South: Bottom of Map

The South Pole Epic was mentioned in the Bike Snob NYC blog. In his blog he talks about the South Pole being at the bottom of the world in unflattering terms. But why is the South Pole at the bottom of globes and maps?

The world with Antarctica at the top of the world

East is Up

By convention maps are made with north at the top. But this wasn't always the case. In the middle ages east was often at the top of the map. The sun rises in the east so it made sense to put east at the top.

Hereford Mappa Mundi, a map with east at top

West is Up

For some reason when I would draw maps for streets in Utah I would often end up with west at the top of the map. This would confuse people, so I try and remember to draw maps with north at the top, but my mind thinks of the local area with west at the top.

North is Up

The Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy is credited with making north the top of maps by convention. It makes sense because in the northern hemisphere navigation was done using the North Star. Had the convention been established by someone from the southern hemisphere we would probably have south at the top of maps by convention.

South is Up

Having north up is very northern hemisphere egocentric. So there are some that like to make maps with south at the top. Continuing the northern hemisphere egocentricity they are called reversed maps, or upside down maps.

0º is Up

Having north at the top is a good convention because you can pick up a map and instantly understand what you are looking at. However when looking at a map of Antarctica north at the top doesn't work so well. Usually Antarctic maps are polar projection (azimuthal equidistant projection) with 0º longitude being at the top. In this case the South Pole is in the middle of the map.

Story Comments

AP did a story about my expedition. It is great to see more and more people getting excited about this expedition. However, there are a few things in the story that I would like to comment on.

EnergySolutions

I am extremely grateful to EnergySolutions for their generous donation, and to be able to list them as a sponsor for my expedition. It is awesome to have such a great company willing to help me out. 

I Mix Up Dates

The year is almost half over, yet I still have to remind myself that it is 2013 and not 2012. On Friday I finished up my video of the Tickville Gulch and Jake the Snake trails. I was in the process of uploading the video when my son told me that the copyright notice said 2014. Changing that to 2013 made it so the video had to be re-rendered and up loaded taking a couple extra hours.  

Anyway, the Australian team and the Spaniard have said they are doing the expedition this year, 2013.

My income

As a computer programmer for WordPerfect and Novell I was paid well. One year my income, including stock options, patent bonuses, and other bonuses, did approached $500,000. However, my normal income was much less than that. Because of the good income I had as a programmer, I was able to be debt free and have a decent savings. 

I have used that savings to open up a bike store, Epic Biking. I have since had to take a loan on my home, and my families lives an extremely frugal lifestyle in order to keep the store going. The story says the store operates more as a charity than as a business. I do consider my second career as a bike shop owner as a give back to the community career, but I am trying to run the store as a business. There are a lot of times that I make decisions not based on profitability, but on my goal of using bikes to promote a healthy lifestyle. 

One of the main things I hope to accomplish with my South Pole expedition is to continue my efforts to improve the health of others. Not only do I think I can raise the awareness of biking with this expedition, but I also believe the expedition will help me promote my bike store. I also hope to be able to make money on the documentary, which will help fund my continuing efforts to get more people out on bikes. 

It has been hard for me to ask for donations, but I believe that it is a worthwhile cause.

Tickville Gulch Entrance

This is just a short video of the entrance into the Tickville Gulch from this morning's training ride.

 We cut this trail in the side of the cliff using shovels and McLeods.

Here is the GPS route from the ride.

Sponsor: Energy Solutions

I've added Energy Solutions on the Sponsors Page for the South Pole Epic, but I also would like to publicly thank them for their generous donation.

EnergySolutions is an international nuclear services company headquartered in Salt Lake City with operations across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries around the world. With over 5,000 world-class professionals, EnergySolutions is a global leader in the safe recycling, processing and disposal of nuclear material. They provide integrated services and solutions to the nuclear industry, the United States Government, the Government of the United Kingdom, along with various medical and research facilities.

Thanks Energy Solutions for helping us and helping our environment.

Penguins

Pittsburgh Penguins Logo

My oldest son has been a penguin fanatic practically his whole life. I think it all stated when my wife bought a stuffed penguin as a gift for me. My son decided the penguin should be his. He loves the penguin in the Santa Clause is Coming to Town movie. He named his stuffed penguin Top after Topper, the penguin in the movie. His favorite hockey team is the Pittsburgh Penguins, which is kind of cool because I served a mission in Pittsburgh. I think his love of hockey started because the team mascot was a penguin. He even ordered a pizza with anchovies on it once because he figured that is the kind of pizza a penguin would eat.

Santa Clause and Topper

As a computer programmer for Novell I had the opportunity to work on Linux which uses a penguin as its mascot.

Tux the Linux penguin

I frequently get asked about the wildlife we will see on our expedition. During my interview with Fox 13 yesterday the reporter asked me about penguins.
I would love to be able to see some penguins while on the expedition, but that most likely won't happen. Even though we will start our expedition at the edge of Antarctica, there is a big ice shelf between us and the open water, and the penguins won't be that far from the water.

Macaroni Penguin

There are 17 or 20 different species of penguins depending on which expert you talk to. The largest penguins are the Emperor penguins which are only found in Antarctica, and was the subject of the March of the Penguins documentary. The Galapagos penguins are the only penguins that, in the wild, live north of the equator. But I think my favorite penguins are the crested penguins like the Rockhopper and Macaroni penguins.

Please help fund our expedition by bicycle to the South Pole by donating at http://www.gofundme.com/SouthPoleEpic or http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/southpoleepic/the-south-pole-epic

Borealis Bikes

Fat-Bike.com had a story about the Borealis Bikes' new carbon fiber fat bike today. Apparently their phones are ringing off the hook, including a call from me.

A nice lightweight carbon bike like this could be a great bike for our South Pole expedition. The bike has rear rack mounts, and three water bottle mounts, making it a great expedition bike.

I Can, Yukon, We Alcan

I have been helping a family prepare for their awesome biking expedition. They will be biking from Alaska to Montana on the ALCAN highway. The expedition members range in age from 61 to 4. I have been working with them to get their bikes ready for the trip, and teaching them how to work on their bikes. Teaching them how to adjust brakes, shifting, replace changes, true wheels, replace spokes, and much more. They now have a blog for their expedition. Wishing them good luck!