Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Arctic Trucks Founder Emil Grímsson on the Challenges of Polar Exploration

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Arctic Trucks Founder Emil Grímsson on the Challenges of Polar Exploration · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:03
Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and today I'm sitting down with Emil Grimson,
0:07
Speaker 1: the CEO of Arctic Trucks, Polar and Arctic Trucks International.
0:11
Speaker 1: We discussed the origin of Arctic Trucks in Iceland and
0:14
Speaker 1: how em Will turned the top Gear Arctic Special into
0:17
Speaker 1: a career of polar exploration. Grimson touches on his role
0:21
Speaker 1: during the Trans Global Car Expedition, the world's first wheeled
0:24
Speaker 1: surface navigation through both geographic polls, and how lessons learned
0:28
Speaker 1: in the previous expedition's landed him worry is. Today our
0:31
Speaker 1: conversation continues with the discussion around differences between Arctic Trucks
0:35
Speaker 1: branches in Europe, the UK, and North America and why
0:38
Speaker 1: the polar region draws em Will back time and time again.
0:42
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for tuning in. Hello,
0:46
Speaker 1: and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am very
0:49
Speaker 1: excited to have Emil Grimson here with me today, and
0:53
Speaker 1: Emil is the chairman of Arctic Trucks and self proclaimed
0:58
Speaker 1: polar addicted. Thank you so much for joining me today, Emil,
1:02
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to chat with you about all things
1:05
Speaker 1: Arctic trucks and expeditions and polar Very.
1:08
Speaker 2: Pleased to be with you. Thanks for inviting me.
1:09
Speaker 1: Here, No problem, yay, Yeah I was. We were just
1:14
Speaker 1: chatting and you were saying, this is the first podcast
1:17
Speaker 1: you've been on, So I'm honored. Yeh, it's a great honor.
1:21
Speaker 1: We're Overland Journal podcast to have you on so exciting.
1:27
Speaker 1: So I don't know, I think I can be as
1:30
Speaker 1: bold to say that you legitimized high floatation tire modifications
1:35
Speaker 1: in Iceland. Do you think that that is an accurate statement?
1:40
Speaker 2: I mean I had a big let's say, I have
1:42
Speaker 2: a big part of that history. But if I go
1:45
Speaker 2: a little bit back into to my background is basically
1:50
Speaker 2: I grew up in a small village in north of Iceland,
1:53
Speaker 2: which okay, who's that. It's up in the north close
1:59
Speaker 2: to our ready, but we would like sometimes get like
2:02
Speaker 2: five newspapers, six newspapers at the time because there was
2:05
Speaker 2: no access to the town or quite some time, and
2:09
Speaker 2: so that was sometimes quite interesting. So I when I
2:14
Speaker 2: joined Toyota Island in eighty nine, I have the have
2:19
Speaker 2: the will or I had the motivation that I wanted
2:23
Speaker 2: to make the Toyota clients the most happiest clients of
2:26
Speaker 2: any car company in Iceland. So I started to I
2:30
Speaker 2: was a marketing director and I started to analyze what
2:33
Speaker 2: makes people happy, and so I did a lot of stuff.
2:36
Speaker 2: But one of the things that I noticed at that
2:38
Speaker 2: time is that some clients were modifying the cars. They
2:40
Speaker 2: had discovered that big tires low tire pressure had given
2:43
Speaker 2: them big advantage in snow over the normal. But what
2:47
Speaker 2: they were doing they were lifting the cars to fit
2:49
Speaker 2: the big tires. They were lifting them very high, and
2:52
Speaker 2: it was affecting steering and stabilities. They were doing it
2:55
Speaker 2: in all sorts of ways, so it was affecting reliability
2:59
Speaker 2: and how you could service the vehicles. The clients were
3:01
Speaker 2: complaining to me, you know, your guys are threatening me.
3:04
Speaker 2: They're saying you'll lose warranty. This is dangerous, you know.
3:08
Speaker 2: So so I asked why why are we doing that?
3:11
Speaker 2: And I was pointed out all the issues albeit this,
3:14
Speaker 2: so so I start asking, how do we how do
3:17
Speaker 2: we make this better? How do we make this something
3:19
Speaker 2: that like Toyota can service and we can we can
3:23
Speaker 2: work with this and really meet the demand or the
3:27
Speaker 2: requests from the clients. So in that way inside Toyota,
3:30
Speaker 2: I I was leading the way to set this up.
3:32
Speaker 2: My first first thing was to think that we needed
3:35
Speaker 2: better lift kits, so I went to the US and
3:37
Speaker 2: I got TMS to help me to find meet the
3:40
Speaker 2: suppliers and that. But basically we discovered a bit later,
3:45
Speaker 2: you know, that we needed we need to rethink how
3:49
Speaker 2: this was done. We basically needed to try to go
3:52
Speaker 2: back and and and do it in another way, which meant,
3:56
Speaker 2: you know, very little lift, rebuilding the body and the
3:59
Speaker 2: frame to accommodate the tires and keep the balance in
4:03
Speaker 2: the car different. It was a it was a big
4:06
Speaker 2: step today to cut a new car all apart. Yeah,
4:10
Speaker 2: kind of modified in a way that you cannot re
4:12
Speaker 2: take it back. But we did, and we established it
4:15
Speaker 2: and we called it artic. We called it first Toyota Accessories.
4:18
Speaker 2: But Toyota Japan was interested, but they didn't really want to,
4:22
Speaker 2: you know, take any responsibility, so we needed another name.
4:25
Speaker 2: We couldn't use the Toyota name for something was not
4:27
Speaker 2: approved by them, so or officially, it took them ten
4:30
Speaker 2: years until they started to kind of give us some
4:33
Speaker 2: more recognition. But in the beginning it was like we
4:36
Speaker 2: don't know about this. Yeah, So basically that's that's how
4:40
Speaker 2: the name market Truss came about, and I became a
4:44
Speaker 2: finance director and managing director and then president for Toyot Island.
4:48
Speaker 2: But this was always a bit part of my heart,
4:51
Speaker 2: and when I left the island, I bought the Artitrous
4:53
Speaker 2: operation out of it. So two thousand and five it's
4:57
Speaker 2: independent from from Toyota, though our relation with Toyota is very,
5:02
Speaker 2: very strong and historical.
5:03
Speaker 1: Flint. So when you were growing up in Northern Iceland,
5:06
Speaker 1: did you ever think, as a young boy, you know,
5:09
Speaker 1: I'm going to end up working with vehicles or was
5:13
Speaker 1: this something that was you were completely surprised when you
5:16
Speaker 1: came out of school and you had it. You went
5:18
Speaker 1: to Regavec to work with Toyota.
5:20
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I always had a car interest, but
5:24
Speaker 2: I don't, you know, I think as young I was
5:26
Speaker 2: thinking a pilot or something like this.
5:29
Speaker 1: A different kind of mechanical inclination.
5:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean I ended up going to taking
5:37
Speaker 2: an MBA in the US in Santiago, and my idea
5:40
Speaker 2: at that time was to stay in the US and
5:43
Speaker 2: maybe to work with marketing, but I ended up in Toyota, Iceland,
5:47
Speaker 2: and I was going to stay there for three years
5:48
Speaker 2: and then maybe go back to US, but I never did.
5:53
Speaker 2: But I don't know how how it comes about, but
5:55
Speaker 2: I think the the So so where I am I mean,
6:00
Speaker 2: for the longest time my you know, I mean, I'm
6:03
Speaker 2: kind of like a businessman, but I always have this
6:06
Speaker 2: interest in adventure, and maybe I'm doing some adventures. But
6:10
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven I decided to go by myself,
6:13
Speaker 2: you know, to organize and help doing that trip with
6:18
Speaker 2: the top year going to the magnetic North Pole.
6:21
Speaker 1: That's right, did they approach Did they approach you about
6:25
Speaker 1: this project?
6:26
Speaker 2: So basically Toyota UK twydoter GP asked me. They called me,
6:31
Speaker 2: and because I was very well inside the Toyota system
6:34
Speaker 2: and they you know, the marketing guy, they asked me, so,
6:38
Speaker 2: what do you can we make a high low stripe
6:40
Speaker 2: to the magnetic northpok And I remember I answered yes,
6:44
Speaker 2: I think so, and then I asked where's the magnetic Northport?
6:48
Speaker 2: First writing, but that basically started a new kind of
6:52
Speaker 2: era in my life in a sense that I started
6:54
Speaker 2: to study, started to study sei started to study very
6:58
Speaker 2: much the maps, you know, because in I already had
7:00
Speaker 2: done quite a bit in Iceland, so I kind of
7:02
Speaker 2: knew what conditions, you know, how how wide out and
7:05
Speaker 2: these things. You know what the dangers you have to
7:07
Speaker 2: think about. But then then you add to it, you know,
7:10
Speaker 2: the enormous distances that you have to deal with, and
7:12
Speaker 2: you have to deal with the CIS. That was something
7:15
Speaker 2: completely new as well. So at that point in my
7:17
Speaker 2: life I basically got this urge. I would say. So
7:21
Speaker 2: even if that expeditions was was quite quite tough, it
7:25
Speaker 2: was a lot of fun and it was I came back.
7:27
Speaker 2: I think I lost seven kilos in seven days or
7:30
Speaker 2: something like that.
7:31
Speaker 1: Wow.
