Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul Page #5

every stitch of item is wet,..

...this is what we use to

dry it. This line right here.

And this goes for long johns,

base layer, the second layer,..

...third layer, fourth layer,

fifth layer.

So that's my complaint

to management,..

...l'm gonna tell them to

build more cabinet space.

What happened to the stove?

-lt's out.

As you can see, the ice frosts

over the tent at night.

We get the heat up with the

heaters in the evenings and...

...then in the morning again.

But during the night,..

...we've got to obviously

turn them down to save on fuel.

The temperature drops pretty

considerably in the tent and...

...everything gets pretty frosty,

as you can see from all the stuff...

...over here. This is what

we get our water from.

The water reserve here. And

this is our local chef here.

Hey, l got some breakfast brewing.

l'm getting it all figured out

here in the morning.

That's it, life in a tent. lt's

a little tight, not glorious.

But the company is fine.

Second day and we are bushed!

The ice is clumpy as we

negotiated a field of rubble...

...that was pretty discouraging.

After two hours of pulling

our heavy sledges across...

...these pressure ridges

the size of trucks, l looked up...

...to see the same landscape

for miles in all directions!

Well, this is day 3, it's been

pretty cold so far.

lt's sunny everyday at least,

that's pretty good.

But we've had between

-34 and -40.

Both Keith and l have little

frost nips on our fingers.

lt's pretty chilly.

On the third day we're

treading along, hopefully...

...this will be a good omen

for the future.

Like Sisyphus and his rock,

we pull our heavy sledges...

...across this uneven icy landscape

one step after the next.

Occasionally cursing our decision

to be here in the first place.

Day 5. North.

-What the f..k.

-S..t.

lt is common for the first few days

of any expedition to be...

...the hardest as you get

acclimated and into a rhythm.

We are up for the challenge

and hoping that...

...the temperatures warm up a bit.

Like nomads trekking across the

white desert of another planet,..

...we advance one laborious

step after the next.

A gale grew from the west.

Even 5 knots of wind lashes

the face like frozen razor blades.

lf indeed the human body has

a hundred million trillion cells...

...in constant communication

with one another,..

...then mine were all

screaming, ""l am cold! ""

The cold temperatures

crystallize the water deposits,..

...preventing them from

bonding with the ice.

The result is like pulling the

200 lb sledge through sand.

The terrain is never flat,

even when hitting nice pans...

...which has been rare.

Mostly it has been rubble fields,

which slow us down and...

...can be quite discouraging

when they sprawl on for miles.

The mood varies between

euphoric and upbeat,..

...and frustrated and doubtful.

Still, the Arctic desert

reveals itself to us...

...in all of its majestic and

endless subtleties in the way...

...that it only does to those

committing to traveling...

...its unforgiving realm. The lunar

vistas are simply breathtaking.

No life here, and no sounds

but for the cruddy break...

...of our feet on the ice and

our constant marching companion:

The steady and heavy

rhythm of our breath.

The sun does not rise above

15 degrees from the horizon...

...at its apex, but

no longer sets either.

All this in the silent and lonely

universe of the intense effort...

...punctuated only by the

sound of heavy breathing...

...and the endless sunset

of the midnight sun.

Time to get up.

We started late today,

as a wind from the south...

...was shaking the tent all night.

Also l think today is Sunday,..

...and on that day we felt,

we too could get some rest.

Every morning is the same exercise.

Just grabbing stuff out of...

...your sleeping bag and

hanging it on the line to dry,..

...so that we can repeat

that process again the next day.

We felt no rush in getting

beat up by the elements...

...and were slow out of the tent.

Mmm, porridge.

Sesame seeds, oats and

we render it with some pemmican,..

...which is basically just some

bacon fat and bacon bits and...

...we've thrown in some cranberries

just to spice it up.

Lots of calories make up for

what we're going to burn today.

Lovely day on the Arctic Ocean

here. 87 degrees north.

Three more to go,

two weeks in.

There's my live commentator for you.

Three hours in, we came across

our first large open lead,..

...and with it came the black

color of the Arctic ocean,..

...which of course is

constantly below our feet.

lt's all open water. That's why

we're seeing steaming there.

lt's open from all the way

there, to back here.

About here it looks like it closes.

So that's what we're going to

try to do, is cross it over there.

lt was a complex system of

cracks in the ice generated...

...by the awesome power of

currents and winds, and after...

...following its banks for a while,

we finally found a crossing point.

When a lead freshly forms it could

actually undulate, rubber ice.

So it had some flex, and we were

okay with how much flex it had.

lt's good.

Open leads and pressure ridges

are the biggest challenges...

...to North Pole travelers.

We hurried as the environment

was rapidly changing...

...and the lead widening.

-Not so bad, huh?

-Not so bad.

l stopped there because l want to

unclip my harness, just in case.

You know if you go in, you may not

want all this stuff attached to you.

By now both Keith and l

have a number of frostbites.

-Getting better, hopefully.

-One here, and one there.

This is certainly not uncommon

when traveling regions...

...where men have no business

spending any amount of time in.

But those nips have to be carefully

monitored or the risk could be loss.

On day 16,

l've got Arctic, 2 and Sebastian, 8.

This was another tough day.

But it will change...

we keep heading north!

We skied hard and for the first time

began to grow into our rhythm.

We might have done better mileage

but for the many rubble areas...

...we are still dealing with.

This quantity of rubble and

pressure ridges is consistent...

...with newly formed, and

therefore weaker, ice.

Multi-year ice, which is almost

all gone in the Arctic sea,..

...tends to be thicker

and smoother.

lt has more structural integrity.

lt is amazing to consider the

awesome power of currents...

...and winds crushing multi-tons

chunks of solid ice like twigs,..

...and piling them on top of one

another like an auto salvage yard!

That is just unbelievable! This

pressure ridge, look at this--

Look! This pressure ridge is

being formed just as we speak.

Just the forces of nature,

the tides crumpling these...

...massive pieces of ice, billions

and billions of tons of ice...

...being moved and crumpled.

lt's really unbelievable

and an extraordinary sight.

Such is the power of nature.

Our focus as a people...

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