June 20, 88 42.46'N:74 02.14'W
Day 51. We encountered quite a bit of pressured ice today. Unusual. As you know, we have been expecting the ice to flatten out a bit. It seems that we're close enough to the Pole so that if we were to stand on our tippy toes, we might be able see it. Not so with today's ice.
Fortunately, we could get through all the rough spots fairly easily by searching out a smattering of periodically spaced small flat pans. The ice itself was very interesting today as well. Any geometry teacher would have a year's worth of shapes to proof: triangle, square, pentagon, and everything in between. A small area of 30-foot-wide slabbed shapes heaved only slightly garnered a few extra comments.
Also unexpectedly today, were several large leads, three of which we catamaraned to get across. A Harp seal was very intrigued with our presence and watched us intently from a few yards away. It would lift its body further and further out of the water trying to get a better view.
When we left the first lead and pulled a 1/4 mile across an ice floe, we encountered our new same seal friend there too. It had followed the sounds of our skis and canoe-sleds under the ice to the next lead. A while later at a third lead, it was again poking its head curiously up.
To continue with the math lesson open water plus seals equals... That's right, polar bears, and upon pulling our sled-canoes up and out of the first lead, we immediately skied over a pair of huge tracks. You could even see the large claw marks in some of them. The trail led to a spot only 2 feet away from where we had just 'landed'. Not having a sled-canoe handy, these two bears, it appears, jumped in and swam across.
For us to get across that lead easily took 15 minutes. For the bears, two - maybe. They are perfectly adapted to this environment. They have evolved into efficient swimmers - uniquely among bears, they have developed some webbing between their toes and their necks are longer than other bears, the better for them to keep their heads above water while swimming. Yet despite all these physical advantages, polar bear drownings are becoming more common - especially off the north coast of Alaska where sea ice is receding quickly.
Polar bears rule supreme in the Arctic. Today's tracks, the seals and all this open water surrounding us have put us on our guard. Once again, we are placing the Hilleberg Hotel on heightened alert.
Despite our nervousness, we also feel lucky to be able to experience these chance encounters. Our hope is that we can all work to stop global warming and save the polar bear.
Lastly, you haven't heard us mention them in a while, but we're still getting our daily dose of Clif bars. Three a day per person (more math?) times two people times seven days in a week times... Well, let us know what that comes out to. Eric's favorite: peanut butter chocolate chip crunch. Lonnie's: apple cranberry.
Today's picture: Eric is crossing a 3 1/2 foot crack in the ice. It's hard to see in this picture, but 5 feet below his ski is the Arctic Ocean.
Word of the day: epoch - that's how long it feels like we've been out here.
June 19, 88 34.16'N:72 42.52'W
Day 50. With absolutely no wind whatsoever, we have remained nearly stationary overnight. This fact has helped us make the decision to take a full rest day. The past days of hard toil have taken a toll on both of us. Lonnie is especially stretched as the pain in his back is preventing him from sleeping soundly at night.
Hanging out inside the Hilleberg Hotel and snuggling deeply in our Integral Design sleeping bags, makes all that hardship seem to dissappear. In fact, when we did emerge and go outside, it was with renewed vigor. What an amazing place we are in. We feel very lucky to be here.
50 straight days on the Arctic Ocean have not dulled our senses, either. Each subtle change catches our attention. The texture of snow at 30 degrees versus 31, the sound of dead calm, the bluest possible ice chunk, the endlessness of a whiteout... This is the Arctic Ocean, one of the last great wildernesses left on the planet.
After 50 days we also feel lost when our routine is changed. This is especially true on rest days. The mornings aren't so bad as we sleep in, but take away our end of the day rituals and we start getting a bit cranky. We just like things the way we like them.
Find a flat piece of ice, align our sled-canoes with the wind, set up the tent, ground pads in first, then personal gear, grab a dinner and breakfast, set up the solar panel, cut snow blocks for cooking and drinks, take off gaitors to dry outside, crawl in the tent, boots off and to the side, insoles pulled out, we could easily extend this play by play till the moment we stop traveling in 23.5 hours and find a flat piece of ice.
Happy father's day to our dads, Jim Dupre and Andy Larsen. You are always with us in spirit.
We also wanted to extend a special birthday wish to Elisabeth Harincar. We met Elisabeth through her husband Tim who runs www.x-journal.com - an amazing program for updating web sites and blogs from your own computer or the most remote corners of the world. We swear by it.