7:34
Speaker 2: But you know, because you know we we you know,
7:36
Speaker 2: we were on all the time. But after this, I
7:39
Speaker 2: kind of like, I need to do it again. That
7:41
Speaker 2: kind of made that kind of this excitement, this singularity
7:45
Speaker 2: in in. You know, you have a you have a
7:48
Speaker 2: you have a one project, you have one goal, the
7:50
Speaker 2: whole team has the same goal. You're together, you're thrown
7:53
Speaker 2: out with different challenges and and and and you're with
7:58
Speaker 2: very interesting people. This basically got me to I realized
8:05
Speaker 2: it that when I came, when we finished that I
8:07
Speaker 2: hadn't thought about any of my normal daily things. Have
8:11
Speaker 2: I called my you know, father, or my mother or
8:14
Speaker 2: my sister, or have I answered that an email or
8:17
Speaker 2: all of these things, they just went disappeared. They were
8:20
Speaker 2: not there. And when I realized that, you know, and
8:23
Speaker 2: after after some days that I kind of like, wait
8:25
Speaker 2: a minute, I hadn't thought about these things, everything that
8:28
Speaker 2: I had ongoing in my life. I had I happen
8:31
Speaker 2: to sleep six times without ever even thinking about it.
8:34
Speaker 2: That that that kind of like changed everything.
8:38
Speaker 1: It's like type too fun, but it's also from an escape.
8:42
Speaker 1: Is a man being in the zone, I imagine, Yeah.
8:46
Speaker 2: It's in some sort of zone. You know, I really
8:49
Speaker 2: it really you know, you come back, you're tired, you
8:52
Speaker 2: you know, really happy. Can I get a normal you know,
8:55
Speaker 2: super happy for a normal toilet and shower? But there
9:01
Speaker 2: is something that pushes you, you know, I want to
9:03
Speaker 2: do this again.
9:04
Speaker 1: I imagine that trip was and again and again and again. Yeah.
9:09
Speaker 1: I imagine there was a fair amount of stress on
9:11
Speaker 1: that project, being one of the first, but also having
9:14
Speaker 1: a film crew and a schedule because this was for
9:18
Speaker 1: the top tier gear Polar special.
9:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what was that like managing the film schedule
9:25
Speaker 1: and the I guess all of the work that you
9:28
Speaker 1: had put into problem management. I guess, yeah.
9:31
Speaker 2: So, I mean I hadn't really because I did no
9:34
Speaker 2: talk here at the time when they I'm asked about this.
9:37
Speaker 2: So I got to learn it, you know, over this
9:39
Speaker 2: time during this project. You know, I got to learn
9:41
Speaker 2: now that they were very big, they were very popular,
9:43
Speaker 2: and I got to know them personally, the guys there,
9:46
Speaker 2: and I you know, it was a super good crew
9:49
Speaker 2: and also you know, the guys they were really really
9:52
Speaker 2: focused on making good TV and the you know, it
9:55
Speaker 2: was yeah, the TV. The guys that were there, they
9:59
Speaker 2: were all quite good and overall, I mean it was
10:01
Speaker 2: very successful and I basically I loved it. You know,
10:04
Speaker 2: it was a lot of a lot of fun, and
10:06
Speaker 2: I mean it's demanding. But what I kind of like
10:09
Speaker 2: surprised me was how much time they spent sometimes in
10:12
Speaker 2: trying to make up one shot and then out of
10:16
Speaker 2: the program. You know, you know, you would spend hours
10:18
Speaker 2: and and and the difficulty maybe with that is when
10:21
Speaker 2: you have to stand still and don't have anything driving
10:24
Speaker 2: and and you have to have you know, for two hours,
10:27
Speaker 2: and this turns into a few seconds in the program.
10:30
Speaker 2: You know, it's like and that's when you get cold,
10:32
Speaker 2: when you have to stand still and not talk and
10:34
Speaker 2: and and and be silence or be out of the
10:37
Speaker 2: camera and things like that. But but you know in
10:39
Speaker 2: a way that there was no problem it just like
10:41
Speaker 2: I was surprised how much time it took and and
10:45
Speaker 2: and and and the effort they put into making this
10:47
Speaker 2: a good, good TV.
10:49
Speaker 1: What a fantastic experience. So from there you launched into
10:53
Speaker 1: dozens of expeditions and expedition support machines.
10:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think maybe the biggest one that
11:01
Speaker 2: I took on, and probably the next one was that
11:04
Speaker 2: we were asked if we can support a ski race
11:06
Speaker 2: going to Southport and starting from Novo run Away and
11:09
Speaker 2: that's a very long distance, as you know, and that
11:12
Speaker 2: was Antarctica. And if I were to I'm surprised today
11:16
Speaker 2: how willing you know, how much risk you were willing
11:19
Speaker 2: to take When you were younger, I didn't have so
11:21
Speaker 2: many informations, So it was a really really kind of
11:24
Speaker 2: like it was working with what if, what if? What if?
11:27
Speaker 2: What if? And trying to deal with this in an
11:29
Speaker 2: excel how much fulurely use? And then we have to
11:32
Speaker 2: take more fuel? Okay? Will we then be able to
11:34
Speaker 2: drive in the snow or what will be the cold?
11:36
Speaker 2: Will the engine work? And this altitude and there were
11:39
Speaker 2: so many things we had unknown at this time and
11:42
Speaker 2: we succeeded and that that turned into a BBC program
11:45
Speaker 2: was called on Tin Nice, which was a race ski race,
11:48
Speaker 2: and it was that expedition we learned the biggest lessons,
11:51
Speaker 2: you know. It was there was a lot of difficulties
11:53
Speaker 2: that happened and a big stories. But I think that's
11:57
Speaker 2: one of the most challenging expeditions we have taken on.
12:00
Speaker 2: But everything that when you repeat things that they come
12:03
Speaker 2: easier and you maybe something sometimes forget. You have to
12:06
Speaker 2: have to respect them. But now in Antarctica we have
12:10
Speaker 2: done over four hundred and twenty thousand kilometers on the plateau,
12:15
Speaker 2: which is which is huge, you know, and it's it's
12:17
Speaker 2: that that is Antarctica. It's like it's another dimension and
12:22
Speaker 2: again you are you are in a you're bit in
12:25
Speaker 2: another world. Although now this year it was the first
12:27
Speaker 2: time I had starlink and that was pretty amazing to connect,
12:31
Speaker 2: you know, take a messenger and and talk or you
12:34
Speaker 2: know talking in a quality phone call or something like that.
12:37
Speaker 2: But but in a way it's it's it's fantastic. And
12:40
Speaker 2: in a way, it's kind of like where is it?
12:42
Speaker 2: You know how how connected we are today. You know,
12:45
Speaker 2: you can't get away from from that point, so you
12:48
Speaker 2: still get.
12:48
Speaker 1: Your true Yeah, does it take you out of the
12:51
Speaker 1: moment as well? I mean I'm finding that being on
12:54
Speaker 1: the road when we had Starlink, it's you're not as present.
12:57
Speaker 1: So did you feel like you were in another dimension
12:59
Speaker 1: again you had Charlie?
13:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, I in a way, everybody
13:07
Speaker 2: gets into Starling, you know, everybody gets on the line.
13:09
Speaker 2: Everybody has another life somewhere, and and I feel I
13:14
Speaker 2: feel that it's it's it's fantastic to be able to
13:18
Speaker 2: do your things, but it takes away certain amount of
13:23
Speaker 2: isolation and and and and and the team the team
13:27
Speaker 2: is you know, you're not depending on each other. It's
13:29
Speaker 2: exactly like like you were before, you know, and in
13:32
Speaker 2: the sense of you only one, you have only these
13:36
Speaker 2: people to talk to, and you have only these people
13:38
Speaker 2: to seek information from it and and it's, uh, there's
13:43
Speaker 2: something lost, there's something gained.
13:44
Speaker 1: Yes, very well said.
13:46
Speaker 2: You're still you're still quite isolated, but but you are
13:50
Speaker 2: mentally not as much on the on the spot as before.
13:53
Speaker 1: Yes, I was going to ask you, uh, what were
13:55
Speaker 1: some of those biggest takeaways on that ski race expedition
13:59
Speaker 1: and you said you learned a lot and some big lessons.
14:02
Speaker 1: What were a few of those.
14:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, So in the first expedition we did, you know,
14:06
Speaker 2: in Antarctica, we did that expedition in nineteen ninety six,
14:09
Speaker 2: nine ninety six went down to the plateau and it did.
14:12
Speaker 2: It was done with the Swedish for our Science Institute,
14:14
Speaker 2: and it was with Heartland's snowbolbulls, so we had some
14:18
Speaker 2: little backup there. But we used the tires. We used
14:21
Speaker 2: land cruisers forty four in it was well the Seapeg
14:23
Speaker 2: tires at the time, so I knew a little bit
14:26
Speaker 2: what was working. But they only went up to two
14:29
Speaker 2: thousand meters altitude. They went a very short distance. But
14:31
Speaker 2: now we had to do one thousand, six hundred kilometers
14:34
Speaker 2: without getting into fuel. And the fuel that we were
14:37
Speaker 2: at that point was you know, duck down and we
14:40
Speaker 2: wouldn't even know if we could find it or you know,
14:43
Speaker 2: how to how to how to reach it because it
14:46
Speaker 2: was thrown out on an airplane with fuel drums and
14:50
Speaker 2: some of it had sunk into the into the snow
14:53
Speaker 2: or having blown over. And we were going to three thousand,
14:56
Speaker 2: four hundred meters altitude and the and the oxygen level
15:01
Speaker 2: is lower than that the equator is, so you can
15:03
Speaker 2: almost add thousand meters more and both the distance and
15:06
Speaker 2: we were using four by four high looses, and we
15:10
Speaker 2: were needed to move a lot of stuff, a lot
15:13
Speaker 2: of equipment and people. So we it's kind of like,
15:20
Speaker 2: if I load the high loos with fifteen hundred kilos,
15:23
Speaker 2: how will it do? But then I realized it's not
15:26
Speaker 2: going to be enough. I'm going to have to move
15:28
Speaker 2: three tons and then I have to have a trailer.
