PACKING UP

February 19, 2009

The northern lights were beautiful the other night when we were packing food.

Location: Iqualuit, Nunavat, Canada

Audio blog: packing gear, northern lights, frying bacon

Audio transcript:

Hello, this is Tyler Fish calling on the 19th of February. I am in Iqaluit, Baffin Island, at Matty McNair's house. The days have been busy for the last couple and I guess I need to recount them here; it's a little bit of a struggle to try to tell to tell you everything that has happened. Basically the biggest thing is that we that learned that all of our heavy and large items needed to go to cargo to be flown north if we wanted it to reach Ward Hunt Island when we start the expedition. So the next stop for all of our gear and for us is Resolute, which in on Cornwallis Island. It's in-between Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island, if you want to find it on a map.

We needed to pack up our food, get it all ready and that was a struggle for us, but we decided it was to our advantage. It would push us; we'd have to make decisions and it would get done. Indeed it is done. In the meantime what we were doing was there was a lot of packing of nuts and weighing things. John was weighing huge bags of freeze-dried cheese and I was counting all of the nuts and the truffle bars. A truffle bar, for those of you who do not know, basically is a chocolate fudge-like substance put into a bar form so you can eat it pretty easily, put it in your pocket, and take it out. And those are really good.

While we were doing that, I went outside to get something out of the deep-freeze and I remembered to look up at the sky, something you can forget when you are really busy. I looked up and there were the northern lights, a wonderful green and purplish ribbon that was just dancing down the sky. It was awesome! It's a good reminder that we are here for a reason because we love the north. This is just the beginning of the north because we continue to go north from here, so we are excited about that.

John-Huston-Polar-Explorer-Tyler-Fish-North-Pole-Sled-Contents.jpg

We have also been working on fattening up some more. I am still trying to get to 200 lbs. and I think I am a little bit ahead of John. We have been doing that in a couple of different ways. One of the things John had to do, wanted to do, was looking forward to doing, was to deep-fry the bacon to seal in the fat. He set up shop on the back of a motorboat that was sitting nearby, sitting out in the snow and he fired up our Whisper Light stove and fried up all the bacon, about 18 kilograms (about 40 lbs.) of bacon.

So that's about it, I think. We did get everything to cargo to help us relax a bit, so now we can focus on a little bit more of our gear. And we will get to go out camping and it will be great and work on some of our routines. John and I are doing well and we are excited to hear from people when we do. We hope all of you are well and are looking forward to hearing from us next. Thanks."

WEEK IN REVIEW, 2/9-2/15

February 16, 2009

The first look at our expedition sled. We talk nicely to our sleds!

by John Huston

Tyler and I have now been away from home for a week. It has been a busy week with a lot of packing and unpacking. Living out of duffel bags and moving from place to place is a constant in an expeditioner's life. While on the ice we pack and unpack our bags everyday. As we have traveled all over the place the last year, this packing and unpacking is a ritual of the road warrior and road weary.

Right now, Tyler and I feel like a bit of both, road warrior and road weary.

Tyler and the Arctic sunset over the Frobisher Bay.

On Thursday, we and our 16 pieces of checked baggage landed happily in Iqaluit (pronounced E-cal-you-it). Iqaluit is the capital of Nunavut, Canada's Inuit Province. After an emotional and stressful week of departures and a few days of shopping, we are pleased to be in Iqaluit for two weeks of training, relaxing and getting everything ready for the ice.

Tyler and I trained in Iqaluit last March and this year marks my third straight year that I have been here. We have several friends here, know the town and the lay of the land. This familiarity is comforting and makes for efficient preparations. We are staying with our friend, mentor and polar veteran Matty McNair. We also reunited with our good friend Meeka Mike, a fun loving 4'9” Inuit woman, who is currently heading up a fascinating project that documents Inuit traditions and experience with climate change.

Matty's house is the perfect place to prepare for a polar journey. The 5 bedroom house is located on the Frobisher Bay beach, just a hundred yards from the hummocky sea ice. We spend most of our time in the small workshop assembling and making small modifications to our equipment. This workshop has everything one could want to work on polar equipment in preparation for a long ski expedition. While working in the shop, it is fun to dream of all the expeditions that have used the same workbench.

John, in Matty's workshop, putting together a heat exchanger, which increases stove efficiency.

