Børge Ousland

It’s been a great day, really. We’re still walking on young ice, only 50–80 cm thick, interspersed with an occasional older ice floe. There is no discernable movement between the floes, and we haven’t seen open water for quite some time. Believe me, we’re both grateful, because it’s hardly tempting to go swimming when it’s 36 below. The coldness is not a problem when we keep moving, but if we touch anything in the tent with unprotected hands, whether our toothbrush or a vitamins jar, it’s so cold that it actually stings. The cold is a nuisance; we have to wear mittens en be extremely careful at all times.

Mike’s fingers are far better today. They’re not complaining at all since he started to use his Norwegian woollen mittens, in addition to my spare over mittens which goes all the way up to the elbove and thus gives better protection from the wind.

Our march northwards is going fine. At night, however, we’re trembling in our sleeping bags and not getting much shut-eye. We are both hoping that temperatures will soon creep above –30?C; that’s much more pleasant.

A couple of days ago we abandoned the smaller pulks. They do weigh a bit, but we do miss them at times. Skiing with one pulk is easier on nice flat plains, but manoeuvring through block ice is actually easier with two pulks.

The GPS reading for our camp is N82?17’36”, E106?06’. It’s been just as cold as yesterday. We had to set up camp and retreat into the warmth of our tent after Mike started having problems with his fingers. I have lent him my spare over mittens, and hopefully that will help. Mike has frozen his thumbs once before and it’s a struggle for him to keep his fingers and hands warm enough when it’s this cold. The thermometer is showing –36?C.

The coldness is a challenge, of course, but all in all we’re managing well. Everything functioned perfectly for me today. After suffering cold feet yesterday morning, I warmed up my boots with small hot water bottles. When I get out of the sleeping bag, I put my boots and skis on immediately. We actually take down our tent and rig down our camp while wearing our skis. I notice that gives my feet good circulation and makes them warm from the very start. Today I haven’t had any problems at all.

It’s really important to keep our clothing and equipment free of ice and snow, and frost from condensing sweat. Each evening in our tent, we take more than an hour to brush it off of our mittens, our anoraks and face protection. That is vital, really. Especially the mittens, because otherwise they would quickly become icy cold and very dangerous to use.

We walked through heavy block ice most of today as well, after crossing a fairly open stretch early this morning. The ice drift is helping us for a change, pushing us northwards – and that is fantastic! According to the weather report, we can expect at least a few days more of this. We need every extra kilometre we can get. Today we walked 12 km, and adding 4 km drift, Mike and I are now 861 km from the North Pole.

All is well, except for my friend’s hands. We’re hoping for slightly milder weather, because our bodies really notice temperatures below –30?C.

Yesterday we walked 11 km, today only 7 km. The pack ice was really difficult, almost hopeless to pull the pulks through. Our Achilles heels are really aching now, after leaning forward and fighting the ice all day.

The good news is that we’re now drifting northwest. Today has been our coldest day yet, –36?C, and our fingers and toes really notice the chill. Days like this are an extra strain, because your body’s margins are so small. If you need something and have to take off a mitten, the coldness grips you straight away. And it takes a long time to warm up our feet in the morning.

When we were taking the tent down this morning, one of the poles snapped as though it were made of glass. Obviously the tempered metal didn’t tolerate the cold, and suddenly we had four pieces in our hands. That’s really very serious. We spent more than an hour making repairs, but now the tent is pitched as before.

We’re getting some light from the moon and stars, but still need our headlights to distinguish the features in the uneven ice. Now that the cloud cover is gone, the temperature drops like a rock. This has been our coldest day since the expedition started.

Today a loud, unexpected sound stopped us in our tracks. It took us a few seconds to realize it was a jet plane. To suddenly hear a sound like that out here felt very strange.

It’s very chilly, but not much wind. We expect to be drifting northwesterly for the next few days. Depending on the temperature, we might have to cut our days short. It is hard to sleep at night when it’s so cold; the icy air you breathe in chills down your body, even though you’re nice and warm inside the sleeping bag.

Our position this evening is N82?09’25”, E106?25’56”. We’re 876 km from our goal.

NOTE: We have published a satellite photo that shows the extreme ice conditions that have challenged Børge and Mike. It makes it very clear why the first few days beyond Cape Arkticheski were particularly harrowing, and it shows the extreme eastward drift of the ice. The satellite image is published under the date January 30.

