SYSTEMS

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John in his Bergans sleeping bag.

by Tyler Fish

I have been a wilderness professional for over 15 years now, and I can tell you that camp counselors, guides, instructors and technical experts alike spend time contemplating something called “systems.”

When it comes to an expedition, these “systems” become very important--food and gear packing systems, sleeping systems, hauling systems, rescue systems, cooking systems, cleanup systems, travel systems.  What is a system?

According to the dictionary a system is a: set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole.  A bunch of related ideas are a system.  Examples include a cookie recipe, or a public transportation network.  Both of these have a number of independent elements that together form a system.  A good system, like a good team, is greater than the sum of the parts.  

Winter camping systems can be complex and simple, but almost all winter camping systems aim to do the following:
- Keep something warm
- Keep something dry
- Make something easier to use in the cold
- Increase efficiency

John and I enjoy the challenge of being resourceful and making adaptations to our systems and equipment during the expedition.  However, carefully planning and testing our systems before hitting the ice can save us a lot of time and make us more comfortable.  In many ways planning is the expedition.

One of our most important systems is our sleeping system.  It consists of two sleeping bags, two sleeping pads and a vapor liner.  Here is how it fits together from the outside to the inside:  
- Bergans of Norway Sleeping Mat Extreme, 1.4 cm thick
- Bergans of Norway big custom synthetic sleeping bag (rated to -20°F)
- Bergans of Norway Senja Ice Down sleeping bag (rated to -10°F)
- Bergans of Norway Sleeping Mat Extreme, 1.4 cm thick
- Custom made vapor liner bag from Sjur Mødre of Norway, this uninsulated water proof nylon sleeping bag liner prevents moisture from accumulating and freezing in the sleeping bag insulation fibers
- Person dressed in long underwear and fleece

In preparing for this endeavor, John and I have spent a lot of time discussing systems with some of the most successful and experienced polar explorers in the world.  We consider these discussions an invaluable portion of our training.  Each of these wonderful people has had their systems for everything.  Some were the same as others, some similar, and some were wildly different.  During next week's training expedition we will be testing a few different systems.

MINNESOTA DAWN

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Tyler's backyard.

by Tyler Fish

This Sunday morning was my first early morning ski of the year.  It was 20 below this morning and calm.  I was on the snow-covered ice by 7AM, which due to my northern latitude is at least an hour before sunrise.

If you've never had a “first time on snow,” I can tell you it is a wonderful feeling.  Some might say it's like flying, and that might be true.  I engage every part of our body for the sole purpose of gliding.  I sense the breeze on my faces, the smooth motion under my feet and a pleasant feeling the stomach that says, “keep going.”

Today my thoughts wandered in different directions than the usual early morning ski. Everything I noticed I related to the North Pole expedition.  It's -20°F this morning (that's -28 celsius), it'll be that cold more often than not on the Arctic Ocean.  There are frost flowers on the ice where it has expanded, water seeping up and refreezing.  We see frost flowers aplenty on newly frozen leads on the Arctic Ocean.

The ice makes cracking sounds as I ski over it--this is good thing and it is not caused by me.  The cracking sounds come from the ice freezing and expanding.  It booms, echoes with impressive snaps and deep throated pings.  Early on in my career as a winter outdoor educator this would have scared me.  Now I realize, due to the deeper tones of the ice, I am very safe. Light, high sounding pings would have me worried.

Knowing I am safe allows me the opportunity to revel in the sounds.  The ice on the Arctic Ocean will feel and sound differently?  Ice may grow and expand, but it will also grind and crush, offering completely different noises.  

In my path, wolf tracks cross and mingle with the tracks of sled dogs and dogsleds.  The wolves must have been curious as they wandered in through this area in the night.  I see the tracks of a lone fox made it's way over untouched snow, leaving the smallest, lightest footprints.   I wonder what tracks will we see on the Arctic Ocean?  Will we see any wildlife at all? I'll perfectly happy if we never see a polar bear.

As I continue skiing along the shore, around the lake and into bays, I notice the morning light.  It's dim, gentle, for there's no sun yet.  It's been at least an hour, and the sunrise has been very slow to grow.  The beginning of our expedition will be spent in light like this.  

