Broken tent
Published on 02.05.2009 - Hubert at the Humboldt
The day was suppose to be a monotonous one but did not turn out that way.
Their position yesterday (day 10) : 78° 19' 51" N / 66° 57' 45" W
The day was suppose to be a monotonous one but didnt turn out that way. Shortly after we left camp, clouds came in, it started to snow and finally, the wind, the famous catabatic winds gradualy came in.
After 6 hrs, it was blowing so strong (again, around 70km/h) that we decided to stop. the snow was blowing hard covering our faces and eyes, making it hard to see. as we were trying to raise the tent with great difficulty, a strong gust which Alain estimated at 120km/h (75m/h) came and broke one of the pole which instantly flatten the tent to the ground like a pancake.
As Alain was securing further the base of the tent which looked like a dead animal rug which you find in hunters living room, I crawled inside the tent like in an envelope with 1 of our sled which I put on its side at the end of the tent to create at least a little height of 1 foot inside so that Alain and I could lie down paralel to the sled.
It worked and after we managed to get in, get rid of all the snow which came in with us as well, we succeeded to get into our sleeping bags and lied down without moving for the next 15 hours until the wind finally stopped.
Our tent had gone from looking like a comfortable minivan, to a pancake and finishing like a sports car for 2 people maximum and a sled.
