We use our watches religiously to keep track of time during our navigation shifts, but really there are only five basic times here: Tent time, is any time we're in our Sierra Designs tent. Happy time (named after Darcy's who becomes noticeably happy) is when we pull our sleeping bags out of our SD bivy bags and go to sleep. Soup time is the halfway point of our travel day when we pull out our Stanley flasks and have warm soup. Break time - self explanatory hopefully. And the rest is simply, time.

Each day we put in our time. Add it all up. Multiply by the number of days we've been out here and maybe, just maybe, we'll be close to the pole. After 45 days, I can finally say we are close to the north pole. Somtime late this afternoon we crossed the 89th parallel. Now only 58 miles left. It feels good to be here. I can feel myself relax if even just slightly.

We struggled today in the morning with low visibility, ice blocks and drifts. Our bearing takes us perpendicular to the long ridge lines of steep snow drifts. It is hard work skiing forward. We did get lucky with a couple newly frozen leads that spanned in exactly the same direction we wanted to go. However, they are still wet and slushy and the thin layer of snow on top sticks to our ski skins which makes it hard to ski. We decided to take off our Madshus skis and walk. It was a nice break, but we were soon back in deeper snow where we rely solely on our skis now.

There were two bits of excitement today. First, we had another track and field meet - meaning we had to jump across a four foot wide gap (too wide to span with skis,, too narrow to swim). Later, we would ski into an actively pressuring ridge and hop across unstable brash ice on the other side. Both situations were potentially dangerous, but realistically more fun than anything else.

Most important, April 17th is my nephew, Tyler's Birthday. He is officially now 12 years old. Soccer star, straight 'A' student and all around good guy, he is my hero. Happy Birthday old man! I hope you have a great day.

Every once in a while I bring my SUUNTO compass into the tent and use the mirror to check my face for cold damage. Mostly, I just want to confirm that I still exist. There are some new lines around my eyes now. Gray hair in places too. I have always loooked young for my age. Not so much anymore. With my own 39th birthday coming up soon, I think about time more than I used to. Time...

Time for bed, but first for us, happy time.

Image: AJ making a short stretch across a big crack. He is starting to be more comfortable around unstable ice.

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by Bing with major support from the University of Plymouth, Terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com

For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/

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