Day 41: Extreme Fun

Dec 21, 2006

I always report the day's weather first because it is so important to us. For example, if it's cold and windy, then you know we are having fun despite the cold and wind. Or if there's a white out, then you know we are having fun despite the white out. And so forth.

Are we having fun? You bet! Would I recommend this trip to everyone? Not on your life. Unless you enjoy what I call "Extreme Fun" (Note: I coined the term.)

With no jacket I was comfortable for 15 minutes, until my shirt started to freeze under the armpits.

Today's weather was a little bit of everything all rolled into one. Except a white out and that just missed us by a hair.

The day started out sunny and warm. While skiing I overheated and was about to take off a shirt, a 10 minute affair because of my ski jacket and bibs with their suspenders. My GPS and camera are attached to the suspenders. So these have to come off first. Jenny reminded me of the fact that we are climbing to the polar plateau where the weather can change fast. So I took off my ski jacket instead. I noticed that it was all white and frosty inside. But that stopped the sweating and the goggles fogging, and I was comfortable for 15 minutes, until my shirt started to freeze under the armpits. If you have ever worn a shirt that was frozen under the armpits, then you know how uncomfortable that can be. So I put my jacket back on and skied a little harder to thaw out.

Next on the agenda was a patch of cirrus that grew by leaps and bounds until it filled practically the entire sky.

A 10-knot wind sprung up from the east (!) and soon I noticed that although the surface winds were east, a low band of clouds, probably 200 feet above the ground, was moving in from the southwest. Bizarre.

The SW horizon quickly darkened and before long snow was falling lightly. Then the most amazing miniature snowstorm approached, with low and dark clouds. Fortunately it missed us. In the next hour two more missed us. These would have been white outs for sure.

A miniature snowstorm approaching fast. A white out for sure. Fortunately it missed us.

Next, the snowstorms vanished to the NW and a band of ominous ultra-high cirrus moved in, and began to dance in front of us like ribbons of aurora. Never have I seen such a fantastic show. At one point, they formed a double helix, as though wrapping around a giant tornado.

A quick moving double helix made a fantastic sight.

Jenny enjoying the show.

In the next half hour the fantastic clouds moved off, the sky cleared, and the wind began to blow, sending rivers of spindrift flowing across the ice. The wind brought cold temperatures, minus 20 degrees C. That situation persisted for the rest of the day.

For terrain, we had a mix of everything as well. From miles of flats where the skiing was relatively fast and easy, (and by the way, the ground for the last few days has been hard as a rock, very little powder), to the afternoon's sastrugi, which at times were 6 or 7 feet high. We spent a lot of time threading a route through them, and we spent a lot of energy going up and over, and back down the other sides.

Threading a route through the sastrugi.

Then it was time for the late afternoon hill climb.

All in all a very interesting day.

Evening camp: S 86° 55.377' W 86° 35.846'

Today's mileage: 13.6

Altitude: 6850 ft., Temperature: -20 C

Day 42: Seven Down, Three to Go

Dec 22, 2006

After breaking camp, Jenny is fitting the baskets to her ski poles. We take the baskets off when making camp, and use the poles to anchor the tent. The baskets are also tied to the poles with a short piece of cord, to prevent loss.

With very little wind, I'm skiing without my jacket for a few hours, to prevent the shirt from icing up.

Jenny and her ultra-cool sunglasses and earbuds. The headband is actually a pair of goggles worn backwards to clear the ice from the lens, which takes a few hours. We are at a rest stop and she has pulled her scarf down to drink water and eat a few quick snacks. Otherwise, the scarf covers her nose and mouth to guard against sunburn, and to help prevent the infamous cough caused by breathing the cold air. The temperature is -20 C but there is no wind. In wind (which is almost always) she would switch to goggles from sunglasses, and put the fur hood of her ski jacket up.

