Børge Ousland

It has been another good day for Mike and me. We’ve walked 25 km today in ten hours – that’s 28 km closer to the North Pole, taking into account last night’s ice drift. We are really satisfied with that kind of progress! We had an easterly wind today, too, but not as annoying or biting cold as yesterday. –28?C is within our “comfort zone”, unless the wind factor make’s life chillier. Fortunately the wind velocity stayed around 5 metres per second, and now it’s died down completely. We wonder what tomorrow will bring.

We saw polar bear tracks today and yesterday, but they weren’t fresh.

Tonight our position is N85?22’42”, E98?12’51”. The light is fantastic up here! It’s bluish violet with a trace of red near the southern horizon. We only have to use our headlights in the morning and for a few hours in the evening. The rest of the time, there is enough light from the sky to navigate.

We see our surroundings well and the ice conditions are still really excellent. Perhaps a bit more chaotic and mixed, but we’re making good headway. We still have about 515 km to go. We’re going to bed now, hoping to wake to yet another good day tomorrow.

It’s been yet another good day for us. We’re now well within 85 degrees latitude, with a position of N85?08’, E99?01’. In 10 hours today we walked 26 km, and having drifted 4 km again last night, it adds up to 30 km of northerly progress.

Our friend the wind is also our enemy. It’s been miserable today with the wind blowing from the east at 7–8 m per sec. Well, at least it isn’t a headwind. The thermometer may show –28?C, but the wind chills the effective temperature far below that mark. It’s dicey to keep our bodies warm enough when we’re walking. Without the extra layer of underwear and double wind mittens that we put on this morning, we would have had to stop far earlier. Mike has had problems with his hands before, so he has to be really careful. His thumbs are pretty swollen now, but he’s doing all right.

The ice conditions have been almost as good as they were yesterday, perhaps slightly more uneven. There are snowdrifts here and there that we have to climb up and down, and that takes a bit of extra time. But we’re happy with the thick and stable ice.

We’re feeling some trepidation in regards to the wind tomorrow. We are of course hoping it dies down a bit. The important thing, however, is that it doesn’t turn into an unbearable northerly headwind.

Today has truly been an exceptional day! In addition to walking 29 km since this morning, we were given 5 km northerly drift last night, bringing us all of 34 km closer to the North Pole. It just goes to show how quickly conditions can change out here. The GPS position off our camp is now N84?51’30”, E100?. We have every expectation of reaching 85 degrees latitude tomorrow – and it feels fantastic to now be making that kind of progress!

For the first time we feel that we’re “within the North Pole”. What I mean by that is the ice is older and thicker and looks just like what I’ve seen near the pole itself on previous expeditions. Today we walked almost entirely on old ice, which was nice and even, 100–150 cm thick, and far more stable. Even that can break up and form open leads, but there is far less chance of bothersome pack ice. When we came upon small leads today, we simply found a way around them.

The temperature is now –20?C, as well as the wind factor due to the southeasterly wind of six–seven metres per second. We had a new accident this morning – it was the third time a tent pole snapped. That’s really disappointing, it shouldn’t happen, and it is no fun standing there fixing it in this cold.

There will be no more days of rest until we reach our goal – unless, of course, we have a serious accident or rough weather prevents us from leaving our tent. Time is short, and we really do have to press on as much as we possibly can! Today we walked 10.5 hours, yesterday 11 hours. And we’ve promised ourselves to walk at least 10 hours each day. That’s fine, really; it’s not as tiring to walk on good ice.

The last few days I’ve been having problems with my digestion. The fat content has probably been too high, so in order to give me more variation, Mike and I are swapping half our lunches. I get some of his chocolate, while he is treated to oatmeal with fat and nuts. There is no distracting hunger, so we’re obviously eating enough – and that’s certainly an advantage when we’re putting in long days on the ice.

We saw polar bear tracks today, several days old. Judging from their size it was a young bear. But those can actually be more dangerous. You encounter them where you don’t expect, because they don’t have the experience of older bears.

We’re hoping the weather report will tell us that the southeasterly wind will continue. That should give us yet another good day tomorrow.

Today was quite a marathon. We walked for 11 hours, on excellent ice and a weak wind at our backs, so we decided to put in an extra couple of hours. The result was 25 km progress. Mike and I have decided to walk at least 10 hours a day in the weeks to come, and to press on even longer on good days. A simple calculation shows that we have to conquer one degree of latitude every six days, if we’re to reach the North Pole before our food runs out. It’s difficult to stretch our supplies beyond what we’ve already done – the “slimming program” that extended our food to a 70 day total. But we believe we can do it, we’re sticking to our plan and pressing on every day. The margins are not exactly on our side, however, so those plans are very vulnerable to unforeseen developments.

