I received a few messages (thank you very much by the way) from several people wondering about the weather conditions and our delayed flight - especially since the picture I posted yesterday showed blue bird skies. It's definitely a point worth clarifying.

Currently, we are in Resolute which is at a latitude of nearly 75 degrees North. That means we are just 15 degrees south of the North Pole which is at 90 North. Each degree of latitude equals 60 nautical miles which is also equal to 1.14 statue miles - which are the miles that you use (at least if you're from the US) every day.

Sorry if this answer is getting a lot longer than I initially anticipated, but let me keep going with the math and we'll both get through this together.

Basically, we're 900 nautical miles from the pole - which is pretty far away (although probably not as far away as you are from the pole right now). Our starting point, Cape Discovery, the northernmost point of land in North America is roughly 490 nautical miles from the pole. That means we still have to fly quite a ways to get from here (Resolute) to our start (Cape Discovery). 410 nautical miles to be exact. That's far enough away for the weather to be substantially different in both places. So while it has been sunny and calm here, a fairly substantial storm is raging near Cape Discovery.

Equally important to this whole flying in to Cape Discovery is the simple fact the our plane, a Twin Otter that we are charting from Kenn Borek, only has a certain range with the weight we are carrying (hence our earlier stress). Because fuel is very expensive, because we have to land on an ice shelf (there's no runway or any man made structure), because we don't want to turn around without being able to land, we have need relatively of good weather at the 'Cape'.

Remember Trudy from the Canadian Survey? Here she is again earlier this afternoon, 'blizzard-like conditions at the moment. Winds should ease this afternoon, and will be light tomorrow.'

Yippeee! Yahoo! Wahoo! Yi Yi Yi.

How's that for happiness webExpeditions Tim? Not bad, eh?

Long story longer. We might actually be flying tomorrow. We brought our sleds and remaining gear to the Kenn Borek hangar and are set for a 4:30 wake up and a potential 6:30 flight.

We haven't allowed ourselves to think of the moment tomorrow when we might actually hit the ice. There are still a few things that could happen between now and then. That said, we are excited. We are hopeful and most importantly we are ready.

Image: Unloading sleds in preparation for an early morning flight to Cape Discovery.