Matty is an extraordinarily welcoming host, who loves chatting about polar dreams and gear preferences till the wee hours of the night. Like Tyler and I she has her roots in Outward Bound. Last year she hired me to guide a two month expedition to the South Pole. Tyler and I will definitely leave here with full bellies and plenty good memories of small dinner parties around her table (a staple in the McNair house).

Tyler and I have truly believe that in many ways 'the preparation is the expedition.' Throughout the past few years we've gone out of our way to humbly learn from some of the most experienced polar travelers on the planet. By working with and talking with these people and from our own testing, we've synthesized a lot of information and ideas into our own expedition model.

Tyler on Frobisher Bay at 5:00pm on Valentine's Day.

Today the expedition feels more tangible than ever before. Over the past week our lives have simplified greatly. Now it is only Tyler and I and our expedition supplies. We deliberately left home well ahead of the expedition start date so that we could prepare calmly and with room for adjustments. By this time next week we hope to have packed 530 pounds of our food and equipment.

The closest weather station to our staring point is reporting -40°F (we'll be quite happy if it is that warm on March 1). We hit the ice in two weeks!

FLIGHT TO IQALUIT

February 12, 2009

John says "I really hope all this stuff gets to from Ottawa to Iqaluit without a hitch."

by Tyler Fish

Location: Iqualuit, Nunavat, Canada
Audio blog: Pack up gear/food, airport, delay, Canadian North flight, cold welcome, horizontal snow, glad to be here

Audio transcript:

Hello, it's Tyler Fish calling in. It's February 12th. We woke up today at 5 am to pack everything up. We packed up our gear also all the food we purchased in Canada: bacon, pemican, butter, chocolate truffles that everybody loves to hear about. We weren't sure how would it all fit or if it would fit in all the bags we had with us. And we had to get the food out of the freezer, pack the food, weigh the bags with the doctor's office type scale that usually lives in the hotel gym. We had to get out the door, load up the van shuttle, gas up the rental car, get to the airport, unload the vehicles, roll into the airport and our flight was delayed!

Well, it seemed like hurry up and wait. We quickly saw and seized the opportunity. Calmly check our 16 pieces of luggage, bought a little breakfast at Tim Horton's which is kind of like the Canadian Dunkin' Donuts and returned to our hotel room not quite sure what to do. Should we nap? Should we get on the internet? Should we watch television? A little of each? Turned out there were plenty of things to keep us busy.

John says "I am so relived that all of our equipment arrived safely!!"

It was pretty nice to slow down, actually, to be forced to do that.

I think the hotel staff was pretty glad to see us, honestly. By this time most of them knew who we were, some were pretty excited about our journey and certainly more than a little thrilled that we are staging out of their own Holiday Inn Express.

We walked out on the tarmac under dripping gray sky...eventually. And we boarded our Canadian North Airplane. The plane ride was divided between work and a little bit of napping for me. Goodbye land; we watched Ontario and Quebec disappear below us and eventually into the darkness.

Tyler reads a book in Norwegian about a 2006 unsupported North Pole ski expedition. Frobisher bay is out the window.

The Canadian North plane is only half a passenger plane. The front part is for cargo going to Baffin Island and all points beyond. The Canadian North motto is, "Seriously Northern". Well we sat up by the door to cargo, the cargo compartment, and as we descended into Baffin our feet got colder. When we landed it was seriously northern outside. It was really windy. We could feel it as the plane tried to slow down after it landed. I felt the excitement in my body. It was really fun.

John and I walked out onto the tarmac and this time we were greeted by horizontal snow. It was really windy and felt cold. We're staying with friends tonight and we're really glad to be here, in the north!

VISIT WITH WEBER

February 10, 2009

North Pole veteran and recent South Pole ski record setter Richard Weber, works with our skis.

by John Huston

Location: Ottawa, Canada
Audio Blog Contents: Visit with Richard Weber, polar expedition equipment, expedition knowledge, car loaded with expedition food, looking forward to hot tub, flight to Iqaluit on Thursday morning

Audio Dispatch Transcript:

"Hi, this is John calling in from Ottawa. It is 8:30 EST time and Tyler and I have just returned to our hotel room near the airport after a day of driving all over Ottawa and parts of Quebec.

The highlight of the day was meeting with Richard Weber, his wife Josee and his sons Tessum and Nansen at their home about 45 minutes north of the city of Ottawa. They live in a wooded area. It's a beautiful place with cross country ski trails, a nice house and a garage/barn full of polar expedition and cross country ski equipment.

