Archive for the ‘North Pole 2009 Peary-Henson Centennial’ Category

Well today was a good day! Temps were a little kinder than in the beginning, hovering around minus 30 F degrees. But most importantly we hit 10 nautical miles true north in spite a new rubble fields which pestered our progress. Ten had been my average target and one necessary in order for us to exit the pole through the temporary floating Russian station Barneo, one degree south of the pole. Barneo closes on April 27th, so the race is on! We hit our groove today and charged for most of the day’s 9 hours of travel time, which still got us two film breaks. A point on filming or photographing here: all cold environments are challenging to shoot in. I use custom built batteries and silicon cables to deal with the extreme conditions. (A regular cable will simply wilter and snap from the cold). But out here, each opportunity to shoot has to be measured against 1) the time to stop, open the sled and set the gear up 2) the cold that sets in from stopping 3) the time needed without a glove or with minimum hand layer which set deep painful numbing and potential frosbite. Not to mention dealing with something which invariably goes wrong with gear that isn’t really intended to be optimized in – 40. Consequently, shooting is extremely challenging, and made all the more frustrating for the fact that there are quite literally 100’s of shots daily that cannot be captured but to memory. That is the secret of the Arctic winter ice. An icy Carmen, luring like the seductive temptress, but treacherously poisonous to the image greedy. A visual Shangrila meant mostly to be commited to the eye’s memory. That said–we did catch some good sequences, in light of a personal documentary I am shooting of this adventure. More on that later.
Our current position is N85°55.037 and W76°41.076. Most likely tomorrow will we complete our first full degree (or 60 nautical miles)! We are feeling cautiously optimistic, in spite of the 70% failure rate for the pole. Wish us luck!
Good night.

85.6495N, 076.8635W

Frostbite is essentially like a burn, but in opposite. The body
secretes a pocket of liquid to protect itself, which is essentially a
blister. With frostbites, it is recommended to stay away from the cold
until it heals. Sounds straight forward enough. Right. But what if you
can’t get away from the cold? Then a frostbite needs to be carefully
shielded to prevent that pocket of fluid from freezing again and again.
Lest the wound goes deeper into the flesh and spells trouble. By now,
both Keith and I have a number of frostbite–his toes, my fingers. This
is certainly not uncommon when traveling regions that men have no
business spending any amount of time in. But those nips have to be
carefully monitored or the risk could be loss. The one that I am
presently monitoring is–appropriately enough–my right hand middle
index finger. One which has seen–I’ll admit it–some good service,
particularly while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.
We started late today as a wind from the south was shaking the
tent all night. We felt no rush in getting beat up by the elements and
were slow out of the tent. Also I think today is Sunday and on that
day, we felt, we too could rest. Some. On the trail the wind was mostly
in our back but was painful when it lashed our faces. Consequently, we
were hooded up and not in great conversational moods. Stops are cold so
we minimize them, mainly to catch our breath, eat and drink something
quickly and get moving again. ”You ok?” ”Good.” is about the extent
of our dialogue other than the occasional expletive not aimed at anyone
in particular but just at how tough this really is. Like Sisyphus and
his rock, we pull our heavy sledges across this uneven icy landscape,
one step after the next, occasionally cursing our decision to be here
in the first place! Other time, the zen associated with the simplicity
of the action is enough to create a temporary moment of sheer bliss.
Err, temporary… Luckily today’s terrain was mainly open pans of
relatively flat ice. Three hours in, however we came across our first
open lead, and with it came the black color of the Arctic ocean, which
of course is constantly below our feet, some 5.5 feet or so. The lead
was running East/west, or squarely in our way. It was a complex system
of cracks in the ice generated by the awesome power of currents and
winds, and after following its banks for a while, we finally found a
crossing point. We hurried as the environment was rapidly changing and
the lead widening. A couple of hours later, we came upon another
freshly re-frozen lead, too wide and too fragile to cross over, we
decide to camp near it, and let it solidify over night. Today, we broke
one pole, lost two pole baskets, and the buckle of my harness snapped.
Some fixing to do tonight then, but not too long as we have been burn
ing too much fuel, which is an easy thing to want to do, believe me!
Our position this evening is N85°38.959 W76°52.321. We traveled from
12:30 until 6:30 and covered about five miles. Temperatures were
between -34 and 40F. The wind made this feel like -50 or more. This was
another tough day. But this will change… We keep heading north!

Getting On With It.

