DAY 8 - EXCITING CHANGE

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by Tyler Fish

(NOTE: this was a 3/10 morning call reporting for the day of 3/9):
 
Good morning. This is Tyler calling in the update for the 9th of March. The temperature in the morning was -34 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature yesterday evening was -34 degrees Fahrenheit. We traveled for 8 hours and achieved 3.6 nautical miles. There was a variable breeze most of the day, a little warmer in the morning, a little calmer in the evening.
 
The last 2 days have been pretty exciting for me and John. After our very, very slow day 3 days ago, yesterday, the 8th of March, we crossed a lead. It was very frozen and had so many frost flowers on it, it almost looked like it had been snowed on. So we knew that it was very safe to cross - the more frost flowers, the longer it's been there. We crossed that and then over a little ridge and it seem like all a sudden the ocean had changed.
 
The environment had changed; we crossed into a new place. The terrain was much gentler, much less rubble, and we were able to make good time. So that 2 days ago, we were able to make 3.9 nautical miles. Now yesterday was a little bit slower. We traveled longer and made 3.6 nautical miles, so we still had pretty good terrain. So we're really quite happy.
 
Now some of you may be wondering how do they make it through that rough day, when they only went 1 nautical mile in a day? Don't those pulks make them angry? How do they stay optimistic? It's not enough to stay be positive, be optimistic. You actually have to set yourself up to do that.  One of the things that I've done that is I've named my pulks. I have one pulk named "Shadow" and another pulk named "Bud", not "Buddy", "Bud". I named them after dogs. Shadow is an old Alaskan husky that we used to have. He was a very sweet, old wise dog and his is my bigger pulk. Bud is a playful, curious German shepherd, who loves me very much, and he is the smaller pulk. So it impossible for me to be mad at them when they jolt me to a stop or they are difficult to lift over or they tip over. I look back at them and say, "OK, you're turn, Bud," or "OK, Shadow. I'll help you," or "Let's go, boys," as I see their names on the front of the pulk and my attitude changes. I am much more able to stay positive. Sometimes you have to set yourself up to be optimistic. 

On a funny note, it is kind fun compared to my mushing days; now I am the dog and the sleds in essence are the mushers, in some ways. That's it. We looking for a good day today. We are switching to skis today which should be exciting. You will hear more from us soon. Goodbye.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 9, 2009
Location: N83° 23.071', W074° 05.560'
Time Traveled: 8 hours
Distance Traveled: 3.6 nautical miles
Distance to North Pole: 398.53 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -34°F
PM Temperature: -34°F

WEEK IN REVIEW, 3/2-3/8

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A -50°F evening a few days ago.

by John Huston
 
Hi, everybody. This is John calling. This is the Week in Review of the first week of the Victorinox North Pole ‘09 Expedition. I'd say it's been a week of ups and downs, emotionally and physically.
 
We landed at Ward Hunt Island around noontime, Central Standard Time, on March 2nd. It was 40 degrees below zero and we took a few photos and then skied north across the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf which is broken in half and that's being studied by climate change scientists quite intensely. We actually saw a few of these pylons marking the edge of the ice shelf about 2 miles, a mile and half in width. So we skied across it and camped and then continued the up and down of the week, mostly up and over, huge chunks and ridges and rubble of sea ice.
 
We encountered ice blocks of all different sizes; some shoebox size all the way up to car size and some of them are stacked all the way up to what seemed like three stories tall, about 30 feet or so. Those shoebox size of rubble made for very difficult footing. Our snowshoes helped a great deal but still we are happy to come through some of those sections with our ankles intact. And the bigger pieces serve as landmarks but also huge obstacles to get around, up and over, and there's only one thing to do sometimes when you can't find a route, and that is Tyler and I just optimistically point our snowshoes north and wiggle our way.
 
Our progress is very slow and that's normal for these expeditions at this time of year. Don't expect to see our miles climb for at least another week, although we would love it to happen. We feel very comfortable with our pace and even more comfortable with the fact that we are successfully managing all systems and body parts at 50 degrees below zero for most of the week. It's warmed up a bit today, but it is overcast with very low visibility and a bit of wind, so we'll see how that feels for a change. It's a little frustrating to go so slow, but that's part of the game and we knew that would be part of the game. And we feel good in our mental approach, and we feel good that we're being patient, keeping ourselves warm, eating well, sleeping well and taking care of the little things that need to be done to keep the expedition successful.
 