As the sun does show itself and I return to the Outward Bound bacecamp, my colleagues there marvel at the amount of frost on my shoulders and head.  On the Arctic Ocean it will just be John who will look at me, but after a few days the frost from perspiration will be old news.  Myself, I'll just feel it on whiskers, eyelashes, hat and neck.  Every once in a while it will fall and tickle, just to remind me that it's there.

5TH GRADERS

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by Tyler Fish

"How are you going to be happy?”, spouted a 5th grader from the back row.  

Wow, that is basically one of the most important questions  in life.

Lately, I've been visiting 5th grade classes.  Getting ready for a school presentation I think about the students, the teachers, the props and the paperwork and the little details.   I don't always think about the questions that are going to come up at the end, so when the sea of 5th grade hands rises, I'm not always ready.  Here are three examples of the types of questions I've received.

1.    Worse case scenarios.  These don't surprise me and are ultimately not that interesting, except for the creativity in designing the situation.  “What if you are swimming in the open water, and your dry suit leaks, and then a polar bear comes and...the other guy isn't there and...”  Obviously at some point I'm force to admit that it just might be hopeless.  But there are lesser degrees of this question.  If we feel tired or have a cold, we will keep going.  Minor injuries will treated as best as possible.  We have to do the best with what we have.

2.    “How do you brush your teeth?”  This question is very similar to “how do you go to the bathroom,” or “how do you wash your clothes?”  I enjoy the variations on this theme.  To me this question is really something like, how do you take care of yourself when the conditions are, at best, uncomfortable?  John and I won't be miserable the whole time.  In fact, we enjoy the routines of taking care of ourselves.  It's not about going without; rather, it's about how can we adapt and be normal human beings?  I brush my teeth and floss twice a day, if possible.  Showers turn into sponge baths.  Life is good.  These simple acts help me feel that I have control of my situation, that I can rely on myself. 

3.    “Are you doing this to inspire people?”  This one did catch me off guard.  I stared quietly and pleased at this fifth grader, slightly surprised, and quietly replied, “yes.”  She then quickly followed that up with, “Did you have people inspire you?”  She's good, I thought.  I had many teachers and coaches and people that I met on my travels who were doing really incredible things.  I encourage kids to experience their world, travel and talk with people, listen to their stories.  There are so many amazing individuals out in the world.  Let them fill you with curiosity and wonder, and then go do something with it!

If everyone could be as interested and invested in life as a 5th grader, I'm sure the world would be a better place.  If nothing else people would go around MUCH more curious about each other.  You would hear people on the street asking all sorts of questions that are absent in your everyday life.  People don't raise their hands and ask you, “How are you going to be happy?” That's important stuff.

WARM IN WINTER

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by John Huston

We love winter!!!  The silent season, where everything is a bit harder to do.  We feel our society is afraid of winter and that most people don't actually experience winter.  Most people hustle from warm box to warm box and remain outside only as long as absolutely needed.  Thus most people's bodies never have a chance or time to make a few to physiologically adaptations to the cold. 

Most people think that traveling or being in winter means one is cold all the time.  This is not true.  

Winter travelers have just learned how to be warm in the cold.  In extreme situations, such as polar expeditions we do spend some time being cold, but in those cases that normally happens when we forget to eat and drink enough, are improperly dressed or are in extreme weather conditions. 

How cold we are on expedition is largely determined by our discipline and self care.  The same is true for anyone going outside in the winter.

With a little exposure to the cold the human body increases circulation a bit and improves in it's ability to stay warm in cold temperatures.  Over a period of years, speaking from personal experience here, the body makes these adaptations more quickly and the changes seem to last longer after winter is over.  Perhaps more importantly the mind becomes accustomed to being in the cold.

I tend to overheat if I workout in temperatures above 80°F.  While skiing to the South Pole last December and January, one of my biggest issues was not trying to stay warm, but rather trying to keep from sweating.  The work required to pull a heavy sled can produce a lot of perspiration.  How one regulates this moisture temperature and energy management.  

Fortunately, Antarctica is one of the driest places on earth and moisture evaporates quite quickly.  I was most comfortable skiing when the thermometer read -30°F, at this temperature I did not sweat very much.  It is hard to imagine, but the body can generate a lot of heat when it is well fed, hydrated and working hard.  