15:32
Speaker 2: But how much fuel will it use? That I don't
15:34
Speaker 2: know the conditions, I don't know the snow, and so
15:37
Speaker 2: it was kind of like back and forth going, you know,
15:40
Speaker 2: how much how we would deal with this And in
15:43
Speaker 2: the end in this expedition, you know, there was a
15:46
Speaker 2: plane crash. There were different types of things that happened
15:49
Speaker 2: that that you know, stressed everything to even over the
15:52
Speaker 2: limits that we had. So we started, you know, access
15:55
Speaker 2: started to break break and there was a lot of
15:58
Speaker 2: fixing to be done. So one things led to another end.
16:01
Speaker 2: But we kind of came crippled into South Pole, but
16:04
Speaker 2: managed to do all the older service. But then we
16:08
Speaker 2: managed to get get a flight into South pol with
16:10
Speaker 2: spare parts, more axles basically and a gearbox and all
16:14
Speaker 2: of these things. Kind of like we got back okay,
16:17
Speaker 2: but we we had to go back to the drawing
16:19
Speaker 2: table and we had to redesign some of the some
16:22
Speaker 2: of the you know, bearings and different axles and things
16:27
Speaker 2: like that we had in the vehicle. We also had
16:29
Speaker 2: to rethink on on on what we how much we
16:32
Speaker 2: can load its vehicle, you know, when when will it
16:36
Speaker 2: start to break? So we started to get cave us
16:38
Speaker 2: some more margin. But we also learned we were okay
16:41
Speaker 2: with jet fuel the ancient world. It was just very
16:43
Speaker 2: very slow. We could go down to minus fifty degree
16:48
Speaker 2: centigrades and we done even lower than that. We learned
16:51
Speaker 2: that the tires they started to break form cracks in
16:55
Speaker 2: this frost. If we've lost if we didn't didn't move,
16:58
Speaker 2: So that was one of our biggest risk was how
17:01
Speaker 2: to get going again if if we had to stop.
17:03
Speaker 2: But that that also led to that we started to
17:06
Speaker 2: try to develop a new tire, which it did with
17:08
Speaker 2: Noki has made as as better tire for for for
17:13
Speaker 2: the conditions. But you know, we had to we had to.
17:15
Speaker 2: We had to look out how can we improve how
17:18
Speaker 2: do how do we do this in a way that
17:19
Speaker 2: we can sustain ourselves and all the communications with space?
17:25
Speaker 2: How do you go do you? How do you? How
17:27
Speaker 2: do you work things out? How do you how do
17:29
Speaker 2: how do you make the plan about if there's a
17:33
Speaker 2: flight coming with somewhere can you can they land with you?
17:36
Speaker 2: Or how how can they land? When can they land?
17:39
Speaker 2: What type of weather do they need so they don't cross.
17:41
Speaker 2: It's a it's a lot of stuff that that came down.
17:44
Speaker 1: It's high stakes learning right there.
17:47
Speaker 2: But it's a you know, things just escalate sometimes, you
17:51
Speaker 2: know you have in this case what escalated. What went
17:54
Speaker 2: wrong was that you couldn't take the people that were
17:57
Speaker 2: supposed to that were going to go to climatize. Our
18:00
Speaker 2: plane was supposed to pick them up and fly them
18:02
Speaker 2: to the new point that we were going to meet
18:04
Speaker 2: them and start the race. And this plane cannot come
18:08
Speaker 2: because of weather, and that becomes you one day and
18:11
Speaker 2: two days and three days, so part of the cars
18:13
Speaker 2: need to return and to give them food because they're
18:15
Speaker 2: running out of food, and then you know the finally
18:18
Speaker 2: when when the plane can go, we have lost too
18:21
Speaker 2: many days. So you have to get the other cars
18:23
Speaker 2: that are already on location waiting for them. They have
18:26
Speaker 2: to move the start line further south to reduce the race,
18:30
Speaker 2: and then they have to move a lot of people
18:32
Speaker 2: and then and and fuel, and then they overload themselves,
18:36
Speaker 2: and then they start to break and then the two
18:39
Speaker 2: cars are following them now too late. They have a
18:42
Speaker 2: small break and or that they have a breakdown because
18:45
Speaker 2: of human error basically, and and then a plane is
18:49
Speaker 2: supposed to come and bring a spare parts and crosses,
18:55
Speaker 2: so things things just kind of like go into into
18:58
Speaker 2: into these things. And but luckily since then we have
19:01
Speaker 2: basically not faced any any any anything nothing like this.
19:05
Speaker 2: I mean we haven't. We haven't had anybody that any injuries,
19:09
Speaker 2: you know, other than not people that are on the
19:11
Speaker 2: ski rays they have had some. They've had some you
19:16
Speaker 2: know source you know from the frost frost bites. I
19:20
Speaker 2: think it's called.
19:21
Speaker 1: Right, So you're you're providing expedition support for a lot
19:25
Speaker 1: of expeditions. Maybe it's skiing. Maybe it's like the poll
19:29
Speaker 1: to poll ev mission. I believe you supported that project
19:34
Speaker 1: as well. So when you're on the ground, are you
19:36
Speaker 1: what is the role of expedition support? Are you doing logistics?
19:41
Speaker 1: Are you doing providing a vehicle in case somebody gets stuck?
19:45
Speaker 1: Are you transporting people out? What are the responsibilities? I
19:49
Speaker 1: guess when you're involved.
19:50
Speaker 2: So if we it's it's a pre vised spectrum. Yeah,
19:54
Speaker 2: they And if we are doing a light if we're
19:57
Speaker 2: doing a kind of like what we call a light expedition,
19:59
Speaker 2: which is not like pulling a whole research team with
20:06
Speaker 2: a lot of equipment, but if we are doing something
20:08
Speaker 2: like putting out seismmetic sensors, or we are doing support
20:12
Speaker 2: to skis, or we're doing different types of things like that.
20:15
Speaker 2: We are traveling three to five times faster than the
20:18
Speaker 2: national programs to on the belt vehicles, and we're using
20:21
Speaker 2: five to ten times less fuel. So we have basically
20:23
Speaker 2: kind of very unique status for servicing certain things. So
20:28
Speaker 2: this is very good for you know, when you have
20:30
Speaker 2: a like a ski competition or something like that where
20:33
Speaker 2: you need people to to you know, needed the film crew,
20:37
Speaker 2: you need a doctor, you need the things that to
20:39
Speaker 2: monitor people, and you want for a group that wants
20:41
Speaker 2: to ski together and somebody. You know, if there's a
20:45
Speaker 2: five people skiing together and one of them is not
20:47
Speaker 2: feeling good, everybody has to wait for this one person.
20:50
Speaker 2: If you have a support with the vehicles, then you
20:52
Speaker 2: can pick that person up until he feels better and
20:54
Speaker 2: everyone can continue. We are doing I mean, we've done
20:58
Speaker 2: these ski races. Was you know, Top Giear was the first,
21:01
Speaker 2: and then on tin Ives and we had something German
21:04
Speaker 2: and Austria programs. We had Walking with the Wounded.
21:08
Speaker 1: Right, tell me a bit about Walking with the Wounded.
