DAY 40 - TWO MILE MESS

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The "two mile mess" was filled with various sized rubble.

by John Huston

Tyler and I traveled 10.1 nautical miles today in 11 hours and we are extremely happy with that performance. It is a full moon today and that affects the tides by increasing them to their greatest extent and we are also near an area where we have heard there is a large lead. So we have been wondering about how the tides are going the affect the ice. Normally they increase the drift and action in opening up a lead. So we're a bit curious as to how that will affect the area that we are in. And last night, toward the end of the day, we noticed a whole lot of humidity in the snow and a bunch of recently frozen-over leads that we crossed the last 2 hours.

As we went to bed last night, we could hear in the distance, kind of a churning of the ice slowly moving as high tide came. This morning, about 12 hours later, we traveled through what we came to call the "two mile mess." The "two mile mess" was two straight miles of ice of all different sorts and recently frozen leads, most of them very frozen, of all different sorts and different directions as well. I don't really know how to describe it other than a labyrinth of new leads frozen over and just chunks of ice with frost flowers everywhere.

Some of the chunks of ice were as big as a car or bigger.  Some were just kind of small cauliflower that we would ski right over.  It's kind of frustrating to encounter an obstacle like this because it slows us down. However, while engaged in overcoming that obstacle, Tyler and I are never frustrated at our pace. We realize that we can only travel so fast and we actually enjoy the engaging route finding of going through rubble and kind of more open labyrinth type areas like the "two mile messes."  Fun, as it makes the time go by quickly and we marvel at the power of nature and the Arctic Ocean.  

So we also encountered a "one mile mess" later on and then a "half mile mess".  But the "two mile mess" took us 3 hours to go through.  And to finish that and go quite slowly, take our skis off about 10 different times and walk pulling our sleds, and still do 10 miles in 11 hours of travel, we are thrilled. We are full of pemmican and happy. And we had some Cajun spice tonight in honor of my mother who is celebrating her 65th birthday with my father in New Orleans.

So thanks for listening everybody and we will talk to you (later). (Dispatch was cut off)

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 10, 2009
Location: N87° 13.047'  W075 19.632'
Time Traveled: 11 hours
Distance Traveled: 10.1 nautical miles
Drifted .4 nautical miles S/SW
AM Temperature: -18°F
PM Temperature: -17°F
E wind 4-8 knots, clear but haze on horizons
167 nautical miles to the North Pole

DAY 39 - HOW FAR TO THE POLE?

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Tyler heads north over some open terrain.

by Tyler Fish

Well, our day was spent weaving our way among the rounded features of hills and hummocks of older sea ice and around and over some pressure ridges that were newer.  We also crossed 6 frozen leads, gliding like silk over the frost flowers. It was a day that John and I like to call "heavy" but "steady" because we try to keep the pace so we're moving all the time.  And during our day at some point in the mid-afternoon, we crossed 87°, our next degree of latitude, and so tonight we are celebrating and we are really happy that we made 87°.

So how far to the North Pole? It is 175 nautical miles or 210 regular miles that you are used to thinking about or 340 or so kilometers. That's to the North Pole in a straight line. Well how far is that? Well, I have 3 examples for you.

If you were to get on the freeway and drive 70 miles an hour, which the speed limit on some freeways is, if you drove for 3 hours you would be at the North Pole. That's if you're driving a car.

If you're biking on a road bike, you could do a century ride. A century ride is where you do 100 miles in a day.  Means you woke up in the morning, did 100 miles and camped somewhere, got up the next morning, biked back home, you'd be at the North Pole. That's one way to get to the North Pole.

Then to stay with the cross-country skiing, there's things called ski marathons and John and I have a favorite.  It's called the American Birkebeiner.  It's named after a race called the Norwegian Birkebeiner, or the Birkie. The American Birkebeiner's largest such event in North America is very much looked forward to by all sorts of people. It's a 50-kilometer race (about 30 miles). Well if you did 7 Birkies you would be at the North Pole. That's one a day for a week. Now if your average time was about 3 hours and 30 minutes, which is a very respectable Birkie, if you did 7 of those, that would be about 24 hours.  So you can think that, from a certain perspective, we have 24 hours left of skiing.  Of course this would be if you had enough light all the time, you had groomed trails, easy food and water and if you were a little bit crazy.

