Day 38: The Arctic shows us it's Wild Side, and challenges us...

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 38: End of Day Position: 88 41.6 N, 89 18.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 343.6 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 50.7 nm
Distance to The Pole: 78.4 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +2.0 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 16 April, + / - 2 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 10.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -25 / -10 deg C

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

I am so relieved that the last 5 days are behind me, but also so glad I experienced them... The Arctic has become wild since the last Post: Weather wild, ice wild, and terrain challenging. I guess we should have guessed that would happen after getting a bit too comfortable and maybe even complacent.

This Post will have mixed tenses, and order of days... sorry! As I have written it over a few days, and the current situation (described below is consuming us).

Night of Day 37: I sit here in our tent on a small floating ice floe (probably 800 metres at its longest point). Beautiful sea views, and lovely sunset! We are sort of marooned here, as we thought it was a bridge across a huge piece of open ocean but it's turned out to be a peninsula going nowhere! As our GPS says we are drifting at 0.5 knots, and just before coming into the tent we hit a smaller island floe, and it's now connected to us! With our drift the peninsula has probably now disconnected at the small ice bridge we used to get onto it, so we are truly a small floating ice island. It was the end of a long day and we had no option but to camp here. The good thing is we are drifting north and if this continues through the night we should cross the open ocean we desperately were wanting to go to, but probably by colliding with the other side ice tomorrow! It's pretty exciting, a bit scary too... I must say I was amazed today at the extent of the open water. It has looked like real open ocean with sea to the horizon in places. For the first time I truly 'believed' I am on a 'water ocean', rather than just 'land of ice', with a bit of water. Today felt that the ice was secondary to the ocean water...hmmm, scary stuff. Richard is also amazed and shared with us that in 7 trips to the Pole he has never seen open water like this for this time of the year and this far North. Hmmm, things REALLY are 'a changing' in the world, hey!

Sunset from our marooned island‏.

Today was probably the most interesting day of the expedition. It started with whiteout conditions and snowing, and us having to cross a maze of cracks, some of which were disguised with covered snow! Within the hour I had put my boot in hidden slush, and two sleds got dumped. Visibility improved, then we hit a huge east / west lead that took 3 hours to navigate around, with some tricky ice and crossings (beautiful scenery though). Just after 'conquering' that one, huge dark low level strata cloud almost reaching to sea level pointed to probably massive open water...and that's where we are now! Trying to get around this water was really challenging, but took us through the best Arctic scenery yet. It's clear there has been very recent huge ice destruction, and with the strong Easterly wind, there was lots of grinding and gnashing, all set behind a stage of REAL ocean, waves and all. I was fortunate to lead the last hour march which ended up being 3 hours, with a section where we walked metres from the ocean along the ice 'floe' edge with a beautiful golden sunset on the water. I guess one may conclude I led us to our current dilemma... haha, it was in consultation with Richard, and the whole team agreed at the time there was no dead end! It's all part of the navigation game that I can see draws Richard back! The South Pole does not offer this. We managed 9 miles today.

With less than 80 miles to go, after today, it's still not certain we will even get there! I guess we don't really believe that, but it would seem that in years to come, the open ocean water barrier will prevent people doing what we are doing.

I found this amazing: Open water showing the process of freezing, showing the clear line between newly frozen water, and open water.‏

It's Day 35, I have been living on the ice for 5 weeks now, and the Arctic has decided to show me a dimension I hadn't experienced yet... A moderate blizzard! Since 8pm yesterday it's been blowing 25 - 35 knots, with pretty heavy snow, and virtually white conditions. As the wind slowly strengthened we took the precaution of building a snow block wall around the windward side. Using a snow saw, we cut blocks of hard snow, placed them on a cleared foundation, and then plastered the gaps with soft snow. I can see I have a few more hours training to go before I can get awarded qualify for my Arctic Igloo builder diploma! After a blustery night in the tent, we awoke to absolutely miserable conditions, a new bit of open water a short distance off, and a unanimous vote of 'yes' to a rest day was accepted! Gee, how nice it's been sleeping in till midday, and just generally consolidating. We are all REALLY tired and this rest day will pay off nicely in the days ahead.

I am writing this inside the shaking and rattling tent, 30 knots outside, we are drifting west at 0.4 miles / hour, and have just gone outside to check out our barricade wall, and fill a few gaps. The barometer has dropped 20 bars in 20 hours, and is at a new low, so probably worse to come. It’s pretty warm though, and we have all committed to ‘marching tomorrow, no matter what'... I went to bed wondering what would happen if the tent got ripped up in the wind... After a few minutes of thinking, I had a plan, so fell asleep!

Surprise, surprise, after a restful 'blizzard day' off, and early to bed we woke on Day 36 an hour earlier at 5am, to a clear windless day... A good day to start marching again, but it didn't last long. It was soon dark blue / gray sky, westerly wind, snow, then our favourite northerly headwind. There was lots of fractured ice around, obviously from the strong winds of the day before. It was truly amazing seeing all this destruction and watching huge ice floes moving fast relative to each other. Lots of open water but until the last two hours of our marching it fortunately didn't affect us. We covered an amazing 16.4 miles to the Pole. I led the last 2 hours in initially whiteout conditions then literally a maze of open water fissures, with better visibility. I was dead tired at the end of the 11.3 hour day. The Pole is now only 87 miles away.

