We covered 28 km in what turned out to be a pretty rough day. We’ve started the final push for the North Pole, deciding to extend our walking time to 12 hours. This evening we came to a huge open lead that was impossible to cross, and we had to settle for changing our course and following the edge of the ice. Our camp has GPS coordinates N87?12’47”, E91?51’37”.

We had the wind coming at us from northwest today, it was –34?C and a poor glide for our skis on the snow and ice. But we pressed on and are now within 87 degrees latitude and are starting the countdown with 311 km to go.

Mike and I are no longer on a 24-hour clock. As mentioned, we will be out on the ice 12 hours every “day”, but also sleeping 1.5 hours longer each “night”. This way a smaller portion of our time is taken up by all the other tasks that need doing. However, it also means that you will be getting our progress reports at irregular times; we’ll be reporting in a bit later every day.

Well, we’re going to make a run for it! And we’ll see how things develop. Naturally we’re hoping that the weather, ice conditions and drift will be to our advantage – and not least of all that our equipment performs without fail. I look forward to giving you a new report tomorrow.