Børge Ousland

It’s been wonderful with a day of rest. We’ve really relaxed, eaten well and listened to music on our mp3-players. We have also taken the time for minor repairs on our pulks and skis. Today we sent you some new photographs via our satellite phone.

Outside, it is still snowing and there is a northerly wind, but it’s not too cold and actually rather cosy inside our tent. Here we’re stretching out and giving our muscles a break – that will give us a nice reserve of energy for the days to come. At the moment we’re drifting quickly south and have returned to the latitude we were at a day and a half ago. Our position is now N83?36’18”, E103?14’41”.

Not far from us we can hear the sound of pack ice being formed, as the ice floes move hard against each other. That means the lead of open water is closing, and tonight it will continue to freeze. We don’t anticipate any problems when we’re ready to continue northwards tomorrow morning.

Today we changed the plastic bags that we use inside our sleeping bags. Those form an effective barrier against condensation; our sleeping bags remain perfectly dry. And all of our equipment stays nice and dry thanks to the precautions we’re taking. We’ve developed a good system to control and prevent moisture.

All is well with us at our campsite. Tomorrow we’re looking forward to continuing with renewed energy.

Mike and I started our day with an invigorating swim. Even though the wide lead of open water beyond our camp had frozen during the night, new movement had opened a new lead of 20 m. After a short swim, we reached firm ice.

We’ve walked nine hours today on excellent ice. The air has been milky white, snowing and cloudy. The thermometer shows –23?C, which is pretty mild, but I assure the northwesterly wind gives a wind factor equalling a far colder temperature. We packed ourselves in with warm clothes and didn’t have any problems.

The physical distance we’ve skied is more than 16 km, but our GPS reveals that our net progress is only 10 km. We are drifting 500 metres per hour south, due to the 5 m per second wind from northwest. Our weatherman tells us to expect two more days like this.

Tomorrow we’re taking a day of rest, only our second since the expedition started four weeks ago. I think it’s a good idea to take a break while the weather is miserable anyways – so this Sunday we’re going to let our bodies rest and build up our reserves.

We’re camped by a new lead that is at least 200 or 300 m wide. We can’t really tell, because our headlights don’t reach far enough to illuminate anything on the other side. Our GPS coordinates are N83?39’58”, E103?20’41”. With the strong southerly ice drift, I’m sure our position will be very different when we start walking again Monday morning.

Dinner is ready – a tasty lamb stew for me, while Mike is having cod with leeks, both dishes accompanied by mashed potatoes. I stick to meat, alternating between lamb, pork, reindeer and beef. The food is excellent, the high point of a hard day.

The sea stopped us today, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We woke up to a northerly wind and frost in the air. Despite a very reduced view, we walked on as far as we could – but after seven hours, we came to a wide lead. It was 200 metres to the other side. We searched out a narrow stretch and donned our waterproof suits as a safety measure, before walking out on the newly formed ice. Unfortunately it was too thin and broke underneath me after only 20 m – so we had to retreat to firmer ice.

We spent a long time following the lead of open water in both directions, in vain searching for a safe crossing point. After a couple of hours, we had to give up and set up camp near a spot where the lead was narrower. In the morning, we’re hoping the ice will have frozen thick enough to carry us to the other side. Our position here is N83?36’37”, E103?22’25”.

This shortened day yielded 9 km, this time minus 2 km ice drift in the wrong direction. That’s just how it is on some days – and today has been a bit miserable with the weather as well, walking head on into the wind. We do notice that it is more difficult to navigate now that the moon is gone. Morning and evening are dark, while there are a couple of hours of dim light in the middle of the day.

It’s important for us to treasure our unique experience – and the changing light here surely deserves an Oscar for beautiful effects every day! It’s not all toil; we lift our heads and truly appreciate what surrounds us.

The position here is N83?32’30”, E103?09’24”. We have walked 16 km today, and strong winds last night gave us another 5 km of northerly progression. Fortunately the wind calmed down considerably by the time we started walking. The weather forecast is a more northerly wind, but we’re hoping the meteorologist is mistaken. Right now it’s completely calm, no wind howling over the tent.

The ice was a bit rougher during the first part of the day, giving way to flat, wide-open surfaces this afternoon. We’re walking mostly on older ice, formed last year, which is far more stable then the ice we saw earlier. There haven’t been any signs of ice movement or open leads today either – and that’s a great advantage for us.

The moon is gone now. It gets dark early. But there are a couple of hours in the middle of the day with extraordinary light. It’s quite a show! The southern horizon is gorgeous with a tinge of reddish orange, and somewhere below it the sun is waiting for us.

