With their bodies hunched against the freezing wind and pulling 90kg sleds, the men soldiered on as they made their first steps to traversing Greenland’s icecap from east to west.
Niall McCann
It was about to be a test of courage and determination for former Shrewsbury Sixth Form student Niall and his 24-year-old companion Murray Smith who were about to enter volatile territory completely at the mercy of mother nature.
Their mission was to complete the journey in 25 days to help raise thousands of pounds for Help for Heroes – a charity for those wounded in combat.
And despite encountering snow blindness, below freezing temperatures, treacherous crevasses and bleeding ears and feet, the men skied home to victory in 24 days – smashing their target.
“It was quite something and pretty tough out there,” said Niall. “I felt sorry for Murray because I never let him have a lie in and the weather was pretty extreme at times.
“Murray got snow blindness which feels like you have grit being rubbed into your eyes and you can’t see. He had it for three days and for two days we skied anyway, with Murray behind me following close.
“We had to tape up the front of his goggles so only a bit of light could get through and I had to shout instructions at him.
“We had just one day off because of bad weather where I had to feed him and we rested for the day.”
For Niall, 27, the experience has been the latest in a long line of challenges which he has pursued over the past nine years, including rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in 63 days in 2007.
A zoologist by trade, Niall from Bicton Heath, caught the adventure bug from his grandfather Pat Baird who was an Arctic explorer and who led the first expedition up Mount Asgard in Northern Canada in 1953.
Niall and Murray
In April, Niall was accompanied by TV personality and friend Murray Smith – a contender on BBC Three’s Last Man Standing.
They form part of what has come to be known as team EPIC who, along with others, take on momentous challenges to fuel their love for extreme sports.
With temperatures ranging from 16 degrees to minus 25, the pair endured five days of ice training under the instruction of fellow team EPIC member and Royal Marine Pete Bird. It was important that they had prepared themselves mentally as well as physically and could handle a loaded rifle if they came into contact with polar bears.
“When we were negotiating the ice caps, we climbed consistently from sea level to about 2,500m, we were climbing about 100m a day,” said Niall.
“We had a support team back in the UK who we communicated with through a satellite phone and twice a week I would call my girlfriend and family.
“As the slope of the ice cap decreases, we started to go quite fast, which is much more efficient for skiing and each day we would drop in height and with just 300km to go we started to fly. The most distance we covered in a day was 384km.”
The men survived on army ration food and ate around 6,500 calories a day – more than double the intake of an adult male.
Muesli bars, peanuts, raisins and chocolate ensured the men took in enough energy to get them through the challenge.
“You would literally have to treat your body as a machine and your food as fuel,” said Niall. “Followed by lots of self massage and stretching of the muscles.
“You had to put talcum powder on your feet so that you didn’t get trench foot and moisturiser on your face to stop the sun and wind shredding your nose and lips. Murray’s ears were bleeding at one point because they were exposed to the extremes of the weather.”
Their last few days of the challenge were spent negotiating deep crevasses and 20km wide blue ice boulders, where one slip could send them tumbling 30ft into a pool of melt water.
Niall said: “We finished at a really remote place, which was a dirt track leading up to the ice field.
“There was a real sense of success and accomplishment but we were both physically exhausted by it and lost a stone each in weight.
“I have frostbite on my fingertips and my toes are completely numb, while Murray is struggling to walk up and down stairs.
“I’m having to teach myself how to run and train my muscles again. Our boots were not ideal for four weeks of skiing seven to 10 hours a day in extreme conditions and they ran out of cushioning and shredded our feet.” On May 17, the duo completed the journey and returned to the UK three days later.
So, I ask, what’s next for the fearless explorer?
“I’m planning to go to Honduras very soon for one month to live in the jungles and look for tapiers,” said Niall.
“They’re closely related to the rhino and will form a reccy for my PHD on the species baird’s tapier, which I will start in October at Cardiff University.” To find out more about team EPIC and/or make a donation visit www.wherefewdare.com
by Charlotte Hester