Suddenly we notice how much lighter it is than just a week ago. We haven’t had a chance to appreciate it because of the “white-out” with snow and poor visibility – but today it was perfectly clear in the middle of the day. The growing light showed itself full force and that really felt wonderful!

The terrain has made it easier to progress a good distance. We’re walking on excellent ice, nice and even and flat, with little pack ice to slow us down. On the other hand, we have come to quite a few open leads today. The ice around us has been broken up the last few days’ strong winds, but now they’re once again quickly freezing closed.

This morning we crossed the widest lead of them all – more than half a kilometre wide! We donned our suits as a safety measure, and that was definitely a good idea. The thickness of the ice that had formed on the sea varied greatly, and several times it broke underneath us as we walked and crawled, pulling the pulks behind us with long ropes. It felt good to get that out of the way early in the morning. The rest of the leads presented no problems.

Well, that was today’s report. We are happy to hear that so many people are following our journey – it inspires us to be able to share this great adventure.

Hi, it’s me again. We’re now at N84?20’12” and roughly E101?30’. Once again it’s been a rather special day – and we started it with yet another incident. Mike released our pepper spray by accident inside the tent, which gave us a rather hilarious start. We thought we were going to die inside that tent!

Pepper spray is intended as a defence of last resort when you’re standing eye to eye with a polar bear, and it’s extremely effective. Well, it worked. Shortly after breakfast, our tent was suddenly full of it, and we could hardly breathe – we lay next to each our vent gasping for air, struggling to catch our breath. That episode certainly did get our blood circulation going.

The weather was borderline today, with 10–12 meter winds per second coming from northeast, and almost zero visibility in the snow. We decided to stay in the tent to see how things developed. I listened to the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, while Mike enjoyed his music. Around noon the wind had abated a bit – we packed our equipment and broke camp. It was still a miserable day. Even so, it did us good to get out of the tent. It is so easy to just remain there once you’ve settled into your sleeping bag. Hence it feels like an even greater victory when you get it together and brave the elements.

Our progress may not seem impressive: 4 km in 6 hours. That leaves our countdown at 632 km, since we drifted a bit south. In difficult conditions and reduced visibility, we crossed an average of one lead of seawater every hour. When they’re covered with snow, they can be deadly. We have to always be scanning, looking left or right, trying to read the terrain. Sometimes a snowdrift will run straight across the water. But we managed to cross each lead safely.

At the end of our day, we came to a huge lead that was newly frozen and started walking. We were fine, but discovered that the ice was very varied, with patches of very thin, dangerous ice that looked almost the same as the thicker ice. Here and there the ice had cracked, and was obviously moving, forming pack ice a number of places. Mike and I decided it was best to withdraw, retreating several hundred metres onto solid ice. By tomorrow we expect the lead to have frozen, so that we can continue without taking undue risks.

The wind is supposed to come from a more southerly direction tomorrow, and the weather forecast calls for good weather the next few days. We don’t mind it so much when the wind is at our backs.

Yesterday’s incidents show how important it is to stick close together. I am always just behind or right in front of Mike. As soon as I saw him losing his balance at that second lead, I unhooked myself from my harness and came to his aid, helped him up, and fished his equipment out of the water – including a ski pole that was floating in the ice slush. To lose equipmen can almost be worse than getting wet. We have only one extra ski pole and one extra ski; if we lose two, we can be in serious trouble.

We’re in the tent once again and our dinner is waiting for us. Tomorrow we’re going to cross that lead.

The weather looks bad, so we’ll have to see how this day turns out. There is a strong northeasterly wind. We’re about to try again. We do, however, have to be careful with such poor visibility and when there are so many open leads. Fortunately, we’re drifting due west and not losing any terrain. I’ll let you know how the day turned out this evening.

Today has been far from a perfect day. We’ve had two very serious accidents. Before breaking camp this morning, we expressed that it would be another day of even progress, without any major surprises. But they came. The weather was poor, with an ice-cold breeze from the side, probably 10 or 12 meters per second, and almost no visibility.

We walked and made solid progress. Then suddenly Mike disappears through a snow-covered lead that he did not see. It looked white, just like everything else, under its snowy blanket. By the time he realized that there was only water and really thin ice. he had already lost his balance. He got his foot wet, but quickly managed to make onto firmer ice. We set up the tent in a hurry so could dry his foot and change socks.

