Day 18: The Arctic ups the Ante, a Swim and the Sleds are needing a Re-supply

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 18: End of Day Position: 85 44.4 N, 81 10.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 152.5 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 39.5 nm
Distance to The Pole: 269.5 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +0.5 nm (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 23 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.1 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -48 / -34 deg C (-57 wind chill)

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

The Story from the Ice:

Firstly, I’d like to thank all of you who have sent through comments and emails. It’s just absolutely amazing and motivates me a lot. You must also know that with your comment you get my mind space on my march too.... Sorry if I can't respond to each individually, but I do want you to know I receive and value them.

What is special about this photo...? Well firstly, as I'm sure you can see it's a shadow of me! Haha! It's my shadow at local noon, so is pointing straight to the North Pole. The shadow is very long because of the very low angle of the sun from the horizon, up here. Lastly, the ice on which I am standing is part of a huge refrozen lead, so you can see how flat it is to ski, and why we like them.

It was going all too well, and we were expecting the Arctic to up its ante any day, and now it's happened.... Just a tweak up, it could be a lot worse!

I am writing this at 1.30 am at the end of a long Day 18...12 hours out there marching...ooh, and swimming! Just as we were entering the last hour of our long day, we hit this wide and apparently endless 10mm ice lead. A quick test confirmed it was only 'crossable' by swimming. The next hour was spent doing that.... Tessum and I were first across in our drysuits, and then hurtling sleds and David and Richard. We had to break the thin ice as we swam. So, as I predicted in my last Post, we finally got our swim, about 150m!

Days 16, 17 and 1/2 of 18 saw us having to deal with a northerly head wind, right 'on the nose'...I thought that was a sailing term but now (from my reshaped nose!) I know it’s an arctic expeditioner term!...Not only did this wind make marching very uncomfortable, it has been pushing the ice south too, so we have been drifting backwards (south) as we walk and sleep!....The drift has been between 0.10 and 0.25 miles per hour so costing us 2.5-5 miles a day! When we are only doing 11-12 miles a day marching this is a huge 'dent' in a days’ progress to the pole. It remains to be seen how long this north wind blows. From about four days back, the compass ceased working as we are in too close
proximity to the magnetic pole and the confusing fluxes around it.

We had another amazing viewing of the power of Nature. This time it was the final 'death squeeze' in the ridge forming process. The ridge was formed, huge piles of large broken ice blocks now taken off the water, probably 0.75 m thick, being forced over each other one last time. As this eerie squeeze delivered its blow, the more vulnerable ones capitulate again, breaking a second time and finally falling into their new, high above the water, rest spots....ready to test next year's expeditioner!

Richard and Tessum: Like father, like son...lunch stop on -50 deg C wind chill...Lunch was very short!

Gearing up for resupply:

As you probably know already, our expedition is SUPPORTED, which means we get resupplied along the way. Well when we started our sleds were only packed with 21 days of supplies, and they are now much lighter, and we will run out of food and fuel in a few days. (We started with sleds of about 60 kg, and every day they have been getting about 1.2kg lighter as we consume the contents.) So, what happens when we run out...?

Fortunately our resupply will be 'dropped in', just in time, by air parachute (c/o Summit Air) to us on 21 March. This is a BIG day for us, as not only do we get vital food / fuel rations for the second part of the expedition, but we also have two days worth of 'normal' food and 'luxury' treats. We will have 1 day unpacking and repacking all 'the stuff', and then we are having a rest day....basically sleep! So we are in for two very special days, before resuming the rigors of the routine of the past 18 days, but with the shock of the fully stocked, heaviest ever sleds we have had! (about 75kg each). I hope the next Post will include photos of the re-supply drop in and some insights to our arctic
re-supply party, and day of gluttony! I am pretty excited getting into roast chicken, cookies, french cheese, cheese cake cappachino, and my South African delicacies!

It’s not all been weight loss in the sled.... Unfortunately my outer sleeping bag has been getting 0.3kg heavier every day as it takes on moisture, mainly from my sweat as I sleep...scary hey! What's real scary is the fact that this new sleeping bag is now virtually useless, being full of ice rocks that are both bloody uncomfortable to sleep on and don't provide any insulation! We will have new outer sleeping bags with the resupply 'stuff'. The unsupported people carry a spare outer bag, wrapped up to keep dry for use later through their expedition.

So, continuing with a day in my life....:

So I am now asleep like a tightly packed sardine in our tent, with an ice rock outer sleeping bag as my mattress. Because it's lost most of its insulating performance I have now started sleeping in my liner boots! So hopefully you can now imagine us 'snuggly asleep'!

As the night moves on there always comes a point where the desperate and intensive fight with my inner vapour barrier bag begins! (This bag is basically a thin, claustrophobic plastic bag that's supposed to reduce moisture traveling from me to both my sleeping bags.) The fight happens because I feel like I am suffocating as the plastic gets sucked onto both my air intakes. I have to find the opening and quick! Fortunately it’s so cold outside my sleeping bags that I can feel my way to the 'life saving' outlet by following the coldness. The
relief of getting to fresh air is soon replaced by the shock of my hand now being out in - 40 degree air, and the second gulp of air chilling my throat! Once that fight is over, the snoring and talking in sleep seems pretty easy to deal with!

It's getting late, so I'll send this now, and continue 'my sleep time
description next time....

Next Post will have our swim photos and coverage of our re-supply day 'party'!

A Special Response to BJHS North Pole Followers:

It's really great to have you guys following our expedition, and I hope one day I'll be back in Yellowknife to meet you! Thank you for your care about my face and fingers, they are doing well.

So far I have really enjoyed the expedition, and I think it's going to deliver what I expected.

Re the fog: Yes it does slow us down a bit, as we use visual navigation a lot, and the fog doesn't allow us to see the next ice mound to aim for.

I'll try and think about you guys and what you may find interesting for future Posts. Now take care, Howard