Stay tuned. We are now able to send photos. We fixed the glitch in our email system so from this point on we will be sending a photo every other day. We will be sending coordinates and expedition data every day through our website northpole09.com and we will also be sending a voice dispatch that is transcribed to text every other day along with the photo. So you will hear from us every day in some form or another and more substantially every other day. Thanks for listening. It's a slow ride, but it's an interesting one. Thank you. Bye, bye.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 8, 2009
Location: N83 19.526' W074 02.124'
Time Traveled: ~7 hours
Distance Traveled: 3.9 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -38°F
PM Temperature: -38°F 

DAY 6 - SLOW MOTION ARCTIC OCEAN

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by Tyler Fish

Our distance traveled today was .97 nautical miles, so about 1 nautical mile. And for this, the 7th day of March, day 6 of our expedition, these are the most hours we've traveled. I think about 7 and a half or so. And so it's not very far. It's probably our slowest day. But, we're still feeling pretty good about it. This morning the temperature was -58° F. And it is now -50° F and I'm making this call from the pseudo warmth of my sleeping bag.

The reason we did not go very far today is because of the rubble. And I know earlier on in the dispatch, I talked about the labyrinth that the rubble seemed to be creating for us. But this time, it was just more random. It was almost as though giants had strewn boulders all over the place. Or a mountain had crumbled down where we stood and all that was there was big large chunks of ice which we had to get over or around and it was really amazing how slow it was. But John I assured ourselves that, "we can't go faster". Going faster would just be unsafe. So we will just go as slow as we can and as far as we can and that's how it will be.

There were a few landmarks today. One was called the "ditch". I called it the "ditch". It was this huge trench running across our path which we had to sort of go down into and then out of. So, it was a very slow day and John and I had to be reminded that, you know, sometimes things are just slow. If you have a sports injury - you're a track runner and you sprain your ankle you're not going to go run a quarter mile the next day. It takes awhile.

We are well. We are here on the slow motion Arctic Ocean - what I called it today as I was trudging along on snowshoes. So, yeah, that's all I've got. Goodnight.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 7, 2009
Location: N83° 15.629', W074° 03.729'
Time Traveled: 7.5 hours
Distance Traveled: .97 nautical miles
Distance to North Pole: 406.03 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -58°F
PM Temperature: -50°F

DAY 5 - FEELING GOOD

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by John Huston

It was a heavy day, all in all. We were warm. Our feet were warm. Our hands were warm. We skied in just 2 layers of long underwear each and then our Bergans wind clothing and that's enough to keep warm due to the heat we produce from the heavy exertion of pulling about 290 pounds behind us.
 
This sort of temperature, minus 50 below all day, really makes it difficult to haul these sleds. The friction is immense. It's kind of like hauling 290 pounds across a beach.
 
We saw the full orb of the sun today, which was a pleasing sight, but it also kind of made it colder because it heats up the upper layers of the air and pushes all the cold air towards Earth, right down towards us. However we are comfortable and can function. It is just a lot more to deal with as far as friction and also heating the tent a little bit.
 
We are traveling only a few nautical miles every day and we want to reassure people that that is normal for these sorts of trips. Anything above 4 miles a day on these sort of trips, in this time, the first few weeks, is a lot. It is very cold. There is a lot of friction. The ice is extraordinarily jumbled as it was today. And that makes us have to go back and pull one sled at a time through the jumbles and then over the relatively flat areas we can pull two sleds at one time.
 
But we're doing well. We're happy with our progress. We're happy that we are coping well with the cold and we don't feel that cold that often. It just takes a lot of work to handle everything. Everything has to be warmed up before it touches our body. So, the satellite phones, PDAs, even our down booties have to be warmed up before we put them on our feet. But we're happy and we're moving north and all progress is forward. So, thanks for listening and talk to you tomorrow.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 6, 2009
Location: N83° 14.665', W074° 03.906'
Time Traveled: 7 hours
Distance Traveled: 1.7 nautical miles
Distance to North Pole: 407 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -60°F
PM Temperature: -56°F
Wind: none

DAY 4 - PULLING BOTH SLEDS

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by Tyler Fish

Hello, this is Tyler calling. It is March 5th, I believe, today, and the temperature this morning was, I think, 42 below zero. The temperature when we got to camp this evening was 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit with no wind. We traveled about 7 hours today and we were able to achieve 2.63 nautical miles. For those of you who are unfamiliar with nautical miles, it is 1.2 statute miles or regular miles to 1 nautical mile, so you can do the math on that. 

We were able to achieve this distance because most of today we were able to pull both of our pulls most of the day. So that means that every step forward was a step forward and not a back and forth like it was yesterday. We also switched to snowshoes which seemed to be treating us very well to help us get over the rubble and to help us pull the load.

It's very cold in the tent right now. Everything when you taken out of its stuff sack just oozes cold. It just mists kind of all over everything and it takes the stove a little while to clear the air. It's definitely very, very cold.

