FAT FOOD PACKING

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Butter Butcher

by John Huston

Packing meals for 4 people for 75 days is a lot of work. We do a ton of preparation in order to make eating and cooking as simple as possible on the ice. For the past day and half we have been weighing, counting, chopping, measuring, bagging, snacking on, and sorting all of our food.

At full rations we each will be eating over 7000 calories per day. All that fits into a package that weighs about 1.2 kg or 2.6 pounds per person per day. Fat is the main staple and it has to taste good. We are excited about our menu. It’s important to eat well, get enough calories, and enjoy the flavors.

Our daily menu.
Breakfast: freeze-dried dinner (Toby & John) or breakfast meal (Hugh & Kyle) with whole milk powder, butter, olive oil, and sugar – mix it all together in a fatty soup.

Lunch (eaten in snacks during the day): deep-fried bacon, homemade expedition fudge bars, mix of high-fat nuts, raisins/cranberries, sausage, butter, dried soup, and parmesan cheese.

Dinner: freeze-dried dinner with olive oil, butter, hot chocolate, and potato chips.

We pulled all of our freeze-dried meals out of storage in Resolute. The meals are leftovers from expeditions that during the past few years failed or brought up too much food. Digging the bags of meals out of storage felt like modern expedition archaeology. Since it is freeze dried and sealed it’s still good for us.

In total each person eats 150 g or 0.33 lbs of butter every day, that’s more than stick of butter. About two weeks into the trip our bodies develop a big hankering for calories and fat.

Despite this consumption we will all lose weight during the expedition, our energy output will be bigger than our calorie input.

We’ve been in Resolute for 3 nights now. The most likely weather window has us flying to Ellesmere Island on the early afternoon of Saturday, March 30.

WARM IN RESOLUTE

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Axel, Elle, & Napu

by Tobias Thorleifsson

Yesterday, we flew to Resolute Bay with the dogs. Our dogs had never been on a plane before and thankfully all went very well.

Resolute has a population below 300 and it is one of the coldest inhabited places on earth with an average temperature throughout the year at 1.94 °F.

The history of Resolute is pretty special. In the early 1950′s Inuit were forcibly moved from northern Quebec to Resolute by Canadian authorities to ensure that the northernmost parts of Canada was populated. For these Inuit the move to Resolute was a tough one. The climate was totally different than further south in Quebec and there is little the wildlife in the area, apart from a lot of Polar Bears.

Inuit have nevertheless survived in Resolute and today is this village last stop for expeditions to the North Pole. The Canadian military also has a small base here.

It is warm in the Arctic…

Yesterday it was minus 23°F in Iqaluit and in the sun, we measured almost 60°F degrees. When I was here in March 2008, there were seldom warmer than -13°F. People in town are happy for the warmth, but also note that it is coming too early.

In Resolute temperature was 13°F, normally is around -20°F. That is 33 degrees warmer than normal.

In Grise Fiord, the nearest weather station from our starting point of the expedition, Goose Fjord, it was 12°F yesterday compared to a normal of -17°F. If this heat continues, it going to have a big impact on our trip.

The weather forecast indicates things will cool down a bit, but not down to normal temperatures for this time of year.

The weather forecast for Grise Fiord and normal temperatures, you can follow here: http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/nu-12_metric_e.html

More to come from Resolute.

CARIBOU RUMP

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Hugh and Axel

by Kyle O’Donoghue

Given that I only learned to ski a year and a half ago I am not so well equipped to handle overzealous Inuit Dogs. A few days ago Toby and I took two of our dogs out for a skijor on the sea ice. Skijoring is basically cross country skiing with a sled dog pulling you, the dog helps but doesn’t do all the work.

I was fairly nervous about the idea of tethering myself a very energetic dog to likes lives to pull like mad.

Elle (named after Ellesmere Island) turned out to be great and I only fell twice on the trip back from the dogs to the house we rented across the bay. This was also my first time on sea ice, so it was a bit eery to be out there. But Meeka Mike, our friend who lives in town, tells me they have had a good freeze and the ice is about 6 feet thick at the moment.

Scenes from Iqaluit.

The North is legendary for it’s hospitality and we are experiencing it in full. Hugh, Toby, and John have all spent a lot time in the north. Hugh even speaks a little of the local language. Meeka and her family have been industriously sewing patches onto all our clothing. One day we arrived to check on the progress and found them having a snack of frozen Caribou rump and fermented Beluga Whale oil. The meat tasted good and lets just say the fermented oil is an acquired taste.

The team has also been helped out by the polar adventuring McNair-Landry family, who are always ready to give advice and let us use of their workshop for gear modifications.

We all getting along great and happily continue to gain weight. On Saturday morning, morning Toby cooked up a super hash of leftover pasta, bacon, corned beef hash, butter, leftover nachos…all topped with cheese and eggs.

BIG DOGS

by John Huston

Meet the New Land 2013 skijor dogs.

Axel, male, named after Axel Heiberg Island, 4 years old.
Elle, female, named after Ellesmere Island, 4 years old.
Napu, male, named after a the lashing prong on an Inuit komatik dog sled, 7 years old.
Larry, male, named after another dog named Larry, 4 years old.
Larry, Elle (pronounced el-ee), and Axel are all from the same litter.

