Date: March 2, 2009 Location: N83° 08.096' W074° 05.863' Time Traveled: 2 hr 20 min Distance Traveled: 1.7 nm (1 nm = 1.19 statute miles) PM Temperature: -35°F Wind: Calm Total Distance to date: 1.7 nm Distance to Pole: 414 nm
Audio transcription:
"Hi, this is John everybody. We have successfully launched the Victorinox North Pole ‘09 Expedition. Tyler and I are camped 1.7 nautical miles away from our drop point on Ward Hunt Island, the most northern point in North America. Our feet are warm. Our bellies are full. Our tent is pretty much dry although we're dealing with a lot of temperature variation between the stove, which is quite warm, and the sidewalls of the tent, which are just frosty with condensation from the temperature difference. Our spirits are high. We are looking forward to a nice warm sleep. And tomorrow we enter the Arctic Ocean sea ice. And as we can see northward it's just a big long endless sea of rubble at this point. It felt fantastic to ski for 2 hours. And we feel very confident in our systems and in our training. So, it's been a wonderful day. Here it is over to Tyler.
So the day has come that many people have been looking forward to and I'm sure a few people have been fearing. But John and I will be safe and we will be smart, we can guarantee that. I'm sure many of you are wondering what it's like when the airplane flies away after dropping you off on the northernmost point in North America, and I can tell you that it is very quiet. It is just like the movies actually except that it's quieter. That plane leave and you can't hear a thing. One of the things that struck me today in walking north, the mountains were behind us and it was so similar to a sunset in the desert behind the low mountain except that it lasts forever. It last all day. It's really wonderful and the Arctic Ocean is a desert technically. So, I guess it's appropriate. John and I turned to each other at one point today and went, "How many people do think have stood right here?" and we didn't know the answer but we figured a hundred. Less? More? Not many. Anyway, we felt very privilege to be here and it was really gorgeous. That's all I have to say for now. Talk to you later.
Proof that Tyler has achieved his goal of weighing 200 lbs, definitely for the first and perhaps the only time in his life.
Location: Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territories, Canada Distance Traveled: 0 Distance to fly tomorrow: over 500 miles north
Tomorrow, we enter another reality. If the weather holds we will depart Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territories, Canada, population 350 for the ice of the Arctic Ocean, current population 6. We leave behind our families, loved ones, 3 years of tireless preparation and all the little freedoms and choices that make up normal day-to-day life.
For the next 55 days we will eat the same food everyday and adhere to the same daily routines, yet we can't wait to hit the ice and enter what we refer to as the simple life of a long-distance cross-country ski expedition. It is this simplicity that frees our minds to truly focus at the task at hand and experience life in a way not possible when we are tethered to our computers, schedules and mobile phones.
Leaving these items behind, however takes a lot of planning and work. Essentially we now start an existence where every gram of food, fuel and equipment has been calculated to sustain us for almost two months.
Several times we've said that 'planning is the expedition'. It's true! Everything is easier to do in the warmth of our lodgings than it is on the ice. We can't anticipate everything, so we try to set ourselves up to adjust resourcefully with ease.
Our Swiss Tools are truly our MVPs in this department. In preparation in Resolute, during the final tinkering with equipment, we always had trouble finding our two Swiss Tools because they kept moving around the room so quickly.
John pointing out the route for their flight from Resolute to Ward Hunt Island on March 2nd.
This afternoon we loaded our sleds into the Twin Otter airplane that we have charted to fly us to Ward Hunt Island, the most northern point of North America. We both felt the jumpy energy of the pre-expedition anticipation.
We weighed and double checked everything over and over and over, but still ask each other what are we leaving behind. This is an unsupported expedition, if we forget something we don't get a second chance. At the same time, we view extra weight as an evil that can slow us down every step of the way.
We are both tired of planning and are ready for the green flag to drop. Temperatures near Ward Hunt Island look to be 20°F warmer than we expected. Due to the mountains of Ellesmere Island to the south, the sun has yet to reach the snows on which our plane will land. However, light is visible for at least 5 hours a day. Sunlight increases over 45 minutes each day, just one of the many wonders of the North.
Expectations can be a killer, we'll do our best to be realistic and adapt to whatever happens. We expect to travel only 2 to 4 miles, maybe less, each day during the first 10 days of the expedition. Cold, darkness and gigantic fields of ice rubble make travel very slow. We need to be patient with ourselves, our bodies and our equipment. -40°F makes plastic very fragile.
Our mission is to ski unsupported to the North Pole, but more importantly enjoy the journey along the way.
"Hi, this is John calling. It is March 1st 2009. Our location is still in Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territories, Canada. We did not fly to Ward Hunt Island this morning because of pilots' schedules and overcast weather near our landing area, so we decide to play it conservative and wait for better weather, which will be tomorrow March 2nd.