We're doing very well. Spirits are high. I was reminded today I had an Outward Bound student once on a three-week winter course that I worked. He was 27 years old at that time, the same age as I was, and he said, "Fish, I have not fallen down so many times since I was 3 or 8," or whatever he said. Well, Jeff, this one's for you; I know what it feels like. There has been a lot of falling down in the rubble, but we're both well, no injuries, so that's good. All is well. You'll hear from us in the future. Take care. Bye.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 5, 2009
Location: N83 12.927' W74 4.66'
Time Traveled: ~7 hours
Distance Traveled: 2.63 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -42°F
PM Temperature: -50°F
Wind: Calm

DAY 3 - WARM TENT

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by John Huston
 
This is John. Today we traveled for 6 hours and we covered 1.4 nautical miles. Morning temperature was -47° F. Evening temperature -42° F. Clear skies for the most part. Slight breeze but mostly calm and the breeze was out of the East.
 
Our sleds felt heavier today; I think that was mainly due to the increased friction on the snow that comes with lower temperatures. Our feet were warm. We slept warm last night. I think our biggest challenge in the tent is living in a very small space in a tent that has icy walls and that is because the outside temperature is so much colder than the inside temperature that only the top of the tent is dry as far as just nylon and the rest, the walls of the tent are just coated in a few millimeters of ice.
 
We snow-shoed most of the day. We had quite varied terrain from gigantic ice boulders, some of them 20-30 feet high that we just felt like we were in the mountains. We had a few fields of really tricky ice as far as it was really challenging on the ankles. We didn't twist any ankles, but every step was different for the first half mile of the day today.
 
Again, we shuttled our sleds back and forth. So we actually walked triple the distance that we traveled because we would take the light sled north for about 25-30 minutes. Drop it, walked back without any sleds to our big sleds. And then haul those to where we left the small sled and then we would repeat that 4-5 times everyday. Our food is tasting great. Our appetites have not really kicked into full gear yet. So we're eating smaller amounts than we packed, so that's good because we'll actually have more food for later. Breakfast and dinner pemmican is going down quite well.
 
It's really cold, but we 're warm. We're really happy with our boots and our clothing layers. It's just a battle with the moisture for the most part and it makes handling technology and everything like that a challenge because everything, even our little Swiss army knives has to be warmed up before we could touch them. So our pockets are full with little items that we don't want to get frozen.
 
It was a good day. We're both a bit tired. Our sleds felt heavy but it won't be the only day where that's the case. And we're looking forward to a big sleep and hitting the trail tomorrow.
 
Also, we saw the sun for the very first time today. I don't know, around 11 o'clock, it peeped up around the mountains to the south of us, just the top half of the sun. It actually made everything a lot colder because the sun heats up the upper layers of the air and pushes that cold air down towards us. So we're looking forward to more sun but the next week promises to be a bit colder due to the sun just barely touching the air. Then once it comes up for 12 hours a day or so things will warm up a bit. OK, thanks for listening and over and out.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 4, 2009
Location: N 83 10.321' W 074 02.344'
Time Traveled: 6 hr
Distance Traveled: 1.4 nm
PM Temperature: -42°F
Wind: Slight breeze out of the East
Total Distance to date: 3.1 nm
Distance to Pole: 413 nm

DAY 2 - SNOWSHOES TODAY

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by Tyler Fish

Hello. Today is March 3rd and John and I are on the Arctic Ocean. John and I got up today. It was chilly but we were feeling really good and we decided to give up the skis that we'd used the previous day. We saw some very jumbled ice basically right next to our camp so we decided not to ski and instead pull our pulks just on foot. And as it turns out, within 50 feet of camp with our first lead. It was frozen. It actually was the lead that indicates the separation of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf from the Arctic Ocean.

So, we are on the Arctic Ocean. We walked right across that lead and continued on through the rubble. The rubble was quite a labyrinth, really. It was impossible to tell which way is the best way to go. There really is no best way. So we just make our way as we can. More or less in the direction we want to go sometimes more and sometimes less with some zig-zags here and there.
 
Couple years ago this expedition would have started off a little easier because the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf was bigger. It was longer. It stretched further out on to the ocean. But the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf broke off after so actually we were confronted with the rubble earlier this year than an expedition in previous years would have been. After about 15 meters of pulling both pulks through the rubble we opted to pull one pulk at a time. It was a lot easier to pull the small one forward instead of around and go back and get the big one and bring it to where the first smaller pulk was. Of course the disadvantage of this is that we have to do this three times the distance, which is probably why we only went .87 nautical miles today.
 
We're blessed with wonderfully calm weather. It actually been very pleasant and we agreed that our experience portaging canoes has helped us make it pleasant because we're very used to walking down the trail going back to get other items and then continuing to where our canoe sits.  So we're feeling pretty good in fact numerous times today we've said to ourselves, "We're doing well now. We really feel good. We're going to make it". So we're pretty happy.
 
Tomorrow we're looking forward to another good day and, yes, hope all is well.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: March 3, 2009
Location: N83° 08.9' W074° 04'
Time Traveled: 5hrs 30min
Distance Traveled: .87 nm (1 nm = 1.19 statute miles)
AM Temperature: -42°F
PM Temperature:  -30°F
Wind: Little to no wind
Total Distance to date: 2.57 nm
Distance to Pole: 413 nm