May 14, 83 22.44'N:77 18.00W
We were roused from a deep sleep sometime last night to find the skies had cleared and it was clear blue all the way to the horizon. We gave each other groggy high fives then snuggled back in our sleeping bags. Little did we know that the upcoming day's travels would yield the worst weather we've seen to date.
Once out of the tent, we realized that, while clear, it was really cold with a stiff wind still driving from north. Regardless, it was nice to able to see the terrain for a change.
That lasted for almost two hours.
The sky darkened and an ominous fog rolled in. Soon, it was nearly a whiteout, but this time dampness permeated everything. We were chilled to the bone and skied along face down trying to hide as much exposed skin as possible behind our hoods. At one point, we even thought we could taste salt in the air.
Eventually, we found the source of all this foulness: a huge wide open lead - and a million smaller leads.
We got lucky and were able to skirt the biggest lead, but had to catamaran the boats to cross a second, then weave back and forth for almost two hours to get through all the fractured ice. At one point, we had to leap across a four foot gap. It was hard work, scary at times, and every other emotion as well.
Finally out of that jumbled mess, we ended the day just as it started, in an old pressured area with lots of drifts and the sun shining.
On a more serious note, we heard that a proposal to build the biggest offshore wind farm in the nation won approval from Texas state officials. That's great news to us, but also reminds us of other projects like Cape Wind that need to be approved.
Word of the day - robot. We are machine-like contraptions covering our daily miles.
May 13, 84 05.55'N:76 16.10'W
This has been our fourth day of white-out conditions. If we only had the sun. Our spirlts would improve as well as our ability to see where we are going. To make matters worse, a brisk north wind froze our faces.
If you want to experience a bit of the Arctic Ocean wherever you are, here are a few suggestions to make your daily life more like the North Pole. First, find a blank sheet of white paper. Next, hold it in front of your face - about three inches. Now try walking, grocery shopping, whatever. It's like your own personal whiteout. Here's another fun one: Take 8 hours out of your day to stand under the fan in a commercial walk-in freezer of your choice.
Seriously, Lonnie had a scary thing happen today. His ankle froze up. After several attempts to move it through stretching, he managed to get it working again. What a relief.
Still we are managing to press on despite all this.
Sincerely, two very tired boys.
Word of the day: postponed (we weren't going to make this the word of the day, just mention that we were postponing it until tomorrow, but now it's our word of the day).
May 12, 84 00.17'N:76 22.36'W
The terrain we traveled over today must surely be beautiful. If only we could have seen it. Completely overcast skies created white-out conditions once again and traveling today was just as grueling for our eyes as our bodies.
We plodded through most of the day, taking turns misjudging the topography and blindly plunging down near vertical drift faces. Still we snailed forward and finally emerged from the 'canyonlands' that we've been traveling in for the past few days into a series of very large pans and easily negotiable leads. Unfortunately, it seemed more like purgatory than providence as we tried to keep focus.
We have also been shifting our travel schedule to be able to take advantage of the cooler nights and firmer snow. Therefore today's travel was exceptionally tiring as we were short on sleep. Tomorrow, which will actually still be today, will begin at 6 pm and on the trail by 8.
The good news is we made 6 nautical miles and have crossed (barely) the 84th parallel - look out 85, here we come..
Word of the day: muddle
Squeak, slide, squeak, slide, squeak, slide.
It is a rhythm that under good skiing conditions is the beat of our daily life. On a bad day, it is the only thought running through our minds over and over and over. One step, squeak, next step slide, then squeak, ad infinitum. Minutes tick by unnervingly slowly in between breaks. That's a bad, bad day.
On a good day, our minds wander effortlessly like a feather on a lilting summer breeze. Staring into the snow for hours on end, new thoughts drift in and out. We can ponder an idea for 20 minutes and not even know it. Our daydreams bring us happiness, comfort and usually a smile. They remind us of who we are and where we've been. They connect our past with future and fantasy with reality.
Out here on this huge sheet of ice, we live in our minds.
May 10, 83 49.09'N:76 41.05W
We are eternal optimists but this is starting to get a bit ridiculous. We are happy about staying on the 77th parallel, then we drift east. We enjoy traveling on a flat pan, then a huge pressure ridge. Today, after enjoying so many backbreaking days in complete sunshine, it was overcast.