In less than an hour, we were walking again. We pressed on for another five or six hours, until we came to one of many leads. It looked like a normal crossing point, and I made it across just fine, onto an ice floe that was perhaps ten square metres. When Mike tried to follow, the little ice floe slid forward, and he suddenly found himself with one foot on each side of a widening gap. He fell into the water to his waist and got really soaked. Fortunately, he grabbed the edge of the ice and pulled himself up, before rolling in the snow. That soaked up most of the water from his outer clothing, and he could just brush off the snow. His ice-cold underwear was a different story.

Once again I pitched the tent immediately. What saved us is that the temperature was fairly mild, only –15?C, otherwise this accident might have been far more serious. The rest of the day we’ve been drying clothes. With great success, I might add; they’re almost dry, and he’ll be able to wear them in the morning. We brought my reserve stove into the tent and hung everything up inside. The mittens were rinsed in freshwater to get rid of the salt before we dried them.

Well, we are 12 km closer to the North Pole, and have 637 km to go. Our position is N84°17’41”, E102°49’09”.

Today has been another great day, no doubt about it. Mike and I have skied 21 km today. Last night we actually drifted 2 km south, as the wind became westerly. Fortunately it turned once again during the day, into a nice, even tailwind.

We’re now 651 km from the North Pole, position N84?10’01”, E103?46’. The ice continues to be excellent, better than I can remember at this latitude – and that really helps us. Both of us are hoping that these conditions continue for a long time!

We are seeing more open leads. The ice obviously breaks up a bit in the shifting wind – and the wind is stronger than normal. But we’re glad the leads are very narrow. Usually we’re able to find a safe crossing point immediately nearby, although we did have to swim once today.

We have kept up a steady pace for 9.5 hours. First we walk 2.5 hours in one stretch early in the morning to put a bit of distance behind us, while our oatmeal breakfast is till giving us lots of energy. Then we pause for ten or twelve minutes, before taking turns leading, switching every 80 minutes. In the course of the day, we have five breaks.

I’m not so hungry as I was before the weekend. We’re getting enough calories now. Everything is working really wall, and our routines function perfectly. Talk to you tomorrow!

After a challenging day of heavy wind, we’ve reached N84?00’17”, E103?57’. All day we’ve had a 10 metre per hour wind at our back and have walked almost blindly. It’s exhausting, because the whole time you’re trying to distinguish features in the ice, trying desperately to discern the terrain. The ice has been very changeable and suddenly you’re right on top of something. We must have crossed ten or fifteen open leads today – fortunately finding a way across or around them all, not having to swim once. But they are rather spooky, as they fill up with snow. If you’re not paying attention, they can appear perfectly fine – before you suddenly step through snow floating on deep water.

Mike and I have been very careful and have managed well. Most of the day has been on young ice, a metre or so thick, which is very prone to movement. A number of times we’ve met fresh pack ice. But now we’re once again on older ice, and here in our campsite it’s far safer.

Since this morning, we have walked more than 20 km, but thanks to the northerly drift today and last night, we can chalk up a total of 27 km. It feels great to finally be making that kind of progress!

We are very tired after walking almost blindly for 9.5 hours. Now we’re looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Just finished our dinner.

Hi, this is Børge calling from N83?45’38”, E103?40’. We have walked 18 km since this morning and only drifted three kilometres south last night. Fortunately, the southerly drift seems to have stopped for now.

We made good distance in the 10 hours that we walked, putting in some extra time to cross an open lead at the end of the day. It was about 30 metres wide. We had to swim and break the ice, more or less using the pulks as battering rams and swimming behind them. It took us half an hour and was pretty exhausting. As we stood there on the other side looking back, we thought how strange it was that after almost exactly 9 hours, we’ve come to challenging leads each of the last three days out on the ice. This one, however, was narrower and much easier to cross.

The ice has been good to us today, and the weather relatively mild, only –20?C. The skis and pulks glide well. We can really feel the beneficial effect of taking the Sunday off; even though we had an exceptionally long day, we were not tired. And it helps with solid rations – we’re no longer thinking about restaurants the whole time. All in all we’re pleased with today’s progress.

We needed that. The gruelling start of our expedition came as quite a shock to us, and really threw us off schedule. Nevertheless we never lost faith in our ability to reach our goal, and still believe we can reach the North Pole in winter. Time is short, however – and we have to cross 700 km of ice during the next 40 days. Of course there is always a risk of unforeseen incidents, but I am convinced we’re going to make it.

Today we’ve been out on the ice for 30 days. Tomorrow we’re pressing further north, closer to N84?.