April 9, 2014
Day 26. Hot and Cold
There are moments out here when our body temperature is at that perfect equilibrium and we are perfectly warm. Just like Goldilocks - not too hot or too cold.
But it doesn't take much to change that delicate balance either. A short scouting mission, a quick Clif bar or Skratch candy , break, a section of deep snow, the wind, pressure ridges. At any given moment, we often are too hot or too cold.
Wee are working so hard to pull our sleds that we can only wear three light Helly Hansen base layer tops (one of which is a T-shirt) and our Bergans anorak. If we wear more we'll sweat. Stop for more than a minute or two and we become cold. Very cold (you know, because its so cold out). Its a delicate balance and one that we are diligent in maintaining.
Today, Ryan took his goggles off to do a bit of filming. A short while later, his nose was so cold he had to stop and put his face mask on. Then, his fingers became alarmingly cold. Because I had arrived at our break spot first , I had been standing for an extra minute or so and had to pull out my big emergency mitts as well.
We started skiing fast (relatively) and ten minutes later we were warm. Gloriously warm.
We were happy that the sun was out but not very excited about the soft sticky snow. More anchor dragging. The morning was filled with a lot of weaving in and around drifts, getting bogged down, and sweating. We headed northeast (not the direction we want to go) a few times just to stay on more open sections. Still, I've never been in conditions like this before where every step is an extreme effort - and its just because of two or three inches of snow.
After soup break, the ice open up a bit and we were able to string together a series of decent pulls. We are starting to see more defined cracks in the ice and even crossed several leads.
Special shout outs to the EL Explore team helping to make all this happen: Tim Harincar from webExpeditions, Elisabeth Harincar and Maria Hennessey and Maria Scully from Smak Strategies - couldn't do any of this without you!
Distance traveled: 8.59 nm
Image: Another day at the office.
But it doesn't take much to change that delicate balance either. A short scouting mission, a quick Clif bar or Skratch candy , break, a section of deep snow, the wind, pressure ridges. At any given moment, we often are too hot or too cold.
Wee are working so hard to pull our sleds that we can only wear three light Helly Hansen base layer tops (one of which is a T-shirt) and our Bergans anorak. If we wear more we'll sweat. Stop for more than a minute or two and we become cold. Very cold (you know, because its so cold out). Its a delicate balance and one that we are diligent in maintaining.
Today, Ryan took his goggles off to do a bit of filming. A short while later, his nose was so cold he had to stop and put his face mask on. Then, his fingers became alarmingly cold. Because I had arrived at our break spot first , I had been standing for an extra minute or so and had to pull out my big emergency mitts as well.
We started skiing fast (relatively) and ten minutes later we were warm. Gloriously warm.
We were happy that the sun was out but not very excited about the soft sticky snow. More anchor dragging. The morning was filled with a lot of weaving in and around drifts, getting bogged down, and sweating. We headed northeast (not the direction we want to go) a few times just to stay on more open sections. Still, I've never been in conditions like this before where every step is an extreme effort - and its just because of two or three inches of snow.
After soup break, the ice open up a bit and we were able to string together a series of decent pulls. We are starting to see more defined cracks in the ice and even crossed several leads.
Special shout outs to the EL Explore team helping to make all this happen: Tim Harincar from webExpeditions, Elisabeth Harincar and Maria Hennessey and Maria Scully from Smak Strategies - couldn't do any of this without you!
Distance traveled: 8.59 nm
Image: Another day at the office.