84:55.816S 79:33.604W
Short update today, as weather has made me change my routine:
After a record-breaking 3.5 hours in great glide skiing conditions, averaging 3.5km/h, the visibility just went to shocking. There was no depth perception and I had to either go really slow or risk falling all the time.
I decided to set up tent, sleep for 5hrs and then get going at 18h30 with hopefully better light.
I've now woken, and will hopefully ski till midnight.
Next blog tomorrow evening.
Good luck H!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Midnight skiing brings a 30km day
85:04.189S 79:59.400W
Just passed 85 deg Slowly
getting there!
Hey, it's just after
midnight (Yeah, well Punta Arenas time), and I have just completed my day's
skiing. Obviously, it's still bright daylight here, the sun is two hours away
from local midnight (for 79 deg W).
Gee, was I proud of my set up tent, sleep and take a break strategy. The evening sun angle made visibility
so much better and gave me a new record day's run: 30.1 km... Very sweet!
I'm 'camped' about 1 km
from a large nunatak. A fitting campsite with a view, for a good day's work!
Now off to sleep... 3 hours,
and then up again.... and it's Sunday!
Full blog at the end of
skiing tomorrow....
Monday, December 5, 2011
Day 13! The first uneventful day... Rest!
84:48.644S 79:07.781W
27 km done today, 588km to go, and I'm at 1320 metres - another 1500m still to go up!
Today was an Amundsen day: All went according to plan! I'm definitely more of the Robert Falcon Scott type! "She'll be alright, and if 'she' isn't 'we' will somehow make a plan to recover." Not that I could ever be compared to these amazing adventurers. December 14, it will be 100 years ago... That blows my mind to think how REALLY hard it must have been... No-one knew what to expect, as no one had ever been there... never mind the basic technology... Heroes!
It was good to have a 'quiet' day, even the weather responded: After the usual headwind, by mid morning it was dead still and blue sky, which all made for a relatively warm day.
Repaired pole is holding up, I'm thankful every day.
I did pass the crevasse field I was expecting... 'rung' after rung of 5m wide, snow bridged, crevasse that stretched for maybe 1km. I kept well clear, and didn't need to cross them.
Also saw another nunatak, so impressive, I was very close to making a 'tourist' detour, but decided best to venture on ahead. I think these were the tops of the Thiel mountains.
I'm having an early night tonight... Presume you are all out enjoying yourselves, so ok for me to head to bed?
Talk again tomorrow
27 km done today, 588km to go, and I'm at 1320 metres - another 1500m still to go up!
Today was an Amundsen day: All went according to plan! I'm definitely more of the Robert Falcon Scott type! "She'll be alright, and if 'she' isn't 'we' will somehow make a plan to recover." Not that I could ever be compared to these amazing adventurers. December 14, it will be 100 years ago... That blows my mind to think how REALLY hard it must have been... No-one knew what to expect, as no one had ever been there... never mind the basic technology... Heroes!
It was good to have a 'quiet' day, even the weather responded: After the usual headwind, by mid morning it was dead still and blue sky, which all made for a relatively warm day.
Repaired pole is holding up, I'm thankful every day.
I did pass the crevasse field I was expecting... 'rung' after rung of 5m wide, snow bridged, crevasse that stretched for maybe 1km. I kept well clear, and didn't need to cross them.
Also saw another nunatak, so impressive, I was very close to making a 'tourist' detour, but decided best to venture on ahead. I think these were the tops of the Thiel mountains.
I'm having an early night tonight... Presume you are all out enjoying yourselves, so ok for me to head to bed?
