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Diary
30.6.2008Location: 77 43.29 N, 54 06.66 W Another full month on the ice.
Previously I thought that snow would melt here, but it is actually different. Snow has melted, freeze again and result is icy surface where it is faster to ski. At morning, we had very different feelings. Vuorenmaa was like going to competition as I was still packing my sledge. During first leg he beat me by 4 minutes, but I'm more like a diesel type of guy. Slow but steady is my movement type. Last legs we skied together again. Midday we had our lunch, and as a surprise it was potato soup 71st time again. I'm just curious what would it be tomorrow? USA has had tremendous impact on Greenland in last hundred years. They have founded many military bases here, for example to Narsarsuaq, Tasiilaq, Kangerlussuaq and Thule. There are also some radar stations, like Dye-2. We are now at Thule area, and USA has their airbase 300 kilometer to west of us. It was founded 1953 to village of Pituffik and habitants were moved to current Quaanaq. There has lately been some opinions to end airbase at Thule so that people could move to their original home. Airbase is closed are which might arose negative feelings but there are other reasons, too. 1968 B-52 bomber dropped near Thule. Around 1000 people were cleaning up the area. 100 of them has died, half of them to cancer. It was 1995 when they finally announced, that the airplane contained some 6 kilos of plutonium. And 2000 it came clear that 1 of the 4 atomic bombs in that plane is still missing. So there is still some 500g-1800g plutonium somewhere here. There have been reports about bald seals and moskoxes. Therefore, if our beards start to get smaller we know we have slept over that bomb. 1.7.2008Location: 77 47.57 N, 54 59.80 W
Today we made 6 legs. It was the agreed rest day of week, so after skiing I started to write these stories. Although, this diary does not feel like work but is quite fun to write. I usually do not even know what I will write when starting daily diary. Finally, I am able to produce at least a few lines. Thank you all for reading my thoughts. Last few days have been quite warm and my legs don't like it that much. I fixed some medical mixes, so let's see if I can get my legs working again. Three years back I thought I would take two skiing boots to this expedition. One- and two layer boots. Now one layer boots would be helpful, but on the other hand we are quite far already. In the picture you can see our Alico Double boots, that have some 2200 kilometers behind them. They are still almost like new. We worried for no reason at beginning of journey. Today we washed ourselves again. Trying to avoid washing dates back to 30 years. As young kid it was totally prohibited to wash yourself. Once I got a hat to use for my expeditions. First thing I did was that I throw it into garbage bin and after that, I jumped on it 5 minutes. Only after that it was ready for use. 2.7.2008Location: 77 53.12 N, 56 19.09 W
Even these last few days we have skied with our normal clothing. Only a bit lighter gloves have been in use. Measuring temperatures in this snow desert (Greenland is sensible is problematic since sun messes all measurements. Luckily, my temperature meter is not too sensible for it. We also measure air pressure. I have noticed, that during the years, one day of wind speed 5 m/s changes first to 15 m/s and within few years it has been 25 m/s. So it is better to mark everything down. Today it was easy to ski for a change. We have been waiting for our first 30 km day for a while. Did not talk about it too much during the breaks but both know what was name of game. We pushed hard and made it. I have thought about the boring formula of going forward with same pulse. Another day you gather 9,6 km and another 29,6 km. But going has to be steady so that one can keep his diesel going. We could reach 40 km already tomorrow. Magnetic deviation is already 53 degrees, which is quite much, as we are really close to magnetic north-pole. Luckily, we can check directions with GPS that always shows correct direction. It is still good to know how to read compass around here. Nowadays we think a lot about sauna. When we get home, 50 to 70 degrees deviation to normal is nothing, when our saunas will have +100 degrees temperature deviation compared to normal one! 3.7.2008Location: 77 58.59 N, 57 43.01 W "Resolute Bay, Resolute Bay. Ice calling.... can you hear me... Resolute Bay, Resolute Bay......... 24 years ago, 20.5.1984 group of Finnish men: Jussi Kauma, Matti Tervaskanto, Olli-Pekka Nordlund, Reima Mustonen, Risto Uosukainen, Heikki Järvinen, Matti Saari ja Jouko Jämsä reached North Pole as second group in the world b skis. Their "Huurre"-expedition had started their trip 6. March from Ward Hunt island in Canada towards pole for 74 days. Now they had reached their goal. Their story as a solid group ended to that expedition, but their knowledge about gear and other stuff have been widely used among finnish outdoor people. I am very honored to know some of them. Their Finnish record of 74 days at ice was hold this long, but today we reached same amount of days in wilderness and tomorrow that record is ours. Matti Saari wrote a book about their trip (in Finnish, called: "Hiihto Pohjoisnavalle"). At some point, he mentioned that there was some tense in the air between people. We have been able to avoid those this far, mostly because we have been traveling together so much. Usually we keep ourselves quite if will not agree with another. Moreover, if things would get that bad, we still have the shot-gun that was meant for polar bears. Last days have been so active skiing, that there has not been room for bird watching. Before NEEM we saw few seagulls, but that's all North Pole group listed in Finnish Arctic Club pages, see year 19844.7.2008Location: 78 04.66 N, 59 08.35 W
