COINS Foundation Blog

The question you all ask me, Why take the risk?
As a Chartered Safety Professional in the Construction Industry working for the Kier Group, i advise all sorts of people how to manage risk and tell you all the safest way to do it.
As a dedicated husband and father i care deeply for my family, however i want them to manage risk in there day to day lives, that’s how we all learn and grow.

Outside of the workplace, we all take risk to some degree. We can’t start to understand or appreciate those who do and successful experience what life has offer until we are there ourselves.
So to take that as far as I can what my North Pole experience mean to me is:-
“I will stand as close to the edge as possible, on top of the world, without falling off. Out on the edge I may experience all, that’s where I must go, until then I will always wonder ……..what’s there, no regrets”
As a very rich and wise man once said……….Nike, Just Do It!

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Skiing in Austria, Solden
This week a few of the team including me went out to Austria, to a ski village called Solden to have a week pulling around the sledge and to get some skiing and cold weather training under our belts.

This training is essential to ensure to can acclimatise to the cold weather and fully appreciate the risk that the snow and ice brings.
This is me after being sent down a steep hill with the pulk behind me, the team soon realised the reason I’m a mountaineer and not a skier!

As part of the training we went downhill skiing, which was a new experience for me as i have not done much skiing before.

A great week was had by all, loads of fun and great team building exercise, and i think i can ski………….just!

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On a wet and windy November Saturday we met up in a village hall in Gloucestershire, to issue all the clothing and most of the equipment we’ll be wearing on the Expedition. The cold hall was quite a good setting to be trying on layers of thermals!
Steve Davis sporting the new thermals……ummm very nice!

Some of the kit we’ll be wearing includes inner and outer layers of thermals, which need to balance being comfortable enough to wear while walking, while being a snug enough fit to keep the warmth in and wind out. On top of thermal layers over legs and torso are the gloves, boots, jackets and head gear, including sun glasses and goggles.
The reason for issuing kit so early is to make sure we have enough clothing which fits well in advance – much of our kit is made to order and some imported, so there’s no easy way of getting specialist kit last minute. We also need to spend time customising it for our needs – opening zips for example is hard work wearing two layers of gloves, so all zips need to have strong tags or cord tied onto them to make them easier to grasp. Windsuit hoods need to have fur linings sewn in which must stand the test of brutal winds, and since we’ll be four to a tent, and all mostly wearing the same clothes, absolutely everything has to be clearly named so we don’t get our clothing mixed up!
I’ll be setting quite a few evenings aside in the coming months for my needle and thread!

Above is are pictures of Richard trying to keep track of all the kit that has been issued……no chance, “shiny new kit, quick, grab what you can and run”

Help me raise funds for the COINS Foundation Here: