I'm not sure if I was born with this ability or grew into it out of necessity but I have the uncanny knack to sleep just about anywhere at anytime. Flying out of Denver yesterday, I was asleep before the plane took off.

I was looking forward to the flight from Dallas to Santiago as an opportunity to bank a few extra z's but couldn't seem to get comfortable enough. Still, I know I slept because every so often I actually woke up - contorted in one position or another with my neck cricked awkwardly and throbbing in pain.

I shouldn't be complaining. Compared to my predecessors like Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen a little pain in my neck is hardly worrisome. They had nearly a year's worth of adventure just getting to the actual jumping off point of the expedition. Then over wintering, then a journey through uncharted terrain. Finally a doubtful return trip.

Me? Just a casual evening of sitting in a chair in the air (i.e. flying), arriving in Santiago, passing easily through customs then relaxing at the Medas grill for a salad and a big glass of water. (I'm trying to stay hydrated).

In Punta, I met up with some of the other ALE (Antarctic Logistics and Expedition - the company who hired me to lead the expedition to the South Pole) staff. It's fun to see familiar faces and hear stories of expeditions to Greenland, northern Norway and climbing in Europe and Asia. I also met Dongsheng Liu, my Chinese team mate. He looked fit and ready to go. I was also pleased to see he had packed only two small bags. Traveling light is an important component to being successful.

There are other expedition teams in Punta now staging for various Antarctic trips. It is interesting to see the different styles of teams and philosophies. More than anything however, there is a spirit of camaraderie and excitement. Here are others with a polar dream and love of ice and cold.

I have been corresponding with Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado and we have sketched out the rough outline of some basic research I'll be doing in Antarctica on his behalf. I will be collecting more qualitative information on snow and ice conditions in two basic areas:

(1) Rough, wind-driven accumulation surfaces: regions with sastrugi greater than ~60 cm height noting wind direction(s) that formed them either by a 'formational' wind, that creates smooth 'accumulation' features; or an 'erosional' wind that undercuts these features creating sharp, undercut, or 'sandblasted' features.

(2) Wind glaze: regions with a 'sheen' in the southward direction, no sastrugi or low, platy surface features, and (importantly) a network of thin surface cracks spaced by 3-20 meters.

In both cases, I will be taking pictures with the following data added: latitude, longitude, elevation, date, and pointing direction of the camera. I will also take notes on the sastrugi height, or glaze layer, crack width. I'll explain on how all this relates to Ted's work in a future update.

In the mean time, join me in a silent salutation of joy. Tonight I am sleeping in a bed not a planer or not sleeping at all. I'm tired and having a hard time keeping my eyes open, but I am hesitant to go to sleep just yet. Punta Arenas is the southernmost city in the world. Just over Magellan Straights is Antarctica... Snow, Ice and Adventure is calling.

Surely a few more minutes awake to dream and plan couldn't hurt... Image: Roughing it in Santiago: Ensaladas at the Medas Grill.

For more information, please visit www.savethepoles.com

For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com

For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Sierra Designs, Optic Nerve and Clif.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

With about 4 hours of sleep in the past two days, I am more than ready to be sitting on a plane preparing to take a very BIG nap. Despite a hectic few weeks, I actually feel really good. I am excited to finally be underway. For almost three years, I have been planning and preparing for this moment.

I'm not nervous or excited. As time passes and I gain more experience, I seem to get more pragmatic than anything. There are still some big hurdles to jump before getting to the ice and our starting point at Hercules Inlet. I've definitely learned to manage my expectations. Anything can happen between now and then and the list is fairly long: customs in Santiago, making sure all the gear makes it to Punta Arenas, food purchase and pack, final gear tweaks, sewing fur ruffs on the Sierra Designs Anoraks, some lingering office work, and a few other odds and ends.

Still, I can't help but be a little excited. I'M SKIING TO THE SOUTH POLE. For around 53 days, I will be traveling across one of the last great wilderness areas left on the planet. Along the way, my team and I will have innumerable successes and hardships. Pared down to the bare essentials of survival we will become intimately familiar with the personality and moods of Antarctica.

While I have skiied to the South Pole before, the STP team will be traveling along a different, longer route which adds another level of excitement as well. More important (and the ultimate goal of the Save the Poles expedition) is the team's effort on real world solutions to global warming. Over the next two months, savethepoles.com will feature steps that we can all take to reduce carbon emissions. Please visit the global warming page regularly and learn more from Save the Poles partners Newsviine.com, Center for Biological Diversity, Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, Science Teacher Lynae Anderson and her students at Lakeville High School, Seventh Generation and much much more.

So this is where are paths diverge dear reader. You on your own adventures and me on mine. We are all explorers in one way or another. Still, I believe the goal of explorers in the 21st century is not to go out and conquer these places, but more to protect them.

That is the ultimate goal of the Save the Poles expedition!

Image: Expedition electronics - satellite phone, pda, expedition battery, digital camera, hd video camera, battery charger all packed in granite gear soft storage cells.

For more information, please visit www.savethepoles.com

For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com

For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Sierra Designs, Optic Nerve and Clif.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

A new remote audio post has been added to the blog...

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Sierra Designs, Optic Nerve and Clif.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

Crisis central in Colorado this morning. With my departure date looming ominously close, today decided (for whatever reason) to reign chaos on me and everything I touched.

Beware of snow and ice? Yeah right. I can't wait to get to Antarctica where life is simple and all I'll have to worry about is thawing out my Clif bars enough to be able to chew them.

Right now I am up to my neck in craziness - replacing an HD video camera that mysteriously blew up while charging, setting up remote web posting capabilities - a process so vast and expansive that my brain actually hurts. In fact, there is now smoke coming out of my ears. Chargers, systems, back ups these details are critical.

On a positive note, my gear is all packed - 4 bags total (I'll get food in punta arenas). I also finished a heat exchanger that should reduce fuel consumption dramatically, put together a comprehensive repair kit and a bunch of other odds and ends.

More tomorrow, now back to the fray.

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Sierra Designs, Optic Nerve and Clif.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

A new remote audio post has been added to the blog...

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Sierra Designs, Optic Nerve and Clif.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.