21:11
Speaker 2: Working with the Wounded was was a very nice, nice
21:15
Speaker 2: program where they are there was an organization trying to
21:19
Speaker 2: inspire people that have have been injured in in in
21:26
Speaker 2: soldiers that have been injured and there's mostly like the
21:28
Speaker 2: Commonwealth people that you know, it's a UK program, but
21:32
Speaker 2: they have American soldiers as well in some of this
21:36
Speaker 2: and it does. They're doing different types of things and
21:40
Speaker 2: one of these was to go to make a race
21:42
Speaker 2: to South Pool. I was between US Britain and then
21:45
Speaker 2: Commonwealth with was a combination of Canada and Australia and
21:48
Speaker 2: then you had you know, in ITAs. Each team there
21:52
Speaker 2: was a famous person and Prince Harry was was in
21:55
Speaker 2: the English team, and and then you had had some
21:58
Speaker 2: actors in the and the other teams, and Dominico West
22:01
Speaker 2: and Alexander Scoguard were in this as well. So we
22:06
Speaker 2: basically fly them in until they have about three hundred
22:08
Speaker 2: and fifty kilometers to Southball and then we we drive
22:12
Speaker 2: first three thousand, two thousand kilometers to get to the location,
22:15
Speaker 2: get ready, and then they come to the plane. We
22:17
Speaker 2: put up a little skiway and and and they land
22:19
Speaker 2: and then we're The race was supposed to go to
22:22
Speaker 2: South Paul, but we quickly realized after one hundred kilometers
22:26
Speaker 2: things were not going very well. The people were getting
22:29
Speaker 2: the competition was hard, and they were really kind of
22:32
Speaker 2: just damaging themselves, you know, they were getting frost byres
22:34
Speaker 2: and of that. So we decided to change change the
22:37
Speaker 2: setup and move them until they had one hundred kilometers
22:41
Speaker 2: away and stop the race. We already had enough trauma
22:43
Speaker 2: for the TV and I do this, and that was
22:47
Speaker 2: also kind of encouraged by it because you know, Scott
22:49
Speaker 2: and Greg Miller and they were coming on event. They
22:52
Speaker 2: were coming with with one of our car at the
22:54
Speaker 2: same time, and I knew they were they would be
22:56
Speaker 2: driving by us, and I was running out of fuel
22:58
Speaker 2: because I had already been moving people around, so we
23:01
Speaker 2: wouldn't get to South Pole. So if I had to
23:04
Speaker 2: go more trips back and forth with to get all
23:07
Speaker 2: this team there were thirty people and we had only
23:09
Speaker 2: four cars, then then we would be kind of questionable
23:14
Speaker 2: if we had enough fuel to get all the way
23:15
Speaker 2: to South Pole. So so knowing that they were coming
23:19
Speaker 2: with two cars, you know, I thought I can use them,
23:21
Speaker 2: So I encouraged that we would take the decision now,
23:24
Speaker 2: stop the race, move people one hundred kilometers further more
23:28
Speaker 2: forward one hundred and fifty. And then that was approved,
23:31
Speaker 2: and we used them to help us move the whole
23:34
Speaker 2: line staff line or a whole whole group forward, and
23:37
Speaker 2: then we did did this going And I think this
23:40
Speaker 2: was quite good. I mean, it's impressive, very impressive to
23:43
Speaker 2: see how people that have and the stories that people
23:46
Speaker 2: have to tell when they have for me an iceland,
23:48
Speaker 2: you know, knowing being in a car that and already
23:51
Speaker 2: explodes on and thenhalf of most of your team maybe
23:54
Speaker 2: dies and you lose your legs or something. It's out
23:57
Speaker 2: of Yeah, it was. It was quite a very happy
24:00
Speaker 2: for what they were doing and what they were trying
24:02
Speaker 2: to do and inspire people that have. We've done expeditions
24:06
Speaker 2: like for Jantai to take the great grandson of Rosa
24:12
Speaker 2: and Yantai Santa that's right. We had the Nissan going
24:15
Speaker 2: to pull to pull electric vehicle, and we've had had
24:19
Speaker 2: some tractor girl going to South Pole on a tractor
24:23
Speaker 2: that we was also a big story. And you know,
24:26
Speaker 2: different typ of things like this. And then there's individuals
24:29
Speaker 2: that I wanted to do something that has never been done,
24:31
Speaker 2: some special going to special places or be the first
24:34
Speaker 2: to do something. And then there have been many science
24:38
Speaker 2: science projects and just just kind of different different goals.
24:42
Speaker 2: But mostly for us, we seldom are repeating ourselves. We
24:46
Speaker 2: are mostly doing a new project or something new. But
24:49
Speaker 2: sometimes I think, you know, really we should try to
24:52
Speaker 2: make something just that we can do repeat it because
24:55
Speaker 2: it's almost effort to put into every new project.
24:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, re learning every single time.
25:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. But now now we have we have many routes,
25:04
Speaker 2: so we can we can travel around Antarctica, and we
25:08
Speaker 2: have a lot of knowledge experience and so so yeah,
25:11
Speaker 2: we can offer offer a lot of a lot of
25:15
Speaker 2: a lot of things.
25:16
Speaker 1: Can you describe to me, Yeah, I was just gonna
25:19
Speaker 1: ask if you could describe to me. So I've never
25:21
Speaker 1: been to either of those places like most people, I guess,
25:27
Speaker 1: could you describe the difference between the North and the South,
25:33
Speaker 1: like the conditions, the environment, maybe the elevation. The landscape
25:38
Speaker 1: is one dryer is one humid, there's a more sea ice.
25:44
Speaker 1: Are there sort of challenges that you would experience up
25:49
Speaker 1: north that you wouldn't down south? And vice versa? Is
25:52
Speaker 1: one busier? Like what is the if you can kind
25:55
Speaker 1: of like place yourself back there, how would you describe
25:58
Speaker 1: each of them and how they are different?
26:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting question. So in Antarctica up to
26:04
Speaker 2: now we have only been in summertime, so winter our time, wintertime,
26:08
Speaker 2: but summertime in Antarctica. So we basically are more or
26:11
Speaker 2: less twenty four hour daylight and that's that's a huge
26:14
Speaker 2: effect on everything, just to have always a light and
26:18
Speaker 2: and and and the sun to some extent active. So,
26:23
Speaker 2: but in Antarctica we are normally starting somewhere close to ourself.
26:28
Speaker 2: We're only working in deep field. So so tourism to
26:32
Speaker 2: Antarctica in nine percent is the peninsula is the ships
26:35
Speaker 2: going within with ship with a flight into one of
26:37
Speaker 2: those islands or into you know, the peninsula, which is
26:40
Speaker 2: very very far from south point. Depfield has like one
26:42
Speaker 2: or two one maybe no, yeah, less than two percent
26:47
Speaker 2: of the tourism is in deep Field and it only
26:51
Speaker 2: has like it can fly in from from either Cape
26:56
Speaker 2: Toon or Punta Arenas. And so this is the numbers
27:00
Speaker 2: are very small and the area is enormous. So you're
27:03
Speaker 2: six it's sixty percent bigger than in the USA. And
27:07
Speaker 2: and and when you're traveling, the logistic is basically so
27:11
Speaker 2: that that you may have you may have to take
27:18
Speaker 2: years ahead. You have to kind arrange where are they
27:21
Speaker 2: going to be a fuel in the location so you
27:24
Speaker 2: can do it. So but today in four our main
27:27
Speaker 2: routes we have fuel in and basically two locations two
27:32
Speaker 2: to three locations that we can access fuel and it's
27:35
Speaker 2: normally fifteen hundred kilometers or less that we are we
27:41
Speaker 2: have to deal with the fuel we use. Even if
27:44
Speaker 2: we are very efficient on fuel compared to everything else,
27:47
Speaker 2: we are still using a lot of fuel. So fuel
27:50
Speaker 2: is in Antarctica is so expensive that that it's it
27:54
Speaker 2: means everything that how you can save fuel because the
27:57
Speaker 2: cost is enormous and also carrying. It is very difficult
28:00
Speaker 2: to carry an offloat to for you to last in
28:03
Speaker 2: the Arctic. So if you are in the Canadian Archipelitio,
28:06
Speaker 2: or you're in Alaska or somewhere eltists, you normally have
28:12
Speaker 2: some small village or something that has that is somewhere
28:15
Speaker 2: in let's say three four hundred kilometers distance or less,
28:21
Speaker 2: and there's actually an airplane that may be there, you know,
28:25
Speaker 2: the station there, and there may be people there and
28:28
Speaker 2: things like that in Antarctica who are more on your
28:31
Speaker 2: own in that sense. But in Antarctica, even traveling, you know,
28:36
Speaker 2: we need to be very aware of crevises because there
28:39
Speaker 2: are glaciers. They move and they form crevers and you
28:41
Speaker 2: can fall into crevis and that's very risky. But once
28:45
Speaker 2: we have established a route that it's very very pretty safe,
28:49
Speaker 2: and it's safe for the whole time. When you are
28:52
Speaker 2: there in the Arctic, we are dealing with lakes and
28:56
Speaker 2: we're dealing with sea ice, and you know, we're in
28:58
Speaker 2: a low altitude. It warmer. But if it's if it's
29:02
Speaker 2: if we are in February and Mars, like we sometimes
29:05
Speaker 2: doing most February especially, it gets very dark and and
29:08
Speaker 2: then you have wind and you have even if it's
29:11
Speaker 2: minus like I feel like, you know, I would rather
29:14
Speaker 2: be in Antarctica in minus forty five CENTI grade than
29:18
Speaker 2: in the Arctic in thirty. Yeah. Of course the nights
29:21
Speaker 2: it's like a night becomes so cold when you lose
29:23
Speaker 2: the sun so so and so the Arctic, but Arctica
29:29
Speaker 2: is not as less cold. I think the lowest we
29:32
Speaker 2: have seen is minus thirty nine in the Arctic. Antarctica
29:36
Speaker 2: I have you've gone in minus and an antacking Celsius
29:39
Speaker 2: and it's fifty six. So the other thing is that
29:43
Speaker 2: dealing with soft the ice and when let's you know,
29:46
Speaker 2: you're always in your expedition, you're always thinking, okay, if
29:49
Speaker 2: you have fuel to heat up or or energy to
29:52
Speaker 2: melt the snow. You always have lots of water, clean
29:55
Speaker 2: water in antar in the Arctic. You know, in Antarctica
29:59
Speaker 2: you have this always clean water. But in Arctic you
30:02
Speaker 2: kind of have to be especially on when you're on
30:04
Speaker 2: a sea ice. You have to think about I have
30:06
Speaker 2: to make sure that I don't take up the salty.
30:09
Speaker 1: Salty it's okay salty ice, yeah.