Richard has been one of our mentors. He supplies us with a lot of his knowledge about expeditions and the Arctic ocean and he also supplies us with most of our diet as far our main sustenance of pemican truffles for lunch and also bacon which we also eat for lunch. Instead of reinventing the wheel we had tried out Richard's diet and known that it's been successful on several previous trips so we decided to go with that rather than waste our time trying to pack 7000-8000 calories into about 2 1/2 pounds.

So it was fantastic to sit with Richard and talk about the expedition once again and then drive away with the car completely full of meat products and butter based foods. Tyler picked out a book today and we are both a bit run down as at least maybe a little bit road weary so we are going to hit the hot tub. And we moved our flights to Iqaluit Thursday morning so we can make sure that our sleds clear customs nice and smoothly.

Well it's going well and we feel good about everything.

We miss everybody back home and things are on track. Talk to you soon."

GOODBYE USA (A WEEK IN REVIEW 2/1-2/8)

February 2, 2009

Unintentional twins and John's girlfriend, Jennifer, at O'Hare International Airport.

by John Huston

Today, we said goodbye to our loved ones. The next time we will see them will be in late April in Svalbard, Norway. Svalbard is a mountainous archipelago several hundred miles north of Norway and where a Russian aircraft will deposit us after picking us up at the North Pole.

The parting was emotional, heartfelt and enjoyable. Tyler and I have a big feeling of success. Success in getting the expedition project to this point. And success that we positively envision having on our quest to ski unsupported to the North Pole.

Our last memories of loved ones are extraordinarily important to us. We cherish them and savor them as mental anchors while on the expedition. Tyler departed from Minneapolis. On Saturday, he, his wife Sarah and their 4 month-old son, Ethan, drove south from Ely to Tyler's parents' house in Center City, outside of Minneapolis. There they rendezvoused with his sister's young family for a relaxing home-cooked dinner. Tyler's morning was one of hectic packing of the car, emotional goodbyes to Sarah and Ethan and a sad embrace of his old, loyal German shepherd.

Sarah, Tyler's wife, attaches a necklace holding a small silver polar bear. She wore the same piece on her 2004 Arctic Quest expedition.

I departed from Chicago. My last evening at home was spent my parents and my girlfriend Jennifer We dined in the warm, cozy confines of my family's favorite restaurant, Marinella's Italian Ristorante, in my childhood home of Glen Ellyn. Today, Jennifer and I had a perfect relaxing morning, walked her dog in the warm spring-like Chicago sun and then headed to the airport to meet my parents and Tyler, who was connecting from Minneapolis.

In Terminal 1 at O'Hare International airport Tyler, Jennifer and I enjoyed a large Mexican meal, brought in by my parents. We savored the forever universal combination of food (dreams of guacamole abound on the ice!) and family for as long as possible before heading through the security gate.

For both of us, the past week has been a stressful one of expectations unmet. We both know that expectations can be a very dangerous thing when thinking ahead to the future, because most often reality and expectations don't match and that can cause of a bit of frustration and mental stress.

It is this humble detachment from expectations that Tyler and I are so good at when on the ice and when working with nature, but that sometimes we struggle with at home. We really wanted to have a relatively low stress week, which at times was just impossible due to the demands of media, administrative duties and dealing with a few unforeseen equipment shipping complications.

Now we will spend 3 days in Ottawa, Ontario procuring our food and ensuring cargo shipments are in place. We love Ottawa, which has a nice European feel and is easy to navigate. On Wednesday morning, we fly to Iqaluit where we will train a bit and relax for two weeks.

We left the U.S. well of ahead of the March 1 expedition starting date, precisely because we did not want the stresses of leaving to happen too close to the start of the expedition. Now it is just the 2-man Victorinox North Pole 09 expedition team, no cell phones, reduced distractions, increased expeditionary focus and 21 days until we ski north.

ONE WEEK TO CANADA

February 1, 2009

by John Huston

The last two weeks have been a blur of travel and preparations. Two weeks ago Tyler and I were in Ely, MN traveling and training, it was -30°F or colder for 4 nights in a row. Last weekend found us attending the Outdoor Retailer convention in Salt Lake City, where it rained for 48 hours straight. This past week we have been back at our homes in Chicago, IL and Ely, MN.