Well John and I are, perhaps, a little bit crazy and we do have the light of the sun 24 hours, but we also have obstacles: rubble, open water, drifting ice - that kind of thing. So, it's not quite the same. It's not going to happen.  And at -20° Fahrenheit no ski race happens. But we do keep skiing to the North Pole. So, you can choose however you want to relate the distance that we have left to go. But, that's how close we are and how very far away.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 9, 2009
Location: N87° 03.306' W075 13.153'
Time Traveled: 10 hours
Distance Traveled: 9.7 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -22°F
PM Temperature: -18°F
clear, light N/NE breeze 4-8 knots
177 nautical miles to North Pole

DAY 38 - SUN AND SWEAT

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by John Huston

Sun, I love you like never before. Sweat, you are my sworn enemy. I will do everything in my power to stop you. Sun, glorious orb in the South and now the North as well, you brighten up the tent so that we don't need headlamps anymore.  Sun, you highlight the ice chunks on the horizon like a beacon and make navigation so easy. You warm up the tent so nice. You relax my muscles. You make breaks enjoyable for 10 minutes. You give me energy when you shine 24 hours straight. Sun, you dry my sleeping bag a little bit. And sun, you melt the icy, frosty bits from my facial hair.

Sweat, you are my enemy. You make my clothes damp and cold. You drain my energy. You tell me my body is working too hard. You make my mittens wet and then icy and my hands cold and numb. Sweat, you fog my sunglasses. You dehydrate me and make me grumpy.  Sweat, you make me hungry for more salt than we have.  Sun, I will never, ever take you for granted again. Sweat, you have taught me discipline and moderation.

We have 24-hour sunlight and it's warming up our trip making things more enjoyable and relaxed. However, we are skiing in warmer conditions and it is a battle not to sweat.  It is difficult for me to stay dry.  To keep from sweating I am always unzipping my Bergans clothing and doing everything possible to change my clothing systems not to sweat. And so far, so good but I've had a few rough spots here and there. Okay. Thanks for listening everybody. It was a great day today and it definitely will be tomorrow.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 8, 2009
Location: N86° 53.747' W075 11.969'
Time Traveled: 10 hours
Distance Traveled: 11.7 nautical miles
Drifted .4 nautical miles N/NE
AM Temperature: -30°F
PM Temperature: -24°F
S/SE wind 2-4 knots, high clouds, more sun that previous days

DAY 37 - A SKIER'S THOUGHTS

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Our quiet, steady companions ready to go.

by Tyler Fish

Well today we made a new distance record for ten hours of travel, 11.2 nautical miles. John and I are very pleased. What do we think about while we're skiing? That must be a question on people's minds. Well, I'm going to try to explain.

It depends a little bit on whether or not you are leading or following. The leader thinks about being out ahead.  Where are we going? What are the obstacles?  Are there any leads to cross?  Are there ridges?  Where are we going to go over those?  What's the easiest path? Where is my expedition partner behind me?  How far?  That sort of thing.

The follower has a little bit less to think about and can get caught up more in: How's the snow?  This is great skiing.  Oh, this is kind of crusty. I'm just going to sink through this a little bit. That sort of thing. Either way, if the terrain is easy or has a good rhythm to it, either skier can really get into it. And what I mean by that is you can get into a meditation in motion. You just ski. You go. And you just, you're going and going and you're thinking while you're going and you sort of lose time, which is my favorite way to meditate.  If I were to sit and to meditate likely I would just fall asleep. But the meditation in motion is awesome.  And your mind wanders all over the place. Yes to friends and family, to the past, to the future but also you could think about the present for a long time.

Today when I was skiing, meditating in motion, I got fixated on the white splatters on my skis and finally I realized that those splatters are from my dripping nose, which drips most of the time.  And when the ski passes under it, sometimes it catches a drip.

Well eventually we do stop and the two of us take a break together.  And now the weather and the terrain are such that John and I can sit together for 5 or 10 minutes during our breaks and sit and stare into the warm sun and share our thoughts that we had or maybe thoughts about our expedition and planning things a little bit.  And increasingly we talk about food.  What we want to eat, when we want to eat it, how much of it.  The quote from today was, John said, "I wonder how long I'm going to want to eat everything I see?" Good question. And onward we go.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 7, 2009
Location: N86° 41.729' W075 00.544'
Time Traveled: 10 hours
Distance Traveled: 11.2 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -26°F
PM Temperature: -20°F
clear, some haze on all horizons, S/SE breeze picked up
198 nautical miles to North Pole

DAY 36 - MILE WIDE LEAD

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John standing in front of an open water lead on Day 30.

by John Huston

Today, by far, our highlight was crossing a mile wide lead.  It was sunny. There was no wind, very little ocean current. The coolest thing that we felt, I mean there was a lot about it that we really reveled in, was that we saw the ice moving.  In other words, we saw our drift that we've been talking about happening.  And what that was like was, and sounded like, was one huge sheet of ice slowly (just a thin sheet of ice) pushing underneath a thicker sheet of ice and like incremental grunts.  So our drift has been a little bit to the northeast, mostly to the north recently, so we actually got to see our drift happening.