30:12
Speaker 2: And then then I get a bad water or you know,
30:14
Speaker 2: salty water and once more so in the Arctic you
30:17
Speaker 2: have pula beers or you have you have you have
30:20
Speaker 2: light and then and you have guns in the in
30:23
Speaker 2: the Antarctic, once you leave the ice shell, there is
30:26
Speaker 2: no life. There's not a bird, there's nothing. Once you
30:29
Speaker 2: get through the mountains, there is no there's nothing living
30:32
Speaker 2: there and no not not bugs or anything. So yeah,
30:37
Speaker 2: save on that side. But yeah, and and of course
30:40
Speaker 2: there's thin thin the air in in in the Arctic
30:43
Speaker 2: and Antarctica. It's it's when you get up to the plateau,
30:46
Speaker 2: you can you get you sigur yourself to sleep maybe
30:49
Speaker 2: if you're an a tent for one two nights or something,
30:51
Speaker 2: and then you acclimatize them. Okay, but you have to
30:55
Speaker 2: pace yourself.
30:55
Speaker 1: So you are finishing up a very big project or
31:00
Speaker 1: you've I don't know if your role is done yet
31:02
Speaker 1: or not, but the trans Global Car Expedition currently should
31:06
Speaker 1: be wrapping up what it within the month or so
31:09
Speaker 1: with the team. And this is the world's first wheeled
31:12
Speaker 1: surface navigation of the Earth through both geographic poles. It's
31:16
Speaker 1: a big deal. Can you explain to the listeners that
31:20
Speaker 1: don't know the difference between the magnetic and geographic poles,
31:23
Speaker 1: because there's a pretty big difference actually between the two.
31:26
Speaker 2: So geographical poll is basically like where the Earth is
31:31
Speaker 2: spindling around, you know, turning around, and it just basically
31:34
Speaker 2: stays at the same time, same place. Geographically, magnetic pole
31:40
Speaker 2: is where the magnetic needle on on your compass points to,
31:44
Speaker 2: and this is moving around and it's not always at
31:46
Speaker 2: the same point. And like when we went to Tokyo,
31:49
Speaker 2: we went to the magnetic North Pole as it was,
31:53
Speaker 2: and I think it was February March or something in
31:56
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six, so that was a specific location, but
31:59
Speaker 2: you cannot put the location in in in one spot.
32:02
Speaker 2: And that was maybe two thousand, probably close to two
32:06
Speaker 2: thousand kilometers away from from from from the true geographical pole.
32:11
Speaker 2: So normally the old magnetic pole in the north was
32:16
Speaker 2: was very much in the in the Canadian Acuipelagio, and
32:19
Speaker 2: so that's kind of accessible. I haven't say, maybe not
32:22
Speaker 2: so accessible, but it's still more accessible than a geographical pool,
32:26
Speaker 2: which is very far out in the In the oceans,
32:29
Speaker 2: the sea ice comes and goes in the Aquipi ledeo
32:32
Speaker 2: so and once it freezes in it is basically kind
32:35
Speaker 2: of stable between the islands and things like that, so
32:37
Speaker 2: you can travel on that with with the right knowledge,
32:40
Speaker 2: so you can during that time that the ice is there.
32:42
Speaker 2: But outside you came further north and you get close
32:46
Speaker 2: to the geographical pole, everything is moving constantly, so meaning
32:50
Speaker 2: that if you don't have a few you can have
32:52
Speaker 2: an open ocean. You can have a have that that
32:55
Speaker 2: for example, hourcars would not do. So for for the expedition,
33:01
Speaker 2: I was approched by a transclobal car started with the
33:04
Speaker 2: name of a good gear around the world in February
33:06
Speaker 2: and nineteen and I was asked to arrange the trip
33:10
Speaker 2: around the polls, and so I knew we wouldn't. I
33:15
Speaker 2: was fine with us driving the archipelagio and driving Greenland,
33:19
Speaker 2: but getting to the geographical pole would be very difficult
33:23
Speaker 2: for us.
33:23
Speaker 1: We wouldn't.
33:24
Speaker 2: We wouldn't do it because otherwise we have to design
33:26
Speaker 2: some sort of floating device, and I thought that was
33:29
Speaker 2: not so we went to look and to at the
33:31
Speaker 2: time the Russia was okay, and we went to look
33:33
Speaker 2: at the Russian Russian vehicles and we studied vehicle called
33:37
Speaker 2: the sup. We studied another kind of mixed of Russian
33:40
Speaker 2: a German car and a few number of cars we
33:43
Speaker 2: took a look at, but there was one team that
33:45
Speaker 2: already had made it, which was the Jamilaya. They had
33:49
Speaker 2: made it across from Russia too, so we decided that
33:53
Speaker 2: this would be because they had already the team that
33:55
Speaker 2: had the experience, this would be the team to deal with.
33:58
Speaker 2: So we decided to do use and I wanted to
34:01
Speaker 2: find that left only kind of like how do we
34:04
Speaker 2: get from from yellow Knife to the Archipelichio And so
34:08
Speaker 2: that is a route that we had to develop ourselves
34:11
Speaker 2: or find find a way to do, which we tested
34:14
Speaker 2: out in twenty twenty two.
34:16
Speaker 1: And that expedition that was the test run. Right, that
34:19
Speaker 1: was the.
34:19
Speaker 2: Test Yeah, that was yeah, that's where we went all
34:23
Speaker 2: the way to Resolute and on the way back we
34:26
Speaker 2: had one guy car going down Torvey going down into
34:30
Speaker 2: the water at the times. You know, I don't know
34:32
Speaker 2: if you know what this, but we we missed one
34:34
Speaker 2: car into the ice and we pick it up later.
34:38
Speaker 1: Right.
34:38
Speaker 2: That was a big adventure and a learning experience in
34:42
Speaker 2: the sense that we had planned through differently. But in
34:47
Speaker 2: four days and two hours the ice had gone from
34:50
Speaker 2: from sixty fifty sixty centimeters down to about five to
34:54
Speaker 2: ten centimeters, not because of any melt of just because
34:58
Speaker 2: of underneath current that had just come up.
35:01
Speaker 1: So it's a big change in a short amount of time.
35:04
Speaker 2: It's a huge change in a very short time. And
35:07
Speaker 2: that tells you how much the current can do because
35:10
Speaker 2: that was minus study all the whole time, so the
35:12
Speaker 2: outside of the air temperature around it was just eating
35:16
Speaker 2: up from underneath the ice.
35:17
Speaker 1: What was the sort of reaction and the local community
35:21
Speaker 1: to that event.
35:23
Speaker 2: I think I don't know how it actually. I think
35:26
Speaker 2: there were there, we got some we got hit by
35:30
Speaker 2: Let's say there was one club that has got very
35:33
Speaker 2: worried about that this was hurting their fishing areas. When
35:38
Speaker 2: I talked to the Age Environmental Agency in Canada and
35:43
Speaker 2: I put down everything that went down, it was a
35:46
Speaker 2: very small a small damage that has happened in terms
35:51
Speaker 2: of fuel, fuel and oil. We had less than sixty.
35:54
Speaker 1: Liters less than sixty leaders Yeah, so.
35:58
Speaker 2: Maybe what is fifteen gallons or something of total of liquid.
36:03
Speaker 2: So the car was almost empty of fuel, and we
36:05
Speaker 2: had some oils and stuff like that. So the overall
36:10
Speaker 2: environmental issue was very small, but in relation it's still
36:14
Speaker 2: it was a course an issue, and we decided immediately
36:17
Speaker 2: we want to try to get it out. The way
36:19
Speaker 2: it was handled in the media was like kind of
36:21
Speaker 2: blown up a little bit. I felt that's maybe natural
36:23
Speaker 2: because what happens in the Arctic is people lose no
36:26
Speaker 2: mobiles down and they lose you know, so that there
36:29
Speaker 2: are and nobody talks about it.
36:32
Speaker 1: Right but the right So I imagine that the media
36:40
Speaker 1: saw this as a story to cover, you know, like
36:43
Speaker 1: these folks are coming in from a bunch of other
36:46
Speaker 1: countries with these vehicles and driving them, you know, up
36:50
Speaker 1: north and losing a vehicle in the water and then
36:52
Speaker 1: oil and fuel spilling out and fish population, local population.
36:59
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that I read a couple of articles that
37:01
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that the that's the gist of it.
37:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, but I mean I think I think
37:07
Speaker 2: fair enough. I mean, you know, we we we were
37:11
Speaker 2: you know, there was definitely not planned and it was
37:14
Speaker 2: a luck and we were lucky in the sense that
37:16
Speaker 2: it was this car going down, not the other and
37:18
Speaker 2: it's what had had a small fuel and had the
37:20
Speaker 2: trailer and everything like that with the fuel. But yeah,
37:26
Speaker 2: but but I would say to get it the car,
37:28
Speaker 2: to get the car out was was a challenging project.
37:32
Speaker 2: But one of the bigger challenges in anything like this
37:35
Speaker 2: is to get a permit to to be allowed to
37:38
Speaker 2: go and pick it up and talk to people in
37:40
Speaker 2: the right order and and get get go through the
37:43
Speaker 2: politics of operation like this. It's kind it's very.
37:46
Speaker 1: Complicated, may bad.
37:47
Speaker 2: Some feel that this is their authority and another authority.
