Day 6 Antarctica: Circle of Survivability

Nov 16, 2006

We awakened to find long condensation crystals on the tent walls. This tells us we needed more ventilation. Our tent is not waterproof, it doesn't rain in Antarctica. So we made the tent breathable. But we still need to have the doors at each end open somewhat, depending on the wind.

In the early morning, it takes us some time to melt drinking water, to pack gear, and to dress for the outside. Then Jenny ventures out. From inside the tent I hand her bags of gear, then she packs them in our pulks.

In very high winds, the horizon is obscured by a ground blizzard.

Skiing in storm conditions is not for the faint of heart.

Self portraits. We each hang our camera on an elastic cord, under our clothing and next to the skin to prevent them from freezing. When we want to take a photo, we have to unzip a ways, then pull on the cord to lift the camera. But sometimes we find the zipper frozen, and when that happens we can't get to the camera.

Today's weather is quite stormy: cold and windy. SW 35 mph to start, then 50 mph for 3 hours, then gradually easing back to 35. In a word, cold!

The good news is the sky was not all cloudy, and ironically the same high-wind cloud hung in the same part of the sky, directly ahead, all day. So navigating was easy. In fact I put my compass away, and did not use it for 6 hours.

For most of the day we seemed to be going uphill. That, and bucking the stiff headwinds, had us feeling the good workout - i.e.: warmth. (relative)

Bucking stiff headwinds. The wind is so strong and cold that I'm wearing my insulated jacket over my regular bibs. I usually save this jacket for wearing at camp, when I'm no longer generating metabolic heat by skiing. But in this storm I need the extra warmth. Jenny made this jacket with one layer of Ray-Way Quilt-Kit insulation.

My ski jacket zipper froze right away, and I could not get to my camera and GPS. Back to the drawing board when we get home. As Jenny pulled out her camera, it was covered in ice, even though she was carrying it in her inner pocket, one layer of thin material away from her skin. In this kind of cold, and working hard, the skin is warm but the micro-climate layer is incredibly thin. When I can get to my camera, it only works when I carry it next to my skin. In my shirt pocket it freezes.

All day today I was thinking of how beautiful it is here, and how much fun it is. Most people would not call this fun, but I am having a great time! Just to think - Antarctica! The circle of survivability is incredibly small, but we are doing our best to stay inside it.

Making camp

Moving in for a closer look, we see that my goggles are somewhat fogged after the exercise of shoveling a ton of snow onto the snow skirt. But I'm still smiling. And the wind is still blowing hard.

Jenny snaps a self-portrait (now called a selfie) with her camera. The light here is super bright, and working with goggles off is risky to a person's the eyes - but sometimes necessary. And here she is smiling with the anticipation of crawling into the tent, to get out of the weather.

Evening camp: S 80° 49.525' W 81° 31.066'

Today's mileage: 9.3 m

Weather: windy, Temperature: -20C

Day 7 Antarctica: Mountains to our West

Nov 17, 2006

Clear skies give the impression of warmth, until you factor in the strong winds. A good morning for sleeping in, but only for an extra hour.

I shall describe our morning ritual, in brief. Open eyes and pack the quilt into its stowbag, being very careful to not touch the walls of the tent with it. Same with the big down coats and pants. We brought our Greenland quilt to save a bit of weight, hence the coats and pants. That done, we are ready for our shower ... of frost which rains down on us when we inadvertently touch the walls of our small tent. We wear our expedition clothes to bed, in fact we never take them off, so the frost shower inside has the same effect as the blowing spindrift outside. Not much bother.

By the time we are ready to emerge, the inside of the tent looks more like a snow cave, with about a half-gallon of frost on the floor. I hand things out the door while Jenny loads the sleds, then last one out (me) sweeps the walls and floor, nice and tidy like.

The strong headwinds slow us down, but we keep grinding away. Above the howling wind we listen to music for the first time on this trip, until the batteries freeze. The player is not close enough to the skin ... better luck next time.

Our zippers also froze, preventing us from taking photos throughout the day. Suffice it to say, the day was very windy with a strong ground blizzard.

The last hour the wind diminished to 15, the horizon cleared, and we were surprised to see a mountain appear in the distance to our west.

Jenny wearing her home-made down parka. It's too warm to ski in, but we carry it handy in the pulk in case she needs the extra warmth.

Out of the storm, mountains appear in the distance to our west.

We have stopped to make camp, but haven't yet stepped off our skis. Here, I'm using the GPS to get our position. We must know our position every evening, for the evening call to Base Camp with our satellite phone. If we miss this call, the people at Base Camp will fly to our rescue, and that would end the trip. Also in this photo I've taken off my mitt, and so my yellow inner glove is visible. This glove is a vapor barrier, to prevent moisture coming off the hand from getting into the mitt. It is a simple dish-washing glove from a hardware store.

My final job outside is to chop bricks out of snow and place them into the vestibule. Jenny uses these blocks for cooking and melting water on the stove.

Today we use the stove inside the tent for the first time. The difference in warmth was amazing! In fact, a real game changer. The day's struggles with the fierce winds are reflected in our faces.

With the cozy warmth from the stove, and a nearby mug of steaming brew, I am writing my daily update. When finished writing, I will use the sat-phone to upload it to my web server in the states.

Evening camp: S 80° 57.611' W 81° 34.177'

Today's hours: 8, mileage: 9.3

Day 8 Antarctica: Skiing in a White-Out

Nov 18, 2006

Skiing in a white out. For eight hours we saw nothing of the terrain.