We’ve put in a good day and are exhausted after our nine hours on ice and snow. That is about as much as we can manage, seeing the extent of our chores in the morning and evening. In a couple of days, we’re planning to grab a day of rest – it will soon have been 14 days since our last one. It’s going to be great to just stretch out our bodies, relax and get some extra sleep. And for that we’ll be rewarded when we continue our journey.

Before that, however, we’re looking forward to normal rations. I’m getting very hungry and keep thinking about restaurants and tasty dinners that I’ve enjoyed through the years. It’s going to be a relief to eat a normal meal; but I’ve saved up my three extra day rations. That way we have the option of spending a few extra days out here, extending our expedition to 70 days. We now have 41 days of food left and 721 km to go. If we reach our goal in the month of March, we’ll still be the first ones to walk to the North Pole in winter.

After a fantastic day, we have reached N83?21’33”, E104?07’03”. I can’t remember seeing such good conditions – almost completely level, with only a few walls of block ice where the large ice floes have collided. The ice is thick and firm. All day we’ve been helped by a tail wind, northeasterly and 7–8 metres per second. Since this morning we’ve walked 24 km, and if we include the ice drift, our progression is 27 kilometres. That’s fantastic! But I must say it’s well deserved.

Let’s hope the good conditions continue.

Today we saw fresh polar bear and fox tracks, but no other signs of life. Early on, it became cloudy and started snowing, so it’s been quite dark – with the good ice that hasn’t been a problem. To keep our bearings in the darkness, we’ve fastened two-foot long ribbons to our ski poles. As we walk, we pay careful attention to the angle they make in the wind. First we use our GPS to mark due north, then measure the angle of the ribbon – and that’s the angle we try to keep when we’re skiing. Every couple of hours we double-check it with our GPS, to make sure the wind direction hasn’t changed. It’s been stable all day.

My right knee is hurting. It’s been sore for a few days now, but it hasn’t gotten any worse. I’m hoping the medication I’m taking will help. Fortunately, the burden on my knee lessens as the pulks grow lighter for each day. Days like this with good ice also help.

Now we’re going to eat dinner – been looking forward to that all day.

We’re now within 83 degrees latitude, more precisely at N83?07’01”, E104?28’23”. After skiing 15 km today, and thanking the wind for another 2 km, we have 769 km left of our expedition.

We woke up to milder temperatures, only 26 degrees below, which is far more comfortable – although it chilled five or six degrees this afternoon.

It’s been a magnificent day! Like we’re on a different planet. The ice is amazing in the moonlight, an otherworldly landscape of jagged block ice. The moon has become our sun – I know that may sound strange – but its light is strong enough to show us our surroundings and allow us to navigate. And the moon is there all the time, merely moving in a circle in the sky.

There haven’t been any signs of animals, nor have we seen any open leads at all – and that’s good. We’re encountering more and more of the old Arctic ice, although right now we’re camped on a floe that is less than a year old. These days we’ve been passing through varying ice, but we certainly want to reach more continuous older ice as soon as possible; it’s thicker, more stable and far safer.

The last few days we’ve seen areas where tremendous forces have smashed the ice into blocks of various sizes. Even though the leads between the floes of new ice are frozen now, there is always the risk that they might reopen in stronger winds or currents. We would rather not be there when that happens, so we’re in a hurry to progress further north. Fortunately the southeasterly wind seems stable, and it’s pushing us in the right direction.

This is Day 23 of the expedition. Despite a rough day with lots of block ice in an apparent compression area, we managed to walk 14 km. Taking into account last night’s northerly drift, we’ve progressed another 16 km, leaving 786 km to go. Today we almost reached N83°. Out position is N82°57’45’, E104°54’01”. All is well, really, just a bit of challenging ice – and the pulks really didn’t slide well on the ice.

With the full moon, we se quite well, and it’s much easier to navigate. In addition, we have the faint light from the southern horizon in the middle of the day. We could almost have managed without our headlights for a couple of hours. I must admit that it’s great to see our surroundings properly, no longer wandering in darkness. We’ve passed through a mixture of old and new ice, apparently a compression area with a lot of block and pack ice.

Both of us are doing fine, and we’re looking forward to making N84° our next goal.

