Spirit Canada Complete the Expedition

In the pre-dawn darkness of day 9 Spirit Canada arrived at Cabo Froward, waking a sleepy race camp and timing their arrival perfectly at the race finish for sunrise. By the time they’d reached the cross on the hilltop the sun was up and shafts of light were splitting the low clouds hung over the distant islands and ice caps to the south. Of the three teams to finish so far Spirit Canada had the best of the conditions, yet it was still too cold and windy to hang around on the top and enjoy them for long.

Back at camp there was porridge waiting and fresh coffee too, and team Helly Hansen Prunesco were sat around the fire in the athlete’s camp to welcome Spirit Canada and congratulate them. (Easy Implant were still asleep, recovering in the medical tents.) The new arrivals looked in much better shape than the French team and swiftly began to sort themselves out.

Dave Hitchon went straight off for a wash in the stream and the others were soon drying out their sodden sleeping bags, but first they eat as they’d run out of food on the trek, just as the French team did. “We’ve not eaten for 24 hours,” said Dave Hitchon, “and were rationing before that.”

“It was impossible to keep dry,” said Chris Koch as he spread his down sleeping bag on a tree. “We had bivvy bags and a tarp and a small tent, so we were better equipped than most but still not well enough. We thought we had heavy packs, but they were not heavy enough! It’s an expensive race too as we lost some trekking poles and broke a couple of our paddles, but that’s what happens in these events.”