That whole expedition my clothing layers consisted of a double layer long underwear shirt and my wind jacket or anorak.  

On the Arctic Ocean we will spend most of our time dressed similarly.  However, since the Arctic Ocean is one of the most humid places on earth, regulating moisture takes is way more challenging than doing so in Antarctica.  

Happy Holidays everybody and get out there for a nice long walk in the winter weather!

HELL

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by Tyler Fish

After a 24-hour stop over in London to join the grand opening celebration of Victorinox's new flagship store on Bank Street, John and I traveled to Norway for a week of busy, time-zone maladjusted days.  

In Norway we met with personal contacts, equipment companies like our official performance apparel sponsor Bergans of Norway and experts in the realm of polar travel.  Norway has a population slightly smaller than that of the state of Minnesota; it is one of the least densely populated countries in the world.   However, it may be the country with the highest concentration of polar explorer-type people anywhere.  

Norway geography is a stunning, diversely packed mix of sea, cliffs, mountains, glaciers, forests and plenty of nasty weather.  Here accomplished adventurers abound.  You never know when you've walked past one of the best skiers in the world or someone who has a few long distance ski trips under their belt.  

We spent last weekend a small town named Hell.  No joke, that's the real name.  Hell sits on a fjord 30 minutes north of Trondheim, Norway's second largest city.  We went to Hell to spend some time with Rune Gjeldnes, John's friend, mentor and teammate from a 2005 expedition on the Greenland Ice Cap.  Rune lives in Hell with his fiance and a boarder collie/poodle puppy.

Rune has skied unsupported across Greenland lengthwise, across the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole and across Antarctica via the South Pole.  He is a wealth of expedition knowledge and is a master at the mental approach to huge expeditions.  He loves John's Mexican cooking and has a great sense of humor.  Two other members of the 2005 Greenland expedition team, Harald Kippenes and Ketil Reiten, also convened in Hell.  The strong social vibe of that expedition was clearly evident all weekend.

After Hell, we flew south to Oslo and met with Sjur Mørdre, one of the founders of modern polar ski travel.  He and Rune are well known in Norway, but because they do not seek the limelight, they are little known elsewhere.  I find this humble nature quite admirable.  Their accomplishments may make them famous, but they don't set out on the their expeditions in hopes of becoming famous.  Like John and I, they are pretty normal people who live typical day to day lives, but chase dreams from time to time.  

Next time more from Norway.  We may start blogging twice a week now, as a lot is happening right now with sponsors, CaringBridge our charity partner and with our outreach events.

FIRSTS

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By Tyler Fish

Over the past two years there have been many “firsts” on this project.  There was the first time John and I talked discussed the idea, the first day we named our website and the first money contributed, to name a few.   Before too long many more firsts will be experienced: the first day of REALLY cold weather (-50° or -60°F), the first night on the ice, the first ice ridge negotiated and the first open lead and on and on.

In his book, The Life of PI, Yann Martel writes something like, “First wonder strikes deepest.”  All the rest fit in the depression left by the first.  It may very well be that way on the expedition; we will so clearly remember the first sight of Ward Hunt Island, where we begin the journey.  After that it will be just a feature in the landscape, fading away.  It's also sort of like the first step into a cold, wet puddle of slush.  After that you just have wet feet.

Today was the first day of snow in northeastern Minnesota, enough to cover the ground, stick in some of the trees, and make the driving treacherous as the snow hit the warm ground, then melted and then froze into a sheet of ice half an inch thick.  In a way, all other snow that falls after this will be significant, but not as memorable as this.  It was the first time I saw a skim of ice on puddles, the first cold blast of northerly winds, a reminder of winter's grip, and the first scraping of the windshield and the first very cold, wet foot.  Today my wife, Sarah and I opted out of driving a couple of hours to an engagement, and instead we spent the day together.   It was also my son Ethan's first significant outdoor adventure, in a life that will hold many, I hope.

This was the first time that our entire family, Sarah, myself, Ethan and Bud (German Shepherd) went for a walk outside.  We suited up Ethan in an outfit we call his blue bear suit.  The hood has two small bear-like ears.  Since his birth, we hadn't all been outside together--something that's pretty important to us.  

