Day 27: Pemmican OK, into the 86th Degree, The days are long and hard....

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 27: End of Day Position: 86 30.1 N, 82 53.6 W
Distance covered since the start: 212 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 40.7 nm
Distance to The Pole: 210 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +1.3 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 21 April, + / - 2 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 10.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -45 / -28 deg C

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

Phew, on Day 24 we finally crossed the 86th parallel, and are back powering ahead. The combination of the big drift and our ‘lost’ two days for the resupply made this degree seem to last forever.

By the way, if anyone is wondering why we have been going slightly west from Day 1, it's on purpose as apparently there is a good chance of easterly drift as we approach the Pole.

Things are changing quickly now, sun is stronger, temperature warmer, our gear is dryer, and we have had a 15-18 knot easterly wind which appears to bee locking up the ice pans, and reducing open water we expected with the super tides of perigee.

The good news on the pemmican is that we have been given the "It's OK to eat" by a food hygiene expert. It tastes pretty sour, but 'the expert' says it's not going to affect us, other than any fussy eaters who don't like pemmican which tastes like sauerkraut! One of our team can't believe the taste of pemmican could get worse! Haha! While the crisis does seem to be behind us, we are treading cautiously for the next week, watching for any bad reactions. Getting this "OK" has been a real relief, as we were all a bit hyper on 'funny' tastes and slightly abnormal body functions!

As I commented before: Isn’t it amazing how the human mind and body adjusts to new challenges?... Our heavy sleds now feel 'normal', and we are back to +10 mile days. OK, we have also increased the day's march time by an hour, so the march day typically goes from 9 30am to 7 30pm. (Eastern Standard Time)

We were confused on Day 23 by remarkably warm weather, maybe even as warm as -20! I stopped in the middle of a march and removed all my layers except long underwear pants and top, plus the thin wind suit pants... real light clothing. I was so touched by this change in temperature and the sun was out, that I started singing that well known song "Summertime, and the living is easy"! I should have realized that singing that song in the Arctic is like whistling at sea... it calls the wind! A day later and we were dealing with -45, chilly head wind, and frozen whiskey! I had a difficult Day 24 as I was dressed for summer, and never quite got warm, definitely adding to my finger damage. The choice of clothing layers when we set out in the morning is critical, as major layer changes are very difficult to do on the march, and if one leaves an increase in layers a bit late, it can be quite scary. As you are changing everything is freezing more and your manual dexterity reduces dramatically to the point you can't do the very thing you NEED to do to help you warm up. Layering down is 'pleasant', but takes a lot of time, if one is dropping primary layers. It then includes taking off my boots, which is not fun even at -20!

David at step 3 of a 5 step process of getting down from the top of a 4m pressure ridge.

It does feel more like summertime, as there is almost 24 hours light, with sunset around 9pm, and I don't know when sunrise is as it's always up when we get up (6am). The tent is always light, so one's time clock is confused! I have been enjoying my brand new outer sleeping bag... in fact with the extra sun hours and no night as such, its been so 'warm'' in the tent at night, so I have only used the outer bag and the 'evil' vapour barrier bag! Doing away with the inner bag has made the process of going to bed much simpler.

The terrain has changed significantly from Nature's demolition zone I described last Post, to largely multi year ice covered in snow. Multi year ice is ice that hasn't been fractured and refrozen in the past year. This means that the terrain looks like a snow sea, with no / few exposed pressure ridges. Years of snow has covered the ridges / broken ice, and left an undulating soft snow surface, while easier than crossing pressure ridges is quite heavy going.

A view of an open lead and a sea of snow in the background.

