John training in Iqualuit.

Location: Iqualuit, Nunavat, Canada

February 23, 2009

Audio transcript:

"This is John Huston calling in from a blustery Iqaluit where it is at least 10 degrees below Fahrenheit and it’s probably 15 miles an hour wind and a bit of snow out of the north.

Tyler and I had another good day. He's a little sick and I really feel for him. He doesn't have a fever or anything, just a little run down with a cough and kind of a throaty feel to him. He's been getting a little extra sleep, but hasn’t been complaining at all.

My boots arrived today, finally. They were ordered in Norway in November and due to some customs difficulties, etc., they got stalled, but they finally arrived in Iqaluit today. So I put them on for the first time and they fit just like I hoped they would after a few little modifications which I expected to do. We modify just almost every piece of gear just to make it just right so we don't have to fiddle with it out in the field and try to make it lighter. Boots are perhaps the most important piece of equipment as far as comfort. We take millions of steps it seems in those boots, so if there's rubbing spots or tight spots or if they don't fit well then we feel it every inch of the way.

Also, today we did a morning pull out on the bay and it was so warm I was just sweating. We had hoped to have some really cold weather here to acclimatize. It's gotten colder this evening, but on the bay this morning, I went out in my windbreaker anorak by Bergans of Norway and came back with just the hat, no gloves, no mittens, long underwear, and then my pants unzipped on the side so I can ventilate. So that was too much sweat for me.

Also, today I met Jason Descarte and Christina Franko. Christina is sharing our flight up to Ward Hunt and she'll be doing a solo North Pole trip, trying to be the first woman to do it solo. She will have a few weeks supply along the way. We had lunch together. It was fun to chat about equipment and that sort of thing, and also to know that we get on well with the people who we will be working with in the North.

What you're hearing there is a snowmobile racing by on the shore of Iqaluit.

All right, that's it everybody. Look forward to more dispatches and the expedition starting on March 1st, pending weather. A flight has to be able to take off and land in good weather on both ends, so cross your fingers that that happens. Okay, thanks for listening. Good night."

John pulling 300 pounds over a large bump.

This week of packing, modifying equipment and training was capped off perfectly last night.  Our Inuit friend, Meeka Mike, invited us to her house for an Inuit-style feast of fresh Turbot (tastes like Halibut), seal meat (which is tender and tastes like steak and fish combined) and vegetables.

The feast celebrated the birthday of John's friend, Livy (pronounced Lie-vee).  Livy, who traveled a few hundred miles by snowmobile with John and Meeka in 2007, is an Inuit elder, an ace hunter, persistent comedian and a wilderness tough guy.  Livy spends as much time as possible hunting caribou and seal.  His forearms look like Popeye's.

Tyler, with Iqaluit in the background.

This week we overcame a major logistical challenge.  On Monday we were notified about delays in air cargo traffic flying from Iqaluit to Resolute, our last stop before the Arctic Ocean.  Tyler and I adjusted our training schedule and by Wed early morning we had shipped 122 kg (270 pounds) of food and 84 kg (185 pounds) of equipment to Resolute.  To our great relief it arrived successfully on February 21st, three days ahead of schedule.

Tyler checking the sled runner surface.

Packing food is an enjoyable, but painstaking process.  We measure every little bag of food to the exact gram and then look for ways to reduce more weight.  Our diet crams over 7300 calories into about 2 1/2 pounds of food per person per day.  For more on our diet you can look at the FAQ page.

Modifying equipment is an empowering experience.  Everything must be easy to handle in the extreme cold and with the reduced dexterity that comes with wearing mittens all the time.  We add long leashes to all of our zippers, make sure our tent lines are set up perfectly and add extra long straps to just about everything.  We also take steps to increase efficiency, such as mounting our stoves to a metal board, so that we don't have to set them up each time we use them.

Butter that goes into breakfasts.

Part of training is gaining as much weight as possible (this is not as fun as it sounds).  Due to the extreme cold and heavy exertion, we will each lose at least 30 pounds during the expedition.  We both now weigh more than we ever have in our lives.

It's one week until we hit the ice!

Tyler counting, weighing and packing food.

