Phone Interview With Doug Stoup

     On Tuesday, December 18, 2007 my brother, Matt, and I talked to Doug Stoup.  Doug is an explorer who is guiding two other men through Antarctica to the South Pole.  They are walking and skiing the same route that Ernest Shackleton had planned in 1916.  Shackleton was never able to take this route because his ship, The Endurance, was crushed by ice.  We were sitting on stools in our kitchen with a speaker phone between us.

     To prepare for the call, I listened to his pod casts each day that he had posted, watched a four- part A & E movie about one of Shackleton's trips to the South Pole.  I also researched about the climate conditions.  Then I prioritized my prepared questions that I wanted to ask him because his battery might run low down.

     Before the call I was nervous.  It took four tries to connect to Doug because he was late getting to the waypoint.  We had a good connection. It was easy to talk to him.  He was using solar energy to recharge his Ipod and cell phone.  They measure in nautical miles and he told us that there are 16 nautical miles in a degree.  They are not using dogs to pull their sleds because dogs, or any animal that is not naturally there, are not allowed in Antarctica.  Each man is pulling approximately 240 pounds.  They had to gain a lot of weight for this trip because they will use up a lot of calories in the physical exercise and cold climate.  They must eat 8,000 calories a day!