Talk again tomorrow
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Day 12: First crevasse and I lose my way
84:37.227S 77:59.490W
Only 25.1 kilometres today... Yet 12 hours out there, 10 hours actually 'marching'... Poor productivity, but some sightseeing done and problem solving, both contributing to lost time, but gained life experience! See below:
I've confirmed that the expedition that I saw yesterday was the Norwegians... Not Amundsen though, as he 'has to' get there by the 14th Dec, and it wasn't a South African he was racing! Still good news for me, though, one of the issues of being out here on my own is I don't get any references, eg how tough it is, how cold it is, how easy/bad the terrain is, how well 'we' are doing, etc. So this helped that, and did give me a boost!1 There was a slight disappointment at seeing someone else in this wilderness,, when I thought I was miles away from anyone! (Ruth's team is about 3 days behind me, so I did think I was pretty much alone.)
Today was back to blue sky and pristine white ice, with skiing conditions improving from the soft snow throughout the day. There was a tough 25 knot headwind which made for very cold conditions, and the shortest possible rest times... One just gets freezing cold sitting behind the sled eating and having water.
I came across another nunatak today, similar in size and height... Again very unusual, and beautiful.
Surprise, surprise... CREVASSE! The first warning was a larger than normal sastrugi mound, the perfect beacon glistening in the sun, but a potential death trap in whiteout conditions! As I approached it I sensed it was 'abnormal' and so went around the left side, to find the whole back open, and forming a huge funnel to a deep gaping hole maybe 25 m in diameter. I ventured towards the edge off the funnel lip, but couldn't get closer enough to see the bottom, so it was really deep... Just a blue hole... Hmmm! I good learning lesson from a safe position in good weather, so very useful.
Another kilometre on and running 90 degree to my direction of travel, was this real crevasse, almost a sunken pathway extending as far as the eye could see roughly to east and west. About 15-20m wide, and a step down of about 30cm from the surrounding terrain. In places at this step down I could see the deep ice blue colour showing the discontinuity and the "mind the gap!" I had to cross it, and so tested with my pole in a few places, and whoopsie, my pole went straight through the thin snow cover, creating a peephole to a blue room underneath...... I walked along until I found a more icy, weather beaten hard crust, tested it, it was solid and looked like a good bridge, so took the step down, sled followed, and before I knew it 'we' had crossed safely..... Good first experience on my own, but the scarey thing is, where I was was supposed to be crevasse free, with potential crevasse area about 1-2 days away! I guess if things were all certain, it wouldn't be an adventure!
Yeah, so it's Saturday, and I'm still working... In fact the 'job' requires 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, for 5 weeks... and then no pay! Haha, as I have shared with some of you, these extreme adventures is my 'work', providing me with all the challenge, stimulation, and reward (except the pay!) work used to do... The main difference is it's short-term contract work on my terms, and like one's own business but on steroids! No customers, shareholders, bank, auditors, etc. Just ME and you guys, and me exposed as naked as you can get in front of 'Mother Nature'! So why do I tell you this today? Well, just like work there are day-to-day problems and challenges to be overcome, and today I was presented with a Antarctica 'technology' challenge....No iPad, iphone, nor software problems, just a compass one! Yeah, its basic out here!
My compass has been working fine for 10 days, but yesterday I had the first inkling of a problem, when in the middle of the fog it started becoming unreliable, jumping all over the place and when it did stabilise I was up to 30 degree off course! I was extremely agitated, and saw that there was a new, sizeable air bubble in the sealed housing. So at a rest break I decided to change to the spare. (Which now also had an air bubble, but I sensed the bubble probably wasn't the problem. The new compass was no different, but as I thought through possible causes, the problem went away, and I was back to a reliable compass... Quite an important thing!
Well, from early on today, the games started again, but never went away. I was forced to use the sun and angle of the strong headwind, while I went into serious problem solving. Being so far south has some compass issues, firstly one needs a southern hemisphere compass,, and secondly from my north pole experience I thought maybe because the magnetic fluxes enter the earth not too far from here, there maybe abnormalities. I'd been assured there weren't but now I'm clutching at straws for an explanation of my dilemma. Had I been sold two northern hemisphere ones, even though both suppliers had confirmed they were, I'd just taken their words... And the wild goose chase went on for 3 hours with my navigation confidence waning and disillusionment running high.... Not a good mindset for churning out quality killometres in the bitterly cold headwind conditions. I wondered if the GPS or my camera, which both stay warm in my pants, were causing magnetic interference, but soon tested and ruled them out. It was something that had changed, and that led me to believe it was the mag flux in the area, or I had the wrong compasses, and they were now becoming a problem at this high latitude... While I know I could get to the pole without compass, it would be very taxing, and not something I could easily volunteer for.....
