Educational Themes
Key educational themes of relevance to Feet of Green include:
Wildlife - the impact of climate change on wildlife.
Climate change – the expedition team supported scientific research which helped to focus interest on the wider aspects of global warming.
Acting sustainably as individuals – the whole expedition was planned according to key environmental principles and this was carried over to the approach taken on the ice as the adventure proceeded. The adventurers acted as role models on the ice in terms of waste management, heat management etc. This provided inspiration to enable school children to consider how they too could act in an environmentally sensitive way, and teachers created projects to support this.
Technology – innovative approaches were taken in the use of technology for instance in terms of fuel efficiency, heat conservation and communications technology. Again this provided the inspiration for school children to explore technology related issues through projects.
Society – managing technological progress often calls for sensitivity in terms of impact on different communities around the world. School children were encouraged to consider the social implications of progress.
Personal Leadership and Courage – the adventurers managing risk and demonstrated key leadership capabilities. This linked with the Go4It initiative launched by the national social enterprise Heads, Teachers and Industry (HTI) and championed by Sir Digby Jones.
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To Alan,Peter and Richard
We really enjoyed your presention and we both like the idea of following in Alfred wegeners footsteps across Antartica.We come from holy Trinity school and we were at your presention at Bishop Douglass on March 18th.It really inspired to look after the enviroment.
We just have a few questions for you.
have you ever been stuck in a blizzard?
have you ever been chased by a polar bear?
What are the things you most look forward and what are the things you least look forward to?
Good luck for the trip
Sam and Daniel
P.S please email us back
Dear Peter
Thank you for letting us try on
the boots and the skise.
from Adam and Lucie
dear peter
thank you I like you story. from Lewis Owen
Dear peter
thank you for comeing to our school
it was pleasure to meet you.peter
were did you have a toilt?
did you get hit by a polbear?
and I liked pooting on your boots
peter and I liked haveing a go on
your scaiks.is the toilot cold?
from jessie and maddie
dear peter
thank you for brining the boots in.
What will you need the skis for if you are walking across Greenland.
from chris and isaac
dear petter
thank you for your help. Is it fun? Do you think it is your talent?
from sian and brad
Daer Peter and frends
We hope you in joy your Expedishon.
Is it hard traning for it?
Do you think you will get stuck in a blizod?
Do you think you will get atacked?
Are you scerd?
we injoud lisin
from jorden and Rory
dear peter
this is Ross and Aaron do you go to green-land on boat or plain or sub.why don’t you use huscys. From Aaron and Ross.
Dear peter
we enjoyed listning to you.
Thanks for warning us about the polar bears !Hope you enjoy your journey across
Greenland.What are you enjoying about your journey?
from Kate and Jazmin
Dear Alan and Peter- thank you for visiting our school Bishop Douglass in March- it was a great experience, I enjoyed it a lot. Ilearnt that teamwork is so important- especially for an experiment as big as travelling to Greenland!
Q: Which is the most beautiful place you have visited in the world?
Dear Polar Explorers- thank you for the presentation. I saw those effects of global warming and it was good to hear your feelings and impressions.
My question is: Just after the last expedition, when you had the visit in the medical clinic, did the doctor see any other changes in your body? For example, what about your blood sugar level, teeth cavitiss (all that chocolate!) etc?
Kinga
good questions - in that picture you saw of Alan after the North Pole expedition in 2000 where he had lost a third of his body weight he had a medical check immediately afterwards - the nurse was amazed that he was in such good condition - Alan’s principle was that on such an expedition it is a risk to start too lean because once the expenditure of energy has consumed the body fat it starts to eat into the muscle which wastes. So he took the view that he needed to enable the body to eat the body fat first then the muscle and this worked. Even though he was starving at the end of this expedition and had to cut his rations several times he was able to survive because he had created a special diet… here below I have copied the report Alan wrote at the end of the expedition on the diet and food intake - this helped him learn and test what would work for the Crossing of Greenland:
Regards, Richard….
