Powering a polar adventure

The last time Rob Swan walked to the South Pole he relied on jet fuel to heat his food, provide warmth and melt ice into water during the 1,400 kilometre journey. Three decades on and he is going back, this time using renewable energy to stay alive.

In the 1980s, he was the first person, as he puts it, “stupid enough” to walk to both the South and North Pole. In mid-November, he will start his latest adventure – the South Pole Energy Challenge – to highlight the importance of renewable sources of energy to help protect the environment.

Watch: The South Pole Energy Challenge trailer

Read the transcript

Title: South Pole Energy Challenge | Shell #makethefuture

Description: The South Pole Energy Challenge is the first-ever expedition to the South Pole powered only by renewable energy, including advanced biofuels provided by Shell. #makethefuture

Duration 01:23 minutes

Audio

Background music commences, dramatic suspense sound.

Vision

Graphic under-the-ice display.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover with dramatic music playing in background.

“600 miles on foot”

Text Display

[600 MILES IN 60 DAYS]

Vision

Robert and Barney Swan trekking across Antarctic snow seen from above with mountains in background.

Change to graphic under-the-ice display.

Text Display

[in Antarctica]

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover with dramatic music continuing in background.

“The most hostile place on earth”

Vision

Robert and Barney Swan in the Antarctic outside of their tent, cooking on a stove.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover with dramatic music continuing in background.

“With my son Barney”

Change to graphic under-the-ice display.

Text Display

[only using renewables]

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover with dramatic music continuing in background.

“Only using renewable energy”

Vision

Close up of advanced biofuels cannister being used in the Antarctic snow.

Change to Robert and Barney Swan warming from the flame outside of their tent.

Change to graphic under-the-ice display.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover with dramatic music continuing in background.

“It’s never been done”

Text Display

[Never been done]

Audio

Sound of ice breaking. Background music changes to faster paced guitar and drums.

Vision

Short clip of Robert Swan marching on rocky terrain up a mountain.

Still image photograph of Robert Swan holding an infant child Barney Swan.

Change to short clip of snowy mountain side with trees.

Change to short clip of Robert and Barney Swan both on bicycles training.

Change to short clip of Barney Swan vlogging on mountain top.

Change to short clip of unidentifiable explorer warming next to fire at night time.

Change to short clip of Robert Swan marching on rocky terrain up a mountain.

Change to short clip of panoramic view of Antarctic ice field with snowy mountains in background.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover, with fast paced music in background.

“Antarctica’s not friendly”

Vision

Short clip of Robert Swan speaking to camera, portrait style view.

Change to short clip of Robert Swan speaking to camera, side on angle upwards looking degree. With maps and Antarctic picture in background.

Text Display

[Robert Swan OBE first person to walk to both Poles]

Audio

Robert Swan speaking on camera, with fast paced music in background.

“You’re in a place that actually wants you dead”

Vision

Old black and white still photograph of Norwegian explorers with their tent in Antarctic tundra.

Change to old black and white still photograph of Norwegian explorers with skiing with snow sled in Antarctic tundra.

Change to old black and white still photograph of British explorers dining around a table inside with Union Jack flags hanging in the background.

Change to old black and white still photograph of a frost-bitten hand.

Vision

Short clip of Barney Swan speaking to camera, portrait style view.

Short clip of Barney Swan speaking to camera, side on angle. With equipment hanging on wall in background.

Change to short clip of Barney Swan speaking to camera, portrait style view.

Text Display

[Barney Swan]

Audio

Barney Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music.

“Your eyes can freeze, your teeth can crack, your throat can actually start to freeze”

Vision

Change to old still portrait photograph of Robert Swan with ice covered face during his first expedition

Change to old still photograph shot from inside tent of Robert Swan’s half naked body coming through entrance.

Change old still image of broken Antarctic ice on sea.

Change old still photograph of Robert Swan with his sledge hiking through treacherous Antarctic terrain.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music.

“Cycling has been a huge part of preparations, we’ve pulled a lot of tyres, a lot of miles, it’s not easy”

Vision

Panoramic view of tree covered mountain with curved road on which Robert and Barney Swan are cycling.

