A Step Too Far

Pete and Jools Bland were young, in love, and scared to death. Pete had an aortic aneurysm which could kill him if it burst. But surgery could leave him paralyzed, even prove fatal.  Incredibly, at just 28, Pete was undergoing open-heart surgery for the second time in his life.

Julia Bland: I just thought it was just outrageous.

Jools remembers seeing him right after the operation. She'd never seen Pete so down.

Julia Bland: He looked so-- pale and swollen. When he came to he was-- you know, he was very much wanting to get down and make sure his feet were working.

Peter Bland: I got myself in a position. And I went, "Wiggle your toe, Pete. Wiggle your toes." And I wiggled my toes. And they wiggled.

While Pete wasn't paralyzed, there was a long way to go from being able to wiggle his toes to being able to trek to the North Pole. But that trip was a tantalizing lure.

Julia Bland: It was the carrot dangling in front of him.

Jools was beyond relieved, happy to be taking him home. But instead of following doctors' orders to rest, he was soon training harder than ever.

Julia Bland: He was up and about and walking around the farm. You know,  I think one of our neighbors picked him up down the road and brought him home for me at one point. It was outrageous. He was a very bad patient. Very bad patient.

But he was a very exciting partner -- and eight months later, the pair tied the knot.

Julia Bland: It was just a fabulous moment. We'd been through so much together, and we were sort of cemented in this together. So, it was very emotional, you know, it was in sickness and in health kind of thing.

Neither heart trouble - nor marriage - was going to slow Pete down. He was chomping at the bit to get to the Arctic, to reach his goal of becoming the first Australian to reach both poles.

And this time, it was for a cause. He'd turned this trip into a major fundraiser for the Australian Heart Foundation.

Jools was thrilled to see Pete healthy and happy again... But it would mean another long stretch apart. He'd be away for 35 days this time.

Julia Bland:  Usually what I do is, I say, "Right, you're off on your trip. And I shut you out. And I do my life. And then, you come back." 

Sara James: Is that a risky move?

Julia Bland: Definitely. But it's a necessary one. It's self-preservation. Because otherwise, you're worrying about this person, and it's affecting your life.

If Jools shut Pete out too many times, would it one day be impossible to let him back in? This risk wasn't even on their radar. Pete was focused on the trek before him ... 400 miles in sub-zero temperatures.

Peter Bland: It is better than anything I could have imagined. Just pristine and pure and raw.

Pete used the satellite phone to check in when he could.

Hello, JJ. It's your husband. I'm very well. I'm very cold. It's about minus 20.

But Jools' confidence faltered a bit when -- for five days -- there was no contact. Not a word. Had something happened?

Come on, baby, do your thing. Do your thing. Everyone's crossin' their fingers.

Jools didn't know that the satellite phone had frozen. The team not only was fine, but about to reach their goal. Pete had made history.

How sweet it is! Here we are at the North Magnetic Pole.

And the media were anxious to tell his story of overcoming such great odds.

Sara James: You had the biggest smile on your face.

Peter Bland: Yeah, big smile.

Julia Bland: He was a hero, you know? People very much relate to him. They can relate to that-- that-- that spirit of adventure and wanting to overcome odds.

Pete returned home, bursting with pride over all he'd accomplished. He could turn his passion for adventure into a full-time career.

Julia Bland: He'd had a sort of epiphany of how you can be a sort of commercial adventurer in a sense. And that was something that he was gonna work on because he wasn't always gonna just have a normal job.

It had always been a point of friction for Pete and his dad, who thought it was beyond time for Pete to zero in on a stable, traditional career. But Pete seemed to have found the perfect compromise -- a marketing job that gave him enough time off to try to make history again. This time with old friend and fellow adventurer Jay Watson.

Julia Bland: Jay would come around and they'd sort of bring out all their maps and hide them out in the back room.

Sara James: They're scheming and plotting?

Julia Bland: Scheming and plotting. Scheming and plotting.

Jay Watson: We loved these adventures. We loved being out there in the elements.  We loved sort of being amongst the wilds. We wanted to be out there and amongst it.

But to get financial backing, their adventure needed to be dramatic and unprecedented. Pete and Jay hatched a plan to become the first team in the world ever to cross the Antarctic Peninsula unassisted... No sled dogs, no food drops.

Pete had survived open heart surgery twice and now was going to attempt one of the most arduous treks a human can make.

Peter Bland: It's a pretty much, you know, James Bond 007. It's full on. You're skiing. You're kayaking. You're ice climbing. You're doing this world first crossing of the Antarctica Peninsula and it's pretty special.

"World first" had become Pete's mantra.  This time, he and Jay would film their historic trip for a television documentary.

While she didn’t object, Jools realized she now had a very different, far more conventional dream.  It prompted her to offer her adrenaline-junkie husband a most unorthodox deal.

Julia Bland: I said-- you know, I'd quite like a baby. And-- and if I get to have a baby, then you get to do another trip to Antarctica sort of thing. I mean, I must have been deranged. I don't know what came over me.

And so as Pete and Jay sorted out details, Jools gave birth to Olivia rose.

This time, Pete's time away put huge pressure on Jools. She'd have to organize everything from caring for the farm's livestock to paying the bills - on top of caring for a baby.

And most stressful of all for Jools, of course, was the possibility Pete could die. He was in one of the most treacherous places on Earth. Now that they had an eight-month-old baby, Jools couldn't help but feel vulnerable.

Julia Bland: He tried so hard to be this super human being. When in actual fact, if he had just tried maybe to be a normal person and cope with a normal life - it would have meant that my life would have been a little bit more easy.

But nothing could stop him now. Adventure had become Pete's obsession. Just weeks before Pete and Jay left, a major sponsor backed out. Pete scrambled, found another.

Julia Bland: There was a lot of pressure.  There was a lot of-- chaos around the putting together of this trip.

Pete's mom was downright terrified.

Julia Bland: She was out in the driveway begging him to stay.

This adventure would push Pete to his physical limit...  And threaten to destroy the dream he'd built back home.

Peter Bland: Everyone was saying, "Don't go." I wasn't listening back then. I'm listening now.

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