Today Sarah walked with Ethan strapped to her, Bud followed dutifully along side, and I pulled a tire for two and a half hours through the melting and flurrying northwoods.  Sarah mentioned that she would rather be nowhere else than out in the woods with all three of her boys.  In response Bud sniffed at things and Ethan, for the most part, slept.  I plodded onward with my wet foot, listening to what she had to say, basically that happiness is best when shared.  

Chris McCandless, from the popular book and film Into the Wild, after months of soul searching, wandering, watching for beauty, seeking the wisdom of others, and eventually starving to death alone, admitted the same thing.  Happiness is best when shared with others.  

I would never trek to the North Pole alone.  It's a wonderful thing that John will be there with me to share the difficulty, the beauty, the moments and, of course, the firsts.  And so I think about the classroom visits that I have coming up this week, because I'm sharing my experience with so many students.  For some it might be the first time they hear about the Arctic Ocean and polar bears, winter camping or an unsupported expedition, Global Warming and the impacts of our society's actions.  This whole expedition project experience means more to us when it is shared with others.  

TYLER'S DOTS TO SUCCESS

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by Tyler Fish

Last night at 7pm I went out into the drizzle to run and walk with ski poles for two hours in the dark fall of northern Minnesota.  Physical training isn't always easy to fit into a person's full life, so sometimes you find yourself in less than ideal conditions.  As I plodded and bounced and breathed up some of the hills at the nordic ski area, retired ski jump slopes to my right and the forest to my left, I thought of one of my skiers on the ski team I coach.  What message I would tell him about training?

Some good skiers have talent and don't have to work at it very hard at it.  

The rest of the good skiers don't have a lot of natural ability, but really dedicate time and effort to be good.  

Great skiers have talent and work hard.  They work hard not only in practice, not only when it feels good to train and not only when it's convenient.  They train when they don't want to, when it hurts and when it doesn't really fit into the schedule.  

People say that you shouldn't fear your own greatness.  I think it's perfectly natural fear your own potential, because to accept your own potential for greatness is to simultaneously take on a lot of blood, sweat and tears.  Ultimately, that's how you really achieve.

Many athletes, coaches and armchair fans have strategies for training.   Admittedly, it's not always easy and sometimes downright depressing to have to go and trudge along for two hours or more.  As I ran last night I came up with a few tips that work for me.

1.    Have someone force you to get out there.  Whether it's a coach, a friend who meets you for regular training sessions, or your wife, you are accountable to someone.  They can give you the extra nudge to put your heart into action.

2.    Force yourself to complete a route or goal.  You usually don't quit within the first half an hour, so if you begin on a loop, destined to end where you began, at some point you find yourself out there with slightly more to go forward than backwards, but forwards is more interesting.  That can be the difference between an hour and a half or a two hour workout.  That extra half an hour, when added consistently, really boost the training times. 

3.    Make it interesting.  Bjorn Dahlie, legendary Norwegian cross country skier, Olympic and World Cup champion, believed that training must be fun.  You have to do what is interesting; have enough options to add variety to the routine.  For example, I can run, bike, rollerski, pull a tire...just to name a few, somewhat interchangeably.  

4.    Be consistent.  Training leads to more training.  It's easier to motivate when you are successful, because you see the differences that it makes, but also because you become addicted.  Your body wants to be physically active.  For me, I can go two days without training, but after that two things happen:  Either I begin to be overwhelmed by guilt or by either physical and mental restlessness or lethargy.  The first drives me crazy and the second one disheartens me. 

5.    Prioritize training in your schedule.  Everyone has a time that works best for them.  Know what that time is and schedule your life around it so that you are more likely to train.  Personally, if I don't train in the morning it gets exponentially harder to see it happening as the day wears on.

Much like a connect-the-dots page in a children's book, it's a lot easier to see the big picture if you have a lot of dots to work with (many training days) and connect them regularly. Unlike a connect-the-dots, when training you can't just sit down one day and draw a picture the day before the race and win.  You have no choice but to connect one dot at a time.  The trick is in making it as easy as possible to do so, the say can be said for connecting the dots to the North Pole, but more on that later.