March 5, 2013
See You In An Hour
A biting wind and blowing snow greeted us as we left the big ice chunk and skied east toward the shoreline... That is, we skied east in the direction we knew the shoreline to be. If not for the compass and GPS, we would have absolutely no idea which direction to travel as it was - joyfully - another whiteout.
Maria texted me via the DeLorme inReach to let me know Merritt had slept through the night. Her last sentence read, 'I hope you're having a good day.'
To which I responded, 'if you consider skiing in a whiteout good, then yes, having a good day.'
But in reality, we did have a good day. There were just enough ice chunks sticking out of the snow to make navigation relatively straight forward and the clouds, snow and cold only added to the allure of this place for me. For three hours, we skied east before the shoreline materialized in the distance. Three hours! The vastness of this white space is rivaled by few other places.
The routine of expedition travel has taken over most of the day. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Pack up. Ski. Eat. Ski. Eat, and so on. At breaks, we engage in small talk but mostly we are lost in our own thoughts. With darkness fast approaching, we climbed into the tent.
'See you in one hour,' Iona said to me after one break. It was her turn to navigate which means skiing out front while route finding. We ski in single file and even if we could talk, we don't - its too much effort, and besides, the wind would surely carry away most of our words anyway. Apart from signaling 'all good' or 'break' with our MSR ski poles, we simply don't talk while traveling.
Near the end of the day, the disc of the sun poked through and we were treated to the beginning of an amazing sunset until the sun inched slowly behind several layers of clouds.
Image: The sun setting behind our beautiful home.
Maria texted me via the DeLorme inReach to let me know Merritt had slept through the night. Her last sentence read, 'I hope you're having a good day.'
To which I responded, 'if you consider skiing in a whiteout good, then yes, having a good day.'
But in reality, we did have a good day. There were just enough ice chunks sticking out of the snow to make navigation relatively straight forward and the clouds, snow and cold only added to the allure of this place for me. For three hours, we skied east before the shoreline materialized in the distance. Three hours! The vastness of this white space is rivaled by few other places.
The routine of expedition travel has taken over most of the day. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Pack up. Ski. Eat. Ski. Eat, and so on. At breaks, we engage in small talk but mostly we are lost in our own thoughts. With darkness fast approaching, we climbed into the tent.
'See you in one hour,' Iona said to me after one break. It was her turn to navigate which means skiing out front while route finding. We ski in single file and even if we could talk, we don't - its too much effort, and besides, the wind would surely carry away most of our words anyway. Apart from signaling 'all good' or 'break' with our MSR ski poles, we simply don't talk while traveling.
Near the end of the day, the disc of the sun poked through and we were treated to the beginning of an amazing sunset until the sun inched slowly behind several layers of clouds.
Image: The sun setting behind our beautiful home.