They have reached 82 degrees latitude. More soon…

Today has been better. The ice was excellent and we only drifted one kilometre southwards. We’ve put 11 km behind us. It was 27 degrees below when we started this morning, but the temperature is actually a little warmer now. There is a slight northerly wind, but nothing to … (broken connection)

Mike and I have had an unusually cold and hard day, with an ice-cold headwind coming out of the north, chilling us down far more than the –27?C temperature would by itself. My feet never got warm, and we started getting dangerously chilled. After five hours we had to give up and seek shelter in our tent. Going against the wind, we weren’t even able to go fast enough to compensate for the southerly drift. We are now further south than when we started out this morning. And that is extremely depressing.

If this trend doesn’t change, providing drift in the right direction, I don’t see how we have any hope of reaching the North Pole. Last night we drifted 3 km. When we’re drifting at a rate of seven or eight kilometres in 24 hours, it eats up half the distance we manage to walk. The weather conditions are most unusual – that’s for sure.

With a northerly wind – right now it’s blowing from the west – the air current are ice-cold and the air much harsher. We walked as far as we could today; it would have been irresponsible to continue. Both of us were severely chilled and we have to avoid frostbite. Mike has had problems with his hands, and I had difficulty keeping my toes warm. So we have to be very careful.

In addition to the hard weather, ice conditions have been very difficult. We swam across one lead today, too. We’re hoping tomorrow is better. Hans Ambühl will soon give us the weather report.

Well, we’ve been out walking again. It’s icy cold out there, –25?C and a constant northeasterly breeze. Cold and miserable, really. Block ice, strewn every which way, slowed our progress considerably. With the wind in our faces, we’ve been drifting south again; now the drift is carrying us mostly west.

It took us 10 hours to cover 8 km. We’ve now camped at N81?59’35”, E 107?03’19” – and we still have 894 km left before reaching our goal.

I must admit that this is the toughest “degree of latitude” that I’ve walked. We’re now just a few hundred metres from N82?. Never struggled with conditions such as these before. Well, I hope somebody up there appreciates our toil and perseverance, and that things will turn. That is our hope.

Not much happened today. We woke up to a cold northerly wind, just as expected from the weather forecast. Our bodies were tired after pressing hard for two straight weeks – so we took a day of rest. That’s sensible, really, and we will be amply rewarded for a whole week to come.

We lay in the tent all day, relaxed, and passed out like a light. In fact we just woke up again, so clearly we needed this. We may not have reached N82? today, but we have rested and built up important reserves for the journey onward.

Last night we drifted 5 km southwards after the wind turned. Now the wind has calmed and it’s colder – minus 25 degrees Centigrade, but that’s on the right side of 30. We’ll do fine, as long as the headwind isn’t too strong.

Today we have been out here for 14 days. I usually tell people: If you’ve managed all right the first two weeks, then much of the job is done. We’ve settled into a good rhythm, fine-tuned our routines and know they work well. So let’s hope for northerly drift and good ice conditions in the days ahead.

Mike and I had a good day today, with excellent ice conditions. The ice floes are now at least 85 cm thick, more compact and larger. We encountered five or six leads, but quickly found crossing points, not having to swim at all. The large flat ice floes make for good skiing, although we did see screw ice indicating that they had recently been forcibly pressed together. All day we made steady progress, 17 km since this morning.

Last night the ice drift carried us 4 km in the wrong direction. In the course of the day, it appears that the southern drift has stopped. So now we’re only drifting eastward. Our current position is N81°57’08”, E106°36’40”. With 899 km to go, we’re optimistic about reaching 82 degrees latitude tomorrow.

There has been a 10–12 meter per second wind today as well, and around –15?C. Actually the temperature is very comfortable, although it is difficult to regulate our body temp with so much wind. We both keep an extra wind jacket handy in our pulks, and put it on if we feel cold. When we start out, or after a pause, we put on our down vests, and after just 10–15 minutes we’ve warm enough to take it off again. So that’s how we regulate our temperature, making sure we’re always comfortable – and it works well.

It looks like the zone of chaotic ice that we passed through yesterday, was absorbing most of the ice movement in this area. Conditions are very calm where we are now.

Today we saw bear tracks, probably a two or three year old polar bear – a reminder that we’re not alone out here. Even though these tracks were not fresh, we remain vigilant.

* * *

NOTE: The timestamps on Børge’s expedition diary have been changed to show the expedition’s local time.