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Diary
2.6.2008Location: 74 10.12 N, 39 35.25 W
This expedition has been arctic in every sense of the word. Just now we were talking about it and came to the conclusion that if had been here in this weather ten years ago, we probably would have spent half of the days in the tent waiting for better weather. Here it is easy to see how big difference does experience make. After the interviews we skied for four hours and stopped to set up the camp. The weather was rather chilly so half a day was just the thing today. The speed on those four hours was rather good, so there is hope for some good skiing days in the near future. 3.6.2008Location: 74 18.54 N, 39 53.97 W
The next legs are always more calm and pleasant. In the end I’m always more pleased with our efforts after a day of skiing than after a day of kite skiing. Today we did 8 x 50 minutes and I feel good after good days work. 4.6.2008Location: 74 26.84 N, 40 13.37 W 5.6.2008Location: 74 35.55 N, 40 36.16 W
Yesterday's weather was a little different. In the morning it was cold as usual, but in the afternoon the wind settled and the last couple of hours were pure spring weather. We did 8 x 50 minutes. After setting up the camp I looked at the thermometer and to my surprise it showed –16 C, it felt more like +16 C. Today the weather was like a copy from yesterday, apart from the colder night. For some reason the surface was better than it has been for a long time. Maybe it was sun yesterday afternoon that helped. I would say the sledges were easy to pull considering the still weigh some 120 - 130 kg. The photo yesterday is related to navigation. We only use our shadows and watches to determine the direction we are heading to. We only use the GPS and the compass in the morning. During the day we just add 15 degree to the shadows every hour. On a cloudy day we can use snow dunes, the fine “snow dust” or the wind to determine the direction. 6.6.2008Location: 74 44.88 N, 41 05.81 W
55 km ahead of us is another older ice drilling station (NGrip), we will probably reach it early next week. It is being emptied at the moment. The supplies and equipment from there will go to a new station (NEEM), which we also plan to visit. There is still 402 km to go before we get there. The good people of Summit have already instructed the crew over there to feed us. Which is very nice indeed. There is still one more thing to see before Qaanaaq and that is The Greenland Inland Traverse expedition that has recently taken off from the Thule Airbase. Their route is the Thule-NEEM-Summit line. It is an unusual expedition, because they travel with three giant snowcats. Their plan is to find a safe supply that goes to Summit via NEEM. So we may encounter three monsters. I suppose they may offer us a cup of coffee, if we ask nicely. 7.6.2008Location: 74 53.96 N, 41 31.80 W
The other reason he was doing better is psychological. Whenever the other one is having a bad day the other one gets sort of the spiritual boost from that. In any case we skied 8 x 50 minutes in partly cloudy spring weather. Our sledges are still quite full, but the supplies are now on two layers instead of three as they were when started off. I must admit my sledge is not particularly well organized. I have actually lost my kite in there, and that is a rather big package. It is there somewhere at the bottom with the other rarely needed things. 8.6.2008Location: 74 59.56 N, 41 58.56 W A few centimeters of fresh snow had fallen during the night, so we knew right away that the glide wouldn't be as good as it has been a few days. We decided to split the distance to our next target, the NGrip station, in half and make the journey in two days. After today's seven hours of skiing we have about 15 kilometers for tomorrow. The day was quite chilling due to the sidewind and clouds came and went. The mood was pretty much the same as yesterday, maybe a little bit better. We don't know if the NGrip station is still occupied or if it even exists anymore. What we heard in Summit is that either it's still there or the buildings have already been transported to the new location called NEEM. But we'll see tomorrow unless the wind picks up too much.
Slight stomach problems have been bothering us both. We've gone through our (quite limited) variety of food supplies without finding any reason for the upset stomachs. We have even been forced to make some afternoon pit stops because of the problems. Hygiene is not that big an issue here, pots and pans have been unwashed since the start and the thermos bottles have been washed once. And there haven't been any problems before. Now we decided to give the pans a little wash, it might help. Hopefully the measurements on the research stations are not influenced by our emissions as there might be some extra gas particles in the air...
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© 2007-2008 Petet |
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In the morning I had two interviews over the satellite phone. Some of the questions brought home to my mind. I didn’t want to let that affect too much however, because nothing must distract us from our goal.
In the morning the temperature was -19,5 C. The day was probably the most beautiful winter day I have ever seen in June. The first hour of skiing is always the worst. During the firsts 30 minutes I just can’t get enough oxygen. In the same 30 minutes I usually get rid off the deep chill that always hits me when we take down the camp. After the 30 minutes it is a different story: heat and moisture caused by all the liquids from last night and breakfast.
Yesterday was the half point of this expedition in terms of food supplies. At the moment we have rations left for 44 days and 900 km to the shore, which we plan ski. So we will only take out our kites in case we need them keep us in the timetable.
Today skiing felt so light, that I broke a personal record on out first leg: 3.0 km in 50 minutes. We thought it best not get carried away and took things a little easier on the following legs, but still we were close to the 3 km limit on every leg.
I spent the night listening to Vuorenmaa snuffle in his sleep. So in the morning I was far from being at my best. The whole day was difficult and unpleasant for me. Vuorenmaa was doing much better. First of all we took this weeks food bag of 12,5 kg (weeks rations apart from the fat) from his sledge to mine, because my sledge is our “everyday sledge”. Obviously Vuorenmaa has more butter and petrol in during the week the weight more or less balances out, but this morning the weight balance shifted 25 kg to his favour.
Earlier I wrote about the problems Vuorenmaa had with his detaching ski skins. For those who don't know what they are, the ski skins (in the picture) are used to get the maximum amount of grip for the skis to the get the sledges moving. I've been using Colltex 38 mm wide ski skins for years without any problems. Vuorenmaas' problem was that the adhesive froze. After we melted the adhesive there hasn't been any problems with the skins. And in fact we have taken them off and put back at least thirty times without any problems.
