I spent most of the day hiding behind my goggles and face mask and surrounded by my fur ruff. It's a fairly defined existence- my whole world parsed down to the light that enters the lens. But as restrictive as it may seem, it is the basic system that allows me to ski, all day long, into the wind with a windchill well below zero.

What else do you want to know? I woke up. Melted snow and ate breakfast and then skied. Every so often we stopped. Ate and drank. Then skied again. At some point, we stopped skiing and set up the tent.

In reality, our days are a much more choreographed set of actions. We adhere to a very specific schedule, not because of my lack of flexibility (although that could be debated on certain subjects out here) but rather to maximize our biggest asset: efficiency.

Polar travel is an exercise in maximizing effort on depleting resources. We have a finite amount of food and food as well as a set physical ability. Rather than get stronger as the trip goes on, we generally become more fatigued.

Therefore, one of my most important pieces of gear is my Citizen Promaster watch. Time is of the essence and it is easy to 'waste' it. I am constantly checking my watch and monitoring the time. For example, if we take 10 minutes extra resting at every break by the end of the day that's nearly and hour of time that we are exposed to the elements and could have been recovering in the tent. After eight or nine days of that same delay, we have lost a whole day of travel time.

And that's just one facet of many things we do. Setting up camp, melting snow, skiing, navigating... all these things are either opportunities to save time or irreversible energy expenditures.

On day 11 enough time has passed that we feel a constant weariness which means saving any amount of time - no matter how small - is that much more important.

The wind seemed to push us backwards today. But still we managed to eke out a little over 13 miles. Our course had us skiing directly into the headwind, so much in fact, that we were able to navigate (and use for reference) clouds that maintained their relative position for the entire shift. Breaks were hurried affairs and our normal chatty group sat quietly during breaks eating and drinking until skiing began again.