Location: Iqualuit, Nunavat, Canada

February 19, 2009

Audio transcript:

"Hello, this is Tyler Fish calling on the 19th of February. I am in Iqaluit, Baffin Island, at Matty McNair's house. The days have been busy for the last couple and I guess I need to recount them here; it's a little bit of a struggle to try to tell to tell you everything that has happened. Basically the biggest thing is that we that learned that all of our heavy and large items needed to go to cargo to be flown north if we wanted it to reach Ward Hunt Island when we start the expedition. So the next stop for all of our gear and for us is Resolute, which in on Cornwallis Island. It's in-between Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island, if you want to find it on a map.

The northern lights were beautiful the other night when we were packing food.

We needed to pack up our food, get it all ready and that was a struggle for us, but we decided it was to our advantage. It would push us; we'd have to make decisions and it would get done. Indeed it is done. In the meantime what we were doing was there was a lot of packing of nuts and weighing things. John was weighing huge bags of freeze-dried cheese and I was counting all of the nuts and the truffle bars. A truffle bar, for those of you who do not know, basically is a chocolate fudge-like substance put into a bar form so you can eat it pretty easily, put it in your pocket, and take it out. And those are really good.

While we were doing that, I went outside to get something out of the deep-freeze and I remembered to look up at the sky, something you can forget when you are really busy. I looked up and there were the northern lights, a wonderful green and purplish ribbon that was just dancing down the sky. It was awesome! It's a good reminder that we are here for a reason because we love the north. This is just the beginning of the north because we continue to go north from here, so we are excited about that.

John frying bacon to seal in the fat.

We have also been working on fattening up some more. I am still trying to get to 200 lbs. and I think I am a little bit ahead of John. We have been doing that in a couple of different ways. One of the things John had to do, wanted to do, was looking forward to doing, was to deep-fry the bacon to seal in the fat. He set up shop on the back of a motorboat that was sitting nearby, sitting out in the snow and he fired up our Whisper Light stove and fried up all the bacon, about 18 kilograms (about 40 lbs.) of bacon.

So that's about it, I think. We did get everything to cargo to help us relax a bit, so now we can focus on a little bit more of our gear. And we will get to go out camping and it will be great and work on some of our routines. John and I are doing well and we are excited to hear from people when we do. We hope all of you are well and are looking forward to hearing from us next. Thanks."

John says "I really hope all this stuff gets to from Ottawa to Iqaluit without a hitch."

Location: Iqualuit, Nunavat, Canada

February 12, 2009

Audio transcript:

Our first view out the door in Iqaluit, 0°F with a 50 mph wind.

"Hello, it's Tyler Fish calling in. It's February 12th. We woke up today at 5 am to pack everythng up. We packed up our gear also all the food we purchased in Canada: bacon, pemican, butter, chocolate truffles that everybody loves to hear about. We weren't sure how would it all fit or if it would fit in all the bags we had with us. And we had to get the food out of the freezer, pack the food, weigh the bags with the doctor's office type scale that usually lives in the hotel gym. We had to get out the door, load up the van shuttle, gas up the rental car, get to the airport, unload the vehicles, roll into the airport and our flight was delayed!

Well, it seemed like hurry up and wait. We quickly saw and seized the opportunity. Calmly check our 16 pieces of luggage, bought a little breakfast at Tim Horton's which is kind of like the Canadian Dunkin' Donuts and returned to our hotel room not quite sure what to do. Should we nap?  Should we get on the internet? Should we watch television?  A little of each? Turned out there were plenty of things to keep us busy.

John says "I am so relived that all of our equipment arrived safely!!"

I think the hotel staff was pretty glad to see us, honestly. By this time most of them knew who we were, some were pretty excited about our journey and certainly more than a little thrilled that we are staging out of their own Holiday Inn Express.

We walked out on the tarmac under dripping gray sky...eventually. And we boarded our Canadian North Airplane. The plane ride was divided between work and a little bit of napping for me. Goodbye land; we watched Ontario and Quebec disappear below us and eventually into the darkness.

The Canadian North plane is only half a passenger plane. The front part is for cargo going to Baffin Island and all points beyond. The Canadian North motto is, "Seriously Northern". Well we sat up by the door to cargo, the cargo

Tyler reads a book in Norwegian about a 2006 unsupported North Pole ski expedition. Frobisher bay is out the window.

John and I walked out onto the tarmac and this time we were greeted by horizontal snow. It was really windy and felt cold. We're staying with friends tonight and we're really glad to be here, in the north!"