Then I had this brainwave (for me at least!) that all my electronics (for this email, satphones, etc) were in a single bag at the top of my backpack, and in there there could be something magnetic causing interference....? Why it had only started interfering now is a mystery, but I'd stop, take out the bag and put it in the sled away from the compass. I sensed I had found the problem, and with both excitement and fear (that it wasn't the problem) I immediately stopped to face the answer. I disconnected myself from the backpack, walked a few metres away, and yippee the compass became a normal compass again! Wass I delighted.... Yeah, a small simple problem, with an obvious simple solution, but when you are on your own, and in a remote place where few have trodden, where the rules have some quirks, and your 'life' / expedition depends on solving the problem, things take on new meaning. The repair of the pole was the same.... The feeling of accomplishment is very satisfying, and hopefuly one can see the connection to a super steroid work!
For those of you, maybe still at school and developing your life skills, these adventure problem solving realities, can never be replaced by computer games or simulations... You guys should get out there and experience the full on realities, you'll find it makes you so alive and satisfied.
Lastly on photos: SORRY, I'd love to share the occasional photo, but it just takes too much satphone frustration....
Ok, that's it for today....a very interesting one !
Enjoy the warm weekend beach if you are near one!
Only 25.1 kilometres today... Yet 12 hours out there, 10 hours actually 'marching'... Poor productivity, but some sightseeing done and problem solving, both contributing to lost time, but gained life experience! See below:
I've confirmed that the expedition that I saw yesterday was the Norwegians... Not Amundsen though, as he 'has to' get there by the 14th Dec, and it wasn't a South African he was racing! Still good news for me, though, one of the issues of being out here on my own is I don't get any references, eg how tough it is, how cold it is, how easy/bad the terrain is, how well 'we' are doing, etc. So this helped that, and did give me a boost!1 There was a slight disappointment at seeing someone else in this wilderness,, when I thought I was miles away from anyone! (Ruth's team is about 3 days behind me, so I did think I was pretty much alone.)
Today was back to blue sky and pristine white ice, with skiing conditions improving from the soft snow throughout the day. There was a tough 25 knot headwind which made for very cold conditions, and the shortest possible rest times... One just gets freezing cold sitting behind the sled eating and having water.
I came across another nunatak today, similar in size and height... Again very unusual, and beautiful.
Surprise, surprise... CREVASSE! The first warning was a larger than normal sastrugi mound, the perfect beacon glistening in the sun, but a potential death trap in whiteout conditions! As I approached it I sensed it was 'abnormal' and so went around the left side, to find the whole back open, and forming a huge funnel to a deep gaping hole maybe 25 m in diameter. I ventured towards the edge off the funnel lip, but couldn't get closer enough to see the bottom, so it was really deep... Just a blue hole... Hmmm! I good learning lesson from a safe position in good weather, so very useful.
Another kilometre on and running 90 degree to my direction of travel, was this real crevasse, almost a sunken pathway extending as far as the eye could see roughly to east and west. About 15-20m wide, and a step down of about 30cm from the surrounding terrain. In places at this step down I could see the deep ice blue colour showing the discontinuity and the "mind the gap!" I had to cross it, and so tested with my pole in a few places, and whoopsie, my pole went straight through the thin snow cover, creating a peephole to a blue room underneath...... I walked along until I found a more icy, weather beaten hard crust, tested it, it was solid and looked like a good bridge, so took the step down, sled followed, and before I knew it 'we' had crossed safely..... Good first experience on my own, but the scarey thing is, where I was was supposed to be crevasse free, with potential crevasse area about 1-2 days away! I guess if things were all certain, it wouldn't be an adventure!
