Day: 45

Nasty, Nasty Storm Today

Temperature: -40F

Location: Canadian Barrens

Latitude: 63deg 2’ 57’’ N

Longitude: 102deg 16’ 00’’ W

Distance Traveled: 0 Miles - Day Off

This is our day off, Friday, as we prepare the education report that goes out on Monday. And it would have been a storm day even without the mandatory day off here. It’s an incredibly nasty, nasty day out there today. Really, really cold - 35-40 below, with colder winds 35-40 mph and very little visibility, maybe 50 feet. There is a lot of snow in the air.

It’s extremely dangerous weather. Our tents are relatively close, and we are able to walk from tent to tent because of the stake out chains, so there is no problem there. But no one will walk any further than the neighboring tents.

The dogs are snowed under, so they are not affected by the wind. They are sleeping pretty well. It’s a good day off for them. We fed them around 4 in the afternoon, and built up some snow blocks around the caves they are sleeping in, so they are doing just fine.

This is probably some of the worst weather you can get in North America. It is extremely dangerous, very sobering conditions out there tonight. It’s six o’clock in the evening right now, pitch black in our tent. I have a headlight on and a couple of candles. The tent is really frosted up, a sign of very cold wind chills. I’m sure it’s 100 below or colder out there right now. I feel like I’m in a frosted cave here. I’m not sure if you can hear the loud flapping of the tent right now, which has been kind of a continual thing the last three or four days now. When Hugh and I talk we have to shout back and forth, it’s hard to hear. Our conversation is minimal.

So it’s a very brutal day, not a beautiful day. I want everyone out there to enjoy their day if they can, and think of us out here in the Barrens. We expected weather like this, so it is nothing unusual. We are really hoping, however, to travel tomorrow. Everyone is getting kind of ancy now, having been storm bound for a couple of days.