We also received a note that the www.projecthinice.org web site has a new video posted on it. It features a trip to Boulder and the NSIDC (national snow and ice data center) with narration by Kieran Mulvaney. If you're wondering why the clip is so easy to follow and understand, its because Kieran wrote the script as well. Way to go mate! (we're told its an English expression).
Today's picture: our typical relaxation poses in the Hilleberg Hotel.
Word of the day: fulminate - we did not do this when opting to take a rest day.
June 18, 88 34.16'N:72 42.52'W
Day 49. Seal at 88:30?!? Small but rotund, it was sunning on the ice until the red coats came. We tried to sneak up and shoot some video, but we had no polar bear stealth and it dove through an open hole it had maintained in the ice. It is amazing to realize that life exists under all this ice at the top of the world. This place is much more than just ice and snow.
We hit 'Pay Dirt' - at least ice wise. Today was by far the best we have had since leaving land (whenever that was). For once in a long, long while, we are allowing ourselves to be optimistic. We're anticipating more of the same in the days ahead. Hopefully.
We are also traveling mostly on old multi-year floes. This thicker ice is identified by its rounded and sometimes dirty tops. We are also seeing a lot of dark material (soot) covering some of the flatter ice as well. Anywhere there is soot, the snow is melting away faster than the surrounding areas. We are collecting snow samples for Dr. Tom Grenfell at the University of Washington so he can study this same interaction.
We have decided to take at least a half day's rest tomorrow due to the rough going we've had the past three days. The tough ups and downs have put enough strain on Lonnie's back that, even with prescription medication, it is difficult to get decent sleep and rest. This makes the next day somewhat less rewarding, to say the least.
We had a short discussion about the past three days. Were they more mentally or physically challenging? We decided it was equal.
In moments of forgetfulness, we made two foolish moves. First, Eric packed his Lendal paddle inside his sled (instead of bungeed to the top and easily accessible). Inevitably, we had to paddle across two big leads today. The second was a comment by Lonnie stating we wouldn't get much fog today. Of course, we had a brief spell of foggy mist. In the future, we have to be more careful of what we do and say.
We've been wearing the same Wintergreen pants and jackets for almost two months straight. Paul Schurke (of North Pole dog sled journey 1986 fame) and his wife Sue make incredible clothing and outerwear that is durable enough for the Arctic Ocean, but still wearable around town. Check out http://www.oneworldexpedition.com to learn more about our sponsor of the week, Wintergreen.
Today's picture: Lonnie tired and sore after a long day.
Word of the day: supine - our position of relaxation in the Hilleberg Hotel.
June 17, 88 23.54'N:70 44.57'W
Day 48. All of our previous experience with sea ice, our attempt last year off the coast of Russia, all of our knowledge accumulated over the past month and a half, all of the information gleaned from previous expeditions did little, if anything, to prepare us for the ice today.
A brisk wind cooled the surface snow enough where we could both use skis; however, the second skier had more snow stick to the bottom of his skis than the lead - the opposite of yesterday.
Too soon, we were in a confusion of broken ice. Leads were everywhere. Normally, we would look for pressured corners, but they were now split apart. We've mentioned this situation before, but today was different. It was impossible to judge where there was water and where there wasn't. Because of the flatness of the ice, the edges of the pans disguised the character of each lead.
Too many times we would interpret a lead crossable to the left, but once closer, the gap was too wide to span with skis, or filled with impassable brash ice. Then, we'd backtrack to the right. Several times, we traveled three or four pans into a dead end and had to backtrack that same agonizing distance.
We stretched the limits of safety. Both of us had near misses with ice breaking underneath our full weight. Only luck and last minute lunges kept us dry. Any other skis than our trusty Asnes skis would have broken in two by now. We bridge nearly four foot gaps with them.
When our spirits were at their lowest, when we didn't think we could go through any more, when even getting to 89 degrees seemed impossible, the ice changed. It got better. Flatter. The sun came out. It was a break we will not soon forget.
So many times we fall. We slip and get frustrated. Or just plain tired. Sometimes one of us is close enough to lend a hand. Many times we are all alone. "Why even get up," we often think. But we do get up, we take one step and then another, then one more. Minute by minute, hour by hour, we whittle away at all this impossibility to move forward. That simple fact gives us hope. These, we are just beginning to realize, are not just lessons for polar explorers.