Yeah, so it's Saturday, and I'm still working... In fact the 'job' requires 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, for 5 weeks... and then no pay! Haha, as I have shared with some of you, these extreme adventures is my 'work', providing me with all the challenge, stimulation, and reward (except the pay!) work used to do... The main difference is it's short-term contract work on my terms, and like one's own business but on steroids! No customers, shareholders, bank, auditors, etc. Just ME and you guys, and me exposed as naked as you can get in front of 'Mother Nature'! So why do I tell you this today? Well, just like work there are day-to-day problems and challenges to be overcome, and today I was presented with a Antarctica 'technology' challenge....No iPad, iphone, nor software problems, just a compass one! Yeah, its basic out here!
My compass has been working fine for 10 days, but yesterday I had the first inkling of a problem, when in the middle of the fog it started becoming unreliable, jumping all over the place and when it did stabilise I was up to 30 degree off course! I was extremely agitated, and saw that there was a new, sizeable air bubble in the sealed housing. So at a rest break I decided to change to the spare. (Which now also had an air bubble, but I sensed the bubble probably wasn't the problem. The new compass was no different, but as I thought through possible causes, the problem went away, and I was back to a reliable compass... Quite an important thing!
Well, from early on today, the games started again, but never went away. I was forced to use the sun and angle of the strong headwind, while I went into serious problem solving. Being so far south has some compass issues, firstly one needs a southern hemisphere compass,, and secondly from my north pole experience I thought maybe because the magnetic fluxes enter the earth not too far from here, there maybe abnormalities. I'd been assured there weren't but now I'm clutching at straws for an explanation of my dilemma. Had I been sold two northern hemisphere ones, even though both suppliers had confirmed they were, I'd just taken their words... And the wild goose chase went on for 3 hours with my navigation confidence waning and disillusionment running high.... Not a good mindset for churning out quality killometres in the bitterly cold headwind conditions. I wondered if the GPS or my camera, which both stay warm in my pants, were causing magnetic interference, but soon tested and ruled them out. It was something that had changed, and that led me to believe it was the mag flux in the area, or I had the wrong compasses, and they were now becoming a problem at this high latitude... While I know I could get to the pole without compass, it would be very taxing, and not something I could easily volunteer for.....
Then I had this brainwave (for me at least!) that all my electronics (for this email, satphones, etc) were in a single bag at the top of my backpack, and in there there could be something magnetic causing interference....? Why it had only started interfering now is a mystery, but I'd stop, take out the bag and put it in the sled away from the compass. I sensed I had found the problem, and with both excitement and fear (that it wasn't the problem) I immediately stopped to face the answer. I disconnected myself from the backpack, walked a few metres away, and yippee the compass became a normal compass again! Wass I delighted.... Yeah, a small simple problem, with an obvious simple solution, but when you are on your own, and in a remote place where few have trodden, where the rules have some quirks, and your 'life' / expedition depends on solving the problem, things take on new meaning. The repair of the pole was the same.... The feeling of accomplishment is very satisfying, and hopefuly one can see the connection to a super steroid work!
For those of you, maybe still at school and developing your life skills, these adventure problem solving realities, can never be replaced by computer games or simulations... You guys should get out there and experience the full on realities, you'll find it makes you so alive and satisfied.
Lastly on photos: SORRY, I'd love to share the occasional photo, but it just takes too much satphone frustration....
Ok, that's it for today....a very interesting one !
Enjoy the warm weekend beach if you are near one!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Day 11: Good news: I've got my sled back!
 |
| File pic of Howard and sled on his North Pole expedition |
A pretty productive day today, 26.5 kilometres and most of it because I got my sled back! About four hours into the day the soft snow and plough were things of the past..Well hopefully! I put it down to a certain elevation level, where the main snowfall from weeks back dumped itself. After all this is supposed to be the driest continent by far.