Today was nice weather, with very little wind most of the day, and some snow. But the sastrugi was a challenge and we spent the day going around, over, and through it. Mostly through it.

At one point we climbed a high sastrugi mound, one of many hundreds today. Usually we ski down the backside slope, but this one dropped off vertically 8 or 9 feet. Not good to encounter something like that in a white out!

Another drop-off.

At the end of our 10 hour day we usually find a campsite within five minutes, but this time it took half an hour to find the right snow consistency.

This afternoon we reached 87 degrees south. Seven down, three to go. Tonight we celebrated with cake and big steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

Distance to the Pole: 200 miles (statute as opposed to nautical)

Evening camp: S 87° 05.690' W 86° 48.692'

Today's mileage: 12.0 in 10.5 hrs

Altitude: 7250 ft., Temperature: -20 C

Day 43: If Your Ski Tips Have no Shadow, Stop Quick!

Dec 23, 2006

When first getting up, we usually wipe the walls and ceiling of frost, but this morning the tent was so warm from solar heating, the walls were dry.

After we light the stove, Jenny cooks porridge while I put whoever's boots together. One night I remove the liners and insoles from Jenny's boots in order to thaw and dry them - they are always frozen - and once dry we sleep with them. And the next night I dry mine.

Then Jenny melts snow to fill the day's four liters of drinking water, as I put our charging equipment away and prepare our music and audio players (hi-md's mini-discs) for the day's entertainment. We put them in fleece stowbags and 2 zip-locks, and carry them down our shirts next to our skin to prevent them from freezing.

Once we are wired for sound, we begin the morning exercise of getting dressed. Jenny puts on her ski pants and parka. (I sleep in mine, in case I have to exit the tent during the night for some emergency reason. We both sleep in our two sets of thermal pants and shirts, two pair of socks, and hats.)

At this point, we appear to be dressed, but not yet. Next comes the sled harnesses. Then boots, then the insulated jackets. Then face masks, neck gaiters, headphones, goggles shoved up to the forehead, then scarves to cover our mouth and nose. Then we put up our fur hoods if windy outside, and put on liner gloves with fleece camp gloves over these.

At this point we are so hot we can't wait to get outside.

Jenny crawls out, I hand her the gear, and she loads the sleds while I roll up the four sleeping pads and pack them in the big sled bag with the quilt in its stowbag, the first aid kit, and the tech bag. I shove this sled bag out the tent door, Jenny grabs it and puts it in her sled. Then I heave myself out and zip the tent door shut behind me to keep out the spindrift.

By the time I have shoveled the snow off the snow skirt all around the tent, and we have dismantled the tent and put it in my sled, this particular morning I was ready to take off the insulated jacket and neck gaiter, the camp gloves, and even my ski parka. The sun was shining, the air was still, and it was the warmest and most beautiful morning so far on the trip.

Never mind the thick coating of hoarfrost covering the shady side of my shirt within 30 minutes of skiing. I was warm, comfortable, and having fun. After all, where else do you get to ski ten hours a day for weeks on end. It sure beats going to work.

I have the snow shoveled and shook off the skirt, and Jenny has begun to help remove the fly and fold and put away the tent into my sled.

Hoarfrost

The view behind.

For the record, the first half of the day the sastrugi was so dense that it slowed progress practically to a crawl. The second half of the day the terrain opened up a fair bit, and progress was better.

Mid afternoon the clouds appeared like someone was showing a time-lapsed movie in fast motion. The wind piped up, and by now we had our ski parkas back on. Then it began to snow. And of course next came the white out.

This is only half a white out. You can see the horizon but not much of the ground.

Today I developed this rule of skiing in a white out: If your ski tips have no shadow under them, stop quick!

Jenny is posing for the photo, with her ski tips hanging over a hole. We can't tell how big and wide it is, so we went around. In a 100% white out, we would have inadvertently skied straight into it. (See the first photo on the next page.)

