Day: 42

Huge Arctic Blizzard

Temperature: -30F

Location: Thelon River Valley

Latitude: 63deg 3’ 00’’ N

Longitude: 103deg 6’ 9 ’’ N

Distance Traveled: 0 Miles - Storm Day

Huge arctic blizzard today. Last night, when we set up the tents, it was calm and warm, warm being about ten below. There were telltale signs of a storm in the sky, alto cumulus clouds. However, after the last ten days we were a little complacent setting up the tents, aligning them from northwest to southeast.

The big storm came up around midnight. It came in from the northeast, which was surprising to all of us. It hit us broadside on the tent, and when I awoke around 2 a.m. the tent was collapsing on my side. Hugh was luckily enough free on his side, and was able to get dressed and go outside to fix things. It was relatively warm at that time, about 10 below, and he was outside for about half an hour. He was the hero of the moment. He put in some ice screws and ice pickets, and got the tent under tension again.

We have a very good tent called a Hallberg tent. But it requires guy lines on the sides for the winds. We were a little bit negligent setting it up, something we won’t do again. We learned a little lesson. But we got the tent straightened out. Hugh also noticed flashlights in the other tents, and near their area, so it was probably a universal problem last night.

The wind was blowing really strong, really low windchills. We postponed travel, because it was just too windy. It’s usually from the southeast, but in this case it was from the northeast, followed by high pressure and cold weather. We now have extremely cold weather once again. It was 30 below when we went into the tent at dark, and dropping rapidly. Very, very strong wind, probably about 50-60 mph, and I can’t imagine what that windchill is out there.

We spent most of the day inside the tent. I slept a lot. Hugh wrote and read, basically killing time during the day. It looks like we will be able to travel tomorrow. Huge drifts next to the tents, and the sleds are almost completely covered with snow. So there will be a digging out process tomorrow, but I do think we will be able to travel.