The day was a variety of weather. I woke this morning to a grey day outside, and a light dusting of snow on the tent and sled. I had a bit more light snow, then thee oppressive fog and limited visibility, then a 20 knot (50 km/h) headwind. As usual the wind chill picked up. It seemed a bit colder than I 'd had before, because at one rest break, I temporary froze the toes on my one foot, but unlike normally, I couldn't get it back to full feeling on the ski. I battled for 90 mins, with no luck, so resorted to my real cool (warm!) Forty Below, neoprene overboots. They did the trick, and felt real good... Thanks Joel, they are the right ones, and very easy to fit over my ski boots. (I'm trying quite a novel footwear solution, Richard's idea, and seems to be working well.)
Solo but not Alone takes on new meaning: Way off in the distant horizon today I saw another expedition..! Gee, who could that be? Not Ruth's group as they are about 3 days behind me... It can only be the Norwegian group that started 2 days before me... Hey, that's great news... I thought they would have made time on me. They must have struggled with the snow.
Today was garbage burning day! I have been keeping all the plastic wraps for my food, and it finally started bugging me so we had a little bonfire, and the bad deed was soon done. Pretty good, hey: all my garbage for 11 days fitted into a 'standard' supermarket carry bag. Real sustainable living getting closer!
So comment / questions answered:
Fuel: Yeah, I use about 230 ml of camping fuel each day to make water from ice, and also to cook my breakfast and dinner.
Spares: Weight is a critical part of sled pulling, and each item put in the sled must be carefully thought whether it's needed or not. A few kilograms of extra sled weight make a huge difference n speed and calories needed to pull it. So deciding what spares one takes a long is a very important process, and one cannot use the multi redundancy approach to take out risk. Adventures, by definition 'must' have risk, it necessary but not liked!
Why did I have a shaving razor with me, if weight is a problem? I don't shave on the expedition, but I do know of people who had facial hair frosting / icing problems that caused havoc, so just in case. However more importantly, I'm hoping there will be romance at the Pole, so I better look the best I can... haha!
I finally feel I have a way of life now that is pleasant with it's 'to look forward to' times, sustainable and daily repeatable. At the end of a day skiing I'm totally exhausted, but good, hearty food (Thanks again, Josee!), tent time, and good sleep, I wake as good as I was the day before, and ready to do the job out on the ice.
That's all for today. Short Blog so I can have an extra hour's sleep!
See ya'
H
Thursday, December 1, 2011
D10: Hey man, today was the toughest yet... but yippee the pole was perfect!
84:14.180S 75:24.070W
It may seem like I'm dramatizing each day being the toughest yet, but today is way ahead, and hopefully won't ever be challenged for the spot!
Firstly, I was worried about the pole repair, and secondly the last two hours of yesterday had deepish snow (ie not ice) and my sled just sunk like a plough in it, making for real slow going, and I wondered if this would be the same today? Those that know me well know I hate 'slowness', and I find dropping daily distance below my plan very personally challenging and bad for my morale!
Well, the great news is the pole repair lasted (at least one day!) but I gained a lot of confidence in the repair, because today was a 'full-on' pole stress day! I also now feel comfortable I can shorten the pole and repeat the repair if need be.
Now that snow! Well it was horrendous... I do remember one of the guys from ALE telling me that that big storm and unseasonal snow dump had made for tough sledding conditions on the Messner and Hercules Inlet routes... Hmmm, I think I'm experiencing it. I could see that there were few sastrugi, but as I looked closer the sastrugi was hidden by the 'fresh' snow covering! Snow only turns to ice with time, cold and wind, and this hasn't had enough of any of them...
