The ski team called reported today that they had beautiful weather and good traveling conditions. They are nearly half way to the North Pole, only .5 nautical miles from N 89.30. They plan to have a mini celebration tomorrow when they pass the half-way point. Most of their travel was across pan ice today, with occasional rubble zones that they navigated with relative ease.
The team has received a few questions from blog followers and they wanted to send the following responses:
Q: How is it sleeping under the 24 hour sunlight?
A: We're pretty tired at the end of the day and we can usually fall right asleep with no trouble at all. It helps sometimes to pull our hats over our eyes to make it dark. But really, we're zonked!
Q: Do you have any drift? Either working for you or against you?
A: Not really, not yet. We had a very slight northern drift in the first couple days, but nothing worth mentioning. Then yesterday we had a very small south drift, but again, not big enough to be worth mentioning. We have had some drift to the west which is neither working for or against us. The ice has been very stable, and not moving very much. Let's hope it stays that way, or if we get any drift we hope it will be to the north!
Q: How long do you ski for at one time?
A: We started out skiing for 1.5 hours at a time, but as we are growing stronger we have pushed our breaks back to once every two hours. Depending on conditions and our timing we'll usually do 4 of these "marches" every day. If we get a southern drift, or if for some reason we get behind schedule (there isn't really a schedule up here) but if we need to really push ourselves we'll do 5 marches, or maybe even more!
Q: What do you do with your toilet paper?
A: There are two ways to handle our used toilet paper. Most people wad it up and put it in a small plastic bag (each person carries their own plastic bag) that he or she will throw out once we get back to Longyearbyen. The second option is to burn it, but that takes some time and depending on the temperature it's no fun to sit there and wait for a wad of toilet paper to burn! We don't leave it on the ice or bury it.
Q: Are you getting our messages?
A: Yes! We love getting messages! But sometimes we don't get it word-for-word. We are all in separate tents and we get the messages at the end of the day when one of the expedition guides calls in to report our position to the PolarExplorers office. Annie will read the guide the message and that guide usually shouts out "Hey Chris (or Bob, Niall, Maria, etc.) your friend Joe says...." Sometimes if the guide is in the same tent as the person he will hand him or her the phone and Annie will read the full message. The support we are getting from our families and friends means the world to us! Thanks :)
We're happy to have the team answer additional questions, so feel free to send them along. The audio report for today hasn't arrived yet so we will post it if and when we receive it. In the meantime, check back again tomorrow for another update from the team!
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| A small pressure ridge requiring the skier to take a giant step up to the next ice pan. |
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| Clear skies and relatively flat ice |
Q: How is it sleeping under the 24 hour sunlight?
A: We're pretty tired at the end of the day and we can usually fall right asleep with no trouble at all. It helps sometimes to pull our hats over our eyes to make it dark. But really, we're zonked!
Q: Do you have any drift? Either working for you or against you?
A: Not really, not yet. We had a very slight northern drift in the first couple days, but nothing worth mentioning. Then yesterday we had a very small south drift, but again, not big enough to be worth mentioning. We have had some drift to the west which is neither working for or against us. The ice has been very stable, and not moving very much. Let's hope it stays that way, or if we get any drift we hope it will be to the north!
Q: How long do you ski for at one time?
A: We started out skiing for 1.5 hours at a time, but as we are growing stronger we have pushed our breaks back to once every two hours. Depending on conditions and our timing we'll usually do 4 of these "marches" every day. If we get a southern drift, or if for some reason we get behind schedule (there isn't really a schedule up here) but if we need to really push ourselves we'll do 5 marches, or maybe even more!
Q: What do you do with your toilet paper?
A: There are two ways to handle our used toilet paper. Most people wad it up and put it in a small plastic bag (each person carries their own plastic bag) that he or she will throw out once we get back to Longyearbyen. The second option is to burn it, but that takes some time and depending on the temperature it's no fun to sit there and wait for a wad of toilet paper to burn! We don't leave it on the ice or bury it.
Q: Are you getting our messages?
A: Yes! We love getting messages! But sometimes we don't get it word-for-word. We are all in separate tents and we get the messages at the end of the day when one of the expedition guides calls in to report our position to the PolarExplorers office. Annie will read the guide the message and that guide usually shouts out "Hey Chris (or Bob, Niall, Maria, etc.) your friend Joe says...." Sometimes if the guide is in the same tent as the person he will hand him or her the phone and Annie will read the full message. The support we are getting from our families and friends means the world to us! Thanks :)
We're happy to have the team answer additional questions, so feel free to send them along. The audio report for today hasn't arrived yet so we will post it if and when we receive it. In the meantime, check back again tomorrow for another update from the team!
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