Yesterday during the last march Toby “Hawkeye” Thorleifsson and Hugh “Hawkeye” Dale-Harris spotted an Arctic fox directly in our path as we skied north through Trold Fjord.

Foxes are normally pretty shy, but this one wasn’t moving. As we got closer we realized it was in the process of killing a baby seal. It had found a seal den, which is kind of a hollowed out series of small caves created by the mother seal, and it was in the process of killing a seal pup. Now an Arctic fox is about half the size, maybe even smaller, than a seal pup, so it was quite an undertaking for a small fox. But by the time we got closer, the seal was dead.

So today we continued skiing work north through Trold Fjord. Trold Fjord is absolutely gorgeous. Where we are now it’s about a mile, mile and a half wide, cliffs a 1,500 to 2000 feet high, and today it was a wind tunnel, 25 knots or about 30 miles an hour, straight down our faces from the north all day. So wind is pretty tiring. We’re fortunate to have 4 strong sled dogs with us to make a day skiing into the wind a lot more productive than otherwise. But we’re happy, we’re healthy, no frostbite or anything. We’re fairly warm and we’re enjoying some quiet, non-windy time in the tent right now. OK, thanks for listening everybody.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: 4/16/13, Day 17
Location: N78°22', W84°57
Traveled: 7 hours, 10.8 miles
Temperatures: -8°F am, 4°F pm

ARTIC FOX ENCOUNTER