Day: 33

An Arctic Heatwave

Temperature: -5F

Location: Canadian Barrens

Latitude: 63deg 9’ 18’’ N

Longitude: 106deg 19’ 54’’ W

Distance Traveled: 18 Miles

We have a heat wave going on here. This morning when we got out of our tent it was minus 5 Fahrenheit. It was extremely windy, and there were whiteout conditions. We questioned all last night whether we could travel today, as a kind of minor storm was blowing in. But there was just enough visibility that we felt we could make a day out of it.

It was simply amazing how easy it was to work outside in these conditions. Even with the strong wind, we were able to face the wind without freezing our face, and able to work with bare fingers for 30-45 seconds without freezing our skin. We were so used to the 45-50 below weather we’ve been having, with wind. This is now the equivalent of it going from 45 degrees above to 90 degrees, which I think most people can relate to.

It is very comfortable in the tent. We don’t have as much trouble with the moisture, and we use very little fuel. We’ve acclimatized to the cold, so this feels extremely comfortable, despite being minus 5.

We did have a good travel day the first half of the day. Because of the whiteout conditions, we put the skiers out front. In difficult whiteout conditions, especially in an area like The Barrens, it is difficult to lead with the dogs out front, so a skier would go out front with a compass. Paul did the first shift, and I did the second. I had one compass on over my neck, and had another one inside my jacket pocket. And the one I was using started going off by 90 degrees, and I figured out that the combination of the two compasses offset the needle by almost 90 degrees. So you keep learning things here.

After lunch the dogs ran. We covered a total of 18 miles, and the weather let up a little bit. It was actually a nice day when we made camp. The wind had died down and it was very comfortable. We are fortunate to have this warm weather. The dogs are doing well. They had boundless energy today, we couldn’t stop them. They were crazy about running after having a day off.

Our resupply is coming in. We figure we have at most four days of dog food left. We may resupply on that fourth day, giving us an extra day of dog food in case we get bad weather.

I’m sitting in the tent here with Hugh. It is extremely comfortable. We’re reading and writing under candlelight, and I am getting ready to cook the meal.