Day: 24

Extreme Vertical Ascents

Temperature: -48F

Location: Pike’s Portage Great Slave Lake

Latitude: 62deg 41’ 21’’ N

Longitude: 108deg 54’ 3’’ W

Distance Traveled: 2 Miles

It was an extremely cold day. Yesterday, when we made camp, it was 40 below, and this morning when we exited the tent it was 48 below. There are a couple of ways you can tell when it is extremely cold. Last night, when I was handling the stove, an filling it with gas, I noticed my fingers were freezing really fast. Normally I can work and touch metal and pour gas from aluminum gas cans quite easily at 30 below, but it gets down into the 40 belows like this it gets almost burning, like it’s hot to the touch. Like handling frozen CO2.

When we left today, we were on a very high knoll, which was actually a warm spot. When we got down into the valleys - we unfortunately had a lot of steep decents on Pike’s portage - it must have been in the 40 , below range, even 50 below. When it reaches the 50 below range, your eyelashes freeze up, though nothing very serious. The day was very clear and calm, so it didn’t actually feel all that cold. But when you stopped, the cold was quite penetrating. It warmed up to 36 below, and when we made camp it was about 41 below. So tonight it will probably be 45-50 below.

We’re on a lake, we finally made it to the first lake on the portage. And in these depressions the cold air tends to gather, so it’s actually colder sleeping on a lake than up high. We had an excellent day of travel. We only made it a few miles, but many hundreds of feet up and down. It was a lot of work for the dogs and the people. A lot of times all six of us were pushing one sled to get it up these hills, so it was a workout all day long. Morale is very good, the dogs are running well, everyone likes this cold weather.

The big catch is that there is no wind at all, hasn’t been for the last few days, which makes it easy to dress. You can unzip and take off a few layers when you are working and then add a few during lunch. So it’s very easy to stay warm and maintain your body’s equilibrium.

We’re on a small lake, and the lake is actually cracking, which is a sign the temperature is going down. There was a beautiful twilight here around 4:30, and we saw our first sliver of the moon, with the planet Venus right above that. And when it got a little bit darker the northern lights started raying up in the sky.

Last night we camped in a forest in deep snow, knee deep. The dogs are very happy in the deep snow in the forest. They bed down and are very comfortable. They broke into several howls last night, and I can always tell the howls of dogs in clear skies when it’s calm. Their howls were very high-pitched, and sometimes they kind of blend in with the northern lights. I’ve traveled at least 10,000 miles in my days, in northern Minnesota and Canada, in the forest like we were in yesterday. And it takes a tremendous amount of work to get through the snow. Hugh was staking out the dogs last night, and had to bring them one by one to the stake-out chain through the deep snow. Everything is double, triple the work. The wind is actually often an ally, as when we get in The Barrens the going will be very smooth, very fast. Not a lot of work traveling like it was today in the deep snow. We had a very good day today, and everyone is in good spirits.