From Bengt:
This morning we met up with the English team, and decided we ski down together to join forces in the heavy snow we are having at the moment. We had snow and whiteout conditions throughout the day. It’s hard going in the front, but nice at the back. Now we have 29km left to the magic point on top of the icefall. Spirit is high and we are looking forward to seeing the first mountains!
Antarctic Heritage Trust Snowblindness is just one of the things the team want to avoid in Greenland. Snowblindness is a temporary loss of vision caused by the sun’s rays – think of it like sunburn of the eyeballs!
Of course the Inspiring Explorers have sunglasses and protective goggles to protect their eyes, but things were different for Nansen’s expedition. The use of sunglasses have been documented as early as the 18th century, however they were not widely popular until the 1920s. While the explorers had primitive spectacles, they mostly utilised Inuit snow goggles. Made from wood or walrus ivory, the goggles had thin horizontal slots cut into them that limited the amount of sun exposure.
Jared Zimmerman (WMF) The goggles did not provide protection though, and Nansen documented having to apply cocaine drops to Samuel Balto’s eyes when he was struck with snowblindness. This is an early documented use of the drug. It would later be used by Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition, and Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition for the same purpose.
From Bengt: Long and nice day. Sunny and no wind. Today we walked 11 hours and some. That gave us 34.7km! We followed the tracks from yesterday, bumped into the camp of our English friends just before the last leg. We silently passed since it looked like they already had gone to bed. We skied another 3-4km before setting up camp Conditions are gettin’ better minute by minute, right now actually not too bad. Going to bed now at 15 minutes to 0200.
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: As predicted, it was whiteout in the morning. Almost no wind and the sun was trying to get through the clouds.
In the middle of the day we found tracks from another team, which we followed. We did around 9 hours and got 27.3km. It cleared up in the end of the day.
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: Lots of snow, powder that would have been great in a slope, not so good for us. We still managed 31.6kms. We are happy about that!
Going to bed now, a lot of the same tomorrow, and another 11.5 hours are waiting in a bit.
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: Not much sleep tonight, we had to get up and use the weather. We were on schedule till the middle of the day, then we got hit by weather, we continued but with less progress, decided to cut one leg, and hide it for later. The windy weather is supposed to continue all night, we look forward to 8 hours of sleep 🙂
In all we did 24.6kms and we descended 100m.
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: Another 10 hours plus. This morning was quite windy, but it settled during the day. Since it snowed a bit in the night the sliding conditions weren’t exactly perfect 😉
We also came in to an area with a bit of loose snow in the end of the day, so we worked quite hard the last legs. In total we did 30.6 km. Look forward to descending now!
About 170km left to the magic point before the icefall. Ideally we should be there the night of 29th…
At least we’re going to do our best. Cross fingers for our weather.
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: Great day today, we started at 0600 and did 10 hours of effective walking that gave 31km. We are now more or less on the summit. Our next goal is the icefall!
In terms of weather we had it all today, sun, snow and whiteout. Luckily not much wind. Surface was perfect for our sleds 🙂
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: Not much to say about today, tent-bound…
Sleeping, reading books, eating and drinking coffee/tea. Weather should be better tomorrow!
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: This was a cold and windy day. We only did 6 hours. We were all packed in, goggles, facemasks and extra layers. The scenery is magic, blue sky and sun straight above us, but an inferno of snow on the ground. We had a warm and nice lunch inside the tent halfway. Came early into camp and had a good evening meeting in the 4 man Spitbergen tent. In total we have 3 tents. Two of them are made for 3 people and the big one is for 4 people. They are all tunnel tents made by Helsport, one of our co-op partners. All the poles are double-poled, so they can handle heavy wind.
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Antarctic Heritage Trust
7 Ron Guthrey Road, Christchurch 8053, New Zealand
Private Bag 4745, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Antarctic Heritage Trust
7 Ron Guthrey Road, Christchurch 8053, New Zealand
Private Bag 4745, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
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Alasdair Turner