At the risk of boring our loyal readers, our chosen subject today is, once again, The Weather. For us, the topic is a natural favorite. After all, it constantly makes its presence felt, and it could well be the key to the very success of the Expedition.
Simply from the aspect of what clothes to wear, it would be useful if we could forecast the weather, even approximately, for the next half hour. But no! Not today at least. A low pressure system is moving over us, and it brought us the following variety show:
- 0800hrs: wet snowfall, zero visibility, wind 5 m/s, temperature – 8 C
- 0845hrs: snowstorm over, blue sky, wind 12 m/s, bright sunshine, visibility 2 km
- 0905hrs: sunshine over, completely overcast, visibility 100 m, wind increasing
- 0920hrs: sunshine again, for a while …
Conditions changed all day long at this same hectic pace.
There had been abundant snowfall overnight as well as during the morning. The wind had molded the snow into soft drifts: minimum depth 15 cm; maximum depth one meter. Trudging along in this unbeaten snow made for tough going, but there was nothing for it but to grind on.
For the final leg of the evening we skied under clear skies on reasonably level ice, which was a good way to finish this strange day.
The distance traveled today was 21.5 km; slightly less than yesterday. We are, however, satisfied with progress because we also had to cross more than ten leads of varying shapes and sizes. Twice we had to build a raft from two sledges in order to get over. The other leads we could either jump over or tiptoe across.
Our Expedition has now been on the ice for 39 days and nights. We have worked like sleigh-dogs. In recent days we have spent 13 hours a day trekking. We have slept less than six hours a night. It is gratifying to know that life up here on the roof of the world is much the same as anywhere else: through hard work, results CAN be achieved. We have managed to make good progress every day, almost regardless of the obstacles and weather we have faced. Things have not always been easy, but the `Holy Grail´ awaits two and a half weeks up the road.
All is well with the Expedition.