We are renting the dogs from a very nice musher in Iqaluit. She is thrilled her dogs are going to Ellesmere Island…and we are too.

20 DUFFLE SHUFFLE

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Gear explosion, Iqaluit

by John Huston

“The equipment of a polar expedition is a lengthy business; there are a thousand things to be remembered and done and arranged before the anchor can be weighted, for when the hour comes, in order to ensure the probability of a safe return and accomplished task, nothing must be wanting, nothing likely to fail.” – Otto Sverdrup, New Land.

For the first time the full team (including dogs) is now assembled together in one spot with all the equipment. We have settled into our house in Iqaluit, where we will spend the next four days sorting, labeling, and tinkering before we fly to Resolute on Monday afternoon.

Our stay in Ottawa wrapped up in a small whirlwind of packing, shopping, eating, and chasing details like Kyle’s lost luggage. Kyle’s arrival in Ottawa was delayed two full days. Hugh had an emotional goodbye with his wife and three children. Toby and I packed our 20 duffle bags for the flight to Iqaluit – no easy task in one single hotel room, but we enjoyed the puzzle.

Yesterday afternoon we landed in sunny Iqaluit, population 8000 and growing. In the sun the temperature felt even warmer than Ottawa! Old friends greeted us at the crowded airport. Then we watched in anticipation as all 20 duffles roll off that baggage belt, it doesn’t always work out like that.

The highlight of the day was meeting our beautiful skijor dogs for the first time. These four Canadian Inuit dogs weigh at least 80 pounds each, have truly gorgeous furry coats and playful personalities. We haven’t skijored with them yet, but we are very excited with the first impression.

Coming next a video of the team meeting the dogs, stay tuned.

OTTAWA ONSLAUGHT

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Poutine Pig

by Tobias Thorleifsson

On Saturday evening, most of us united in Ottawa.

It was a pretty heavy departure from my family who I will not see for a long time. All day today we worked with the equipment, especially boots and skis, at the offices of the largest sporting goods store in Ottawa. All skis and boots are now ready. Throughout the evening we sorted through the 22 duffle bags John and I have inside our hotel room – there’s not too much room in here.

Fat Lunch

Before we set sail on the ice, one of our goals is to put on a few more pounds. For lunch today John and I downed the following menu. Appetizer: The Canadian delicacy ‘poutine’ consisting of fried potatoes, onion rings, melted cheese, and a lot of gravy. Main course: XL Burger (over here an XL burger really is a challenge) We turned down the chocolate milkshake we were offered for dessert. This was not a pleasant lunch for me, John made it through a little better.

Kyle’s arrival is delayed 30 hours.

During lunch we also got the disappointing news that a little snow in Frankfurt has delayed Kyle’s arrival. He now arrives in Ottawa late tomorrow night, instead of this afternoon. So we have postponed our journey onto Iqaluit, Baffin Island a day, until Wednesday. It is important that we travel as one unit and keep tabs on our “modest” amount of luggage.

FINAL PINCH

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Final pull

by John Huston

We are in the final pull of getting the New land 2013 expedition train out of the station.

Putting our lives on hold for 3 months always entails a certain amount of stress and chasing of details. To me, it has always felt like a pinching feeling that grows as the departure deadline nears.

Leaving home is a strange feeling. I’ve known this day was coming for a long time, but that doesn’t necessarily make me ready for how I’m going to feel on Saturday morning at the airport. There’s a whole mix of emotions flowing right now, excitement (about the North and Ellesmere Island), sadness (about leaving behind loved ones), responsibility (to my family, my job, and to the team), and fear (of forgetting something).

Toby, in Oslo, is packing up and launching the Norwegian arm of our educational program. He’ll be leaving behind his wife and 2 year-old daughter.

Yesterday, I called Hugh, our Canadian teammate. He quickly told me told me that he was too busy to talk because he had his hands full deep-frying bacon at a sausage kitchen. No joke…it was my favorite call of the week so far. Hugh and his wife have three young children. Hugh has been on the narrow end of our logistic funnel, handling all of our shipments into Canada and on to the North.

Kyle, our video man, just put his feet back down on terra firma in the southernmost Chile after crossing the Drake Passage following his seasonal work in Antarctica. Tomorrow, he flies back to Norway, where he lives with is girlfriend. Then he promptly heads east to meet us.

I’ve got all my duffle bags packed save for a few items. I’m doing my best to spend some quality time with my wife and our beloved dog. I’m also doing my best to add more weight to my frame. So far my increased butter intake has resulted in just a few pounds of gain and several sweaty nights of sleep.

On Saturday, the team unites in Ottawa, Ontario for a few days of eating, planning, and for a send-off event with some local media.

Then on Tuesday morning, March 19, we fly to Iqaluit for 6 days of preparations. In Iqaluit, we’ll meet our skijor dogs, get some cold weather exposure, and iron out our travel and camping routines.

On March 25, we fly to Resolute, Nunavut. There we will do the final food packing and organize our resupplies.

March 28 (maybe March 29) is expedition start day from Goose Fjord on the southern coast of Ellesmere Island.

Until next time, thanks for reading.