FEEDING / RATION SUPPORT
Concept
The food had to enable the team to spend ten weeks on the pack–ice enduring extreme low temperatures, conducting physical activities for up to eighteen hours a day. The estimated calorific output for an individual was 10,000 calories per day. We wanted to have a serious attempt at the pole therefore we reduced the weight by having a staggered approach to the amount of calories consumed.
With a serious expedition such as an unsupported walk to the GNP, nutrition is a significant consideration alongside every other aspect involved in the trip. With the expenditure of up to 10,000 calories a day through hard hauling, the choice of menu is crucial ensuring you have all aspects of the diet covered from fats to vitamins.
As well as this, it all needs to be lightweight with high calorific values. A target of 1000g of food per man per day was set, previous attempts by other Polar teams in these adverse conditions show that a reversal in food content is required with a resulting balance in the region of 60% fat, 32% carbohydrate and 8% protein. With a higher calorific value to gram ratio, fat is nearly three times as heavy as carbohydrates.
Therefore, against previous Polar teams and nutritionists advice, we opted for our own choice of a lightweight carbohydrate diet, which proved more worthwhile in the long run. In order to sustain each walker for a period of 60 days, considerable research was conducted into the most valuable nutritional diet possible. Advice was sought from DGST (N) Bath, and a nutritional lecturer at Warwickshire University.
The end result provided Team Polar with a choice of four meals that gradually increased in calorific value from 3000cals to 6500cals per day per man, and weighed a little over 1000g.
Supply
With the Ministry of Defence researching a completely new ration system during the preparation phase of the expedition we extracted vital findings from ongoing research. The new patrol ration, which was soon to be infiltrated into the services, held the basis of our daily food intake. We contacted DGST (N) Ensleigh, Bath who invited us to test and taste the new ration system. This proved extremely beneficial and rewarding. From there we had to identify how and where we could procure the rations. Major Jim Reed the Corps Catering Officer housed at CTCRM, provided the team with enough patrol rations for training and for the main trip. We supplemented the necessary excess rations for re-supply and for training in Canada from 22 SAS Headquarters Hereford. With these kind donations, we had nearly all the food we required.
To supplement the rations with further carbohydrates, we contacted High Five Ltd who donated, at a reduced cost, all the power bars and supplement drinks. These were a critical part of the development of the team’s physical condition. We started to consume the power bars and drinks during the last three months of our time in UK.
Packaging
Once the main daily ration plan had been identified and we were in possession of all the necessary food supplements, we split the food into manageable groups. All unnecessary outer packaging was removed. This helped reduce the overall weight over the seventy days.
We devised a system of how we wanted to pack the food in the sledges. Each team member’s sledge had to replicate the team leader’s sledge. This was for easy access; once we were static any person could enter any sledge and grab a certain piece of equipment in the minimal time.
All rations were broken down into ‘man-day packs’ and taken out of all individual wrappers and protected in ‘day bags’; this also had the advantage of preventing struggling out on the ice with five pairs of mittens on. Snack-packs were also broken into bite-sized pieces for ease when we stopped for our breaks.
The rest of the equipment in the sledge was also colour coded in lightweight stuff sacs, each team member having the same items in the same bags.
Daily Programme
The Team Polar 2000 routine was to have a hot chocolate drink first thing in the morning, which would help our daily bowel movement .We, would then have porridge along with a high-energy drink. Throughout the day we would stop every couple of hours for a maximum of five minutes to consume some of our ‘Snack-Pack’ and hot energy drink. The intention was to get one litre of fluid intake on each break, at the end of each day we would get a fluid replacement drink, along with another main meal. On every fifth day there was the delicacy of a pudding! Later on in the evening we would have another hot chocolate, high in calories.
The longer the days hauling, the longer in time it would be between each break. To this end chunks of energy bars were kept in small specially designed pockets on the sleeve. These could then be easily retrieved and consumed whilst still walking. Only one flask at a time was ever opened, this would effectively increase the life of the other seven flasks. (two flasks per walker was standard).