We felt quite safe on this huge lead. The ice was very good. We skied quickly across sections that are thinner and the ice actually has a rubbery feel which is quite fun as long we are moving but it's very safe.  And we were on that rubbery ice for about 100 meters, 150 meters.  And then we were on thicker ice for the rest of the crossing and quite safely we could stop and talk to each other and just appreciate the sunshine, the windless area and the stunning view of being on such a flat area and seeing all around and the mist in the distance and the rubble in the distance.

And the skiing was quite good. The ice was very good. We felt very fortunate to encounter such a lead on such a perfect day. To encounter this lead on a day where there was a lot of action due to high winds or increased tidal effect, we might still be at our camp waiting for it to freeze over. So we're quite happy to have crossed that. It was the high point of the day.

It slowed us down a little bit because we knew we needed to test the ice, but we feel that we have added to our experience level on such leads and that we are going to encounter more like this and we hope that we are as lucky as we were this time, as far as the conditions.

The moon is waxing, increasing, getting towards a full moon. The tidal action will increase and that affects the ice quite a bit. We're seeing more cracks as we progress north and we know that there is one more big lead right after the 87th degree of latitude, at least in the near future. So we'll see how that turns out. So you can look forward to that.

The leads are becoming more and more a part of our story and we're encountering them more and more everyday. I think we crossed 5 or 6 little, smaller leads and then that one big one.  And we feel quite safe with our decision making around them.  

Today was also a big day. We boosted from 6700 calories to 7500 calories per person per day.  And that is in the form of an extra truffle for lunch, more cheese and milk powder at dinnertime and a little other additives.  So those extra calories will have no problem getting into our stomachs and we are quite happy to have a little more energy going into us as we ski to the North Pole.  All right, everybody. Thanks for listening and talk to you next time.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 6, 2009
Location: N86° 30.177' W074 57.139'
Time Traveled: 10 hours
Distance Traveled: 9.7 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -22°F
PM Temperature: -20°F
sunny all day but hazy, light undefined cloud cover
210 nautical miles to North Pole

DAY 35 - MAKING GOOD DAYS INTO "GREAT" DAYS

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Tyler will be asleep in 6 seconds...

by Tyler Fish

A few days ago John and I were skiing very well, and in general we've been very pleased with our pace and our ability to ski with one another and as a team, and we were about to end our day at our typical 10 hour stopping time when we realized that we were only 2/10 of a mile away from 86° north latitude. So I suggested to John that we push on a little further, a little later and make 86° and feel really good about the day. And we discussed it and he agreed and so we did and we both felt like it was a really great decision to go that extra distance and feel like we had made a good day into a really wonderful day where we knew we could celebrate. So that was a way we made a good day great.

Today was a little different. After waking up today, taking care of some projects and getting going a little later in the day, we were surprised to see that our slate of travel was still very good. And as we skied, the terrain, which had been a little bit "heavy" we call it - a little up and down over the snow dunes, it got better and better and flatter and flatter. And actually towards the end of the day we encountered an old lead; perhaps about maybe a quarter mile wide and a few miles long, we're not quite sure. We started moving very quickly. And part way down that lead John and I pulled up next to each other and I kind of said, "You know, I'm sort of tired." And John agreed and he'd been thinking about that perhaps we should stop early one of these days and get some extra rest. And again we talked. We're very good at coming to mutual agreement on decisions and so we decided to stop early.

So instead of taking a day that would have probably been a distance record, we took a successful, great feeling day and ended it early. It's always been very important for me and John to do this expedition, not necessarily as quickly as possible, we just want to do it as well as possible. So we decided it was more important for us to take care of ourselves and be able to push the reset button. 

So we're going to bed early tonight, plenty of sleep and we're assured some flat terrain to start with tomorrow and some good weather tomorrow and we feel like we're actually setting ourselves up for success. There are plenty of miles to go. That's it for now.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 5, 2009
Location: N86° 20.503' W074 53.617'
Time Traveled: 8 hours
Distance Traveled: 8.8 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -22°F
PM Temperature: -18°F
clear and sunny, slight breeze, SE puffs, faints clouds in PM
220 nautical miles to North Pole

WEEK IN REVIEW, 3/29 - 4/4

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by John Huston

April 4th, Day 34 of the expedition and this is the 'Week in Review'.

