On Thin Ice
On Thin Ice is a five-part BBC documentary series featuring Double Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell, TV presenter Ben Fogle and Doctor Ed Coats as they compete in the 2009 race to the South Pole - the first organised race since Scott and Amundsen almost 100 years ago. The challenge they face is immense: a 500 mile cross country skiing race to the South Pole, on the windiest, coldest, highest and driest continent in the world; winds of almost 100mph, constant daylight, temperatures as low as minus 50ºc and a steadily increasing altitude up to the equivalent of 4,000m. If that wasn't enough, they must survive each other's company, day in and day out, for up to 45 days. And on top of that, they have to train their bodies to face the harshest conditions known to man, pull a sled behind them weighing almost 170lbs, escape deadly crevasses, stuff their bodies with over 6,000 calories a day, and ski for up to 18 hours a day. Have they got what it takes to win the race?
| On Thin Ice, Episode 1 |
On Thin Ice, Episode 1
James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Jonny Lee Miller attempt to race to the South Pole. The three polar novices attend the first race training session in Norway. Here, they start to learn basic cold weather survival skills needed to cope with the constant cold of Antarctica.
On Thin Ice, Episode 2
James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Jonny Lee Miller come together to run the London Marathon - part of their training for the race to the South Pole. Jonny leaves the team, and Ed Coats join them as a third teammate.
On Thin Ice, Episode 3
While Ben Fogle undergoes an intensive course of treatment for a lethal tropical illness, James Cracknell and new third teammate Ed Coats keep training for the race to the South Pole.
On Thin Ice, Episode 4
After days of Antarctic blizzards, the weather finally clears and Ben Fogle, James Cracknell and Ed Coats, along with the other five teams taking part in the Amundsen South Pole Race, can make it to the start line.
On Thin Ice, Episode 5
After an extreme start to the race, Ben Fogle, James Cracknell and Ed Coats recover at the halfway checkpoint after arriving in second place, just behind their race rivals the Norwegians.
| Related Links |
| Amundsen's South Pole Expedition - wikipedia The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. |
| Race for the Poles This film chronicles famous explorers' endeavors to become the first people to reach North and South Pole. Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton were their names. |
| Roald Amundsen and his Polar Expeditions This is a collection of eBooks and films about Roald Amundsen and his polar expeditions. Amundsen led the Antarctic expedition (1910-12) that was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. |
| Robert Falcon Scott and his Antarctic Expeditions This is a collection of eBooks and films about Captain Robert Falcon Scott, a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901-04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910-13. |
| Antarctica, BBC Horizon This is a three-part BBC documentary series narrated by Jo Unwin, uncovering how life forms have adapted to life in the freezer, what created Antarctica, and what controls the movement of ice. |
| Life in the Freezer This is a BBC nature documentary series presented by David Attenborough, tracing the seasonal cycle of Antarctica and human exploration of the continent. |
| Frozen Planet This is a nature documentary series, co-produced by the BBC, the Discovery Channel and The Open University, focusing on life and the environment in both the Arctic and Antarctic. |