Getting close!

The team phone in today to report a long day with challenging ice conditions, but good progress. It helped that they made 2 nautical miles overnight with a north drift! They are currently at N89.50.01, E142.

They awoke to discover that the rubbly zone just to the north of them had opened up into a giant mass of water. Guide Keith Heger named it "Lake Heger" and was trying to sell "lakefront property" to Niall and Alexey all day. The open water ran in a NW direction and though it took them half the day to find a way across it, they were at least able to make some northward progress while they searched for a crossing. In addition to Lake Heger, the team also had some very large pressure ridges that they had to navigate. One of them was approximately 20 feet wide and took at least 20 minutes to get across.

Open water like "Lake Heger" can be very hard to cross.
Sometimes a team will ski many miles out their way, just to find a decent crossing.

Even if a lead is frozen it may not be strong enough to bear the weight of a skier.
Here the team finds a good spot to cross a frozen lead.

The team was delighted to learn that the bird they saw yesterday was a Black-Legged Kittiwake. Thanks to Andrei Pyatibratov and Tyler Keenan for sending in the same identification. We relayed all the information about the bird's characteristics to the team.

To add to the bird sighting the team saw polar bear tracks today! And right next to the polar bear tracks were fox tracks! It's rare to see a fox this far north (almost 450 miles from land!). It makes sense that the fox tracks would be next to the polar bear tracks because the arctic fox is a scavenger and it is likely following the polar bear looking for a seal carcass. The team estimates that the track is about a week old. With all the open water the team will be more on the look out for seals as well as polar bear (and fox!).

Polar Bear footprint!

Given any luck the team could reach the North Pole tomorrow! Of course any number of obstacles could prevent this from happening, but certainly as the team gets closer to the Pole their enthusiasm and energy will increase. Sometimes when you are close to the Pole it's hard to stop skiing!

Make sure to listen to the audio report below, and check back again tomorrow for another update from the team!

A visitor in camp!

The team phoned in to report that they had very warm temperatures today and virtually no wind. The coldest it got was -12C! This is unusually warm for April and the team had to stop several times to make adjustments to people's layering systems - they were too hot! The team encountered a mix of nice ice pans and rubble zones and in the end they made 10 nautical miles of Northward progress.

Nikki making miles!

This pressure ridge required a bit of teamwork.

Several people have emailed to ask the team if they have seen any wildlife so far and they are happy to report back that today this morning they had a visitor in their campsite. No, not a polar bear... a bird! Seeing a bird so far north is extremely unusual. In fact in all the years that PolarExplorers has been guiding expeditions to the North Pole we have only seen two birds! The bird seemed quite comfortable in their camp and Keith was able to walk within one foot of it to take the picture below. The team is curious where it came from and where it is going. They have asked for your assistance in identifying the bird. If you have any ideas what kind of a bird it is please email me and I will forward it to the team. It looked like a gull to them, but what kind?

Help us identify this bird!

When the team phoned in they were just shy of N89.40 but as you'll hear in Niall's audio report it sounds like they might have drifted the tenth of a mile north to pass the magical "two-thirds of the way there" marker. Everyone is doing good and spirits are high. When we talked to the team they were just settling down for a good night's rest. They enjoyed a special dessert from Nikki (chocolate Koala bears from her home country Australia). Mmmmm..... Last night the team eagerly ate up Bob's special dessert which was sugar coated easter cookies from his hometown. As you can guess food is a big deal for the team!

Make sure to listen to Niall's audio report from today, and Keith's audio report for yesterday, and check back again tomorrow for another update from the team!

A beautiful day, and answers to your questions!

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.

A small pressure ridge requiring the skier to take a giant step up to the next ice pan.



Clear skies and relatively flat ice

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!

11 nautical miles. One-third of the way there!

The team called in today to share they had another excellent day of travel, and they made 11 nautical miles North. Their current position is N89.23, E137. That's more than one-third of the way there!

The team had several pressure ridges in the morning, one of which was challenging enough that everyone took off their skis and they trekked over on foot. Though this is easier than skiing when blocks of ice are big or at odd angles, it consumes both energy and time to take skis off, carry them over a pressure ridge and put them back on. Still, sometimes it is the best option.

Taking off skis is sometimes the only way to surmount a pressure ridge

The last six miles of the day were much faster because the team hit some large pans of ice that were relatively flat and open. Getting out of an area of high pressure and onto a big pan of ice is a little like driving a car in traffic jam and then finding an open lane of travel where you can go as far and as fast as you like. It's very satisfying!

It was another beautiful day with little wind, clear skies and warm temperatures (approximately -20C). The team skied for 2 hour stretches at a time followed by a 10 minute break for snacks and drinks. Though an observer might think, "that's a short break!" the team is usually ready to start moving again just to stay warm!

A typical break will find people sitting on their sleds with their back
to any wind, eating and drinking.

Alexey taking a quick break from the skiing.

Dessert tonight was provided by Alexey who brought delicious baklava from his hometown. He also wants to send a special birthday wish to his Mom. Happy Birthday Alexey's Mom! Make sure to listen to the today's audio report from Alexey and check back in tomorrow for another update from the team!