Day 22: Two days of 'living it up', now back to reality, dealing with heavy sleds, lots of water, and playing drift catch-up...

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 22: End of Day Position: 85 49.3 N, 80 49.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 171.3 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 18.8 nm
Distance to The Pole: 250.7 nm
Overall distance versus plan: -0.0 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 23 April, + / - 3 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 9.8 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -38 / -30 deg C

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

Well our two re-supply / rest days have come and gone, and we are 'on the road' again, back in the 9 hour march routine... only this time with sleds that are about 25% heavier than the sled weight on Day 1, and 60% heavier than the last ones we remember immediately prior to the re-supply, on day 18. This has all been a bit of a shock to the mind, but as adaptable as us humans are, it took about a day, a painful one at that before they were 'normal'.

My last Post was from the eve of the re-supply... I thought it was 10:30 pm when I sent it, but it was actually 1:30 am in the morning! That was a big day with the open water lead crossing. Sorry, I don't have any good photos from it, but I had a 'technical problem'... It would be on the special occasion hey! I forgot to mention that even with the drysuit and my 'normal' gear on underneath, the water was really cold on the body after a while. Richard stayed in the longest, doing a few shuttle swims, so came out really freezing. My drysuit also leaked a bit, a small seeping stream through to my crotch area… not fun when it froze!

Our open water lead crossing in progress. Tessum broke the path through the thin ice.

Ok, so now for our 2 re-supply days:

We were sleeping in late, and right on his promise, Dave the pilot from Summit, flew low over our tent, buzzing his arrival....gee, it was emotional as I rocketed out of our tent to see him banking to come in for a marker drop to help him adjust for the wind. One more circuit and the first drop (of three) was released....but no parachute opening, just a huge thud as our first load crashed at high speed into the snow, about 300 metres from our tent! Hmmm, not much would survive that impact! The other two parachuted perfectly to safe landings also near the tent. We all ran first to the crashed one and found the bad news: The replacement sleds were destroyed, one can of fuel burst contaminating food, and many food packages burst open. A little present was two containers of 'tinned' fruit that delivered perfectly served fruit on ice. Seeing fruit like that was irresistible and we just stopped work and savoured the 'special' look and taste of fruit!

The first drop that crashed into the snow without the parachute opening, destroying our replacement sleds, bursting fuel and food containers, and providing us with a few headaches!

Unpacking the other two drops was like Christmas day present opening! Of course as things like chocolate brownies and cookies came up we 'had' to stop work and sample! We had forgotten much of what we had bought, so most items were truly present like. Our only 'bottle' of wine a specially chosen (for air transport and Oz origin!) “Thirsty Lizard” came through the drop with a slight leak, but 99% of its scarce content saved.

One of our drops his the snow spectacularly within 200 metres of our tent!

We used the wooden bases of the palettes of each drop as tent floorboards, and 'retired' to our 2 day home for a wonderful feast in a warm virtual house environment. This being quite different from the 'on the road' house where the ice floor, limited fuel heating time, and continuous 'pressure' to pack and leave make for very transient living. Did we enjoy it, eating food chosen just based on taste bud delight, rather than the highest, 'calorie per gram' basis of the last 18 days! It was greed at its extreme, but we did feel we deserved it! Every now and then someone dampened the party by asking what our GPS position was. We were drifting south all the time, and in all the two days put us back 10 miles. We thought this would happen, and all agreed the rest was more important. The second day was not all relaxing, in fact pretty busy re-packing, fixing etc....We did sleep in though!

One of the parachutes leading to our 2 day home! We used some of the stuff from the parachute for repairs etc. Will it lie there for eternity preserved in snow and ice, or eventually be engulfed by open water and sink to the depths of the ocean?

Some other potentially bad part of the re-supply was our discovery that the critical re-supply expedition food had been taken from its outdoor natural refrigerator in the Yelllowknife hangar, to a warm place for packing onto the drop palettes. This unfreezing of the food has meant the pemmican has gone off! (The butter is slightly rancid, but all the other food is ok.) Unfortunately pemmican is the major part of our diet. The extent of the problem from our ability to safely eat it is currently being established, but early reactions are worrying. We are busy looking at alternatives at the moment.

The 2 days were great for team building as the pressure coming off and celebration of our team milestone brought out the personalities, around lively recalls of the 18 days, and personal banter of a level we had not experienced before... A great team maturing nicely!
That's all the story for the re-supply... pretty full on, fun yet challenging!

My own whole roast chicken!

Day 21 started with David saying: "It feels like Monday, and going back to work!" Hmmm, I actually woke wanting to get back to 'moving life', but as we connected sleds the huge 'new weight' made me re-think that! We have all been looking at ways to reduce sled weight, and I ditched most of my spare clothing, including my polar suit top. (The top designed for use in the severest cold. It's clear the coldest time is behind us now, with virtual 24 daylight, and long sun hours.)

I experienced something new: We crossed a large pressure ridge as it was slowly collapsing. Basically, the ice pans either side of the ridge that had crashed into each other to form the ridge were now being blown apart collapsing the ridge. As we walked over it there was a pretty loud crunching / gnashing sound as the broken blocks of ice fell to lower positions..! Pretty scary stuff for me, but Richard was happy it was all safe. The end of Day 21 produced a meager 6.5 miles of progress to the Pole, which dented spirits a bit.

I write this now at the end of Day 22:
I have finally got relaxed with my cocktail, after a very difficult day. Pemmican 'stuff' affected us a bit, but mainly the terrain was difficult, no sun, heavy sleds, and almost 10 hours marching trying to make up yesterday's lost miles. I expected the ice to be alive and messy, after waking to the sound of grinding ice, and lots of grey 'open water clouds' around. For most of the day it felt like we were in Mother Nature demolition zone. Huge broken leads, lots of thin ice, lots of big ice block pressure ridges, and just an obstacle course. Thankfully none of the open water needed swimming, as we found a way around each time. Lugging the extra heavy sleds over these ice pressure ridges was very tiring.

With my new outer sleeping bag a lovely novelty, I'll wait for the next post to continue the “Day in a Life of a Polar expeditioner!”

Burying my old Outer Sleeping bag. I cut it up first and found all the rocks of ice! RIP!

Till that next Post, take care!