37:50
Speaker 2: It is a It is a complicated So that was
37:55
Speaker 2: that was one of the challenges to deal to deal
37:57
Speaker 2: with because then of course this is unused and normally
38:01
Speaker 2: when it happens to the local local area, I guess
38:04
Speaker 2: nobody's doing anything or saying anything. But I don't know
38:07
Speaker 2: how it works. But anyway, we we we made it.
38:11
Speaker 2: We meant to cut the car out. We got more
38:13
Speaker 2: or less all the oil and of things. We lost
38:16
Speaker 2: two point seven liters of liquid out of oils that
38:20
Speaker 2: we got we lost in this accident. So we we
38:23
Speaker 2: pulled almost everything out.
38:25
Speaker 1: You were granted permission to return to complete the next
38:28
Speaker 1: like the expedition.
38:30
Speaker 2: No, yes, so we we got right, we got that TERMINI. Yeah,
38:33
Speaker 2: but we we had to go our longer, longer way.
38:35
Speaker 2: We had to go outside. There was a new marine
38:37
Speaker 2: protected area that wasn't in our plan originally, so that
38:41
Speaker 2: came out. We only learned about that a few months
38:44
Speaker 2: before we did the expedition, and we applied to go
38:47
Speaker 2: through it or over it because it was marine and
38:50
Speaker 2: not an over non trauma. We did not. We were
38:53
Speaker 2: not allowed to do it, so we had to go
38:54
Speaker 2: around it, make it the expedition a bit longer or
38:57
Speaker 2: quite a bit longer on the ice. So so that went.
38:59
Speaker 2: We we did it, but we did have a problem
39:01
Speaker 2: with Greenland.
39:03
Speaker 1: Right.
39:04
Speaker 2: The team that now was that did this expedition out
39:07
Speaker 2: onto the ice was mostly from Russia. They were Ukrainian
39:11
Speaker 2: were they were Andrew from Canada and now Belgian, but
39:15
Speaker 2: mostly in Russian, and somehow the political situation had changed
39:19
Speaker 2: so they were stopped from going over Greenland if it
39:23
Speaker 2: was political or if it was something else or practical
39:28
Speaker 2: safety issue or something that that they complained. So that
39:31
Speaker 2: that was kind of went didn't We didn't get to
39:34
Speaker 2: go through Greenland, and I was I was planning to
39:37
Speaker 2: do the same route we did with Scott and Greg
39:41
Speaker 2: when we did in twenty eighteen, but that was we
39:44
Speaker 2: were not allowed to do it, or this team was
39:46
Speaker 2: not allowed to do it. And the vehicles are still
39:48
Speaker 2: at the station north and inland.
39:50
Speaker 1: Now they are they're still there.
39:52
Speaker 2: Oh wow, and so so and then you know Europe Africa.
39:57
Speaker 2: I mean their plan was to go through Africa, but
39:59
Speaker 2: that had changed the pullet. You know, everything went went
40:02
Speaker 2: kind of sour in Africa from from the first plan.
40:06
Speaker 2: So we sailed went to Maraco, sailed around to Nanibia
40:10
Speaker 2: and did a little trip in Africa there. Then before Antarctica,
40:14
Speaker 2: we were planning to go out on the peninsula we
40:16
Speaker 2: went through, but we went out through Union Glacier because
40:19
Speaker 2: the ice break that we came in with was nine
40:23
Speaker 2: days later than I had put in a plan, and
40:27
Speaker 2: and and six days later than I had as the
40:32
Speaker 2: kind of like you know, the last resource of the plans.
40:37
Speaker 2: So we had to shorten a little bit that expedition,
40:39
Speaker 2: but it went went okay. We did over two hundred
40:43
Speaker 2: kilometers two hundred and twenty kilometers a day, yes, even
40:47
Speaker 2: we had in some stops. But in that expedition we
40:50
Speaker 2: used the ports. Normally we've been using the Haluxes and
40:54
Speaker 2: lan Cruiser in Antarctica, but now we used the port.
40:57
Speaker 1: Yeah. How did the boards do?
40:59
Speaker 2: I mean, I think they did they did quite well.
41:02
Speaker 2: I mean I think we were quite concerned about all this,
41:05
Speaker 2: but we had, of course used them in the Arctic,
41:07
Speaker 2: and we used them in Iceland, and we've been kind
41:09
Speaker 2: of like working out so we had Besides, we had
41:13
Speaker 2: an engine issue which we didn't know how to solve
41:16
Speaker 2: a problem with in one of the cars, and somehow,
41:19
Speaker 2: you know, it got solved without we have we were
41:21
Speaker 2: ever not fully certain how how it's solved, but the
41:24
Speaker 2: car started again. But besides that, I would say they
41:27
Speaker 2: did very well. I mean the luxury we have, there's
41:30
Speaker 2: no I mean, we have a camper on the back
41:32
Speaker 2: of two of them.
41:32
Speaker 1: We have that must be nice.
41:35
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, I mean it's like some of my
41:39
Speaker 2: especially one of my okay, that's always going down there,
41:42
Speaker 2: you know, and it's working. This is cheating, is not fair.
41:46
Speaker 2: I'm just going into the camport putting on my jackets
41:50
Speaker 2: and things like that to do a work and I
41:51
Speaker 2: come in and have you know, it's like it's not
41:54
Speaker 2: any expedition anymore. It's tumorus luxury.
41:59
Speaker 1: You're like, you could see in the tent if you want.
42:02
Speaker 2: Actually it's nice to sleep in the tent. But but
42:04
Speaker 2: this this idea just to come into a warm space
42:07
Speaker 2: and and have a cup of coffee or hot chocolate
42:12
Speaker 2: or or a little meal and something like that and
42:15
Speaker 2: and don't have to heat it up or or doing
42:18
Speaker 2: anything and working without taking off your your clothes and
42:22
Speaker 2: things like that. That it's a it's a new new
42:25
Speaker 2: way of doing things in Antarctica.
42:28
Speaker 1: I like that, the new way of.
42:31
Speaker 2: Doing yeah, yeah, yeah, no no, But we also experimented.
42:35
Speaker 2: We we we pulled the four thousand, five hundred leaders
42:38
Speaker 2: behind the cars on the sledges, so and to see
42:42
Speaker 2: that would work and at work. But we need to
42:44
Speaker 2: improve the sledges a bit. We were having some problems
42:46
Speaker 2: with them. But still it's kind of the concept is proven.
42:49
Speaker 2: So that basically means that now we can plan an
42:52
Speaker 2: expedition which kind of can't cross Antarctica and go back
42:55
Speaker 2: again without having to review. So that's a new new
42:59
Speaker 2: new possibility for us which we haven't really had before.
43:03
Speaker 1: Some future plans maybe future goals exactly. So I haven't
43:07
Speaker 1: asked you yet to clarify what your role was on
43:11
Speaker 1: this expedition and which legs were you present for? Were
43:14
Speaker 1: you giving expedition support from Iceland? I know you were
43:18
Speaker 1: in person for some of these sections. But what was
43:21
Speaker 1: your primary responsibility?
43:23
Speaker 2: So for the transglobal yeah, I mean, oh yeah, So
43:26
Speaker 2: my primaries possibility is basically setting up the plan for
43:30
Speaker 2: the Arctic and antastic and selecting the vehicles to use
43:34
Speaker 2: for this expedition. And that's basically you know, then there's
43:40
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that I get involved in in
43:43
Speaker 2: the expedition planning and things like that, But that was
43:46
Speaker 2: my primary primary plan. But then over time I tried
43:50
Speaker 2: I asked Andrew to join the expedition at some point
43:53
Speaker 2: or to be part of this. There were some changes
43:56
Speaker 2: also inside the program itself or new people came and
43:59
Speaker 2: you know, different people went. So so I mean I
44:04
Speaker 2: think that it was a it was a team that
44:06
Speaker 2: we were. My main role was basically Antarctica was of course,
44:11
Speaker 2: was where I am expedition leader. Vasily Zachnowski was the expedition
44:15
Speaker 2: leader for the overall expedition for in Antarctica. Legally we
44:18
Speaker 2: need to have an expetition leader that is an hour
44:21
Speaker 2: and we we have we coming. We do the permit
44:23
Speaker 2: through art the trucks. So for for the North, let's
44:28
Speaker 2: say I packed more and more off for the North
44:31
Speaker 2: part because when vasily liking came. It was getting involved.
44:35
Speaker 2: He had more important. You know, I'd done it, so
44:37
Speaker 2: I said, okay. From from this point I still was
44:39
Speaker 2: involved in in in fuel and and and getting permits
44:44
Speaker 2: and trying to get permits there. And I did Greenland.
44:49
Speaker 2: I did the planning, but then I did not take
44:52
Speaker 2: part in getting getting the permit there, so left that
44:55
Speaker 2: to a team that was on the office that they
44:57
Speaker 2: have and so yeah, but I mean it, it was.
45:00
Speaker 2: It was a mixed so I had planned to be
45:02
Speaker 2: more involved in more of the trip. But besides the Arctic,
45:05
Speaker 2: I went. We went with our vehicles from from yellow
45:08
Speaker 2: Knife to Cambrispey. I went with them all the way
45:11
Speaker 2: from New York to cambri Spee and then back to
45:13
Speaker 2: yellow Knife. But then I did some part of Europe.