So we’ll be up quite early tomorrow and we'll catch a plane right on time, have a nice wide window for landing on Ward Hunt Island. Looks like to... landing area of this season, so we want to make sure we can get in and play it safe.
We have some big winds in Resolute last night, probably 30 miles and hour. Temperatures were around at least 20 degrees below Fahrenheit. So that’s a bit calmer and Tyler and I have packed our sleds and are just spending some time catching up on our personal lives a little bit today and relaxing. Tyler had a little more sleep last night and his cold is feeling better so that's good news. And he will be doing the weekly update, which will post on Monday. OK more information coming soon. Everybody is doing well and we're happy to have another day a rest before the expedition starts. Bye."
"Hi. This is John calling in from Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territories, Canada. It is about 11 o'clock at night. Temperature is minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Winds are gentle and out of the north. And today we traveled a total of 100 meters in 1 minute.
Right now our tent is being bombarded by a 30-pound puppy who is running around the village and keeps trying to gain access to our tent. It's a little funny, but we don't want our tent to take any more abuse than it needs to, so little puppy claws are not nice, but the puppy is.
Today Tyler and I spent almost all day working with our sleds, our skis, and our tent. We have a large room to ourselves at the South Camp Inn, the hotel that we're staying at in Resolute. It's the normal place where people stay before they head up to the North Pole or other places north for expeditions. So it has a good heritage, which we really enjoy, and a bunch of other expedition teams here, some going up to the North Pole and some doing other Arctic expeditions.
We are scheduled to fly on March 1st, and that's Sunday, to Ward Hunt Island, so Tyler and I have a bunch of little things to do before we leave. I think we each are a little bit nervous and that's normal, that's the normal feeling, and we know that as soon as we get on the ice that things will be a whole lot more simple. That's one of the attractions to these expeditions. I think that's about all we have for you today. We'll keep it short and we'll try to do that from here on out. We're getting fatter and our sleds are getting lighter, but that trend will be different as we will get lighter and our sleds will get lighter on the expedition. OK, over and out, and thanks for listening."
Stopping to refuel in the tiny airport of Hall Beach.
Audio transription:
"Hello. This is Tyler Fish calling from Resolute Bay. It is the 25th of February and it is now about quarter to eleven where we are here. I believe we are still in the Eastern Time Zone. The temperature is somewhere between 10 and 20 below Fahrenheit and there's a little bit of a breeze blowing outside. We aren't outside and with our thermometer so we don't know. We're actually staying at the South Camp Inn here in Resolute.
Today John and I flew from Iqaluit on Baffin Island to Resolute Bay. But leading up to this the last couple of days have been spent trying to go over our last details, do our last shopping and make sure that we have everything that we needed because that was our last opportunity really to get things.
Our plane on the runway in Hall Beach.
But, we realize that we had too much with us, that our sleds were going to be too heavy, so we have been engaged in a lot of conversation about "We can we leave behind? What do we not need?" And so we've been trying to think of what is redundant, what is not necessary, you know? What can we do with something we already have so it has a couple of different purposes? What do we like that maybe we just have to let go of? So, it's been great and actually John and I feel pretty good right now. We're able to go to the airport with 3 duffle bags and one ski bag and we felt like we'd really accomplished something and we're going to continue doing that.
You know it's always a great feeling when you have a list of a lot of things to do and then everything is crossed off or you let go of the things that aren't crossed off and that's how we felt today. So, leaving our friends that we have been staying with, leaving the McNair household - that actually felt pretty good. We felt it was time to go. I don't know if they felt it was time for us to go but it felt like it was ok for us to leave.
We got to the airport today and I tell you I've never been on a bigger plane with fewer people and cal it a full flight. The plane is mostly a cargo plane then the rest of, the back portion of the plane, is for people. And there could have only been a dozen people on the flight, at most.
Tyler arriving in Resolute.
Now in the Iqaluit airport before we took off I happened to see a sign in the gift shop that said "Road to Nowhere" And it reminded me that there is a road in Iqaluit called the "Road to Nowhere". And that's what I felt like we were on when we were on our flight today because we stopped in a little town called Hall Beach and now we're in Resolute. And both these places the airport is very far out of town - outside a very small town. And so you feel like you are really out there and there's not much going on.
On our flight today we also we saw the sea ice for the first time and that's just a curious feeling. What's it going to be like? Is it going to be like that? I see that now what's it going to look like when I'm down on it. So that was pretty fun.
We have arrived in Resolute tonight in the dark and I think it's always fascinating when arrive in the dark because you get to get up in the morning and it's like arriving a second time so that will be enjoyable in the morning when we get to see what Resolute is actually like.
So, that's the update for now. We're on the road to nowhere and when we get to the end of this road, nowhere is exactly where this expedition begins. So stay tuned and you'll be hearing from us.