The first job inside the tent is to brush off the snow from the boots. We then sweep the snow from the tent floor, and get ready to light the stove.

We're holding a boot over the stove to melt the ice inside the boot.

Note: We were not aware of this at the time, but on this day the RAF "Southern Reach" team had to be airlifted to safety due to frostbite injuries sustained by two of the team members. The team was 100 miles short of the South Pole (89 miles ahead of Jenny and me). More info. The medic at Patriot Hills later told us that Sylvester had sustained frostbite injuries to one of his thighs on the second day of the expedition, then, according the medic, he hid the injuries from his teammates for the next forty days; and meanwhile the frostbite became gangrenous and eventually became life threatening. The other team members declined to break up, so they all boarded the rescue aircraft (ANI Twin Otter) for the Pole. The South Pole Base Commander later told Jenny and me that Sylvester's gangrene smelled awful, and the injuries were so bad that he might have to get skin grafts for many years. Once again, Jenny and I knew nothing about this until a week later, and were greatly saddened by the news.

Evening camp: S 87° 15.835' W 86° 58.702'

Today's mileage: 11.8 miles in 10 hrs

Altitude: 7580 ft.

Day 44: A Strange Object Flies Overhead

Dec 24, 2006

Today we can see the hazards. We went around this hole.

Sorry about the ice on the lens. What looks like a rising sun, is not the sun. The sun is at the top of the photo. The false sun is equally bright, and is a product of light refracting through the ice crystals in the air just above the ground. In the days and weeks to come, we saw this phenomenon several more times, yet strangely we haven't found many other accounts on the internet.

Large sastrugi. We have seen them up to 10-foot high and more.

Today we had light winds from the NE (!) and a mixed sky with some snow. And sastrugi? But of course.

Despite temperatures in the minus 15 to 20 range, when there is no wind, say, less than 2 mph, we overheat. Our first method of cooling off is to push back the hood of the ski jacket. It is amazing how much heat the hoods hold in.

Our second method is to remove the neck gaiters. These are simple fleece tubes. In windy conditions they are absolutely essential.

Our third method is to remove the ski parka. This is a drastic measure because the ski parka and pants are our only defense against the wind.

We had been skiing for three hours and lost our wind, and I began to overheat. To remove the parka requires a minute or so, and for Jenny that was enough time to cool down without removing her jacket. She has lost a lot of weight on this trip, so she cools down faster.

When I took my parka off, I found it coated white with frost and some ice on the inside. My outer shirt was frosty too. Although this does not sound like overheating, that was the case. The reason is, the body heat does not travel more than a 32nd of an inch away from the skin before it cools to the freezing point.

Ironically, this frost on the inside of the clothes increases the insulation by blocking the wind, what little wind there may be, and that reduces the breathability of the garments. So then the sweat cannot evaporate.

I stuffed the parka into the sled and we proceeded on. For the next two hours I was perfectly comfortable until the wind started to blow a bit, at which time I put the parka back on, put the hood up, and was comfortable again.

The point is, the average person would become very disturbed if they found ice and frost inside their garments. But down here it is pretty much a fact of life. It is not so cold as it sounds, once you get used to it. And as long as you are fit, well fed, and working hard.

The false sun is back again.

For the first time on the trip we saw an aircraft. It flew directly overhead, above the low and broken clouds. I spent a long time trying to focus my eyes on it, but I could not. I could see something up there moving steadily across the sky, and it sounded like a plane. But my eyes saw two objects, far from each other, and neither one was in focus, nor could my brain snap the two together. I seemed to have lost my ability to focus my eyes on a moving object, and this was a very strange feeling.

The plane was headed due south and left a big contrail, which drifted quickly west. Because it flew directly overhead, the pilot was probably watching for us. Every 24 hours we report our position to Patriot Hills Base Camp. But it was very strange to also see something unnatural, such as a contrail, in this environment.

