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
By: Tyler Fish
Audio Transcript:
"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."
John standing by the first open water lead on Day 30.
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
By: John Huston
Audio Transcript:
"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.
Date: April 3rd, 2009 Location: N86° 00.274' W074 46.742' Time Traveled: 10 hours 30 minutes Distance Traveled: 10.4 nautical miles AM Temperature: -22°F (5:30), -10°F (8:30) PM Temperature: -20°F sunny and warm, GREAT weather, no wind/SWpuffs
By: John Huston
Audio Transcript:
"This is a long expedition and in many ways it's an expedition of self care. The better we take care of our bodies and minds the greater our chance for success. So we structure our expedition around that idea and gain a bunch of weight beforehand so that we wouldn't be burning muscle when the cold hit us in the beginning. And we also have very strict routines which we adhere to, to propel the expedition northward efficiently and safely, but also to take care of our bodies and make sure we're getting enough sleep. So far, things are going very, very well. We have had very little complication physically.
Tyler started the expedition with a cough and cold, and a kind of a nasty illness that he picked up in Iqaluit. And after three weeks or so it dissipated quite a bit and now it's finally gone. He has taken no medications; he's stretching a bit more to help knots that are forming in his legs, and that seems to be working well. He's got a little slight bit of frosting on his left cheek and the left side of his nose and that's clearing up. His fingers have been numb a bit and they are still a bit dull, but they are working fine and there is no damage. And he has no chronic aches or pains. He has a little bit of chilblains on his thighs and those are healing up. Chilblains are the very surface level of frostbite or frost nip and they kind of feel like a bruise and then they itch and then they clear up.
I am doing well. I have very little to complain about. I have taken four Excedrin and that's due to some headaches at two different times, no problem. I had some minor inner thigh chafing and that has been cleared up, but it can potentially be a serious issue if legs are chafing quite a lot. And I have pretty good chilblains on my outer thighs, but they don't itch and I'm taking care of those, just no problem.
We are hungrier than we have been in the past, but we're happy with our food. We eat the same food everyday, but we love it. Everyday, no joke, we look forward to every meal. And we love the taste of the food and we're happy with the amount of the food, we feel we have enough calories.
We've lost most of the weight that we're going to lose on the expedition. We started 20, 25 pounds heavier than our normal body weight that we would have if we were ski racing and we have lost most of that fat, if not all of it. We'll probably lose a few more pounds from this point forward, but we're definitely skinnier people than when we started the expedition 33 days ago.
That is the medical update. Really we are super pleased. We have no blisters on our feet. We have a few split skin issues on the tips of our fingers, but that's normal. And we have no pulled muscles or anything that's really wearing on us. Cross your fingers that that stays the same and so will we and we will check in tomorrow. Happy 86th everybody."
Date: April 2, 2009 Location: N85° 49.895' W074 42.583' Time Traveled: 10 hours Distance Traveled: 9.4 nautical miles AM Temperature: -30°F PM Temperature: -24°F clear and sunny, SW breeze 3-4knots
By: Tyler Fish
Audio Transcript:
"I looked over to see the beast on top of John and then it looked at me. But something wasn't quiet right, I could tell. It's teeth were huge, and it's eyes were bulging but it's mouth couldn't really move which actually is pretty lucky. Thank goodness.
Before either John or I could say anything, it exclaimed in perfect English, "Thank you finding me. I was suppose to be brought to the island of misfit toys but I fell out of the sleigh. I've been living in this blue ice cave ever since."
And it seems to take me more than a few seconds for me to realize that I was talking to a small, excited hand puppet. It said, "I was a misfit because my huge teeth and my mouth won't close. So I'm neither scary nor funny, so no one would want me. That's why I'm a misfit."
Both John and I were near speechless.
"Unless you know someone that I could leave this cave." I thought about it for a little bit and then I told the excited puppet, which had scared both John and me, "Well it just so happens that I know of a six month old boy who would likely love you. I can bring you to Norway to meet him. But you'll have to go to the North Pole first and ride in the pulk."
Well, the puppet was pretty excited and decided that that was a fine thing to do. And we learned that it's name is simply "Monster". So, we now have a small puppet, no longer a misfit toy on our expedition.
Happy April Fools Day, everybody! For us, this little message started on the 1st of April, April Fools. It finishes on April 2nd. Happy April Fools Day and happy April.
We should mention that we did see some fox tracks today. So that was exciting, we saw some tracks way out here. I am not sure where that fox is going. Take care."
Date: April 1, 2009 Location: N85° 40.464' W074 43.564' Time Traveled: 10 hours Distance Traveled: 8.8 nautical miles AM Temperature: -36°F PM Temperature: -26°F very clear/sunny, light SW wind 4knots 260 nautical miles to North Pole
By: Tyler Fish
Audio Transcript:
"The day began as John and I experimented with the newly frozen lead near where we had camped. We had camped the night before on our side of a lead that was very open in hope that it would freeze overnight and indeed the temperatures at least as cold as -30°F probably colder. It did freeze. We had at least 3 cm of spongy ice. Sea ice is a much "strechier", more flexible than fresh water ice. Anyway, as we skied across it, it sank slightly as we shuffled our way.
When we got across, we were able to ski north again, which was quite a relief for us. During one of our breaks, we were discussing the wildlife that we had seen the day before, the seals. And we are very thankful that we were given the opportunity to see seals but also thankful that we did not see Polar bears and the one attracts the other.
Well then off to the east we saw a cave. This Arctic Ocean version of a cave is an ice cave, made by slabs of old ice, multiple feet thick, thick piled together. And where they were piled together and there was a hole. It was a very blue hole made by the light shining through the ice. And we saw some tracks by it that and we really couldn't identify and we thought, "What is this?" "Do we want to find out what this is?" We weren't sure if it was a good idea but we were curious. So I got down on my knees to peer inside this cave and John peered down and looked right behind me. Well, what was in this cave surprised us so much. It was probably as surprised as we were by it. It left out of the cave so fast that I ducked, barely, and John fell over.
That's the end of the blog for now. Thank you. Goodnight." For part 2 of the dispatch, click here.
