I have not necessarily reached the end of my rope but I can see if from here. After three weeks in Longyearbyen, I am ready to go home. Already this year, I have spent way too much time waiting for flights in frozen places. Several days at the South Pole. Then several more at Union Glacier, Antarctica - nearly a week all tallied. With the delay for the North Pole, I may have surpassed my (sometimes) expedition partner Ryan Waters who, besides being in delayed in Antarctica the same time as me, was also shut down by weather trying to reach Carstensz Pyramid. After eight days, he had to abandon the trip and go home.

Of course, other places in the world are experiencing real problems. And today's news, like most other days, make me realize how insignificant any issues that I have are.

For me, it's moving on to the next project. There are few, if any, slow moments in my line of work. It's a constant hustle. Back in the day, we would take three YEARS to plan and prepare for one big trip.

In high school, I wanted to go on adventures so badly that I was constantly day dreaming about trips both future and past. My good friend Kevin and I would look at maps, plan routes and stare at our slides (pictures) trying to simultaneously relive our favorite moments and quell the urge to just bolt into the woods right then and there. We were kids and we didn't know anything. We got lost. We got caught in thunderstorms. Sometimes we went hungry. And I loved every minute of it.

Every once in a while when I'm back visiting my mom, I'll stop by Kevin's and we'll pull out the old slide shows from our Boundary Waters trips and talk about that one time when... It is weirdly painful to confront all those innocent memories. They were such pivotal moments - full of all the zest and vigor that life should be full of. But they also make me a little sad, because the world will never be that new to me again.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm pretty excited about summer, although it will be a long time coming to Crested Butte. When I left, we had over six feet of snow in our yard, and the snow banks along our driveway were twice that height. Still, there's only one thing that I love more than polar expeditions and that's bikes. I can't wait to start riding again!

I have also been kicking around the idea of leading a bike tour in Svalbard next year. Not sure the exact dates, but I'm going to call the trip the 'Svalbard Fat Bike Safari' and I plan to ride some of the main 'trails' here. The goal is to still travel 'expedition' style, but I will be arranging snowmobile support. Every night we will make camp and sleep in tents, but we won't be bogged down with all the winter gear that can slow bike progress through snow to a walk. My initial thought is to ride from Longyearbyen to Pyramiden but that route is contingent on the trail conditions. If this is something that might interest you, send me a message.

In between meetings about logistics last week, I managed a short call with the design team at Therm-a-Rest. My signature sleeping bag the Polar Ranger is getting an update. Yippee! I love the bag as it is but there are a few tweaks that will make it even better. I am looking forward to getting a prototype in the upcoming months. I've tallied it up and I think I've slept in mine for nearly four months over the past year a half!?!

I've also started pouring through the interviews from our ColoradATHON adventure that I did two years ago. We've had the trailer finished for quite some time but I'm looking forward to working with Ben Duke to get the whole story out. Every time I watch the trailer that Ben and his team put together I smile. It was a fun trip and a surprisingly hard one.

The weather today felt unusually warm. I went out to take some pictures on near the sea ice that we had trained on last week, and for a while, the light snow even turned to rain. It seems that winter is loosing it's hold here which only makes me even more ready for home.

Image: One last look at sea ice.