May 23, 81 47.37'N:97 49.25E
The day started brutally slow and grueling as we negotiated through a jumbled mess of pressured ice and leads. We seemed to move east and west as much as north. Then it was onto some of the largest pans we've been on so far - almost two hours of travel without crossing a lead. It was truly amazing. Here's a shot taken this winter of what our dry suits look like.
After a quick lunch of two Clif Bars (eaten while sitting shivering on the canoes), we encountered two huge leads. These had some really thin ice on them and we changed into our Kokatat drysuits to cross. We could see the ice bending beneath our skis and the tips of our poles poke through into the sea.
We had one of our favorite dinners tonight - egg noodles with peas, dried caribou and bell peppers. Yummy. A special 'hi' goes out to all our friends at Greenpeace... we hear people are really taking action to help stop global warming.
Get the full report in today's audio update.
May 22, 81 40.85'N:98 34.45E
We are trudging across a literal and figurative sea of ice. This white expanse seems to go on forever. To us, it is infinite. The only thing over each horizon is more snow and more ice. This photo is our Brunton Solar Roll recharging the batteries for our electronics.
Today we seem to be making our way across larger, older ice pans. We definitely noticed a change in the quality of leads as well. We crossed over some of the largest leads so far. These are newer breaks, however, and have far less brash ice to negotiate through. We also ended up skiing across some pretty thin ice at times, all the while holding our breath and thinking about helium. We spent a good part of the day weaving east and west to find safe passage.
And of course it's snowing and blowing again which makes navigation a bit difficult. The conditions have forced us to take a minimum of three five-minute breaks during an 8-hour day. The tent is always a welcome home at the end of the day.
We've been getting extra inspiration from our skis, which is really helpful. Sarah and Kelly added some nice pictures and words to our skis that make great conversation pieces. On the down side, we tried to play the license plate game (spell words from letters on license plates) but didn't have much luck.
May 21, 81 31.20'N:99 12.76'E
Our sunglasses are working great, even more so now with the 1/16" of frozen sleet that accumulated on our lenses. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, it did. Our word to describe our surroundings today: bleak. However, we managed to cover a little over 6 miles nonetheless.
It was difficult at best to see today and the sleet we ran into this afternoon was bad. It was another backbreaking day on the Arctic Ocean. For us now, forward is the only way home.
Listen to today's audio update for the rest of the story.
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.
