A frosty Prince Harry has emerged from a giant freezer where he spent the night in preparation for an upcoming charity trek to the South Pole.
After spending 20 hours in temperatures as low as -55 degrees with wind chill in the simulated polar environment, the 29-year-old Prince blew into his hands and rubbed them together to warm up.
The cold didn’t get to the chilled out helicopter pilot’s sense of humour, summing up the night he and his four teammates had experienced in one word: “Cold!” and joked to one member of the waiting media outside the chamber “now it’s your turn”.
The Prince spend the night in the freezer in preparation for a gruelling 330km race to the South Pole in November as a patron of the Walking Wounded charity.
The point of the exercise was to get used to the conditions using the clothing and camping gear he will use on the expedition, and learning how to avoid frost-nip and frost-bite in the climate in Antarctica.
When asked what was the most difficult part of the exercise, he replied: “Going in”.
The Army helicopter pilot is to trek with a team of injured British servicemen — all of his four teammates have amputated limbs caused by injuries sustained in Afghanistan.
He took part in a similar five-day trek to the North Pole in 2011.
With his military training and preparation for the November trek, Major Maj Philp, who spent the night in the sub-zero tent with Harry said he was “a good extra pair of hands” during the training exercise, but the young royal won’t get any special treatment on the trek.
“We wouldn’t let it be any other way and he wouldn’t want it to be any other way,” she said.
“It’s great having Harry along, and hopefully he appreciates it too. It’s a chance not just for him to experience all the practical stuff that we’ve just done as well, but for us to get together as a team and start to get to know each other better.”
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