Just so you know, your efforts are not going unnoticed, the federal government received over 200,000 comments in support of listing the bear under the Endangered Species Act. Wow! Thanks to all of you who made an extra effort to help save the polar bear.
We're too tired to write another poem. Our mood would better fit a Russian tome. But now it's to sleep. Where new energy will seep. But not before our dreams take us away to roam.
Today's picture: Our solar power plant. There is enough light (even during a complete blizzard) to charge all of our electronic equipment. And the best part, no greenhouse gas emissions.
Word of the day: equanimity - what we try to have.
June 16, 88 14.42'N:70 57.29'W
Day 47. The icescape is softening with each day over 32F. The sharp edges of ice and snowdrifts are now rounded. A curved blanket of white has folded into the abrupt corners of each drift. On the down side, our ski tips are starting to submarine periodically under the snow, creating additional effort for our legs as we have to stop, put the leg in reverse, then lift the ski back up to the surface.
We are all about conservation of energy more so now than ever. With two difficult days in a row anything we can do to be more efficient in our forward progress is immediately implemented.
For example, we are still having a serious problem with the snow sticking the bottoms of our ski skins. Solution #1: The lead man snowshoes (instead of skiing), breaking trail as the second person, now with a groomed track, skis with considerably less effort. Solution #2: We are trying an experiment on a pair of skis by reducing the width and length of skins to make them glide better with less sticking. Of course, we only have so much to work with.
We are taking fewer and fewer detours, too. A section of brash ice is now a bridge, wide gaps are spanned with skis or jumped on snowshoes, ice chunks become ferries. One might argue that we are taking more risks; however, it is simply that we better understand the consequence of each movement.
We participated (via satellite phone) in a press conference the other day to help promote an off shore wind farm near Long Island. It was an honor to be able to talk about our experiences and how reducing our dependency on oil will help stop global warming and save the polar bear. Groups like Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI) and Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) are taking positive steps to meet our energy needs and protect our environment.
The sun was out for nearly two-thirds of the day - more than enough to recharge our depleted vitamin D stores. When you are deprived of so many things a little goes a long way. It was nice to see the route ahead, clouds above and the terrain beneath our skis and snowshoes.
Today was important for another reason. We figured out what our super powers would be should we ever leave polar exploration to fight crime. Eric would use the Larsen Long Line - unhooking the two pull ropes and reattaching just one end. Lonnie has now perfected the Lonnie Lever - a method of pulling a sled-canoe up a ledge by leaning back and using his the momentum of his body falling back to leverage the weight. We're not exactly sure how these skills will translate into actually being able to catch crooks, but we've got some time for that.
Finally, it's not too late to help get the polar bear listed as a threatened species. Be sure to Take Action today!
Today's picture: The ice chunk that Lonnie used to cross this lead toppled over and fell apart in pieces too small to stand. Luckily, there was a small ice chunk nearby to use as a ferry. Eric is holding a rope while Lonnie pulls him over.
Word of the day - neologism - a new word (look it up and you'll know what we mean).
June 15, 88 07.11'N:70 06.35'W
Day 46. We'll give you the most important information first, then, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. On June 16th the public comment period on getting the polar bear listed as a threatened species ends. There is still time for you to help save the polar bear. Take Action: http://members.greenpeace.org/action/start/84/thin_ice
Page 2. In a related news story, we saw a set of polar bear tracks ambling off to the west. They were older tracks judging by how drifted they were; however, with all this open water around us one must be near. We have placed our camp on orange alert as a result of the sighting. In other wildlife happenings, a pair of ivory gulls circled our camp a few times last night. They are beautiful birds, completely white (go figure) with black beaks.
Last night, we drifted two miles south (and of course a bit east) - an inauspicous start to a day that, now finished, ranks as one of the most physically and mentally difficult of our expedition to date. It was an Arctic cornucopia of the worst possible travel conditions. The day started nice enough, the wind had shifted, cooling things a bit and firming up the snow. But like so many of the other 'good' conditions we experienced, it didn't last.
The light soon went flat and we were once again stumbling blindly forward. It started to snow too, and hard. We wondered if another blizzard was on its way, but it just kept falling at the same steady rate all day. The new snow stuck thickly to the bottom of our skis, made them heavy with no glide. Stopping to scrape the snow and ice off only helped for a few minutes. We switched to snowshoes.
