dr. Robert Lambert, the Ice Team doctor, determined Sir Ranulph had frostbite injuries to four fingers of his left hand, sustained while making adjustments to one of his ski bindings.

"Ran himself has made the very difficult decision not to continue with his attempt to ski across Antarctica in the winter, a decision with which I concur," said Dr. Lambert. "In the circumstances I think this is very wise. To continue skiing with this injury would be to invite much more severe damage."

FAREWELL TO RAN

The five remaining members of the Ice Team, including Cat Finning mechanics Spencer Smirl and Richmond Dykes, wave goodbye to Sir Ranulph Fiennes as a team of Belgians from the Princess Elisabeth polar research station, transport him back to their base. From there, Sir Ranulph was taken by plane to the Russian-run Novo research station, and then to Cape Town, South Africa.

After arriving in South Africa February 28th, he released this statement:

"I have undergone a number of tests on my frostbitten hand both in Antarctica and since arriving here in Cape Town, and I am due to have additional tests here before leaving for the U.K. I feel very lucky to have been treated with the utmost care by extremely well-trained professionals and have felt in safe hands throughout. "The warmth of Cape Town seems a million miles from the conditions my expedition partners are experiencing right now on the ice. Those five men are forever in my thoughts and I wish them all the luck in the world for the expedition ahead."

A TOUCH OF ANTARCTICA

Ice team member Ian Prickett reports on why efforts to establish a fuel depot in the mountains 2,080 meters (6,824 feet) high came to a temporary halt because of whiteout conditions.

WINTER TRAVERSE

The Cat D6Ns and the Ice Team are featured in this movie trailer-style video. But this is all reality in Antarctica.

THE BLOW

Here's video of Spencer Smirl and Richmond Dykes using the crevasse arm, fitting on the blade of the Cat D6Ns to maneuver the sleds for the cabooses in a snowstorm.

SIR RANULPH FIENNES

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a British expedition leader called the world's greatest living explorer by the Guinness Book of Records.

Sir Ranulph, along with Charles Burton, was the first person to visit the North and South Poles by surface means and the first to completely cross the Antarctic continent on foot (joined by Mike Stroud).

He spent five years organizing the first attempt to cross Antarctica in the winter, an expedition known as "The Coldest Journey." It was not only a polar journey without precedent, but a charitable effort to raise $10 million for Seeing is Believing, an international initiative which is tackling avoidable blindness.

After the years of planning that included the selection of two specially-modified Cat D6Ns to help lead the journey, Sir Ranulph and his team left London on December 6, 2012 to begin "The Coldest Journey." Ahead in near permanent darkness was a more than 3,200 km (2,000-mile ) trek across ice, in temperatures dropping close to -90C (-130F).

The original six-man Ice Team arrived in Antarctica in January and immediately began preparations. However, Sir Ranulph incurred a serious case of frostbite in his left hand in late February. He determined he would be unable to proceed with the expedition and the team doctor concurred.

After a delay because of whiteout conditions, Sir Ranulph was evacuated from Antarctica, first to Cape Town, South Africa and then to the U.K., where he received treatment and surgery for second-stage frostbite.

The remaining five members of the Ice Team unanimously agreed to mount the expedition without him, leaving March 21st. Upon arriving in London, Fiennes said, "I am very pleased and proud of the team."

Sir Ranulph will remain involved in "The Coldest Journey" in a support role. "I won't be on the sidelines. I'll be in the center of the spider's web…making maximum use of my talents of raising money."

Wanted: Engineer to Work in -70 temperatures for six months

Sir Ranulph Fiennes knew not only would the machines for The Coldest Journey expedition have to be the best, so would the people who would be maintaining them in Antarctica.

Engineers from Finning UK and Finning International in Canada were tested during a rigorous selection process.

Sir Ranulph talks about the process of finding a lead engineer.

SPENCER SMIRL - Ice Team Member

28-year-old Spencer Smirl is the youngest member of The Coldest Journey expedition and uniquely qualified for the adventure.

Smirl, a native of Alberta, Canada, is one of two Finning mechanics selected for the ice team. He has extensive experience working on the Cat D6 series dozer since first joining Finning in 2003. And he's accustomed to working in extreme conditions. Since 2011, Smirl has been stationed at the Ekati diamond mine facility near the Arctic Circle.

Smirl talks about how his experience with Cat equipment in challenging conditions will be invaluable for this Antarctic expedition.

Keeping Cat on Track in Antarctica

Finning engineer Spencer Smirl is the lead engineer on the Antarctica expedition. Smirl has experience working on Caterpillar equipment in cold weather. Now he's learning about the modified D6Ns that will make the trek. Smirl talks about one of the specially-engineered changes.