Meals
As noted above the trial patrol rations supplied by DGST (N) Bath were exciting, with four new flavours including ‘Pasta Carbonara, ‘Chicken Balti’, ‘Mashed Potato, Beef-Strips’ and ‘Chicken Noodles’. All included a high calorific value and a plentiful supply of carbohydrates, and along with the main meals there were four new puddings, which we were to treat ourselves with on every fifth day.
However, with the sledges packed in Canada, they were extremely heavy and we had to dispose of extra weight, so the puddings had to go, as did the Apple Flakes from each breakfast. This enabled the starting sledge weight to average 244 pounds per man.
The ‘Snack-Packs’ was made up from brown biscuits from the ration packs; they were extremely light-weigh and again high in calories. We also had great-tasting energy bars filled with simple complex carbohydrates, for both fast and long lasting energy.
Another food supply was the new High5 Protein Bar, which is ideal for post-exercise recovery; these were all fantastic with many different flavours. As the calories increased we added Pork Scratchings, again these are extremely lightweight and greatly high in calories.
For the last stage we had a mixture of nuts, which would hopefully keep us going, but when we were struggling with too much weight to carry, the heavy bags of nuts were discarded.
Summary
Breakfast
ITEM WEIGHT (GRAMS)
CALORIES
Chocolate drink
65
228
Hot Cereal Start
100
370
Porridge Oats
70
393
Apple Flakes
35
320
Snacks
ITEM
WEIGHT (GRAMS)
CALORIES
Biscuit Brown
84
332
Chocolate Bar
55
400
Chocolate Bar 2
60
315
H5 Energy Bar
50
194
H5 Protein Bar
60
189
Pork Scratching
40
280
Drinks
ITEM
WEIGHT GRAMS)
CALORIES
H5 Energy Source
60
163
H5 Isotonic
60
220
Main Meals
ITEM
WEIGHT (GRAMS)
CALORIES
Pasta Carbonara
100
412
Chicken Noodle
100
350
Potato & Beef
100
350
Chicken Balti
100
350
Even though the team consumed 254,000 calories per person over the seventy days, the pole pair lost between 42 and 46 pounds each. This equates to 25% of their body weight. This was mainly due to the high carbohydrate diet. We purposely chose this way to give us the sustained continuous energy.
After thirty days hauling we had already lost all our own body fat and started to burn away at the muscles beneath. This did reduce our resilience to the cold especially below minus forty degrees Celsius with wind chill.
Results and Recommendations
The rations performed extremely well with only minor complaints on the menu plan.
Breakfast: The porridge and hot cereal mix was an ideal breakfast, however the first three weeks on 3000 calories, one and a half packets of cereal felt insufficient - two packets would have been better along with some dried fruit to help sustain energy levels.
Fluids: The team drank sufficient levels of fluids throughout the expedition. Sometimes it was not possible to get one whole litre of fluid at break-times, when due to extreme cold weather the rest stops were kept to the minimum. At the end of the day in the tent what we had not consumed throughout the day we would drink in the evening. This way we kept ourselves hydrated. At any time, if we had extra water in the pan after cooking our meals we always put it to good use by having more drinks. The High5 Isotonic Drink was fantastic after a hard day on the ice hauling a sledge.
Snack Packs: These were good in taste and quantity, in the first couple of weeks it felt that an extra energy bar would have helped us that little bit more through the day; in future a light-weight, high fat snack i.e. Pork Scratchings would be great for cutting weight down.
Soup: Could be an alternative in the flask throughout the day.
Mixed nuts: Would be a great snack but for an unsupported attempt they are too heavy.
Halvah: Was to be taken as a snack bar. Full of glucose it’s a favourite with some the Arctic walkers, the taste is a required one, and we chose to leave it well alone!
Spices: [powdered] could easily be added beforehand to the main meals to give more taste.