Change to short clip of Robert and Barney Swan cycling on mountain road from front view.

Change to birds-eye view of Robert and Barney Swan pulling tyres on mountain side dirt road.

Change to close up clip of tyre being pulled through dirt.

Change to short clip of Robert and Barney Swan pulling tyres up mountain side dirt road from front view.

Change to short clip close up side on angle of skis and ski boots on Antarctic icefield.

Change to short clip of front on view of Robert and Barney Swan pulling sledges trekking across Antarctic icefield with mountain range in the background.

Audio

Change to short clip of Robert Swan speaking to camera, portrait style view.

“If we can survive out there”

Vision

Change to short clip of advanced biofuels burning flame.

Text Display

[Biofuels provided by Shell]

Vision

Short clip of advanced biofuel cannister on its side with branded Shell Pecten

Audio

“Only on renewable energy”

Vision

Short clip of Robert Swan sitting on top of a pile of snow next to equipment in Antarctic icefield with mountains in background.

Text Display

[Solar]

Vision

Change to short clip of advanced biofuel cannister on its side being utilised on bland floor by unidentifiable person.

Change to short clip of large cooking pot with food inside being broken up with a serving spatula with identifiable advanced biofuel cannister on its side in background.

Change to short clip of ice being placed into a saucepan to melt.

Change to short landscape clip of multiple persons in Antarctic blizzard.

Change to short clip close up of Robert and Barney Swan pulling rope in Antarctic blizzard.

Audio

“Warming up your tent, cooking your food, melting the ice, it’s going to be hard, trust me”

Audio

Barney Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music.

Vision

Change to short clip of Barney Swan speaking to camera, side on angle upwards looking degree. With equipment hanging on wall in background.

Change to short portrait shot of young adult Caucasian female

Change to portrait shot of young adult Caucasian male

Change to portrait shot of young adult black female

Change to portrait shot of young adult Caucasian female

Change to portrait shot of young adult Asian female

Change to portrait shot of young adult black male

Change to portrait shot of young adult Caucasian male

Change to portrait shot of young adult Caucasian female

Change to portrait shot of young adult black male

Change to portrait shot of Barney Swan talking to camera.

Audio

Barney Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music.

“We’re doing it, we’re not just talking about it, we’re doing it. I really do think there needs to be a connection between young people and how we use energy”

Vision

Change to shot of Robert and Barney Swan looking at a computer, shot from behind.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music building up suspense.

“Two generations, coming together”

Vision

Short clip of Robert Swan speaking to camera, portrait style view. Putting his hands together in action.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music building up suspense.

“It’s not my mission, it’s my son’s mission, it’s Barney’s mission”

Vision

Change to short clip of Robert Swan shaving his beard in Antarctica outside of his tent.

Change to short clip of Robert and Barney Swan looking at a screen, with Barney Swan points towards a point.

Change to short clip of screen displaying aerial view of Antarctic continent with Barney points towards a point on the screen.

Audio

Robert Swan voiceover, with fast paced background music building up suspense.

“But together we’ll make it”

Vision

Change to short clip of Rob and Barney Swan sitting outside in their backyard, shaking each other’s hand.

Change to shot Antarctic ice field with mountains in background. Robert Swan walking away from camera and putting hands on hips.

Audio

Fast paced background music starts building up to a crescendo.

Vision

Graphic under-the-ice display.

Text Display

[The South Pole Energy Challenge]

[Coming soon November 2017]

Audio

Background music reaches a finale and stops going silent.

Vision

White end frame with text and Shell branded pecten.

Text Display

[#Makethefuture]

[The South Pole Energy Challenge]

[A journey with <Shell Pecten>]

There will be a key difference to his earlier adventures. Swan, 61, will be joined by his son, 23-year-old Barney. Each of them will haul a sledge containing supplies and equipment including a solar ice-melting gadget.

“In the Antarctic, water is everything,” says Swan, a steel-jawed British adventurer who has spent his life walking, sailing and cycling around the world to campaign on environmental issues.

