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Diary
5.5.2008Location:63 52.11 N, 47 01.50 W
Another setback we had yesterday was loosing my shovel. I am really annoyed for allowing it drop off the load. I checked the straps of the load on every break, but didn’t notice it was missing until in the evening. Now we have to make do with the small Fiskars shovel, which is good in the kitchen, but not much use with the hard snow here. We opened this week’s food bag today, and there was a pleasant surprise: blood bread. Pentti Kronqvist gave this “strong food” to us when we visited The Arctic museum Nanoq in Jakobstad Finland. The museum is a magnificent place. It is open only during the summer. I strongly recommend a visit there. The website of the museum is www.nanoq.fi. If you happen to get Pentti Kronqvist himself to guide you around, you will experience something unique. 6.5.2008Location:64 24.16 N, 46 52.67 W
In the morning the wind was blowing at 9-11 m/s, which is the hardest we have had in the morning with the kites. When lifted up my kite for the first time I soon found myself two meters above the ground. After tumbling down a couple of times I was back on track. We had to hold the kites on the top left corner of eyes insides a ten-degree margin. Regardless of the precision kite steering the speed was fast on snow free ice surface. After a couple of hours we hit soft snow and the speed was a lot slower. At 17.00 we stopped and set up camp number 15. We had planned to stop to honour Fridtjof Nansen when we cross the route he took 120 years ago, but we later realized we had passed that spot without realizing it. We both regard Nansen as our hero because of his easygoing person and his arctic expeditions. His trip across Greenland in 1888 took almost two years, because they had sail to and from Greenland and the ice forced them to wait long periods of time. 7.5.2008Location:64 34.69 N, 46 50.37 W
Around ten a clock we started the day skiing traditionally without the kites and we didn’t seem to get our bodies to warm up. It takes about half an hour to pack up in the morning, and that is long enough to deep-freeze us especially our toes. Yesterday morning while kiting in the chilly and windy conditions the little toe of my left foot got a little frostbite. After it ached the whole day. We skied for three hours in the fairly soft snow. That didn’t get us very far so decided to try the kites for a change, but light wind and the soft surface soon put an end to that. So skied the also the rest of the day until 18.00. The slow skiing on the soft snow gets on Vuorenmaa’s nerves, he does not consider it to be skiing at all, but I like it. 8.5.2008
These are hairy days. Every cup and kettle has a lot of body hair in it. So we end up swallowing them quite often. I suppose the explanation to this hairy invasion is that normally when we wash ourselves on a regular basis the body hair falling off from our bodies is flushed to the drain in the shower. In here they all end up into our tent, because it is the only place where take our clothes off (at least some of them). We have been wearing our Ruskovilla underwear for three weeks now (since we left home) and there is no need to change them. They are like brand new. In the morning we skied 5,1 km in two hours in an icy snow. After that the wind started blowing a little harder, and it was time to start kiting and we were able to continue that for the rest of day. When we stopped after our 8,5 hour day the sky was completely cloudy for the first time here. It makes a nice change, but inside the tent it gets a bit chilly, because the sun is not warming it up. And my fingers are freezing writing this text. With the stove on the temperature is 1 C. 9.5.2008Location: 65 12.39 N, 46 18.01 W
Today was a good day. We started off in an almost complete whiteout at nine o’clock and the skiing was easy and enjoyable. The visibility got better little by little during the day, but the clouds were with us the whole day. It was nice to ski in a stable temperature with the sledges sliding nicely on the fresh snow. All in all an ideal day, even though the distance covered was not that long. Well, if one takes into account that the sledges weight still some 150-155 kilos, the distance was actually pretty ok. Today is the ninth of May. Exactly five years ago two hikers were dropped of from a helicopter on the ice to the east side of Greenland. I can still remember the feeling when we were finally on our own in the glacier like yesterday. That event is one the main reasons why we are here now. At that time we did 670 km in 31 days. And unlike most other expeditions our destination was Qasigiannquit. Because that much further up north we did not visit the Dye2, which is on the basic route across Greenland. At the moment we are some 140 km south of it and we are planning to visit it. To honour our last visit here we will now eat a packet of salami. 10.5.2008
Last night was the coldest so far. In the morning when started the off the temperature was –20 C. During the first hour we managed around 18,5 km and everything was looking good. Soon after the first break Vuorenmaa’s kite got tangled up and we had to stop. I was waiting some 500 meters away with my kite up in the air, while he was trying sort it out. The wind chill was around –40 C. Finally he was ready to continue, but then fell over and rolled around in the snow for some 20-40 meters. After that we put the kites away. It was quite frustrating because today we might have been able to go even 100 km with kites. We were on the move for 7,5 hours and while we setting up the camp at 18.00 there was still –17 C. A proper arctic day, which still continues and my fingers are freezing from typing this. Today we had on almost all the clothes we have: Ruskovilla underwear, fleece middlewear, shell pants and shell jackets. 11.5.2008Location: 65 28.25 N, 46 12.39 W We had another day off. In the morning the temperature was around -20 and the wind was quite hard making it less tempting to go out there so we decided to rest. It seems to be quite easy to just lie for three hours doing nothing but thinking. Back home this kind of laziness would wake up the guilty conscience but here nothing of the sort. So we have at least learned something valuable here.
But I was supposed to write about the Mother's Day and not about us. Of course one could say that we are part of the reason why they are Mothers. I guess Mother's are most needed during childhood when all is well when you are sitting on your Mother's lap. That might all change when you grow up but there are always those warm childhood memories. So thank you Mothers. Happy Mother's Day to all Mother's, especially our own and to the Mother of my daughters Saana and Salla.
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© 2007-2008 Petet |
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Today we had a well-deserved day off. One reason for that was to give Vuorenmaa’s knee some rest. Yesterday it was pretty ok, but during the night it went a little stiff. Tomorrow will show is it any good when we continue our journey.
We are particularly glad that all our supplies seem to be working fine. I’m especially amazed about the sledges, because they is not mark on them even though they have been dragged at 30 km/h on this hard snow and ice out here. Also the Alico ski boots and the Madshus skis with the Rottefella bindings have performed very well here.
Last night was the coldest so far, but we slept like little babies. Vuorenmaa had two sleeping bags and I had only one. We have started using the Sasta fleece hats at night and that has improved the quality of our sleep. A couple of days I wrote that we haven’t considered skiing at night yet, because we are heading for colder weathers. And that has now already happened, and it has been fairly chilly to take off in the morning.
Location:65 03.67 N, 46 19.44 W
There is plenty of light here. Last night after midnight, when I was still trying to fall a sleep, it was still pretty light even inside the tent. At four AM I was awake again it was almost bright at that time.
Location: 65 28.25 N, 46 12.39 W
Yesterday I realized that the isolation process has begun. Vuorenmaa was tightening his sledge bindings which gave a peculiar sound. I was on the other side of the tent and I was startled with the strange noise. The same thing happened the other day when my ski pole squeaked. The ambient noise is so minimal here that our senses have heightened and we can hear even the smallest sounds.