85.7530N, 076.7906

The lead we camped by yesterday froze enough overnight to allow us to cross
it this morning. We put our skis on to distribute the load, and chose a
narrow section, about 150 feet wide. Keith went first. We unclipped
from our sledges, tied a rope to it and very carefully treaded on the
flexing ice. I fed the rope–a safety line in the event that he would
go in the drink! Problem was: our rope was only a hundred feet. When
Keith ran out of length, I pushed his sledge onto the ice. But our
combined weight was too much and my leg went in as the ice cracked
below me! Amazing to think that my left leg was dangling above probably
a few thousand feet of depth of the arctic ocean! The wetness almost
immediately turned to frost; in this environment open water (it freezes
at about F 27 degrees due to the salt content) is considerably warmer
than the air temperature which today was slightly warmer at minus F 31
degrees or so. We sent my sledge next and I followed the same way,
feeling the flex of the ice… It was high drama, and a good way to
bypass this obstacle. Open leads and pressure ridges are the biggest
challenges to North Pole travelers. We chose to ski and in the process
I broke another pole–I had broken one yesterday! We skied hard and for
the first time we began to grow into our rhythm. We might have done
better mileage but for the many rubble areas we are still dealing with.
This quantity of rubble and pressure ridges is consistent with newly
formed–and therefore weaker–ice. Multi year ice, which is almost all
gone in the arctic sea, tends to be thicker and smoother. It has more
structural integrity. It is amazing to consider the awesome power of
currents and winds crushing multi tons chuncks of solid ice like twigs,
and piling them on top of oneanother like a auto salvage yard!
We
traveled for 9 hours and covered 6.5 nautical miles true
north–probably skied more like 9-10 considering the detours from
ridges. Overall a good day. Frostbites are under control, people. No
panic! Our current position is N85°45.179 and W76°47.466. Good night
and thanks for staying with us.

85.5664N, 07.4869W
Like nomads trekking across the white desert of another planet we advance
one laborious step after the next. The cold temperatures crystallize the
water deposits preventing them from bonding with the ice. The result is
like pulling the 200 lbs sledge through sand. If you have ever wandered
what it feels like to be a plough farm horse, I recommend trekking
through the Arctic sea ice. The terrain is never flat even wwhen
hitting nice pans which has been rare. Mostly it has been rubble fields
which slow us down and can be quite discouraging when they sprawl on
for miles. The mood varies between euphoric and upbeat, and frustrated
and doubtful. All this in the silent and lonely universe of the intense
effort punctuated only by the sound of heavy breathing: your own. Still
the Arctic desert reveals itself to us in all of its majestic and
endless subtleties in the way that it only does to those committing to
traveling its unforgiving realm. The lunar vistas are simply
breathtaking. No life here, and no sounds but for the cruddy break of
our feat on the ice and our constant marching companion: the steady and
heavy rhythm of our breath. Temperatures have remained around -38F or
so, dropping somewhat by days end. The sun does not rise above 15
degrees from the horizon at its apex, but no longer sets either. We are
now in 24 hour daylight. Today we travelled for 8 hours and covered 6
nautical miles true North but likely walked 8 on account of the
shifting course forced on us by the obstacles. We have crawled into our
tent and pried our sleeping bags from its frosty grip: we quite
literally have to pull them open cracking the ice that seized them from
the cold! Our current position is N85°27.600 and W77°36.099. Time to
sleep. Thank you for staying with us!ppP

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!

Sebastian radio’d in this morning at 5 am (we changed the clocks an

> hour forward today – so it was actually 4 AM!!) from the middle of

> the arctic desert.

>

> I had the feeling that he’s finding it mentally hard : pulling those

> heavy sleds over large hillocks of ice – up and down, with the same

> landscape stretching out to the end of the horizon. And he’s only on

> Day 4!  But he managed to radio into his mother to reassure her!

> Although I don’t know if I’m as reassurd as all that, as now I’m

> worrying about him becoming depressed!  He said that the monotony is

> the worst. I’s a real work-in-progress to work on one’s mind so as

> not to dwell on the minute-to-minute discomfort, effort and

> especially the freezing cold.  Mealtimes must be the highlight of

> the day! I don’t expect he’ll have a birthday cake on April 3rd!

>

> As he’s coming back through Paris, I told him that he would have a

> hot bath waiting for him, a comfortable bed and his favorite mutton

> stew!

>

> I told him that he didn’t HAVE to do this and if it got too tough

> that no-one would blame him for quitting, but he said he couldn’t

> quit as he would let so many people down – including his sponsors – but

> mostly himself.

