May 15, 81 26.5N;97 85.7E
Many people would answer that question with a resounding "yes." But Dr. Gloria Leon, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota, wants a little more data before drawing that conclusion. She's studying us as well as our partners left behind.
The focus of the research is the specific stress and coping patterns as we cross the Arctic Ocean, and our decision-making processes and strategies for dealing with the extreme dangers we will encounter. The findings of this investigation should be of interest to NASA as an analog for the types of situations that might occur in two-person teams traversing the Mars surface. The assessment of the reactions of our partners left at home, coping with a dangerous situation over which they have no control, should also be of interest. This investigation is part of an ongoing series of studies by Dr. Leon on various types of national and international polar expedition teams, with findings applied to better planning for and the development of countermeasures to deal with human responses to planetary exploration.
May 14, 81 31.30N:96 76.40E
Check out today's audio entry for Lonnie's account of their first polar bear encounter.
May 13, 81 17.56'N:96 06.20'E
We were about to write how this has been our best progress forward to date...how we covered almost four miles and how our small boats performed nicely in the water. We are in the tent after a long day in a big snowstorm. Instead, we just took out the GPS and found that we've actually drifted further back than where we started yesterday. We had drifted almost a half mile north the night before and with a strong south wind blowing all day, our lack of progress can only be blamed on the fact that it's Friday the 13th.
Besides that bit of bad news we had a great travel day. For a while, we could close our eyes and pretend we were paddling in Minnesota's BWCAW. We spent most of the day paddling on large 'lakes' (up to 1/2 mile wide and much longer). Between the lakes, of course, there were some brutal portages and finding a place to land was oftentimes difficult at best. The sinking feeling we often felt was just that, us sinking through semi-frozen brash ice.
Three ring seals followed our progress for part of the day. They were most curious about us and seemed to think we were a great distraction from finding food and other seal things. We are still relaying canoes when pulling, which makes progress slow, but it would be impossible to do otherwise. We are going to sleep hoping for a change in the drift!
May 12, 81 20.14'N:96 06.22'E
It is hard to gain perspective standing in pressured ice as far as the eye can see. For us, there are two ways to solve this dilemma - understand that this is only our third day out or climb up on a tall piece of ice. Today was full of both. We have been relaying our canoe sleds forward one at a time. There is so much pressure that it would be impossible to move them alone. Lonnie has been doing the lion's share of the work as my (Eric's) cold was at its worst this morning.
We are moving slowly, but finally moving in a more northerly direction after veering way east. This morning there was severely pressured ice everywhere. From our camp tonight, the ice ahead looks better, not much, but slightly improved enough to make two small people see the world from a new perspective. We made 2.8 miles of forward progress today. Get a full update by listening to the audio report.
May 11, 81 16.89'N:95 58.94E
Today is a day that we wouldn't like to repeat. All day was a struggle. The lead we were hoping to be open ended up being covered with an inch of new ice. It was what we had most feared - ice too thin to ski across, yet too thick to paddle through. We ended up spending nearly the entire day skirting a mile-wide-by-three-miles-long lead. It was brutal travel at best, and in the end we progressed only a half mile toward the pole after seven hours of grueling travel.
Lonnie was the hero of the day running ahead on scouting forays.
May 10, Cape Arctichesky
Slowly we have cut ties with the outside world. Of course the transition was not abrupt, but happened in subtle stages. First, we left Minnesota, then New York, and after that Moscow. Now, here we are on the Arctic Ocean all alone.
We'd be lying if we didn't say that today was an emotional day, because it was. It's a stark realization that we are leaving the world as we know it behind. But we also know the world of ice, too. Packing our canoes on the edge of the ocean was so familiar. This is what we do.
We ended up relaying boats throughout the day. After all of our fear of an open ocean crossing, who would have thought that we'd be dealing with pressured ice right away? It was a hard day, but we made good progress considering the terrain.
On a positive note, the tent is really warm right now - even under ambient light conditions. On the down side, I (Eric) seem to have caught a Russian virus and have almost no energy.
May 9, Sredny
It's a good thing our mothers didn't see the plane we flew in today. Several key safety features were a bit suspect as was one of the crew members who took an emergency bottle of oxygen off the wall, hooked up a mask and took a few long pulls. Landing in Sredny was a bit foreboding as well with two crashed planes alongside the runway. Needless to say, we arrived safely at weather station Golomiannyi outside of Sredny and we are poised to depart tomorrow morning.
It looks like we will only have an open ocean crossing of about five kilometers, which is also good news. Our gear is packed and we're ready to go. Get a full update on today by listening to the audio report.