Gee, the going was REAL tough, one hour I managed less than 2km an hour, after being up at 3-3.4km over days before. Not only was the speed down, the effort to drag the sled though this went up inversely exponentially to the speed! I no longer had a sled, but rather a plough. What use is a plough on this all white continent?? My sled wasn't designed for soft snow, unlike some which have a boat-like v shape which gives more support area as it sinks in. The result was that I often had to unclip myself from the sled and go back and manually lug it out of deep snow. I can tell you, no matter if you were the best snow sled puller in the world, you would have struggled to fight off demoralisation. At one point two hours into the day I 'sat' myself down for a serious chat! I had to give myself a bollocking for how I was dealing with the dilemma, and tell myself it was just about "taking one hour at a time", and forget the 30km a day goal, forget the South Pole, all I had to do was stick to the task for 1 single hour at a time, and whatever distance I do for the day is a good one, as long as I did the quality hour by hour. Hey it wasn't an easy chat! (this is why these challenges are so personally insightful....)
So that's what I did...but 'Mother Nature, decided the snow challenge wasn't enough: Going from a clear blue sky, coldish, moderate headwind start, I saw the fog slowly drift in, as the wind dropped. Soon I was in complete dull white out, where there was no horizon and no visibility beyond 20 metres in front of me! So there I was, all on my own ploughing a huge ice pasture in Antarctica, and unable too see where I was going, and using a huge amount of energy to do it! Now does that sound like a productive day's work? Well, not wanting to have any more one on one chat with myself, I forced myself to 'plough on', and ended the day with a credible 24km on the scoreboard!
I must say in the changing faces of Antarctica today, there were some very special scenes, combining the sky, clouds, fog bank, and then the ice (snow!) surface. At one point it really looked like I was walking towards an angry green / grey sea, with the shadows and reflections. Also still every day I stop often and just take in this truly amazing 360 degree horizon vista.
I am apprehensive about making the Pole on my 38-day supply and today went through a plan to 'up the ante' if need be and when I'd need to push that button. In this slow world of polar expeditions, one can't create miracles overnight, so proacting is key. It's too early yet, and I'll see how this next 7 days pans out. I've been so liberally rewarding myself for good performance, each day, I'm most worried about the whiskey running out!
Oopsie, I hear the wind picking up outside....! In the last half hour of marching today the snow reduced dramatically, so I'm hoping it's behind me and I can get those daily averages back up to near 30km. I guess I'm in fate's hands.
Right, early to bed tonight.... Oh, re dreams: I'm so tired I just sleep 'vacant'... nothing!!
Lastly, thanks for all the great support. Dominique sends through a summary of comments, emails.... Its really helps me a LOT, I mean that! It's also totally OK if you just read and enjoy... So no pressure, ok, we are hopefully ALL having fun in our own way!
Bye for today....I see its now December!
It may seem like I'm dramatizing each day being the toughest yet, but today is way ahead, and hopefully won't ever be challenged for the spot!
Firstly, I was worried about the pole repair, and secondly the last two hours of yesterday had deepish snow (ie not ice) and my sled just sunk like a plough in it, making for real slow going, and I wondered if this would be the same today? Those that know me well know I hate 'slowness', and I find dropping daily distance below my plan very personally challenging and bad for my morale!
Well, the great news is the pole repair lasted (at least one day!) but I gained a lot of confidence in the repair, because today was a 'full-on' pole stress day! I also now feel comfortable I can shorten the pole and repeat the repair if need be.
Now that snow! Well it was horrendous... I do remember one of the guys from ALE telling me that that big storm and unseasonal snow dump had made for tough sledding conditions on the Messner and Hercules Inlet routes... Hmmm, I think I'm experiencing it. I could see that there were few sastrugi, but as I looked closer the sastrugi was hidden by the 'fresh' snow covering! Snow only turns to ice with time, cold and wind, and this hasn't had enough of any of them...