A light snow started late last 'night' and continued through the morning, bringing warm temperatures and cloudy skies, honestly the worst traveling conditions imaginable. With no shadows on the snow, our depth perception completely vanishes. It is impossible to look at the snowdrifts and determine if they are sloping up or down. Therefore, we spent most of the day flailing and staggering.
It is not easy to want one thing and be given another. We are careful not to ask too much of the Arctic. It has only so much to give. Instead, we travel lightly and wiggle from one stable piece of optimism to the next. To get the good, it so often seems that we have to lean in hard.
There are objectives other than the North Pole that are worthy of such a Herculean effort. Clean air, for example. Cape Wind (off the coast of Massachusetts) is currently the largest renewable wind energy project in the country and is very important for a strong and vibrant future for wind power in the United States and an important component of the fight agaist global warming. Please write or call your congressional representative to support this worthy project. For more information about the need to act now on Cape Wind, please visit www.greenpeaceusa.org.
Stumbling over snowdrifts in near whiteout conditions we covered 7 nautical miles (14 kilometers).
Word of the day: quagmire - caught in the middle of a series of small pans for almost two hours, it seemed like we'd never get out.
May 9, 83 42.33'N:76 39.57W
If we could only start every day like today: a 9:30 wake up, casual breakfast in ... sleeping bag, and a 12:45 canoe-sled time. Sound relaxing? Well, it was - more than you can possibly imagine. We were so incredibly tired after a relentless week of arctic toil that it was all we could do to just set up the tent last night.
We considered today a double vacation day because, one, we got to sleep in, and two, we had to drag canoe-sleds over the Arctic Ocean for only four hours.
Once harnessed up, part II of our 'rest' day was everything but restful. The reason for the hard going was a wide swath of multi-year pressure ice scattered haphazardly across the ice. Behind, in front, to the side, below, just beyond, around (and every other preposition in the book) each ice chunk was a huge snowdrift. Some were hard packed, others soft. We had to haul our sleds up one side and then they would come crashing down wrenching our backs on the other if we were not careful. It was either get pulled backwards by the weight of the sleds on the way up or get run over on the way down.
Navigating through this mess was tedious, spirit draining, energy sapping work. We felt a bit shafted being dealt such a raw deal on this of all days. After two hours it was break time. We didn't know if we could go on.
Then, like a manna from heaven, a small bag of WISCONSIN cheese curds was produced. Suddenly the day didn't look so bad. Instead of just crackers, we were having CHEESE and crackers. It was such a small thing, but one that helped us make it through the day.
All in all we are doing better then anticipated and our spirits are high. Our half day slog yielded nearly 5 nautical miles or 10 kilometers or 6.2 statute miles.
Word of the day: precarious - today found us both in dangerous spots in the heavily drifted terrain.
May 8, 83 37.44'N:76 51.31W
After a full week on the trail, we are bone weary, dog tired and whatever other quippy phrases one might use to describe our tired state. Its been quite a week on the Arctic Ocean for us. Above all else, we are thankful to be making good progress.
The weather has been progessively warming and the change is most notable late at 'night' and early mornings. We would have loved to sleep in this morning. Our Hilleberg tent is now warm and cozy, but with a floor space roughly the same size as a sheet of plywood, we are anxious to be out as well.
We pushed hard today through a veritable arctic potpourri. In the morning, we avoided some badly pressured ice by hopping on a newly frozen lead and cruising northeast. Later, we slogged through a heavily drifted area pulling and heaving our canoe-sleds to near exhaustion.
We had two incredible firsts today. Around 1 pm we skied into a massive line of pressured ice that towered to 30 feet. Gigantic blocks, slabs and chunks of ice formed an impenetrable wall. The whole line of pressure extended as far as we could see to the southwest and nearly as far to the northeast. We skied northeast for about a half hour then found a spot, amazingly, to wiggle through.
Our next big first was crossing a newly frozen lead that spanned almost a quarter mile. iI was covered with 'ice flowers' so we knew it was safe with the exception of spots where we got that sinking feeling (literally) as the ice bowed beneath our skis.
We had a another great travel day, covering 7.60 nautical miles, that's 15 kilometers or 9.3 'normal' miles and also saw two rabbits and a cardinal in the process. Of course, if you stare at anything for long enough...
Word of the day: assimilate - after a full week on the trail we have managed to integrate ourselves into the routines of expedition travel.