Near day's end we found something else unnatural. Ski and sled tracks, not more than a day or two old. We followed them a hundred yards, and deduced they were probably made during flat light, for the terrain was much better for skiing a short ways to the east. Which is why we did not follow them for long.

The evening is rather cold in the tent because of a lack of sun. Amazingly however, the solar panel works on cloudy days, even in a white out; not much, but enough to keep our update gear going and enough to slow charge one mini-disc player during the night.

Its Christmas Eve, and Santa's helpers brought a package of cookies and a small bag of carameled peanuts for us to enjoy. The freight charges would have been too high, apparently, for a roast turkey dinner, or even a pizza. Nevertheless we wish everyone a white Christmas ...without the sastrugi.

Evening camp: S 87° 27.306' W 86° 34.952'

Today's mileage: 13.3 mi. in 10.25 hrs

Altitude: 7820 ft.

Day 45: The Perils of Crossing a Body-Heat Rubicon

Dec 25, 2006

We encountered large sastrugi for most of the morning.

Today's wind: 10 mph NE. Sky: mostly cloudy with cirrus. Sastrugi: yes. Today's challenge: the cold.

We have noticed that the temperature can rise or fall significantly within a few hours, and such was the case today. In the morning, the temp was -20C with 5 mph winds. A few hours later a new system moved in, and the temperature dropped like a rock.

We realized the temperature was dropping, but because the wind was blowing northeast we didn't feel the extra cold on our faces, like we normally do in headwinds. The wind was blowing at our backs, essentially. So I had unzipped my ski parka, pulled the hood down, and removed my neck gaiter - all in an attempt to clear the ice and fog from my goggles.

Getting through the sastrugi was a tough job, and we were working hard. So I thought I was keeping warm, despite the open jacket and the temperature drop. Mainly I was concentrating on getting through the sastrugi, and not thinking about my body. We estimated the temperature dropped to minus 30 C. And still I was doing everything to try to clear the goggles.

It came time to stop to drink water and eat a few snacks, and that is when I realized I was beginning to chill. We resumed skiing, but for the next hour I could not warm up my hands, feet, or body. I could not generate enough heat.

This was not a big problem, but I learned something from it - about the margins of safety, and how close we are to them. I had crossed my Rubicon, body heat wise. In retrospect I could have prevented that by bundling up before the rest stop.

After that hour of feeling uncomfortable, I remembered something from our CDT hike, years ago, in much the same situation. Back then we had kept warm by nibbling small candies. So we did that today, and the effect today was almost immediate. End of the problem.

Jenny experienced an incident also, mid-afternoon when we stopped for our only sit-down rest, to eat a few quick bites of granola. The wind had piped up to 10. We had been sitting there for five minutes when Jenny crossed her body-heat Rubicon. While putting the food away she lost function in her hands. Without the hands you are pretty useless out here. You can't even get your mittens back on.

I quickly pulled her jacket out of her sled, and helped her put in on. I suggested we make camp immediately; but she wanted to get moving. I sheltered her from the wind and tucked her hands (still wearing her inner gloves) under my armpits. That was enough to get her hands functioning and within ten minutes of skiing she was back to normal. The lesson here was when you stop, put on more clothes, and in such cold temperatures keep the rest breaks short, no more than a couple of minutes.

Quite cold this afternoon.

Late afternoon we were warm and happy as we climbed a long hill. As we got higher, the scenery expanded. The sun was shining, and the white and silvery landscape rolling into the distance was extraordinary beautiful.

Icicle blob formed inside my face mask and running down my chin. This is all condensed breath, and is stuck to my mask. I had to melt most of it, in order to remove the mask from my head, because the beard is firmly embedded in the ice.

The double sun.

Snug and warm inside the tent, we had another visit from Santa's helpers. They brought cake and a bag of chocolates!

Evening camp: S 87° 38.382' W 86° 39.812'

Today's mileage: 12.8

Altitude: 8230 ft., Temperature in camp: -22C

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