In Antarctica, you pretty much know (for the most part at least) what each day will bring. Its cold and windy and you ski in a straight line until you set up camp each night. Here in Svalbard it couldn't be more different.

For starters, the day actually started out warm and somewhat sunny. We had a leisurely ski for nearly two hours down the De Geerdalen valley. Things got a bit dicey when we decidec to veer east. A steep cliff blocked our route. Of course, this was about the same time the light went flat and we couldn't distinguish between what appeared to be a gentle slope aand what was actually a cornice. Eventually, we found a way down, plunge stepping to brace against the pull of our sleds downhill.

Things seemed to mellow out as we headed to a far point until we realized that the only way forward would be to skirt the shore on a narrow ice foot frozen precariously to the small cliff face. Several times we had to unhook from our sleds and tow them together over a 40 degree snow slope. Not terribly steep, but still steep enough to add some stress to the mix.

At some point our luck ran out so we had to haul our sleds up another steep incline, across an icy sloping plain, then along the water's edge again, up again and across another sloping plain.

And now were in the tent!

Image: Ryan Waters skiing along the water.