Frostbitten…

March 30, 2009 8:59pm

Today was tough. If indeed the human body has a hundred million trillion cells in constant communication with one another, then mine were all saying ”I am cold!”. Except perhaps for two in my brain who said: ”keep going North!”. The fact that they were rubbing each other probably accounts for the fact that they, too, were cold! Seriously, this is tough going. Keith and I started upbeat and for the first time chose to wear the skis. That is until we hit another rubble field which made the skis impractical. The effort was also greater which increased our sweat and made rest periods colder. We went back on foot for a while and a slight breeze grew from the East. Even five knots of wind lashes the face like frozen razor blades. The temperatures were slightly warmer at around minus 32F without windchill factor. Our legs were not delivering in power today so we tried our snow shoes which we kept on for most of the day. We left at 10:30 AM and stopped at 6:30 PM as the weather was turning sending snow drifts along with the increasing wind–about ten knots. We traveled 6.5 nautical miles true North and our position is now N85°33.978 W077°29.529. Keith and I are both frostbitten on a couple of finger tips. Something to watch carefully. It is hard to keep hands warm especially after fuel intake (food) as the blood rushes to the stomach to process the food, and takes away from extremeties–such as the hands! Vistas were beautiful as ever but the cable from my camera to my expedition batteries froze and snapped! I will attempt to patch it tonight. This is camp 6 signing off!

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