Dispatches: Stop Press!! - Sunday, 9th May 2004
Day's Statistics
Expedition & Environmental Statistics:
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Exciting news from the high Arctic! I've just had to delete my entire dispatch (moaning about the weather) and start again. Why? Because ten minutes ago, the sun came out! Typically, it only happens after I've skied for ten hours through whiteout conditions with a bitter wind and lots of snow - stick the tent up and everything improves. I can't tell you how excited I am. I'm not sure how I'll get to sleep with such a beautiful blue sky outside - I'm itching to get out and make the most of it. If it's a whiteout tomorrow morning I'm sure I'll have my biggest sense of humour failure to date...
It felt colder today, with many of the leads I came across starting to freeze over. The ice conditions are a vast improvement over previous degrees, although there are still patches of really bad pack ice, with piles of blue ice blocks the size of cars.
As well as the pack ice, there's plenty of open water around at the moment and I've had a few dicey lead crossings today. The one I won't forget in a hurry involved crossing a huge lead (over 100m wide) via a string of floating 'islands'. Everything started moving as I approached the far side and I really had to hurry, leaping across gaps and twice using the sledge as a bridge. It's at times like these I wish I had a video camera strapped to my head - when things get interesting it's usually far too dangerous to stop and get the camcorder out.
I'm currently 22 nautical miles south of the Pole and should pass it on Tuesday (yes, I'll stop and take some photos!) - I'd planned to cover the last degree a little faster, but the whiteout has made speedy progress impossible.
Today is dedicated to Damien du Toit, who created this website. I'm sure I've mentioned him before, but he definitely deserves another shout :)
