You know that feeling you get right after a vacation, the morning you have to go back to work? That's not too unlike how we felt getting out of the tent today. Back to our task of skiing to the pole.

We are choosing to be here, of course, but when the wind is howling, your hands are numb with cold and you are physically exhausted, it feels kind of (a wee tiny bit) like a job.

'Damn cold,' was how Dongsheng described the weather during one of our short rest breaks.

'The conditions were constantly changing,' Bill observed later. 'The wind really picked up for a while.

Despite the intense cold and windchill, we wear surprisingly little. For my part, I wear only two Terramar base layers (helix and tx2). Bill and Dong wear the geofleece. Then, it's our Sierra Designs anoraks. At breaks, we don our big SD down parkas. The trick during the day is to keep your body protected from the wind, warm but not too hot that we start sweating. Therefore, we are constantly adjusting. Taking off our big mitts, putting them back on. Unzipping our anoraks. Zipping them back up. Pulling our hoods down... You get the picture?

With diligence, we can regulate our body temperatures fairly well. However, there are still times when we are 'damn cold' and even 'damn hot' every day.

Back at home this week, The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org took an historic step: they petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to set national limits for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act. The petition seeks to have greenhouse gases designated as "criteria" air pollutants and atmospheric CO2 capped at 350 parts per million (ppm), the level leading scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

"It's time to use our strongest existing tool for reducing greenhouse gas pollution - the Clean Air Act. The Act's provisions should cap carbon pollution at no more than 350 parts per million," said Kassie Siegel, an author of the petition and director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. "For four decades, this law has protected the air we breathe - and it's done that through a roven, successful system of pollution control that saves lives and creates economic benefits vastly exceeding its costs."

Image: A Karhu ski's view of Antarctica.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.savethepoles.com

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