The only person we have met along the way! 'He' showed us the road to the Highway to the Pole!‏
On Day 33, we woke as expected to the news that we had drifted south 2 miles, the north wind was still blowing and it was 'whiteout' outside... hmmm, one has to dig deep knowing we were going out for 10 hours in this. Somehow I still started the day full of hope and excitement! Within hours it changed to a beautiful dark blue grey sky, with contrasting pure white snow ocean, and then the sun came out, there was no wind basically perfect weather. At the break before our last march that day we sat on our packs almost sunbathing, and sharing how "lucky we are"! We are always trying to dry gear out, and now it was so warm (relatively now!) with strongish direct sunlight I removed my iced up face mask and attached it sun-facing to my sled, so it could start thawing out before I got to camp!

A challenge for that same day was coming across this huge almost black ice lead... probably 500 meters wide and running NE / SW, almost directly across our path. Coming across it was like just arriving at an undiscovered sea. No chance of skiing across it and too far to swim... 2 hours of north easterly walking produced the hoped for ice bridge... phew, saved again, and with a 12.4 mile day (North component distance) we thought we had been forgiven for premature thinking about records, and 'only 9 days left’, and the arctic was back on our on our side!

Part of the Black Ice, big lead of Day 33. Pretty cool with the 'Iceberg' caught in it.‏

Well, Day 34 proved that the Arctic was playing with us... shocker, the worst to date! Whiteout conditions, the largest black ice and open water lead we have seen, 1 km across in places, running almost east west and no sign of any 'bridges' where we can cross. In desperation Richard climbed a 'little mountain view point looking for the crossing point "that always exists"! Nothing...

Richard up the highest point telling us the bad news that he can't see the end of the open water and the big walk east in hope of finding a 'bridge' is about to begin!‏

With no options other than whether we walk east or west, the mood was somber, as we set off east. Well, the weather deteriorated to snow and whiteout, and to share the load I led for 90 mins... ooh, challenging stuff, stumbling over little humps and sliding down slippery snow caked I couldn't see, I felt like I was a blind person leading the slightly less blind! Anyway, after 6 hours of virtually easterly progress we found what looked like a patch of greyer ice going north / south across the lead, and an apparent break in the open water. Richard went out to test it, and an excited shout back to us to put on ski's to cross was just the news we needed. The ice crossing was quite good, but needed urgency as the crack was in the process of opening again as we crossed. Although we probably walked 16 miles, we were thankful that we could claim 10 miles north progress.

Happiness... the trail of our sleds leaving the crossing point of the big, bad, 6 hour delaying lead! Sorry no picture of the actual crossing point as it was pretty hairy and no time for stopping for photos!‏

I must say as the Pole gets 'close' and fatigue sets in, I am finding it more difficult to not focus on the luxury of relaxing in Barneo, and 'normal' comforts. This is the difficult phase of a long endurance trip... managing the mind, when it wants to 'escape' to paradise, and leave the body behind! The two have to work closely together over the next tough 5-7 days to 'the end'.

Continuing the 'day in my life out here'.

Breakfast now done, pack up time. Firstly all the 'washing' to be taken off the drying line. Then stoves off and the chill down begins. All gear is moved out of the tent and I am left in a cold empty tent to fill the 3 stove fuel bottles from the sled fuel cans... hmm, a delicate job! Once that's done I join the guys outside doing personal stuff, basically packing backpacks and sleds. Last job is pulling the tent down, and then manually breaking off ice crusts on the lower tent walls, a pain of a job that takes 20 minutes. I'm the quality controller here, as I carry the tent in my sled, and ice is excess weight! Finally, we are all packed up skis / snowshoes on and the march begins... (Now around 9am EST)

I must 'run' now....we have a busy and probably 'big swim' day ahead.

Day 35: An Unexpected Rest Day and Real North Pole Conditions

Position: 88 11 N (over the 88th!)

Howard has checked in today with news of an unexpected rest day. Yesterday they encountered strong winds, snow and white-out conditions. Having to navigate around a large lead took them East and although they walked ca 16 miles, they only covered 10 miles in the right direction. The going was rough - deep snow, ridges, low/no visibility meant many spills and frustration with the sled getting stuck. Howard led the way for some of the day and identified the passage across the big lead (hurrah!).

The challenge of the extreme North Pole conditions continues today as the team is forced to spend the day in their tent and sleeping bags (conserving fuel, so no stoves on). They've built an ice wall around the tent in order that it withstands the strong winds.

Howard reports ... it's "&*%$ing" difficult (school kids look away!). So, knowing Howard, to report that, it MUST be DIFFICULT! He's also tired and eating 8,500 calories a day and still losing weight.