When we put on our MSR snowshoes, it's like putting a truck into four-wheel drive. We are able to pull the sled-canoes up and around ice that would be impossible with skis. On the down side, our travel slows and we expend extra energy lifting (instead of sliding with skis) each step. Still, without snowshoes, we would still be on the ice post-holing our way to madness or worse.
The only really good part of today was that we were able to laugh about it once it was over. For over six hours, we snowshoed. The sled-canoes seemed like a pallet of bricks and stopped dead at even the slightest pause in forward momentum. The ice was worse - small pans, pressured together in random ways, lots of open water leads filled with compressed snow and some brash ice. We had to veer so much east and west that at times, we thought we might be going in circles.
It's hard to convey the feelings we have during a day like today. Several times we were near temper tantrum level when a sled-canoe got stuck or a piece of ice disintegrated underneath us. There's intense fear when facing a tenuous brash ice crossing or relief like when three car-sized chunks of ice heeled over just after (not while) we had hopped across them. Frustration and despair as we scout the route and see more bad ice. Physical exhaustion as we try to pace our efforts. Hunger. Desire to stop and quit. Drive to keep moving forward.
When we finally reached a big flat piece of ice with 15 minutes left in the travel day, we didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It is equally hard to describe our emotions now that today is nearly complete. Before today we had hoped for good ice to the Pole, now we expect bad.
Today's picture: Lonnie shows the 3 inches of snow sticking to the bottom of his Asnes skis (Thanks Gary at Neptune Mountaineering).
Word of the day: wretched - the word of the day is our day.
(each day we randomly pick a page out of a pocket dictionary and find a word to describe our day)
June 14, 88 02.21'N:70 59.55
Day 45. We took a full day's rest instead of our normal half day due to the tough slogging we had between 87 and 88 degrees north. It gave the Norwegian and French (you have to guess) contingencies of the team time to re-energize sore muscles and heal any strains.
The older and more distinguished of the two 'has-beens' has been experiencing serious back pain from a strain during the first week and a half of the expedition.
We've have been trying to stay on top of the problem with anti-inflammatory drugs, stretching, tweaking the pull harness and adjusting weight in the canoe-sleds.
We want to thank Dr. John Wood for helping us put the expedition's medical kit together, along with advice for handling this situation. Also would like to extend our appreciation to Kathy Horak for showing some relevant yoga stretches for lower back. Last but not least, thanks to Kim and Shem for whipping up some fabulous dehydrated salsa that helps us choke down our dried egg/potato/bean breakfasts.
We also received an important polar bear update from Melanie at Greenpeace that the U.S. Senate has passed legislation to enforce the Polar Bear Treaty that Russia and the United States reached almost six years ago. The bill now moves to the House. On a related note, you still have until the end of this week to tell the federal government to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Be sure you take action if you haven't already. Thanks!
Most of the morning was spent transcribing the snow depth and density and ice thickness data we've collected over the past month. This in turn will be sent to Kert Davies at Greenpeace who will further transcribe the information, whereupon it will reach its penultimate destination, Walt Meier at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The data will be presented by Dr. Meier and Dr. Ted Scambos in August. Hopefully, this information will prove critical to understanding the current state of Arctic sea ice.
We would also like to thank Jennifer Bohlander and Ted Scambos at NSIDC who have been graciously monitoring and processing MODIS satellite photo data on the rare occasion that clear skies have been available.
There was some talk of a brief snowshoe outing in the afternoon, but it never materialized. Instead, we splurged and ate an extra candy bar with lunch. Our intentions were noble, we swear!
We also decided to do our own science project. This morning our ski poles had melted into the snow and fallen over. We wanted to know how different objects affected the melting of ice, so we placed a snowshoe, some orange rope and a bungee out on the snow. After three hours, they had already melted down an inch.
This experiment is a good example of how more water can accelerate the melting of the Arctic ice pack.
The only other big event of the day was the much-touted chess match. A huge crowd of drying socks and gear gathered in giddy anticipation. In the end, the grudge match was won by Eric, so we played another game which Lonnie won. So we're back to hyping another big game.
A note about today's picture: Eric is weighing snow to determine its density.
Word of the day: efficacious - hopefully our efforts to get to the North Pole.
