North Pole Exped
Apr 13
#8: We are on the ice
Published at 18:19
We finally flew from Longyearbyen at almost midnight, touching down perfectly at Barneo near 3am. A rudimentary camp has been built next to the runway with enough facilities to process the ski groups coming through on these early flights.
Temperature was -25c with almost no wind, perfect conditions for an introduction to the high arctic.
Three teams bundled into a helicopter and flew south east to our respective start points, we at N88.40 and E130, a clean distance of 150km to the North Pole.
It was great to see the mayhem of the past week behind us and we wasted no time, clipping into our harnesses, sliding into our Flexi bindings, securing Jade's mascot Mishka to her sled and striding north at a steady pace.
We didn't travel far before happening on a set of polar bear tracks, I suspect a few days old judging by the spindrift covering many of the prints.
Jade and Paul did extremely well today, negotiating a couple of small pressure ridges with confidence and balance. Petter our cameraman dashes back and forth like a mobile gnome, he'll be covering twice the distance by the time we reach the pole. 10km today on no sleep last night. All smashed now.
Eric
- Name: Day 1
- Elevation: 1 m
- Latitude: 88° 45’ 3” North
- Longitude: 130° 38’ 20” East
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