“You’re surrounded by 90% of the world’s ice but turning it into water to survive takes a lot of energy. Using jet fuel to melt ice is incredibly effective but it’s exciting to see how the sun can power our trip.”

The solar-powered ice-melter was designed by NASA, the US space agency. On sunny days, the adventurers hope it will turn ice into hot water.

They will take advanced biofuels made from woodchip waste which has been produced at the Shell Technology Centre in Bangalore, India.

A jet-grade fuel, it has been tested at temperatures of -60° Celsius to ensure it will work in such harsh environments. “If it gets to -60°C, the fuel will function, but we might not,” Swan quips.

Back in 1985, Swan carried no communications equipment and his team navigated to the South Pole using a sextant, an instrument that dates back to the early 1700s.

This time they are taking digital equipment to navigate and make contact in an emergency.

A polar obsession

Swan grew up in northern England in the 1960s. Like many schoolchildren, he was fascinated by the legendary British polar explorer Captain Robert F Scott.

Along with the remaining two members of his team, Scott froze to death in March 1912 on his return from the South Pole. Wanting to be the first man to get there, Scott was beaten by Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen.

Getting to the Pole became Swan’s obsession. He joined the British Antarctic Survey, one of the world's leading polar research institutions, after leaving university and then spent five years raising funds for an expedition, which Shell sponsored.

After arriving in Antarctica, building a camp and staying through the winter, he and two companions set out for the South Pole in November 1985.

It was a grueling start and only got tougher. Despite Swan’s fitness, after 550 km he could no longer pull his sledge. “I’ve always been able to overcome physical challenges but I was falling to bits. Should we turn back? Would we die? I felt my dream of all those years fading away.”

His teammates discovered that the runners on his sledge were attached incorrectly, preventing it from gliding smoothly across the ice. After maintenance and rest, the team continued onwards.

The South Pole Energy Challenge will be Rob Swan's next major expedition in Antarctica

NASA's solar-powered ice-melter in the snow

The US-space agency NASA designed the solar-powered ice-melter to turn ice into water

Rob Swan walking through the snow on his 1985 Antarctic expedition

Swan first walked unassisted to the South Pole in 1985 with two companions

Rob Swan and his son Barney training ahead of their expedition

Rob (right) and his son Barney will update their social media followers throughout the expedition

Preparing for the challenge

More than three decades later, Swan is still pushing his body to achieve the fitness he will need to survive the trek.

Training has involved dragging tyres on mountain walks, high-altitude cycling and other alternative training.

“To the delight of my son, I’ve taken up yoga,” he says. “Back then, I was a bull in a china shop. I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d never really been camping. I wasn’t a mountaineer. All I had was this passion to get to the Pole.”

Swan has a commanding presence, with a face etched by his experiences in some of the harshest weather conditions on earth.

His 1985 journey to the South Pole bleached his eyes and burned his face because of a hole in the ozone layer above the continent.

In 1989, members of his expedition to the North Pole came close to drowning because of unseasonable melting of ice.

Ahead of the South Pole Energy Challenge, he believes he is better prepared mentally to take on the journey.

“It’s crucial to break it up into chunks – each hour, each cup of hot chocolate,” he says. “If you think about reaching the Pole, you’d be insane by day seven.”

Inspiring a mission

In January 1986 Swan’s indomitable spirit was dealt a shuddering blow minutes after the team reached the South Pole.

The Southern Quest – the ship they planned to leave Antarctica on – had been crushed between ice floes and sunk. Most of the team was evacuated over the following days.

But two members stayed behind to look after their base camp.

The expedition, the ship’s sinking and returning for his teammates left Swan heavily in debt. But he was determined to clear up all the equipment and rubbish left behind during the evacuation, whatever the cost.

“I’d made a promise to leave Antarctica as I found it,” says Swan. “It took a long time and I was bankrupt but it was worth it. It shaped my life and I’ve never looked back.”

By Marcus George

Update: In December 2017, as the South Pole Energy Challenge passed the halfway mark, Robert Swan made the tough decision to return to base camp to allow the team to increase their pace. Hear Robert Swan's audio dispatch on his decision.

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