Reducing the overall weight of the food is always a recommendation.
Report above by Alan Chambers based on experience of Team Polar Expedition 2000:
taken from the book:
Keep Walking by Alan Chambers and Richard Hale, ISBN
Keep Walking…
Leadership Learning in Action
By Richard Hale & Alan Chambers
ISBN:
978-0-9551728-2-3
hi peter and team,wishing you all the best on your adventure,keep safe!look forward to your return, love you loads your big sis lindsay x
p.s i have something to tell you,but i will tell you when you get home.x
We would like to wish you all good luck! Think warm thoughts! Check you’ve got evrything and stay together! Don’t give up and we think you are an inspiration!
We would like to know how you feel, what it’s like and if you see any animals.
Thanks
we are llandogo school thank you for the demonstation at habberdashers monmouth school for girls
i think this will be very challenging so good luck and well done from all at llandogo
Hi Alan and Peter,
Good luck from all of us at Keynsham Rugby Club. Have a good expedition - we’ll be following your progress!
Best wishes,
Tim, Luc and the rest…
Hi Alan and Peter
All the best from us and hope that everything will be fine. We hope to see you soon at Keynsham rugby club.You are both amazing men and keep going.
In France we often say to people m…e when they are about to do something special. I will tell you what does it means when you come back. Have a safe expedition.
limia,john,ben,matt
dear Peter and alan,
At school we have been checking out the feet of green website and writing it in are diaries.Glad to here that your both safe and well as are we.Thanks for visiting us and letting us sign your sledge.Cant wait for you to come back but we hope you are having a great expedition.
yous sincearly
ellie and katlin and the rest of drakes school
hi peter and alan
you are doing good progress keep it up!
weve been up dating our diaries today
and we cant wait to see you when you come back
from ellie adam
Peter
It was excellent to hear from you today and hearing you are making good progress despite the weather!
The children really enjoyed talking to you live over the phone and were very excited about it!
My videoing was a bit ropey but I’m sure you will be able to use some of it.
Good Luck with the rest of the expedition and hope to hear from you again before the trip is over.
Martin Marriott and 3/4M at Bassetts Farm, Exmouth
how do u get 2 ur destanation were u r goin 2 start of ur jurny
good luck al of u
wat do u lots carry
Hello Team,
We are really enjoyed following your progress on your expedition! Lots of luck,
Herrick Primary School, Leicester.
What kind of things do you eat? Do you get tired? What time do you get up every morning? Do you miss haome? Are you going to visit Herrick Primary School? and if so when? Do you get to contact family? Do you get post? Would you rather be at home?
What kind of things do you eat? Do you get tired? What time do you get up every morning? Do you miss haome? Are you going to visit Herrick Primary School? and if so when? Do you get to contact family? Do you get post? Would you rather be at home?
see you soon
Hi, hope you sucssed in your mission and there are just a few question I want to ask you.
Have you seen any polar bears
hi,alan and peter i would like to ask you some questions.
what kind of food do you eat?
Where do you go to sleep?
u doin a trumendous job people
Hi Alan and Peter,
I would like to ask some questions.
are you scared of the animals?
what kind of food do you eat?
are you fit and healthy?
are you on a diet
HI ADVENTURERS
WHAT FOOD DO YOU EAT FOR ENERGY? THE TRAINING EXERCISE WILL BE HARD AND WHEN I SAW THE PICTURE…. OH! TOUGH MORE HARD WORK TO DO ON YOUR ADVENTURE GOOD LUCK!
FROM
*$#MARIAM HAROON!#$*
I loved all of your pictures and all of the imformation and the things that you do each day and I know that you are going to lots of others schools when you come back from your exbidition but are you coming to Herrick Primary school and when?
What time do you go to bed?
Where do you sleep?
Do you sleep in a tent or in a bed?
Are you scared of animals?
Would you rather be at home or on your exbidition?
Do you get post? When once a week?
