Day 13: Lots of Action and the 85th Degree a Day away‏

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 13: End of Day Position: 84 51.25 N, 80 02.69 W
Distance covered since the start: 113 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 43.5 nm
Distance to The Pole: 309 nm
Overall distance versus plan: -1.3 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 22 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -43 / -32 deg C

Notes: nm = Nautical miles (1 nm = 1.8 kilometers)
Expedition days are ‘1 sleep’ days, and may not = calendar days

As you maybe able to work out, we are making amazing progress, and today, Day 13, produced a new day's record of 11.7 miles. Today's mileage included crossing 4 huge frozen leads. I needed to switch from snow shoes to skis for 2 of them due to the thin ice. These leads are all from the super tide of 2 weeks back which clearly caused havoc in the ocean then, but time and the cold has managed to 'repair' all the breakage. We were just saying how scary it must have been being out here when it was all breaking up!

Much of our good progress can be attributed to Richard's expertise: Firstly in routing us as direct north as possible with limited navigation aids, and secondly his route picking crossing all the pressure ridges and other obstacles. Everyday we must cross 50+ mini mountain passes over boulder ice mountains. Choosing the best pass over these mountains can save a lot of time and effort, and Richard's experience shines evidently throughout every day. Our next concern point is the full moon and associated spring tides at the end of March. There is potential for extensive ice breaking up again. I guess we shall see.....

The temperature has been warmer than I had prepared for but it's still cold and every day I have at least one cold 'issue' where I have to dig deep to prevent damage. It always happens at either the start of the day or after a 'lunch' break when I have got cold. Once I get going and reach 'in the groove' temperature it's never a problem for the rest of a march.

The day following my last post produced the first true open ocean area. Compared to the previous open leads this was a huge pan of real green arctic sea water...and the water was an interesting green colour. We all donned skis to cross lots of thin ice, and Richard found us an amazing ice route across the pan. I sense that things are 'a-changing' and a day for swimming is not far off. We have seen lots of level cloud, and fog all around, all indications of lots of open water. Last Post, I referred to the sterility, but all this has changed, with the open water.....On day 12 we came across Polar bear tracks, a single medium size bear that had passed in a south westerly direction. Probably heading towards the open water in search of a seal. It is interesting to think of the quality of life of a single 'lonely' polar bear, in this harsh and bleak environment!


Polar bear print.

On the night of Day 10 just as we were preparing to get into our sleeping bags we heard the all too familiar now...boof...boof...boof, that sounded really close by. Hmm, are we and our tent in the way of nature's pressure ridge construction process? We went out to inspect but fortunately the ice ramming activity was a safe distance away. It does make one think of the scenario of being woken with breaking ice on our doorstep! The way we try to mitigate against this is by selecting camp sites way away from any pressure ridges, or leads.

Day 11 was my worst so far. It all started as I put my head out of the tent at 6h15 to find an eerie grey world with thick fog everywhere. I'd been warned to expect many days like this, but after 10 amazing clear and sunny days this was a shock. Basically the fog stayed around the whole day, making ‘my world’ very small, and requiring me to dig deep for the 9 march hours. That had not been a problem before, as I had found the visible environment was stimulating in its unique starkness. We shall see in the more 'fog days' ahead. It is interesting what one thinks about out here.... In one of these moments, I decided the 'Purpose of Life' for the moment (haha, a contradiction hey!) is to fully embrace my Arctic / North Pole experience! These Posts and trying to deliver something special for you are part of that, so thanks for being there with me.....

I am undoubtedly the leader in 'getting wet' experiences, with 3 times 'boot in the water', and one knee in the water while taking a photo kneeling on thin ice. However Tessum was first to dunk his sled in the water, and I managed to capture it on camera below:

Tessum's sled falls through the ice!

One may get the impression that we are moving along 'trouble free', but this is a harsh and demanding environment and we have had our fair share of equipment breakage / failure: To date we have broken a ski pole, seriously cracked two of the sleds, worn out 2 pairs of mittens, cracked two sets of crampons on the snow shoes, broken a ski binding, and many ‘ski-tow hitch' lanyards have broken. Fortunately through Richard's experience we have spares and repair 'bits and pieces' with us, so have been able to painlessly repair the equipment. Richard and I stitched up the sleds using wire thread stitched through newly drilled holes. The sleds in particular take a huge pounding as they hurtle over the ice boulders crashing to the ground...once or twice out of control and ending up mowing me over, leaving my ego badly damaged!

Two of the sleds are no longer capable of floating in the water, but in the next day or so we will have sealed the cracks so they will be ready for our first swim!

Continuing where I left of last Post with my 'A day in the life of a North Pole expeditioner, I have now entered the tent, and it's about 7pm....

The one stove has just started heating the tent, and the other two are being fired up....My cold world of the 9 hour march is left behind me for at least a few hours, and a warm, social environment awaits. But before I can relax, there is housework to be done...... My gloves, neck tube, hat and socks have to be hung up at the roof apex of the tent using safety pins on our washing line. This is so they will dry using the heat from the stoves and be ready to keep us warm for the next day ahead. By now the big water pot is on the 3 stoves, melting snow for our highly prized 'end of day' reward: a 'Weber cocktail'... Richard won't tell us the main ingredients, but it’s like a warm horlicks drink, plus a large amount of 'Canadian maple sugar', served in our individual mugs to which we then each add 'the main ingredient'.... David's extra special Scotch whiskey! Most nights its just 1.5 'measure' each, but for special occasions (e.g. crossing 84 degrees, and our day 11 record of 11.6 miles) we go up to 4 measures! Gee, these cocktails go down REALLY well!

While the water is boiling, I have to remove my boots, 4 layers of socks, and then brush my inner boots from my ski boots dry of all snow and ice using the loo brush.... The 2nd sock layer is basically a thin waterproof liner that keeps sweat in the inner sock. Anyway all this has to be taken 'apart' and dried for the next day. Once our boots are brushed off, we put them back on and have 'evening slippers' that go over them so we catwalk outside without getting too cold.

Cooking then continues with our 'second course', a wonderful pemmican / noodle dish, with either pine nuts or coconut crème, it's always a surprise which it will be! I usually have two full plates worth!

All the time there is lots of chatting, about everything from the day's progress, to real 'boys' stuff! It's been great having all this interaction after the pretty solitary 9 hour marches.

Dinner time in tent!

A short while after the main course we have 'desert' which is a warm cup of 'muscle milk'.... a variety of lovely flavours of muscle recovery drink!

Around 9h30, the bad moment is called..."stoves out!" From that point on the tent temperature is on its way down to the outside temperature. We then have to 'rush' out of the tent, grab our 3 sleeping bags and night pee bottle then have a last, 'cold' proactive pee! The sleeping bags stay outside so they don't take in moisture while the stoves are on.

The race is then on to get into the 3 sleeping bag layers one by one before you 'freeze'. It's quite a challenge, but I feel more than adequately rewarded when I'm finally tucked in and feel things warming up inside. A few 'seconds' later through shear exhaustion I am in dream land...

Next post.... The night, waking in our frozen home and breakfast!