45:16
Speaker 2: I did nothing in Africa, and I did the Antarctica,
45:19
Speaker 2: and then I haven't really had time to go with
45:22
Speaker 2: them in South America.
45:24
Speaker 1: So each leg has a different team, so I think
45:27
Speaker 1: with it six legs or seven, I can't remember, but
45:30
Speaker 1: each each leg is like a section and had a
45:32
Speaker 1: different team, right, but some people go on multiple legs.
45:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, So basically the idea originally was that four people
45:41
Speaker 2: would do the whole trip. I think there's only going
45:43
Speaker 2: to be one person doing the whole whole time, which
45:46
Speaker 2: is going to be Diagnosky. So we have three sets
45:50
Speaker 2: of vehicles. So we have what we call the Continental
45:53
Speaker 2: vehicles with take people from New York to yellow Knife
45:57
Speaker 2: or to Edmonton, and then from there were support to
46:00
Speaker 2: go through Iceland, but we did not because we left Greenland.
46:02
Speaker 2: We didn't do that. But they started then again in
46:04
Speaker 2: Norway down to Capeton. Then they started from Punta Renners
46:08
Speaker 2: and they go back to New York. These these are
46:12
Speaker 2: five cars, four four expeditions that all have thirty five
46:15
Speaker 2: in stires. And then we have one vehicle that was
46:17
Speaker 2: a hybrid Ford F one fifty which modified for forty
46:21
Speaker 2: four in stires and did the Arctic the first trip
46:23
Speaker 2: in the Arctic, and then we also used it in
46:26
Speaker 2: New York and the trove like this all the way
46:28
Speaker 2: to to to yellow Knife. But then we took it
46:34
Speaker 2: to Iceland and and t put it down to thirty
46:37
Speaker 2: nine instires. So from Okay, from Norway down to Africa
46:43
Speaker 2: and now all of South America is on thirty nine
46:45
Speaker 2: and so we'll come back to New York on thirty
46:47
Speaker 2: ninety stires, but it's modified for forty four. And then
46:49
Speaker 2: we have that that's kind of the continental vehicles. Then
46:52
Speaker 2: we have the six by six forts, which we did
46:55
Speaker 2: Antarctic of it. One of them also went from from
46:57
Speaker 2: New York to yellow Knife and or from New York
47:00
Speaker 2: actually to came to Spain. And then two more went
47:03
Speaker 2: from Edmonton to came to Spey. And then we have
47:06
Speaker 2: the four going to through the Antarctica. So these are
47:09
Speaker 2: basically and then we have thesemlias which are Russian made,
47:12
Speaker 2: made by basically handmade vehicles.
47:14
Speaker 1: And they right.
47:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so three sets but a lot of Fords
47:21
Speaker 2: in there. Yeah, it's kind of unusual for me.
47:24
Speaker 1: But yeah, whatever, word, that's great.
47:29
Speaker 2: We're happy with that.
47:31
Speaker 1: What a project. Yeah, it's almost wrapping up. I think
47:34
Speaker 1: April in New York City, is that right?
47:37
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I think the idea is to be in
47:40
Speaker 2: New York on the fifth.
47:41
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, that's great.
47:43
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna I'm gonna try to join them in
47:45
Speaker 2: New York.
47:46
Speaker 1: Really, and it started. You got to make time for
47:52
Speaker 1: the big party going to be.
47:54
Speaker 2: The make a time for exactly I have to have
47:57
Speaker 2: to finish it.
47:58
Speaker 1: It finished at the sports club because I know that
48:01
Speaker 1: you started.
48:01
Speaker 2: That's where it started. So that's that's the idea, that's
48:05
Speaker 2: the plan. Andrew is working on this, but he's going
48:08
Speaker 2: to try to join them in Mexico City.
48:10
Speaker 1: I think, oh great, very nice. I could talk to
48:13
Speaker 1: you about this all day, but I want to switch
48:16
Speaker 1: gears a little bit and talk about Arctic tracks. So
48:22
Speaker 1: started in Iceland, obviously, and now there are many locations
48:26
Speaker 1: throughout Europe, North America, UK, Middle East? Do they have specialization?
48:32
Speaker 1: Like obviously the priorities for somebody in North America will
48:34
Speaker 1: be different than the Middle East, which will be different
48:36
Speaker 1: than Iceland. What are their responsibilities or the niches that
48:39
Speaker 1: each of those locations has.
48:41
Speaker 2: So, so in Iceland is basically the birthplace of it.
48:46
Speaker 2: And let's say Iceland has the whole range from like
48:51
Speaker 2: we call it eight like ARTI trucks, and then we
48:54
Speaker 2: have the tire size, so if it's on a smaller
48:58
Speaker 2: than thirty three, you know, we made me make an
49:00
Speaker 2: eighty thirty three and eighty thirty five, eighty thirty seven
49:03
Speaker 2: and up to forty four. Normally a bit done forty six,
49:07
Speaker 2: forty nine, but normally forty four is the biggest we
49:10
Speaker 2: do so Iceland mentality, if you think about it, is
49:17
Speaker 2: that there's a long history and the approach is quite
49:21
Speaker 2: practical in the sense you know you you you you
49:24
Speaker 2: want a car that functions for you. You know how
49:27
Speaker 2: to deflate the tires, how to make use of it,
49:29
Speaker 2: you know what where's the risk and things like that.
49:31
Speaker 2: So people are I would say at least fifty percent
49:35
Speaker 2: or more of the clients have really using it for
49:39
Speaker 2: for what they you know, for the adventure, for practical uses.
49:44
Speaker 2: Maybe somebody takes a lane Curas eighty thirty five and
49:48
Speaker 2: he will go into the mountains and he will deflate
49:50
Speaker 2: the tires to get us off the right we're bad
49:53
Speaker 2: or bad roads and inflate again and make use of it.
49:56
Speaker 2: And then you have rescue teams, you have police, you
49:59
Speaker 2: have also it's bigger conversions and individuals that are basically
50:03
Speaker 2: to make travel the glaciers and travel the highlands and
50:07
Speaker 2: doing something that's bigger. But then we have like in
50:10
Speaker 2: the UK, So the UK, when we are our team there,
50:14
Speaker 2: they are embraced by people that are looking at different things.
50:18
Speaker 2: I mean they are the car looks really nice and
50:20
Speaker 2: they look and they make this extra branding or mark
50:24
Speaker 2: and painting on something, so the car looks very elegant. Right,
50:29
Speaker 2: It's kind of like they have this sense of making
50:32
Speaker 2: the car this little additional, So we always try to
50:34
Speaker 2: make the car be like an original car. So so
50:37
Speaker 2: it comes from our Toyota time. We were basically making
50:40
Speaker 2: a Toyota better. We were making a better Toyota for
50:42
Speaker 2: our clients. We wanted the car to not to look
50:45
Speaker 2: some like an aftermarket loaded with all sorts of stuff,
50:48
Speaker 2: like an off road kind of type of mentality. Our
50:51
Speaker 2: think was to make it very kind of like part
50:53
Speaker 2: of the like an AMG for our Mercedes, a little
50:56
Speaker 2: bit of a it's extra on top of the toy up.
51:00
Speaker 2: But they do this better because they have they live
51:04
Speaker 2: in that kind of environment where this is kind of
51:06
Speaker 2: like the high so and they are normally not selling
51:11
Speaker 2: anything more than eighty thirty seven. I stand this, eighty
51:13
Speaker 2: forty four. It's you know, we need the same with Norway.
51:17
Speaker 2: I mean that's the same, but the eighty thirty seven
51:19
Speaker 2: is the biggest, mostly thirty five or something like that,
51:22
Speaker 2: and the UA is all maybe thirty with a few exceptions.
51:26
Speaker 2: I think they're doing mostly thirty five it's commercials and
51:30
Speaker 2: the same if we in South Africa, we have an
51:32
Speaker 2: agreement with the Susu factory. They are making it in
51:35
Speaker 2: the factory thirty five Ines is Susu Timas and so.
51:39
Speaker 2: But America we started there basically only with forty four.
51:42
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that is kind of like the extreme because
51:45
Speaker 2: that's basically driven by it by the niece of Architruspolar,
51:48
Speaker 2: which is doing these expeditions. Yeah, what we are missing
51:52
Speaker 2: is to is to is to do this smaller that
51:56
Speaker 2: car that is still very friendly to walk in and
51:58
Speaker 2: out of. You go to the store and things like that.
52:00
Speaker 2: You see a little bit higher but not much higher,
52:03
Speaker 2: and you have a very stable car and trive as well.
52:05
Speaker 2: And but you can do some more extra on some
52:09
Speaker 2: off road, but but you're not gonna it's not like
52:11
Speaker 2: a car you want to go and play around with
52:13
Speaker 2: and and and damage. You know. It's it's it's kind
52:16
Speaker 2: of so. Yeah, So that that is something that we're
52:18
Speaker 2: missing and we should be. I hope we will be
52:20
Speaker 2: doing sooner in the US, and I hope people will
52:23
Speaker 2: like that.
52:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure they will. Tell me a little bit
52:29
Speaker 1: about the Arctic tracks experience from what I gather they
52:32
Speaker 1: are trips.
52:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, so after experience is basically I would say after COVID,
52:39
Speaker 2: it's basically not taking off any any Seriously, we basically
52:43
Speaker 2: put it down and we have had so much to
52:46
Speaker 2: do the team that we haven't really put my effort
52:49
Speaker 2: on it. There are now a few guys that have
52:52
Speaker 2: running this, but the effort is very small on on
52:55
Speaker 2: on on the on the name and on the on
52:58
Speaker 2: this at this moment at.
