May 20, 81 24.25'N:99 28.26E
Today, it seemed as if all the Arctic had taken a break from trying to prevent our success. Sure, there were the usual awful pressure ice and semi-frozen leads, but at least today was sunny and calm, a first. We spent the whole morning trying to avoid leads, but ended up catamaranning our boats and paddling across four of them. Of course, most were semi-frozen which really slowed us down.
Another first for us today was traveling on our Asnes skis. They worked great and we were able to make good time during the second half of the day. Up until this point we have been wearing our MSR snowshoes, and without them we would still be at the Cape. Both skis and snowshoes are proving to be critical to our ability to travel.
The nice weather definitely improved our attitudes. Yesterday we were freezing in a snowstorm, today we baked in the intense sunlight. But remember, this is the Arctic and all that can change quickly. In fact, it's now snowing again and cloudy.
Today was a good day, even though we only made 3.5 miles: it was forward progress and for right now that is one of the only ways we can measure our daily success.
May 19, 81 19.19'N:99 10.11'E
Inhospitable - that's the best word we've found to describe the Arctic - at least for us. Polar bears may feel otherwise, but we've already had too many encounters with those.
Today was our best travel day to date. We covered almost 7 miles, much of it in blowing snow. Most times, when we climbed a pressure ridge to scope the route, we couldn't see more than 100 meters. Get the full story in today's audio update.
May 18
As you may know, we are partnered with the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute. The snow samples we collect will be used to measure changes that are occurring in the chemistry of the Arctic atmosphere, as well as climate change. Upon our return, the samples will be analyzed for "major ions," oxygen and hydrogen isotopes, and trace metals. Photo courtesy Rolex/Marc Latzel.
Each night, while Lonnie's cooking and getting the tent ready, I take a few minutes to collect snow. My routine goes like this:
1. Label whirl pack with latitude, longitude & date.
2. Wearing gloves and mask I approach site from downwind.
3. Clean scoop by plunging into snow.
4. Fill whirlpack with snow.
5. Melt snow and pour into 2 pre-cleaned vials.
6. Go back to tent and have a warm drink that Lonnie's prepared.
May 17, 81 10.28'N:98 34.51E
Ice conditions are horrible and there are leads everywhere. We both fell through bad ice today. We also managed to make some northerly progress, about a mile and a half, but will be surprised if it isn't erased by morning. Still, we are getting better at traveling more efficiently. More info in today's audio update.
May 16, 81 11.84'N:98 11.14'E
Given the choice, we'd much rather have a polar bear jump on our tent than get pushed backwards by a strong south- easterly ice drift. Of course, we already had a polar bear jump on the front end of our tent. And for the past four days we have been drifting on a huge counterclockwise gyro of sea ice. So, as you can see, we don't always have a full vote.
Even at the end of seven exhausting hours of travel and our best distance to date (over five miles of distance covered) we still ended up further behind in the evening than where we started in the morning. Add to that another four miles of backwards movement while we slept last night and you can see why we're a bit frustrated. In fact, where we are now is further south than Cape Arctichesky, where we started.
So we've taken the afternoon to formulate a new plan. Instead of traveling due north, we will travel northeast until we reach the 105 longtitude where the ice should start swinging north.
Despite this small setback, we have been traveling really well. From a distance, the ice looks impossibly pressured, yet we always manage to find a safe route through. Each day, we are more and more comfortable in our surroundings and seem to be finding a nice rhythm. We are also healthy with no major sore muscles or joints. In fact, we've even had some really good laughs lately too.
