Food for Thought

When I set out to complete my groundbreaking return ski to the South Pole I knew that food would be pivotal to our success.

Studies had shown that a polar adventurer needs to consume at least 5,000 calories (kcals) a day to offset the high expenditure associated with hauling a heavily laden sled in sub zero temperatures. One study in Antarctica reported expenditure levels as high as 8,000kcals. Another important factor would be weight. Whatever we took, we would have to drag in our sled behind us. Team stores, spare clothing, communications equipment, fuel and food - enough to survive and operate for up to 75-days. For food, the target was to get as many calories as possible, but to keep the weight at 1kg per man/per day.

This involved lots of research to identify possible food items, calculate weights, discover kcal content and design a menu that would 'fit' with our journey. We ended up with 4,350kcals increasing to 5,750kcals as the journey unfolded. Having finalised the menu the focus then became one of procurement by seeking sponsorship from suppliers. Once procured we then moved onto the time-consuming task of removing all the original wrapping and repacking the rations in 'ready to use' packs.

As an example, each day we had a travel snack pack. It consisted of 3 x chocolate bars, 2 x packets of biscuits and 2 packets of nuts. All the original packaging was removed and the items were put in a single ziplock bag - that saved a lot of weight and extra rubbish to carry.

As the ‘ration project’ evolved, I purposely rotated ownership of the project among team members. This achieved several benefits. Firstly, because all individuals have a natural preference for a 'type of work' I sought to utilise this in order to get the maximum outputs from the team. Some liked to collect and study information (ideal for leading the research stage), others were more creative and extroverted (ideal for procurement) and others enjoyed detailed work (ideal for concluding the ration process). This rotation of ownership also helped generate individual ownership of the expedition, reinforce self-belief and improve cohesion and decision-making skills.

One great resource to explore individual work preferences further is - Margerison-McCann Team Management Profile.