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!