April 5, 2010 - The power of the ice

N 89.09.06
E 123.19.46

A great day on the ice for team Test Your Limits. They made good progress for day 2 (just shy of 10 nautical miles in 8 hours), but unfortunately they lost 1.5 miles last night to a south drift. The weather was warmer than yesterday, around -15 C, with wind that shifted from SW to NW. The highlight of the day was when they came across a wide lead. Luckily they found a narrowing where they could cross but then, before their very eyes, the lead began to close. This is truly an amazing site. They watched the lead close and listened to the creaky grumble of thousands of tons of ice in motion. When both sides came together the force of the ice caused one pan to climb over the other creating a "pressure ridge". It was an exhilarating moment for everyone that was, in the words of the team, "worth the trip."

Skiing for 8 hours is a long day, and at the time of the call everyone was happy to be off their feet and in the tent where hot drinks (coco, cider, tea), soup and cheesy quesadillas were being served. Soon to be followed by a hearty dinner of Chili. Mmmmm.....

Heather writes, "OMG, we spent the first 90 minutes just catching up to where we were when we went to bed. What a day - overcast, windy and then snow - flat light - really hard to sort out where we are going! Some pretty big winds. We came across our first large open water. As we stood there the ice drifted, moaning loudly and slowly closed up one areas of the open water allowing us to cross the water. The sound was incredible. You could feel the ice move and rumble underneath us - and a crack open on our side of the ice while waiting to cross...

"We pulled for 8.5 hours achieving about 8 miles (nortward progress) - but as I sit here writing this note we are continuing to drift away from the pole....We had a huge number of obstacles that have required us to take off our skiis and walk everything through the spaces. So things really take a long time - and it isn't at all like the cross country skiing I've been used to. Spirits are good.

Check back tomorrow for another update!