Mother Nature is playing tricks. Apparently she thinks its funny, and so do I.

End of storm, sky is clear, winds have dropped, ...slept good.

Wake up, open eyes, ...silence. Should be a great day!

Open door, ... nothing. NOTHING! Like sticking you head in a bowl of milk.

Skiing in a white out would be like scuba diving in milk. And the ski mask would emphasize the effect. You can see your skis perfectly, your partner and her pulk. But you cannot see the snow around you, or the horizon ahead, or the sky above.

For eight hours of skiing, we saw nothing of the terrain. Fortunately the ground felt fairly smooth, unlike the past two days of rough sastrugi. So the experience was actually rather fun. And the snow was not too cold, so the sleds pulled much easier.

Taking someone's picture in a white out is like standing in front of a white backdrop a professional photographer uses in the studio. There is no background.

For the past two days of fierce SW wind, I had asked Jenny to ski 45 degrees behind me and to my left - where she was in the lee of my prodigious form, for her protection from the wind. Today she skied in the same position because we found it helped us maintain course. When one of us veered, we both noticed it. The snow is hard, so we find no benefit, here, in following directly behind the leaders tracks.

In a white out, you can also see some of the ground around the person and pulks. But you cannot see anything of the ground around yourself. Out in front, you're skiing blind.

In the late afternoon, the white out is beginning to lift, and we are starting to see the horizon for the first time today. We still can't see the ground around us.

The white out has lifted and we are making camp.

I made the ski pole baskets removable. So at camp I remove the baskets and jam the poles into the snow, to anchor the tent on its windward end. Then I use a pair of skis to anchor the tent midships.

Today we crossed 81° S, so tonight we are celebrating our first milestone with cake and pudding. Only eight degrees of latitude to go.

Note: We are carrying food and fuel for 30 days to our mid-point resupply.

Evening camp: S 81° 06.665' W 81° 43.793'

Today's mileage: 10.5

Day 9 Antarctica: Jenny Unleashed

Nov 19, 2006

Our tracks fading away behind us.

This morning the snow was still white, but unlike yesterday, it was visible. The sky was visible too ... blue, not white. The wind was SW 15 gradually building to 20. Temp -14C. A fine Antarctic day.

We found that an inch of snow had fallen yesterday without our having noticed it due to the white out. So we were making ski and pulk tracks after all.

That called for new tactics: following in the leader's tracks.

A cloud was hanging in the south, giving Jenny something to steer toward. I took a little extra weight from her sled, and she set off at a good clip.

I lived the life of Riley most of the day, following Jenny in her tracks, close behind and lost in my music and my thoughts (unfamiliar territory :) ).

Now here is the surprising part, to me. An hour into our day, the steering cloud vanished, and my intrepid companion kept on going - due south. And going, and going. Wow!

When asked how she was doing it, she explained "I take a compass reading, and line up three sastrugi and follow those." (I might note that her tracks were not straight as an arrow, but plenty good enough.)

Repairing a ski pole. We rarely take sit-down rests, the wind is too cold for that. In fact, I think this is the first sit-down rest of the trip, so far. But even so, it was very brief. To stop for very long is to freeze.

We wear face masks under our fur hoods, but they have a large, wide open hole for breathing (and eating and drinking) through the mouth. If this hole is too small, it would freeze closed. Same with the nostril hole. Today my face mask in the nose area froze to my nose in one small place. So tonight Jenny is sewing a small flap to it, for a little extra nose protection.

S 81° 16.703' W 81° 46.901'

11.6 mi.

Day 10: Face Mask Freezing to the Nose

Nov 20, 2006

In addition to the face mask, Jenny usually wears a covering bandana. Here, she has pulled the bandana away, in order to eat a snack. And this is what our rest stops look like. They are little more than standing-in-place pauses.

I've turned Jenny's pulk around so that my back is to the wind, and the sun is my face. Very cozy and warm - not! The rest stop was not very long lasting. No more than three or four minutes until we began to feel the loss of body warmth.

For the lunch stop we have dragged out our insulated jackets. We made these of one layer of Ray-Way alpine quilt insulation.

Our expedition clothes are home-made, and consist of only two layers while we are skiing. More than that, and we risk breaking into a sweat, which would be very dangerous down here. Our inner layer is expedition-weight thermals, and the outer layer is the ski bibs and jacket, proprietary breathable.

During our lunch stops we also put on a jacket, one layer of Ray-Way alpine quilt insulation. Look for this jacket in a future Ray-Way kit.

Cold and windy (20 to 30) today, and some soft snow increased the effort. We swung leads every hour. The sun was encircled by a beautiful sun dog that at times showed faint rainbow colors. The afternoon sky cleared and the wind backed to the SSW.

Today was Jenny's turn for her face mask accidentally freezing to one small spot on her nose. This is most unpleasant, read semi-emergency. It happens when the ice builds up on the inside of the mask, and the wind blows the mask into contact with the skin. This is not frostbite, but rather touching something so cold that it sticks to your skin. She gently lifted the nose piece away without damage. Later, in the tent, she sewed the same nose flap as mine, since mine had worked good today.

Speaking of sewing, at the end of this long, cold day, we set up camp and I had to spend 20 minutes outside sewing my sled cover, where it had torn due to sloppy workmanship. Add that to the two hours of sewing on the pulk covers in Punta, and needless to say we do not recommend Acapulka sleds, especially when Alex charged us an extra $600 for shipping three sleds when we only ordered two. End of rant.

Evening camp: S 81° 27.098' W 81° 54.790'

Today's mileage: 12.1 statute.

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