52:59
Speaker 1: Least, I think, yeah, you probably have a few other
53:02
Speaker 1: things going on at the moment. Keep you busy. Great, Well,
53:06
Speaker 1: well it'll be interesting to see that more of that
53:08
Speaker 1: if it comes to fruition.
53:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean I think I think so. I mean, yeah,
53:13
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about what to do about astro spirits, but
53:16
Speaker 2: I'm like more thinking, now, okay, how how do we
53:20
Speaker 2: how do we build up? I may we are a lot
53:22
Speaker 2: of requests from from science and and and and thinks
53:25
Speaker 2: of that for Antarctica, but I feel that I should
53:27
Speaker 2: be doing something more for for tourism.
53:29
Speaker 1: We should be we should.
53:30
Speaker 2: Be empathizing tourism in Antarctica that we can do some
53:33
Speaker 2: you know, South full drives and things of that. That
53:36
Speaker 2: that is something that I that I would like to
53:39
Speaker 2: put a little.
53:40
Speaker 1: Focus on interesting that sounds like a whole podcast episode
53:43
Speaker 1: and then of itself discussing polar tourism. So interesting. Tell
53:49
Speaker 1: me a little bit about what does emil Grimson do
53:54
Speaker 1: in his spare time. What are your hobbies when you're
53:56
Speaker 1: not at Arctic tracks? What do you love to do?
53:58
Speaker 2: So for the task, she asked, my wife is probably
54:01
Speaker 2: art trucks. But I mean I think I think you
54:06
Speaker 2: know what I what I do in my you know,
54:08
Speaker 2: I don't have much free time, but I sometimes I
54:11
Speaker 2: like to walk mountains. I like to go just hiking,
54:14
Speaker 2: you know, and do some kind of like not directly climbing,
54:17
Speaker 2: but kind of in between there mountain biking, cross country
54:21
Speaker 2: skiing is nice. Yeah, But I mean then I don't
54:25
Speaker 2: have very much. I'm intending to have more time in
54:28
Speaker 2: the future.
54:28
Speaker 1: But right, that's fair, that's fair. It will come, it
54:33
Speaker 1: will come come. Do you have any big dream stuff
54:37
Speaker 1: like what's the next for you? Do you have any
54:39
Speaker 1: big projects coming up that you're really excited about that
54:42
Speaker 1: you can actually talk about. Is there anything that is
54:45
Speaker 1: like a huge dream of yours that you would love
54:48
Speaker 1: to do one day?
54:49
Speaker 2: So there have been a tense made to do a
54:52
Speaker 2: winter crossing of Antarctica. So our idea is to within
54:57
Speaker 2: a few years, we want to make this winter crossing
55:00
Speaker 2: where it crosses after the first twenty first of March,
55:03
Speaker 2: and we want to do a fast drive across Antarctica.
55:06
Speaker 2: Of course south Pool will be dark and it will
55:08
Speaker 2: be quite cold, but we want to we want to
55:10
Speaker 2: do a quite quite This would be I would say
55:13
Speaker 2: one of the fewer last things that have a kind
55:16
Speaker 2: of big things that haven't been completed.
55:18
Speaker 1: Right, that's what you've been up to in your spare
55:20
Speaker 1: time between going hiking and skiing.
55:24
Speaker 2: We are we are, we are the team here we
55:26
Speaker 2: are looking into we were studying this especially two three
55:29
Speaker 2: years ago how would we do it? And there was
55:32
Speaker 2: a there was a client that was gonna was going
55:35
Speaker 2: to go for it, and so we went through through
55:38
Speaker 2: the road. But that client then didn't have enough health
55:41
Speaker 2: it was getting too old, so we didn't the COVID
55:44
Speaker 2: then you know, kind of like close it up. But yeah,
55:48
Speaker 2: but then, yeah, this is more than three years ago,
55:51
Speaker 2: so so that's that's one of the big projects. But otherwise,
55:54
Speaker 2: I mean, there are I just have to look at
55:57
Speaker 2: the map here there's a mountain. Nobody has climbed that mountain. Okay,
56:01
Speaker 2: how can we get there? There are endless of things
56:04
Speaker 2: like this to look at?
56:05
Speaker 1: For sure. That's great. Well, I look forward to seeing
56:08
Speaker 1: what's next for you and exciting time. I have one
56:13
Speaker 1: last question, maybe two, and then and then we can
56:17
Speaker 1: wrap it up.
56:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.
56:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. Scott always asks guests, which I love this question,
56:23
Speaker 1: but what is your favorite book?
56:24
Speaker 2: My favorite book? Wow? I have to be honest, you know,
56:27
Speaker 2: I haven't read a book for I don't know, twenty
56:31
Speaker 2: or thirty years or something. Not a full book.
56:34
Speaker 1: What about an audio book?
56:37
Speaker 2: Audiobook? Yeah, I mean I think, yeah, you know, in Antarctica,
56:41
Speaker 2: we listened to our audiobooks and we're listening to listening
56:44
Speaker 2: to a lot of Antarctica or Arctic stories. So that's
56:47
Speaker 2: that's I'm very fascinated about some of the older explorers.
56:52
Speaker 2: How they you know, and I mean like the Shackleton
56:56
Speaker 2: and I don't know, I don't know if I don't
56:58
Speaker 2: think I can name one one specific but that subject
57:03
Speaker 2: because you are so close to it and you are
57:05
Speaker 2: kind of thinking. You're sitting here in a car, you
57:07
Speaker 2: have a phone, you have a navigation that you can
57:11
Speaker 2: you know where you are exactly, and and and they
57:13
Speaker 2: are they were there. Nobody didn't know what was ahead
57:16
Speaker 2: of them, and they were they were navigating by you know,
57:20
Speaker 2: what is it called taking the height of the sun
57:22
Speaker 2: and a small compass and counting the kilometers or the distance,
57:27
Speaker 2: and and you know, relying on on nothing. Nobody would
57:30
Speaker 2: hear from them for a year or something. You know,
57:32
Speaker 2: it's kind of and still they went again, you know,
57:34
Speaker 2: and you know, you can imagine how how addective this is.
57:37
Speaker 2: You know, how how do you I don't see if
57:39
Speaker 2: I would, Yeah, but but you know it's addective. You know,
57:44
Speaker 2: this this adventure, there's there's there is something about it.
57:47
Speaker 2: So I think there's something in our blood. This is
57:49
Speaker 2: explorers kind of type of thing. And and for many
57:52
Speaker 2: people this is something very addictive. And for other people
57:55
Speaker 2: maybe they don't like it. It's not for them. But
57:58
Speaker 2: like I said before, I mean I've back to let's
58:02
Speaker 2: say civilization, and you know kind of like looked at
58:05
Speaker 2: a toilet in a hotel room and the shower and
58:08
Speaker 2: everything is right there, and kind of like, wow, what
58:10
Speaker 2: a luxury? Right thinks we take from every day?
58:15
Speaker 1: We do? We do? Yeah, I'm in a hotel room
58:20
Speaker 1: in Turkey right now for this podcast. Yeah, I'm a Turkey,
58:26
Speaker 1: but you're explaining exactly how I feel living in a
58:30
Speaker 1: camper full time and coming into a forty dollars a
58:34
Speaker 1: night hotel with hot shower and a bed and a
58:38
Speaker 1: flush toilet. Is we do take it for granted every
58:41
Speaker 1: single day. So yeah, I guess we'll wrap up, and
58:44
Speaker 1: for the Overland Journal podcast listeners, where can we find
58:47
Speaker 1: more about you?
58:49
Speaker 2: And are okay? So after trucks is to start to
58:52
Speaker 2: trust dot com perfect and I don't really have anything
58:58
Speaker 2: specific on me and that's that other than a kind
59:01
Speaker 2: of like just my name and I pop up them
59:04
Speaker 2: some things I haven't done anything like that.
59:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Arctic Tricks dot com. Trans Global Car Expedition
59:13
Speaker 1: also has a great website, so those are both excellent
59:15
Speaker 1: resources to find you. Thank you all so much for
59:18
Speaker 1: joining me on the Overland Journal podcast today. It was
59:22
Speaker 1: fascinating chatting with you. I could probably if you were
59:25
Speaker 1: going to do some sort of like class on polar
59:29
Speaker 1: expeditions and planning, I would definitely attend it, just so
59:32
Speaker 1: you know, knowing nothing about polar expeditions other than what
59:35
Speaker 1: you told me it's super fascinating. One day, I'd love
59:38
Speaker 1: to dive into how you look at your route planning
59:42
Speaker 1: and movement of CI things like that. It's so interesting
59:45
Speaker 1: to me from a terrain and planning perspective. But anyways,
59:49
Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll be on this podcast again, So thank
59:52
Speaker 1: you so much for taking the time, and thank you
59:54
Speaker 1: so much to the Overland Journal podcast listeners for tuning
59:57
Speaker 1: in and we'll check you out next time.
1:00:00
Speaker 2: Thank you, Ashley, and then good luck to you for
1:00:02
Speaker 2: your for all your adventures. You're going ahead now, so
1:00:06
Speaker 2: it's very nice to talk to you. Thank you.