“We have now reached N82?49’10”, and our longitudinal position is E105?10’25”. Mike and I walked 18 km today, and the wind and currents gave us an additional 2 km last night. Conditions are favourable. I have rarely seen such good…” (poor connection)

Twenty kilometres is their best day yet since the expedition left firm soil. Børge and Mike are greatly encouraged by a combination of improved ice conditions, northerly drift, a lack of bothersome wind, and pulks that become lighter for each day. They now “only” have 802 km to go until they reach the North Pole.

They may not be sleeping much in their icy cold tent, but whether dreaming or conscious they have recurring visions of tasty food! Børge reports a longing for blueberry crêpes with sour cream, while Mike counts chocolate-coated marshmallows as others would sheep.

The duo is taking every precaution possible to avoid problems in the extreme cold – and the factor they most yearn to change right now, is the temperature.

We’re now camped at N82?38’31”, E105?36’09”, after walking 16 km today and gaining a bonus of two from last night’s northerly ice drift. Even though it’s young, the ice has been excellent today, nice and flat and hardly any movement.

The wind has turned northeasterly, so walking has been a bit miserable, and now we’re drifting almost due east. It’s gradually warming up just ever so slightly; the thermometer shows –32?C. It seems that the ideal temperature for us is between 30 and 25 degrees below, so we’re hopeful that the weather will warm up another notch. The weather report is favourable for the next few days.

We did our job and walked for nine hours today. I must admit we felt tired after only sleeping half the night. It’s difficult when temperatures are extreme. After having been on the move for three weeks, we are happy to report that everything is working well, equipment and routines, and from day one our cooperation has been excellent.

We divide our tasks, for instance making breakfast every other day. We start by firing up the stove and making meltwater. While the stove is going, we scrape frozen condensation from the inside of our tent. When the water is warm, we fill our thermoses, make two portions of oatmeal, and enjoy our breakfast close to the warm stove. Afterwards, we have to dry these fantastic plastic bags that we use as a condensation barrier between our bodies and sleeping bags; they become rather most inside in the course of the night. Then it’s time to put on our clothes and get going.

All in all it takes three hours from the time we get up in the morning, until we have skis on our feet and are ready to pull the packed pulks further northwards. Naturally the morning is the worst time, because of the cold. After we’ve walked for an hour, we’re fine.

It’s now three weeks since we started – but it feels like we’ve been out here for an eternity.

Right now we’re really looking forward to next Saturday – because then we’ll start eating normal rations again. I’m thinking a lot about food, and I’m sure Mike is as well. Ten days ago we made a decision to reduce our rations to be on the safe side; it was necessary to gain an extra safety margin after the incredibly slow and difficult start of our expedition. We were conscious about saving fuel, too, when the weather was milder. Now our food and fuel will last a total of 70 days, rather than 67 – so we can continue for at least another 49 days.

It looks doubtful whether we can reach the North Pole by this year’s first sunrise, 23 March. The most important thing for us, however, is to finish our expedition and reach our goal. That’s why we’ve “slimmed down” a bit. If we progress faster, then we can always enjoy larger meals towards the end of our journey. Spirits are great and I assure you we’re highly motivated!

We have walked 17 km today and the direction of the ice drift is still working to our advantage. Our position is N82?28’38”, E105?57’43” – it’s encouraging to be almost halfway to the 83. degree latitude. We can feel that the thermometer shows a constant –36?C, but we manage fine as long as we’re moving.

I’ve found a great system for keeping my body warm: long woollen underwear, then woollen shorts and long synthetic netting underwear over that again. On my torso, I have a thin wool top, as well as a netting top onto which I have sewed thin fleece arms. That really helps keep my arms warm, so I get good circulation and warmth to my finger, without sweating too much on the rest of my upper body. It’s superb. My hands are protected by woollen mittens, then thin fleece mittens, and finally a pair of windproof mittens. And of course I have full facial protection. I use a windproof vest and an extra windproof jacket to regulate my body temperature if there’s a breeze for any length of time.

It’s been a good day for us. The ice was a bit chaotic first part of the morning. But the light is magnificent! There are several hours of twilight in the middle of the day, and the moon is almost full. All day we’ve been able to see our surroundings and find the best path through the ice. We’ve veered eastward on fairly flat stretches of snow and ice, in order to avoid areas of difficult block ice – and that really helps us progress. There may not be enough time to read a watch, but we can distinguish the contours and contrasts of the illuminated ice well enough to choose a good path.

I mentioned that the moon is waxing – we also see the most incredible blue vault when we turn and look south. And there’s a reddish violet tinge nearest the horizon. It’s only up here in the Arctic and at this time of year that you can experience a sky like this.