Gee, the going was REAL tough, one hour I managed less than 2km an hour, after being up at 3-3.4km over days before. Not only was the speed down, the effort to drag the sled though this went up inversely exponentially to the speed! I no longer had a sled, but rather a plough. What use is a plough on this all white continent?? My sled wasn't designed for soft snow, unlike some which have a boat-like v shape which gives more support area as it sinks in. The result was that I often had to unclip myself from the sled and go back and manually lug it out of deep snow. I can tell you, no matter if you were the best snow sled puller in the world, you would have struggled to fight off demoralisation. At one point two hours into the day I 'sat' myself down for a serious chat! I had to give myself a bollocking for how I was dealing with the dilemma, and tell myself it was just about "taking one hour at a time", and forget the 30km a day goal, forget the South Pole, all I had to do was stick to the task for 1 single hour at a time, and whatever distance I do for the day is a good one, as long as I did the quality hour by hour. Hey it wasn't an easy chat! (this is why these challenges are so personally insightful....)
So that's what I did...but 'Mother Nature, decided the snow challenge wasn't enough: Going from a clear blue sky, coldish, moderate headwind start, I saw the fog slowly drift in, as the wind dropped. Soon I was in complete dull white out, where there was no horizon and no visibility beyond 20 metres in front of me! So there I was, all on my own ploughing a huge ice pasture in Antarctica, and unable too see where I was going, and using a huge amount of energy to do it! Now does that sound like a productive day's work? Well, not wanting to have any more one on one chat with myself, I forced myself to 'plough on', and ended the day with a credible 24km on the scoreboard!
I must say in the changing faces of Antarctica today, there were some very special scenes, combining the sky, clouds, fog bank, and then the ice (snow!) surface. At one point it really looked like I was walking towards an angry green / grey sea, with the shadows and reflections. Also still every day I stop often and just take in this truly amazing 360 degree horizon vista.
I am apprehensive about making the Pole on my 38-day supply and today went through a plan to 'up the ante' if need be and when I'd need to push that button. In this slow world of polar expeditions, one can't create miracles overnight, so proacting is key. It's too early yet, and I'll see how this next 7 days pans out. I've been so liberally rewarding myself for good performance, each day, I'm most worried about the whiskey running out!
Oopsie, I hear the wind picking up outside....! In the last half hour of marching today the snow reduced dramatically, so I'm hoping it's behind me and I can get those daily averages back up to near 30km. I guess I'm in fate's hands.
Right, early to bed tonight.... Oh, re dreams: I'm so tired I just sleep 'vacant'... nothing!!
Lastly, thanks for all the great support. Dominique sends through a summary of comments, emails.... Its really helps me a LOT, I mean that! It's also totally OK if you just read and enjoy... So no pressure, ok, we are hopefully ALL having fun in our own way!
Bye for today....I see its now December!
Day 9: A big one!
84:03.190S 74:19.142W Elevation 1096 metres!
Well, this update won't be long because I'm really tired... But don't let its brevity detract from the REAL big day it was.
Last night I told you about the wind outside. Well I woke to a strongish headwind, which made the day's toilet a bit of a chilled rear affair! Someone asked: No secrets, and no innovation, just have to find a bit of protection behind the tent then drop the pants and be quick! I dig a hole first and cover up afterwards... Pristine environment, and I'm doing my very best.... I haven't droppped one single bit of stuff that hasn't come 'out of me'... I even use a piece of ice as toilet paper! Ok, back to the wind...
Well I dressed for a big headwind, and that's what I got the whole day. I estimate it reached 40 knots (about 80km/h) but I raised my game and actually revelled in the conditions. Most of the time loose snow was being driven off the ice, forming like a rapidly moving smoke carpet, spiralling around the sastrugi...very eerie, but beautiful.
The I saw a few kilometres off to the east what looked like a sea iceberg protruding out of the otherwise flat almost whitehorse capped sea terrain shimmering in the sunlight. It was my first Nunavat... The peaks of the mountains below the ice just sticking through, and totally ice covered. Really nice, and makes me wonder what's under the ice I'm walking on. There were about 4 peaks, total length sticking out was about 300m long and a maximum height of maybe 15-20 metres.
Last two hours were tough as the surface was soft, like snow, causing the sled to sink in the snow making it very hard to pull.
The wind area has changed, as I was walking in the same direction as the sastruggi vs the 70 degre angle before. I do hope the wind drops tomorrow, but it is still blowing outside. I had my first real high wind tent erection, which went well. It's a great tent - the most wind friendly you get.
