Day: 10
Camp: 10
Location: N 52 16’ 05.5” W 097 23’ 12.5”
Distance: 22km
WX: – 20 deg daytime, NW winds 20km
Visibility: N/A
Travel Time: 7hrs
Frisky was totally buried under a snow drift this morning and popped up out of the snow full of piss and vinegar when I got out of the tent. We had to dig out the tent this morning because of the drifts piled up on the tent from last nights storm. Thankful that the winds had died down by 7am this morning. I was the cook this morning and don’t really mind being the first up to spark the stove, good motivation to get moving first thing. Fed Frisky his bowl of soup through the front vestibule zip. Hard to keep him from crashing through the door knocking over the stove and making a mess as the poor guy is starving and his two meals a day is probable all he ever thinks about..
Amazing how exposed and in the middle of nowhere we are, feels good to be this exposed and it’s a really weird feeling not to see any land for six days. Reindeer Island as well as Big and Little Sandy Island a few days back popped into view for a little bit here and there off in the far distance. Sometimes they appeared to be a mirage as you can or think you can see an island in the distance but then it is gone as quickly as they appeared if they were not really there in the first place? I’m feeling very confident about next year’s trip across Greenland, and although this trip is hardly over my mind is constantly thinking about the next one.
Our navigation has obviously been bang on over the last six days since leaving long point, because tonight we are camping approx 650m off the west shore of Berens Island. When I shot the bearing six days ago I did so with the intent of just skimming by the island by half a kilometer or so, so this is great news and a confidence booster, the guys did an excellent job!
There were lots of crystal clear sections of ice today, crazy to look down through four feet of clear ice, some big cracks and trapped air pockets. There were also more big ridges and massive sheets of ice the size of dining room tables piled ten feet tall in areas.
The wind died down in the late afternoon and the sun came out, amazing how warm it felt just because the wind died. It is ice to be closer to land again after almost a week of not seeing any land at all.