Welcome to the Victorinox North Pole ‘09 Ski Chalet where optimism abounds, complaining is not allowed, and good vibes spread throughout. In this tent, you will find two people sitting with the satisfied feeling of having just skied an honest ski day and had a nice, honest workday and that creates a very relaxed environment. 

We're always thinking of the people at home and those who support us. So if you are one of those people, thanks for checking our website and thanks for your support. We really feel the positive vibe up here. It's a big, big boost to know that people at home are thinking of us.

This week was quite eventful and I will run through some of those events right now. Our setting was marked by 24-hour sunlight with increasing warmth throughout the week, culminating with some very warm skiing today and yesterday. And that sun felt most warm when it is high in the sky, and when it is baking down on our warmer tent and those warm midday ski marches and of course when there's no wind. We've been very lucky to have a nice high-pressure system with clear skies and very, very little wind. Earlier in the week there was a bit of wind and that was really quite chilly. 

Perhaps the biggest event of this week was that we encountered our first open water lead on Day 34 (*note -John is referring to the lead they encountered on Day 30, not Day 34). It was running northwest and it was too wide to swim across and not frozen enough to ski across. So, we traveled along it for three miles and on it a little bit and Tyler tested some ice that he should not have tested and got his feet a little bit wet. Not his actual skin wet but just the outside of his boot gaiters. But it was a good moment and a little bit of learning that we have taken with us and that was a hard day. We were battered by wind all day and really kind of felt it. We got our butts kicked a little bit by the Arctic Ocean that day. But we were up early with the warmer weather the next day and skiing north and set some good mileage towards the North Pole. We take from our mistakes and we learn and we always move forward.

We are traveling 10 hours per day these days and that feels very comfortable. We will up those hours down the road but we are on schedule for our expedition and that feels really good. We crossed 86° yesterday evening and that was a big high and we really try to celebrate every possible moment on this expedition and to cross 86° on schedule and with a big travel day, 10.4 nautical miles in only 10½ hours of travel yesterday, that was a really, really good feeling. And we really try to take advantage of that by celebrating such moments and really kind of congratulating ourselves and telling ourselves that we feel that our execution of our plan is going right according to what we hoped it would. And that's a great feeling. We believe in ourselves, we believe in our ski methods and our travel methods. And we have a lot of confidence that we can make it to the North Pole on time. So, that sort of feeling is the high that we still have today, one day later.

We are in love with our food on the Arctic Ocean. Our favorite meal is literally what is in front of us. Perhaps we enjoy dinner the most because it comes at the end of the day and we're relaxed and we don't have to rush through anything. We like to eat it really hot so it warms up our hands; it warms up our bodies and leaves us with a little bit of a glow. It's pemmican stew for breakfast and dinner and we spice it differently each time and we're not tired of it at all, we just love it. And we have truffle fudge bars, Macadamia, Brazil and Pecan nuts for lunch along with butter and bacon and we love that as well. And feel like we could eat about ten times as much but we feel like we're getting enough calories and that we're satisfied with the amount of food that we bought.

This week, wrapping up, was a good week for wildlife. We saw two, possibly three, seals pokes their heads up on that first open water lead that we encountered on Day 30. That was quite fun to see them looking at us. And we saw two separate sets of fox tracks, Arctic Fox tracks. One was heading north that we kind of followed a little bit and one was heading to the southeast, I think.

Well thanks for all the support. We know that you're thinking about us. This week is dedicated to our friend, Thor Pakosz, who crashed his airplane a few weeks ago in Northern Minnesota. And he is in critical condition still in Duluth in the hospital. And our thoughts go to him every day and his friends and family, and his girlfriend. So, Thor we're thinking about you buddy and if you're a friend of ours you can go see how Thor is doing on his CaringBridge page and there are updates on his condition at that site.  CaringBridge happens to be our charity partner and it provides free websites to people in health/illness crisis or treatment. So, it's good to know that the charity we're working with is supporting our friend in need. 

Over and out and we will talk to you next week.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 4, 2009
Location: N86° 11.503' W074 50.097'
Time Traveled: 10 hours
Distance Traveled: 11.2 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -20°F, (in sun 8°F)
PM Temperature: -20°F
clear and sunny, winds calm, NE puff