Day 30

A grey day. 0400 and we’re all chasing around in the dark trying to sort admin and get ready for another full day’s pull. Sunrise is just colouring the eastern edge of the icecap a vivid amber as we step off into the frigid dawn… and that is about all we see of the sun all day as the grey clouds roll in making for a challenging start to the day.

Distances and slope angles are increasingly difficult to judge in the flat grey light. As is the decision on when to put on sunglasses – the UV light is still being reflected up off the snow but with them on it’s hard to make out the snow features immediately in front of you. It’s even more difficult for the one out front trying to navigate – there are no reference points at all so unusual cloud shapes or lumps of ice have to take their place as aiming marks glimpsed through the gloom.

We all drop into single file following in the tracks of the person in front as best we can. Almost universally people have switched to Audiobooks, podcasts or music to help the miles goes by that much quicker. Maintaining momentum is more important than ever and we try hard to maintain the discipline of 50 mins sking without pause before 10mins perched on the pulks ‘refuelling’ on nuts, cheese and energy bars and sharing a few laughs before retreating back into our own worlds for another 50mins relentless pulling through the grey world around us. At 1000 we stop for ‘lunch’, a little early perhaps but a well needed opportunity to make up a hot meal from the dehydrated sachets we carry and a flask of boiling water.

After lunch the first hard packed snow starts to fall, driven by an increasingly strong wind, in our face of course. Gortex jackets with their very sleek wolf fur linings to the hoods get deployed for the first time and we redouble our efforts. The going is starting to get difficult under foot with snow beginning to ball up on the synthetic skins on the bottom of our skis that normally give us grip. The snow is relatively easily removed by scraping one ski over another but it’s a tiring and only temporary solution. Progress is slowed as individuals stop to remove skis, scrape off the snow accumulation and then apply more hard wax…. It works…. For a while! Finally, half way through the final pull of the day I get tired of the towers of snow building up under each ski within moments of being cleared and resort to walking. Some follow suit, some persist with difficulty and charley glides on oblivious with the snow not daring to come anywhere near her skis!!!!

By 1430 we’ve reached a suitable ‘flatish spot’ to camp and despite the wind and snow the team swiftly sets up the tents, digs out cooking trenches and stows all the pulks downwind of the tents. In under 30 mins the stoves are roaring and kit is drying in tents as we settle in at the end of another successful day. The early start worked – sort off but given the weather we have now (more snow tomorrow) we’ll be back to a 0600 rise in the morning…. on the plus side that means lots of sleep tonight listening to the snow piling up outside.