CHOCOLATE FISH IN THE ARCTIC!

Team members must haul a 90kg sledge, containing their food and equipment, over the 320 miles of the race course shown below. Through the harsh Arctic environment where the average air temperature during the race will be between -20 and -35 Celsius. With wind chill it can drop to -65 Celcius.

To prepare for the race all teams have training courses in various countries where the weather conditions are appropriate Austria, Norway, Canada, Wales(!) etc., organised by Polar Challenge to cover navigation, GPS, skiing, survival training and firearm training for protection from polar bears. From all this you will gather that this race is not for the faint-hearted in more ways than one. We figure that anyone entering this race must be

• Incredibly fit.
• Expert in the outdoors and therefore well-qualified to judge the performance of our gear, and
• Barmy!

The first feedback we got was from Mike Dann Team ATP leader who sent us an email from Austria, where they did their pre-race training:

Just wanted to say the Merino socks were brilliant and considerably better than the Bridgedale ones we were issued as they dried faster, smelt a lot less and were a lot warmer.

The merino thermal tops were also brilliant and after 4 days of skiing pretty hard they smelled fine whereas the Helly Hanson equivalents stank to high heaven.

Subsequently, we got a message from another Team ATP member Tim Tottenham, Capt., Royal Marines, to say of his 100% Merino base layer & Merino wool (80%) socks:

Tested the kit fully over the holiday, even going kayak surfing in Donegal wearing the top and the socks under a shortie wetsuit. Absolutely fantastic! The socks almost work like a wetsuit in their own right.....and weather doesn't get much harsher than the Atlantic off Donegal in late December!

When the race started we kept a close eye on our Team, via the Sony Polar Challenge website, tracking them for days over the Arctic wastes, and then we got this:

To: merino@chocolatefish.co.uk Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 20:00:17 +0100 From: "mike" mike@northpole2006.org.uk Subject: north pole 2006

Hi guys - We did it!!
I just wanted to say thank you for the equipment you supplied..... the Merino underwear was amazing. We regularly skied in just the merino underwear and windproof outers with no problems even at temperatures as low as -20 centigrade.

The benefit of the merino became most apparent when we finished the race and switched to Helly Hanson thermals we had at the finish line as spares. The Helly Hansons smelt horrible after 2 days in the tent waiting for an aircraft compared to the Merinos which smelt a great deal better after 18 days of continuous use!

I am a Merino convert. Many thanks for your support and the brilliant clothing. Mike Dann, Team ATP

Naturally we were utterly delighted that ATP had won, but also at the oustanding way in which our gear had performed for them.

This year we have kitted out The Lost Penguins - with a name like that how could we resist - who have entered the race to raise money for WaterAid.
Team member Mike Woolliscroft sent us this:

Chocolate Fish were good enough to support us Lost Penguins in our race to the Sony Polar Challenge Race to the Magnetic North Pole this year. During the race we encountered temperatures as low as -42C, gales force winds, relentless ice rubble and surprisingly sudden spells of relatively warm weather. Effective clothing systems were therefore essential.

We covered in excess of 420 nautical miles in the Arctic and I only ever had difficulties from my kit when I varied from my favoured Chocolate Fish base layer top and bottom.

I used my Chocolate Fish gloves as liner gloves beneath my mitts until I'd burnt too many holes in them hauling the sled to mend. Thankfully that was only about five days before the end of the race. The CF socks actually proved too warm(!) as our boots were so heavily insulated (rated to -70C, so instead we used the socks as wristlets, which were fantastic to stop heat loss through the sleeve ends of our outer layers.

Considering the vast range in conditions we encoountered, this all proves how effective the Chocolate Fish gear is. I'm looking forward to using it again now that it's all washed (although I'll need to get some more gloves). PS We finished in second place out of nine.