At morning, Vuorenmaa suggested that we would change our leg length from 8x50 minutes to 8x60 minutes. I did not agree, since for me 35 km is enough skiing for one day. Even though we have not used all our power yet. We are nowadays coming downwards around 100 meters per day. After tomorrow, that pace should be around 150-200 meters for day. If weather stays sunny, we should see even more kilometers per day. Snow surface has changed again. Last week it was very steady surface where one could really ski, but those days are over. Now we have come back to the days of April when there were lot of sastrugis around. Ankles, knees and hips are feeling the pressure, as it did for Elvis. I was supposed to film to day but was impossible when my sledge was jumping around the glacier. Currently we are camping on Knud Rasmussen land. Different parts of Greenland are named according to kings or other great men. Nothest spot of Greenland is Kap Morris Jesup. He was a sponsor of Robert Peary. Also we have our piece of land here. 2003 we found nunatak that we immediately name as "Nunatak of Petes". It has not been confirmed, though. I have previously told about Knud Rasmussen but he deserves some deeper studies. At the beginning of 20th century he collected information about Inuits: traditions, family trees and other information that old inuit women and men told him when asked. He wrote everything down. He traveled within Greenland a lot and that created 5 "Thule Expeditions" of different lengths. Longest one was the fifth. During that triip went all the way to Alaska and Bering Strait. Some books tell that he has been also in Siberia, but that has not been proved. His most important finding was that all inuits were speaking same language from Greenland to Bering Strait. Knud is very appreciated in Greenland. Almost all of houses he has lived in are nowadays museums and there are statues of him everywhere. 5.7.2008Location: 78 07.53 N, 60 32.20 W
After some bad sleeping skiing did not taste that good for us. I think I checked my watch around 3 AM. I have told about the first leg, but two legs after that feel the lengthiest. During fourth, one waits for potato soup. Fifth and sixth, we spent that energy and seventh and eight are waiting for coffee. Another day is filled again. Today, there were very nice clouds at sky. Actually, there are usually. We knew beforehand that clouds seem even better here because of clear blue sky We have tried to do forecasts from clouds, but with not too much success. I even have a book about it. This book has one interesting feature. Every different situation described in the book has clause: " but this subject is too wide to be handled here" at the end where it should tell how this and that cloud should be analyzed. Now that we are reaching our final stretch, we have thought about this route made so far. First, I think no human or animal has ever travelled our route. Secondly, when we were at the highest point of glacier (Summit camp) that NGrip does not exist anymore but is moved to another point called NEEM. This we heard for the first time at Summit. So our route started stabilize to format: Dye2 (Raven) - Summit - NGrip (that is still in use) - NEEM. While looking it now, it seems to create quite reasonable route through Greenland. I'm quite sure there will be many kiting/skiing expeditions after us making this same route, especially when there is tail winds almost all the time available. Dye-2 has some 100 guests per year, but other stations will have more of them too. Pete's Route will stay on map quite long, but there are no guarantees about stations. NGrip is about to be taken over by snow and ice, and NEEM is only planned for four years. Summit is ought to stay longer. 6.7.2008
We have skied and used kites. At the beginning, we mostly skied. Then, a bit before Dye-2 we started our kiting season and traveled almost 1270 kilometers using them. Now, we ski again and reached 1000 km line. Even though our skiing season has lasted this long, Vuorenmaa beats his personal best season only by few hundred kilometers. He is quite enthuastic, isn't he? For me this is true record season, as I don't usually ski that much. Today we skied too, which might surprise some of you. It is quite amazing, that glacier is still the same: same flat and wintry platform. We thought that we would be alpine skiing and on the other hand swimming in melting snow. But I think that snow changes already a bit during day. Today we felt like we cannot get forward at all first four legs. But then I found ski wax from my backpack and after that we felt easy again. Our trip started at 21st of April from level of southern Finland. Now we have traveled through Finnish and Norwegian Lapland, all the way across Arctic Ocean to Spitspbergen. Currently we are about the same level as Spitsbergen capital, Longyearbyen. Our most north point was supposed to be 78 01 at northern latitude but now it seems that won't hold either
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Snow has changed during the last weeks. Apparently it is summer now, as one can suppose around June and July, but up at summit it is still winter. We have descent from summit one month already and getting closer to coast, so that is the reason for summer feeling.
It came to my mind today that I have not ever skied in July. Vuorenmaa thought he might have skied in one of our ski tubes during some July, but was not sure.
Someone might have wondered why our daily temperature has been zero lately. Temperature changes have stopped within 10 degrees of Celsius and it has been harder to estimate daily highest temperature. Until today, I have marked our skiing start, end time temperatures, and evaluated from that.
20.5.1984, North Pole
Skiing, day after day
Petes` Route.
One pull forward
