Hoist UK’s lifting gear leaves Cape Town for Antarctica

Hoist UK lifting equipment is aboard the Coldest Journey‘s ice-strengthened ship, the SA Agulhas, which has left Cape Town, South Africa bound for Crown Bay, Antarctica.

UK-based expedition sponsor Hoist UK has supplied manual chain blocks, lever hoists, slings and shackles, much of which has already been used in loading the ship and will continue to support the team, led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, on the ice.

Fiennes told LHI magazine, when it joined Hoist UK at a special event aboard the SA Agulhas in London last December, that only technological advancements and improvements to modern day equipment make possible the world’s first ever attempt to cross the Antarctic in winter—the Coldest Journey.

The 2,000-mile journey across the frozen continent, with temperatures dropping close to -90°C and operating in near permanent darkness, aims, among other things, to raise $10m for the charity Seeing is Believing to help fight blindness around the world.