> Oh well, he’s a big boy, but I wonder if he was quite able to

> anticipate the grueling day-to-day ritual.  I think he’s being

> incredibly brave, myself, and I hope he will be recognized as doing

> this as a mission to help save the Arctic, which is not protected as

> the Antarctic is.  The Arctic is so much more at risk, as it is

> surrounded by countries which, in fact, would probably prefer that

> the ice melt as it would create a passage in which all kinds of

> boats will be able to go through, creating all the problems that are

> evident such as  non-stop tour liners, tankers, cargo boats etc.,

> going from the US. Russia, Canada and the Baltic countries, creating

> chaos and destruction to the natural habitat, churning up the

> pristine waters, creating oil spills etc. etc. and the prospection

> of earning billions and billions in mining for oil….

>

> He’s hoping people are following his daily diary – he especially

> mentioned his nephews –  and I reassured him that everyone probably

> was because I have been bugging the entire Earth about him! He was

> especially gratified that Pat Murphy’s son’s class was making his

> trip a class project, so please Pat, let him know—

>

> Over and out, to quote the end of my conversation with him…..

>

> – penelope

85.4600n, 077.6071w

Like nomads trekking across thee white desert of another planet we advance
one laborious step after the next. The cold temperatures crystallize the
water deposits preventing them from bonding with the ice. The result is
like pulling the 200 lbs sledge through sand. If you have ever wandered
what it feels like to be a plow farm horse, I recommend trekking
through the Arctic sea ice. The terrain is never flat even when
hitting nice pans which has been rare. Mostly it has been rubble fields
which slow us down and can be quite discouraging when they sprawl on
for miles. The mood varies between euphoric and upbeat, and frustrated
and doubtful. All this in the silent and lonely universe of the intense
effort punctuated only by the sound of heavy breathing: your own. Still
the Arctic desert reveals itself to us in all of its majestic and
endless subtleties in the way that it only does to those committing to
traveling its unforgiving realm. The lunar vistas are simply
breathtaking. No life here, and no sounds but for the cruddy break of
our feat on the ice and our constant marching companion: the steady and
heavy rhythm of our breath. Temperatures have remained around -38F or
so, dropping somewhat by days end. The sun does not rise above 15
degrees from the horizon at its apex, but no longer sets either. We are
now in 24 hour daylight. Today we traveled for 8 hours and covered 6
nautical miles true North but likely walked 8 on account of the
shifting course forced on us by the obstacles. We have crawled into our
tent and pried our sleeping bags from its frosty grip: we quite
literally have to pull them open cracking the ice that seized them from
the cold! Our current position is N85°27.600 and W77°36.099. Time to
sleep. Thank you for staying with us!

85.3623N, 77.6615W

We are doing well and plugging away at
the miles. The cold temperatures have been making our stoves hard to
light, but we have a few tricks to make it easier. The majority of our travel today was over broken ice, with a few old leads to change
up the scenery. Old leads are cracks in the ice that have frozen over
enough that you are able to ski or snowshoe on them. When we are
trending in a northerly direction it is like getting out of
bumper-to-bumper traffic and getting on a free-way with no cars. It’s
easy and fast mileage compared to the bumps and zig-zagging of rubble
zones. Typically it’s not common to find old leads heading north-south,  but we’ll keep
our fingers crossed that we get some!

The temperature in the morning was a frigid -38F, but in general
the day was nice, with sun and little if any wind. We traveled 6.8
nautical miles North ending at N85.21.738, W77.39.695. Check back
tomorrow for another dispatch!

85.1610N, 077.7435W

Second day and we are bushed! The ice is clumpy and we negotiated a
field of rubble that was pretty discouraging. After two hours of
pulling our heavy sledges across these pressure ridges the size trucks,
I looked up to see the same landscape for miles in all directions! We
traveled for seven hours and ended at N85:09.665 W077:44.632 or a
distance travelled of 7.09 nautical miles whuch isn’t bad on a second
day. Temps have been mostly around -34C all day until the last hour
which dropped below 40. Great grub courtesy of chef Keith. We are dead
beat and, oh,yeah, it is COLD out there! Over and out.

85.2513N, 77.7072W

Yesterday was a long, hard day for us. Lots of rubble, heavy sleds, and cold temperatures
added up to a challenging 3rd day on the ice. It’s common for the first
few days of any expedition to be the hardest as the people get acclimated and into a rhythm. We are up for the challenge and hoping
that the temperatures warm up a bit. Today saw lows of minus 46F degrees without wind chill.Our position today in degrees, minutes and seconds is N85.15.078, W 77.42.433

Check back tomorrow for another update!