My pole repair worked like a dream... Oh, until 20 mins before end of day: It was stil working good, but looked as if something had moved a bit, so I thought I'd just test it. Well it just creaked in my hands, and oopsie, I knew all was not good. On inspection later in the tent it became aapparent that my razor shaft had also broken... Gee these poles take punishment, hey.
I've spent the last two hours looking for another solution, and have just completed repairs using a better quality tent pole (the other was from an old tent of mine, this time I cut the spares for the tent I'm sleeping in. They are much stronger and don't appear as brittle. Anyway that was the only option I was left with... Hmm, quite stressful, and I was hoping for a quiet early evening! Another nailbiting pole day ahead tomorrow...
Oh well, 27 kms done today, under difficult conditions, I should be happy with that...
I have to say I feel enormously challenged at the moment... positively, and REALLY feel alive dealing with all this. The conditions today made it bitterly cold, the rest times were what many would describe as nothing short of miserable, but I enjoyed using my skills to survive and be relaxed in the whole day's conditions...
Ok off to bed now... I wish I could share more of the specifics, but this already is longer than I had planned!
Bye
Well, this update won't be long because I'm really tired... But don't let its brevity detract from the REAL big day it was.
Last night I told you about the wind outside. Well I woke to a strongish headwind, which made the day's toilet a bit of a chilled rear affair! Someone asked: No secrets, and no innovation, just have to find a bit of protection behind the tent then drop the pants and be quick! I dig a hole first and cover up afterwards... Pristine environment, and I'm doing my very best.... I haven't droppped one single bit of stuff that hasn't come 'out of me'... I even use a piece of ice as toilet paper! Ok, back to the wind...
Well I dressed for a big headwind, and that's what I got the whole day. I estimate it reached 40 knots (about 80km/h) but I raised my game and actually revelled in the conditions. Most of the time loose snow was being driven off the ice, forming like a rapidly moving smoke carpet, spiralling around the sastrugi...very eerie, but beautiful.
The I saw a few kilometres off to the east what looked like a sea iceberg protruding out of the otherwise flat almost whitehorse capped sea terrain shimmering in the sunlight. It was my first Nunavat... The peaks of the mountains below the ice just sticking through, and totally ice covered. Really nice, and makes me wonder what's under the ice I'm walking on. There were about 4 peaks, total length sticking out was about 300m long and a maximum height of maybe 15-20 metres.
Last two hours were tough as the surface was soft, like snow, causing the sled to sink in the snow making it very hard to pull.
The wind area has changed, as I was walking in the same direction as the sastruggi vs the 70 degre angle before. I do hope the wind drops tomorrow, but it is still blowing outside. I had my first real high wind tent erection, which went well. It's a great tent - the most wind friendly you get.
My pole repair worked like a dream... Oh, until 20 mins before end of day: It was stil working good, but looked as if something had moved a bit, so I thought I'd just test it. Well it just creaked in my hands, and oopsie, I knew all was not good. On inspection later in the tent it became aapparent that my razor shaft had also broken... Gee these poles take punishment, hey.
I've spent the last two hours looking for another solution, and have just completed repairs using a better quality tent pole (the other was from an old tent of mine, this time I cut the spares for the tent I'm sleeping in. They are much stronger and don't appear as brittle. Anyway that was the only option I was left with... Hmm, quite stressful, and I was hoping for a quiet early evening! Another nailbiting pole day ahead tomorrow...
Oh well, 27 kms done today, under difficult conditions, I should be happy with that...
I have to say I feel enormously challenged at the moment... positively, and REALLY feel alive dealing with all this. The conditions today made it bitterly cold, the rest times were what many would describe as nothing short of miserable, but I enjoyed using my skills to survive and be relaxed in the whole day's conditions...
Ok off to bed now... I wish I could share more of the specifics, but this already is longer than I had planned!
Bye
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