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.
Date: March 31, 2009 Location: N85° 31.933' W074 46.189' Time Traveled: 10 hours Distance Traveled: 5.0 nautical miles AM Temperature: -32°F PM Temperature: -30°F clear skies, gusting, puffing S/SW winds, 8-10 knots
By: John Huston
Audio Transcript:
"Today the Arctic Ocean kicked our butts a little bit. We expect that to happen from time to time but it doesn't always feel good. For me, sometimes I have trouble keeping my hands warm. And also I just have trouble generating enough heat to feel warm while traveling, especially while we're stopping and starting all the time.
When we're traveling continuously on a nice flat terrain and I could ski for a few hours I can wear just a few layers of long underwear and my Bergans outerwear and stay warm, no problem at all. But when we're dealing with rubble or open water leads, as we were today, and we're stopping and starting and talking, that can get quite cold. So, I had a quite frigid morning and I put on my Bergans fleece and I was fine but it was very frustrating to have to work so hard to warm up my hands quite often today. And that's what being cold is all about really. It's a little pain, or a lot of pain, sometimes and a lot of hard work to warm back up and a lot of persistence. We don't get frostbite, we just work hard to stay warm but it can be frustrating sometimes.
So we traveled over some rubble, a few open fields, and then we came to a mist and, lo and behold, our first area of open water - open water lead running from the southeast to the northwest. It was about 60 meters across in spots to a little narrower in other places, so we traveled along it going northwest also to counteract the eastern drift that's been happening quite heavily now. And Tyler poked through. Both feet went in the water. He went over a little space of sketchy ice that he knew he shouldn't have but wanted to test. He hopped right back out of the water, no problem at all. He didn't even get his socks or his boots wet, just the outer part of his boot gaiters. But it was a good wake up call that we're now having a change in the expedition in that we are dealing with open water more.
So traveling along that lead took some time and crossing it took some time. And we also saw three seals pop their head up out of that lead, right through the ice. That showed how thin the ice was in the middle of the lead. It was too wide to swim across and too wide to find a place to cross. So we eventually found a place with some rubble and got over there no problem. And we are camped now by another lead that we hope will freeze overnight and it looks like it should do that but it also depends on the wind and how much the ice floes around us are moving, which they are quite a bit. We're moving east at 0.2 nautical miles per hour right now.
Okay, well thanks for listening. We're tired. We're ready for bed and we're ready for another day tomorrow. So good night and thanks for listening."
Date: March 30, 2009 Location: N85° 27.344' W074 34.404' Time Traveled: 9 hours 30 minutes Distance Traveled: 7.4 nautical miles AM Temperature: -32°F PM Temperature: -28°F very clear and sunny, no wind in AM, slight S/SE breeze in PM 297 nautical miles to the North Pole
By: Tyler Fish
Audio Transcript:
"One of the attractions of the journey to the North Pole, at least for me, was the diversity of landscape that we would encounter from the beginning to the end of the trip, from mountains of rubble to huge ice boulders of the bluest ice to the flattest of the flat. But then there are those days when you experience all of that in one day and that was yesterday (3/30). It took us by surprise a little bit. We felt like we'd traveled backwards in time and then forwards in time very quickly.
We woke up on a slab of ice. That was about 6 feet thick of floating, frozen above the rest of the ice and we are camped there because we are in a heavy rubble field and it was the only place to camp. It's like our own little island.
Yesterday (3/30) was a heavy day. We traveled across what I would call the surface of a lasagna. It was very uneven with piles of hamburger here and there, and wavy cheese, some deep cut now and again, definitely a lot of Parmesan cheese strewn all over the place. But still even though it was a heavy, heavy day for us, we made a surprising 7.4 nautical miles. We did not think we had done that, so we are very pleased.
The only thing that we haven't seen so far that we're looking for is open water. We have not seen any open water. However, we did yesterday for the first time hear the ice moving. So, who knows what's going to happen soon. We ended the day yesterday camped on our favorite hard packed snow which is great for tent set up, so we're happy with that.
It was a tough day mentally. And we need to remind ourselves that we will see rubble and days like that go all the way to the North Pole. It was made slightly easier because it was the day after family day. What is family day? Family day is part of our weekly routine. Every Sunday, John and I call our family. Well for me it's my wife and for John, it's his girlfriend. So it's only one call apiece. But these people, both these people, have connections to the rest of our family and friends and the outside world. And that's something to look forward to. So on Saturday we start looking forward to Sunday if not before and a good family day phone call can take us all the way to Wednesday. So we appreciate those conversations. It's part of our positive routines that are going to get us to the North Pole. Thanks so much. Take care. Have a good last day of March."