The 27 days of tough days 'on the road' is starting to tell amongst the team...pains are appearing, painkillers being used, waking up is harder, less talking on the marches, everyone really looks forward to the breaks between marches, and there is a lot of focus on trying to reduce sled and backpack weights where ever possible. This is the time in the expedition where I knew the mind would struggle, around halfway, but thinking how long ago Day 1 it's a bit daunting thinking we still have the same again! I have really tried to see the routine and the cold environment as 'my life', to be embraced, and enjoyed rather than longing to be back in my 'other life' and desiring the things you can't have here. For short trips one doesn't have to do that, but for long ones like this it's critical, and the difference between the situation as freedom versus a daily prison. I can see each member of the team approaching this potential problem in their own different way… The focus of conversation and how it switches between the now and the arctic environment versus 'home' and it's 'catching' says a lot!

Snow sculptures like this are common in the 'sea of snow' terrain we are currently in... I may be 'losing it' after 27 days out here, but I saw this sculpture as a polar bear climbing into its sleeping bag.

I find my photography helps me get deeper into the now, and appreciating the absolute unique environment I am in. I often leave the group to go after photo shots, and then spend the next hour catching back up to them. It's also good for me as I can free myself of the monotony of 'just' mindlessly following another person's sled. I find particularly in the afternoons I start looking for alternate routes across ridges etc, which brings in another dimension of reading the ice and route planning. I have gained a lot of confidence through this, but like the sea, which it is, I never take it for granted, or think I'm in control. Yesterday, we had a situation where a snowed over lead looked totally safe, but as you poked through the snow it was just water… scary stuff and thankfully we had Richard's expertise preventing a disaster! I am really lucky that Richard is OK with me doing my 'own thing' sometimes, and as a follow on has asked me to lead the end of day marches. I have really enjoyed this!

I wrote the above at the end of Day 25, well it's now end of Day 26, and hmmm... today I 'fell' into the water, and am feeling sorry for myself! How? Well after getting behind I was taking a 'short cut' trying to catch up and misjudged the end of the water and start of hard ice...yes that same snow covered water I mention above! Fortunately only one leg went in up to knee level. It doesn't sound like much, but as I pulled my now completely soaked boot out of the water it all froze immediately forming an ice case around the boot. I broke off as much ice as possible, and then started to walk as fast as I could to try warm up. After 3 hours of trying to win the battle of warm my toes as I walked, I realized I wasn't winning, so stopped and changed my first layer sock and encased it in a plastic bag I kept for this very purpose. Removing the boot was not an easy thing, and then having 1 minute with a bare foot exposed to the 15 knot easterly was not fun! Anyway once I had that all done and started walking my toes recovered fully. As further punishment, as I sit in the tent, I have just finished taking my boots apart (2 liners and shell) and had to spend 30 mins with the loo brush, getting rid of the snow and ice. Lesson learned... It will NEVER happen again!

My iced boot...!

So finally back to "24 hours in the life of an expeditioner", and we have just fallen asleep....:

Being packed like sardines, it's highly likely you wake up if your buddy next to you decides to turnover. Then the snoring, and sometimes talking in the sleep....

Sunset and our home!

I'm alarm timekeeper, and with the responsibility I somehow wake at around 5h30 and then stay awake waiting for the ever popular, 6am wakeup call! This time before 6am usually catalyzes me needing to use the in bag pee bottle! Always an unpleasant task, but better than the outside alternative! Being the only morning person, and the only one who sleeps with my tent boots on, I am first out the tent in the morning. Once all of us are out, and have packed away our sleeping bags, its then up to Tessum to put on his full windsuit and go back into the tent, pass all out all the stuff in the tent and then with the loo brush and diligently brush off all the ice on the inside of the tent. If we didn’t do that all the ice would melt and wet us and all our clothes, etc! After the brush off, all the stuff goes back into the tent, and 1st priority is warmth and getting the stoves lit. As that's complete, the 1st course of breakfast is handed out (frozen sucre bread, with peanut butter etc) with our 8 vitamin tablets. As the water on the stoves boils, coffee is served, and after that pemmican and rice. Which is then followed by lots of chatter, about anything from iPhones to Richard’s arctic stories. That's breakfast...

To be continued!