We depart for the first leg our journey, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, next Sunday, February 8. We will spend a few days there buying food and a few other supplies. On February 11, we fly to the Iqaluit, Baffin Island, where we will spend the next two weeks training, acclimatizing to the extreme cold and relaxing before we hit the ice on March 1.

The last few weeks and days before departing for an expedition can stir a whole mix of emotions, I've compiled a short list here in an effort to give you a small window into our brains at this time.

• Stress. We can feel like a bit overwhelmed at times with multi-tasking and last-minute details. Sometimes we wish there was a few more hours each day. It is a strange feeling to take all the necessary steps to put our lives at home on hold for three months. Bills have to be paid in advance, all of my belonging have to be placed in storage, taxes have to be taken care of and I have to finish packing for the expedition (that's the easy part in some ways).

Tyler's dad, Steve, working on expedition electronics.

• Exhilaration and excitement. Our three year project is finally entering the execution stage and we cannot wait to start the simple life of a long distance ski-expeditioning.

• Longing for loved-ones. We have not left home yet, but the thought of leaving our families and loved-ones for three months can be difficult. It is difficult in the empathy we feel for their experience. Because Tyler and I are engaged in the expedition, time for us will pass relatively quickly. However, how time passes for our loved-ones at home, who are often worrying about us, can be a challenge. On the ice our warm memories of home are extraordinarily important. This week we are doing our very best to add positive memories to our memory banks.

Tyler saying goodbye to his German Shepard, Bud.

• Longing for food. We will experience this emotion quite keenly on the ice. So now, we are filling our gullets with our favorite goodies. On an expedition I often day dream about long drawn out meals at my favorite Chicago ethnic restaurants. This week I am anticipating those fantasies and trying to live out those day dreams. This quest also adds a few ounces to my expedition-ready frame.

• Nerves. We'd be lying if we told you we were not a bit nervous about the expedition. We are very confident in our preparation and our choices, however a few butterflies always flutter in the stomach at this time before an expedition. Why? It's different for each person, but for me it is likely the anticipation of the unknowns of an expedition like ice and weather conditions or logistical problems. The butterflies vanish as soon as I hit the ice, which is when these unknowns turn into tangible realities.

Until next time, thanks for reading,
John

NIGHT

January 14, 2009

by John Huston

This blog represents the first example of what our typical expedition blog will look like.
Most blog entries will include a short text journal, an audio dispatch, a photo and daily stats (temperature, location, distance traveled, distance to the pole etc). Some entries will only include our location or our location and an audio dispatch.

Location: Outside of Ely, Minnesota
Temperature at dusk: -20°F
Distance Traveled: 2 miles
Hours traveled: 3 hours

Tyler and I are together in Ely, Minnesota for a week of expedition training and testing. Today we spent a few hours going through our equipment, making a list of the few odds and ends that we still need to procure and continued to try to put on pounds (Tyler is leading that contest, although John has made a recent push toward 190).

We capped off the day with an arduous 3 hour sled pull on snowshoes in the dark. We pulled 300 pounds each through the deep snows of the National Forest surrounding the Outward Bound base where Tyler works. We navigated a continuous obstacle course of thin ice, shelf ice (ice without water underneath, this type of ice is very weak), 3 to 4 feet drifts, slush (a sticky combination of snow and water, that is formed when water seeps through the ice and mixes with the lower layers of snow) and rocks.

The evening was crisp and cold, with very little wind. The work left us quite sweaty, despite the cold air. With little wind, -30°F and -40°F can be quite comfortable if one is working hard and generating a lot of body heat. However, the snow at these low temperatures can be very corse and make it feel like one is pulling a sled across sand.

It feels fantastic to be away back in Ely, where I lived from 2000 until 2007. Part of me really misses the cold, cozy little town. You've got to love a town where the people truly embrace all seasons. Last night was -33°F, Tyler and I slept outside and tested our new Bergans of Norway sleeping bags. Yesterday, Babbit, MN, 20 miles south of Ely, recorded a low of -54°F! We were hoping for cold temperatures for training and testing and we got lucky.

Tomorrow, we will continue to go through our equipment, hopefully go for a quick outdoor swim in our dry suits and sleep under the stars again.

From this point forward updates will be coming more frequently. We leave the country for the Arctic in 26 days. We hope to start the expedition during the first few days of March.