Day: 119

Pack Ice Challenges

Temperature: 0F

Location: Committee Bay

Latitude: 67deg 44’ 42’’ N

Longitude: 87deg 10’ 15” W

Distance Traveled: 10 Miles

We are on the pack ice of Committee Bay. We had some really rough going in the morning. In fact, it seemed at times that we would ever get out of some rough ice. But then around noon there was a breakthrough, and we had really good traveling conditions for about 5-6 miles. The weather was clear in the morning, and we had good visibility. But then the weather closed in, and we had a near ground blizzard in the afternoon.

After the flat ice, around 4 p.m., we got into some really horrendous stuff. There was thick ice, and we were really floundering, couldn’t see very well. After struggling for an hour we finally made camp around 5. So it was a typical day on the pack ice - really rough going, then easy for a while, then struggling again.

It is really quite challenging running dog teams through pack ice. It really reminds me a lot of the Arctic Ocean, when we were crossing from Russia into Canada. It takes a great deal of skill, and can be quite dangerous. With the heavily loaded sleds and the many cracks in the ice, finding the right foothold can be tricky. Often, you can’t travel with skis, because of the rough blocks of ice. You have to be really alert. Paul twisted his knee a little bit today in one of the holes in the ice. He’s OK. He took an anti-inflammatory today and will get a good night of sleep tonight.

So we are really watching what we are doing. And even though we have a lot of experience, you never know what could happen.

We are now about 23 miles from the shoreline we are headed towards. We’ve probably traveled about 75 miles on the sea ice, and we probably won’t make land by tomorrow. On the expedition so far we have traveled about 1,388 miles. Which is about the same distance of where we are now to Ely, Minnesota (I just checked on the GPS). We are 178 miles straight line distance from Iglulik. But it will probably be about 300 miles of travel once we finish with this detour and get back on the route.