Can you please come to Herrick Primary School we would love to come and here about your exbadition?
hi!!!! Adventurers,
Was it hard doing all the taining?and how was it hard?
I like the what you have set up and that after you come back you will visit childrens schools in leicester.
from Rianna.
hi alan and peter, i would like to ask you some questions.
how would you cross the sea or ocean?
what kind of food do you eat?
where do you go to sleep and how?
are scared of the animals?
are you both healthy in that particuaer in area?
Dear Peter, I wonder what you wear when you explore in the Arctic? Hope you tackle the Polar Bears! You know, Good Luck! Come on, Hip Hip HOOOOORAY!
fROM NIRSHAN
Alan and Peter. Following your progress with great interest and admiration - what an example you both are; it puts all of our little problems into perspective. Very best wishes. Richard and Mark.
Alan and Peter, would just like to say that all the Go4it schools and everyone at HTI send their best wishes. We are following your progress with interest. Hope the good weather holds for you.
Keep up the inspirational work.
With Best Wishes
Liz
To Peter Herbet
How are you doing?
Can you send me a picture of a carvas next time you see one.
What was it like in DYE2?It looked huge on the picture.
I will speak to you soon
From Tristan at drake’s school!
Jemini
hello,
I really like this website!!
Hope yal’l haveing fun!!
From Kids Challenges, 2008/05/20 at 1:36 PM
Simran Patel
eyya r yu lot oritee?
OMFG i cant believe yu lot r goin in tht sorta weatha ish hekticc unoee newaizz iam in yr6 nd i goo herrick my m8 hafsa is a massivee fan of yu lot nd soo am i 
oww nd btww cum 2 our skool plzz ih wud b jkss if yu cum …ihs herrick primary school, leicester, England ! wooohooo lool newaizz gtg lurrve yu xx
From Kids Challenges, 2008/05/14 at 1:01 PM
Hafsa Khan
Heyaaa u aawytt????wat yu up2??r yu enjoing yur self??I am currently 11 years old and in year six… my teachers name is mrs.swales.OMG i cawant believe dat yu lots are in ddah cold wwevaaa do yu liyk oh or sumink??:s…..nehhooo i wish yu can cu m2 mwa skuull calles herrick primary school in leicester my - bezzie simran are such grayt fanz ov yuuu!!!! seriusli!! nehooo am owt holaaaa tk bye xxxxx
From Kids Challenges, 2008/05/14 at 12:59 PM
The Dark One…
I wonder what you eat in the Arctic when you explore? I am also interested in what you wear. Please contact me any time you want. You are the best!
xxx from nirshan, the guy in herrick primary school, Year 6
From Kids Challenges, 2008/05/14 at 12:58 PM
Niraj
good website from niraj raja
From Kids Challenges, 2008/05/14 at 12:56 PM
Dear
guys
Does it get very cold in greenland and what is the coldest temperture you have been in
y did u do the greenland trip in the first place what was it like how did u do it and was it very cold
hi me again what sort of animals are there in Greenland
dear guys what is the tempeture like in greenland and what is the coldest you have been in?
how is it iis it cold
Dear Alan and Peter
i just wanted to know what you believe you have achieved through this expedition
I get the whole thing about global warming but i dont really see how important this was in relation to global warming but i hope it was worth it!!!!
welcome backkk home eh!!!!!
(by the way am the person whoo told you i wanted to be a Neurosurgeon if you still remember…. when you came to our school>>Bishop Douglass)
Lusungu
Lusungu - the main aim has been to inspire thousands of children, teachers and hundreds of schools to consider the reality and importance of climate change. We are not campaigning or trying to solve a specific problem but aim to encourage as many people as possible to support positive environmental initiatives in their own schools and communities - in this way thousands of people make an impact which is more than we can achieve alone. we have lots of momentum now with for instance eco-schools internationally supporting and publicising what we are doing. Good luck with any of your own efforts.
FoG team.