This Day 50 of our expedition. Our position this evening is N87°49’44”, E89°46’07”. We walked for almost 12 hours today and covered 23 km. We’re not quite satisfied with that. Our slower progress today was due to poorer ice – a lot of slush ice and a fair number of leads that stretch north–south, no doubt due to the wind the last few days.
Five days ago we put away the headlights. Even at night the southern sky is lit up by the sun as it climbs ever higher towards the horizon. And on the other side of the sky we’ll soon have a full moon. Probably tomorrow.
It’s been a week of extreme cold. Today was ever so slightly better than yesterday, with the thermometer showing between –36° and –37°C. I must admit that we’re tired of these cold temperatures, literally. The cold saps our strength and leaves us really exhausted at the end of the day. This morning it took us an extra hour before we were ready to go.
At least we’re eating well. I’m now consuming 7000 calories per day. Mike looks better; his larger portions are clearly doing him a world of good.
We use two stoves inside the tent – one to heat water and make food, the other to warm up Mike’s fingers. We had some problems with the pump to one of the stoves leaking and had to replace the o-rings, but otherwise our equipment is functioning well. Well, that was my report for today. Talk to you tomorrow.