I'll keep you posted, and I'll continue to pass your comments to Howard, so keep 'em coming! Thanks all, RUTH

Day 32: Blistering pace, Full moon behind us, thoughts of a record spur us on...

Expedition Statistics

Expedition Start Point: 82 58.02N, 77 23.28W
Day 32: End of Day Position: 87 50.9 N, 85 45.0 W
Distance covered since the start: 292.9 nm
Distance covered since last Post: 80.2 nm
Distance to The Pole: 129.1 nm
Overall distance versus plan: +2.5 days (- Behind plan, + Ahead of plan)
North Pole ETA: 16 April, + / - 2 days
Ave hrs / day marched for this period: 10.0 hrs
Coldest / Warmest temp for this period: -35 / -20 deg C

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

Firstly apologies for the late last Post; I had satphone ISP problems sending the content... oh for 'home broadband' hey!

Me looking 'better'... I think! Finger is almost healed too.

As you see from the progress stats above we are even surprising ourselves with our pace since my last Post... 1 more day and we will be in the 88 latitude numbers! The pace on the marches is relentless, and almost each day brings a new record. Yesterday we managed 14.4 miles. At that pace it's just over four days per degree! Today (Day 32), we had a bit more sobering news, as we only did 12.4 miles, and the dreaded 'wind on the nose' has kicked in… northerly and yes, it's started pushing the ice south. After days of virtually no drift, we are now drifting south at 0.2 knots as I type this.

So by the time we start marching tomorrow we could be 2 miles further from the Pole than we are now! We are acutely aware that the weather and drift has largely been on our side, and a few days of blizzard stuff could set us back a lot! (Mentally and progress wise). The big risk of bad ice conditions and open water associated with the perigee full moon tides is now behind us. It appears that the strongish easterly cross wind we had for 4 days over that time locked up the ice and made conditions largely favourable. All of this has made the possibility of us breaking the 49 day, fastest ever, Canada to North Pole expedition. We have now taken on this challenge seriously, and have implemented many strategies to help us go faster. Weight of the sleds is one of the keys, and we have dumped some food, and all excess clothing. One sleeping bag has been dumped, and we decided rather than dump all excess food we have increase daily rations so we can push harder on the marches. We have dumped some food, more soon, and then even some fuel will go.

Indinda alive and well, transforming into an Arctic Giraffe!

I am currently consuming around 8500 kcal per day... gee that's a huge amount of what we would normally call 'bad food'... lots and lots of fat! I have even taught myself to think butter is chocolate, so happily bite off half a block of -30 deg C butter with a mouthful of delicious fruit cake… yummy, and I mean it! In two days time we plan to increase march times by one hour a day until we get to 12 hours a day, then stay at that for our 'record achieving' Push to the Pole! These extra calories will come in handy for that...

As things are unfolding our expedition could be very 'historic', with Tessum being the youngest ever to do this, Richard and Tessum being the first father and son team to do it, and Richard vowing that this is his last! (I have been also told I will be the oldest ever to do it... hmmm, not sure I like that... I still think I'm a teenager!).

Richard and Tessum power napping during a 10 minute break. Amazing, a technique I still have to learn!

I just love this 'race / go as fast as we can' mindset, I wanted that from the beginning and now have it; it just makes the whole thing that much more challenging and exciting. It has caused some stress in the team, with not all individual goals aligned, but after a little hiccup Richard's leadership has all members totally committed to the goal.

A particularly challenging lead crossing. The ice island had a large ice ridge that made it difficult to get the sled past. All got through safely!

Some highlights from the past few days:

I came VERY close to taking a total swim! Richard on skis tested the ice across a frozen lead, and we all agreed it was good. He skied across with his sled, and after he was on real terra firma, I then set off tentatively in my snow shoes (less area than skis and a crampon underneath. About 3/4 the way across, my step suddenly felt insecure and on slushy ice, so I treaded more carefully, continuing forward and lifting my foot to see the ice had opened a hole the size of my snowshoe. I literally left water holes behind each of the two steps to terra firma, but my sled got dumped. Here is a photo of the spot with the hole and open water, 2 minutes after I had got to the side! Close call to full swim! We have discussed the procedure for anyone of us taking a full swim, and it's not pleasant and will require a one day delay as we have to set up tent and run the stoves for 6-8 hours to dry all the wet (then frozen) gear.

Here is the lead crossing where I almost swam. That pool of water was made by my snowshoe! Tessum and David waiting to cross, now via another route.

Day 29 saw us spending most of the day on a huge flat ice pan. It stretched to all horizons and reminded me of when the 'real sea' is becalmed and essentially flat and glimmering for as far as one could see. Unlike the 'real sea' which can change as the wind comes up, this is 'frozen calm', only waiting foot underwater disturbance to fracture the ice and disturb the peace. Although to many walking in this 'nothingness' would see boring the feeling of flat vastness was very special for me… for one day at least… The fact that this terrain allowed us to travel fast also added to the positive day.

A lovely arctic aquamarine sea!

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!

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!

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

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!