Taking every day as it comes.
Published on 08.11.2011 - Cas & Jonesy : Crossing the Ice
Because this part of the trek is quite a difficult one, both men have adopted a slow and steady approach of the journey.
6 November : Cas and Jonesy have just finished day 7 of the expedition. They have climbed 550 m and covered 83 km so far. They are currently camped at 760 m above sea level but still have a long way to climb. The first two degrees of the journey were expected to be the most brutal due to a combination of steep, icy, uneven terrain, low visibility and the 150kg pulks that they each drag behind them. They have adopted the slow and steady approach for this part of the journey, taking every day as it comes.
Excerpts : " ... The first few days of the trail were so steep and icy that the guys removed their skis as they could make better progress on foot. Good weather conditions prevailed though with full sunlight, tolerable winds and average temperatures hovering around minus 23°C. The following couple of days were relatively flat but the guys were confronted with sastrugis and 50kph winds. Over the last couple of days, they have experienced all day whiteouts.... These weather conditions are expected to continue for a couple more days meaning that the guys will be keeping a close eye on their batteries as it’s impossible to charge anything during a whiteout."
A combination of all of these factors have made for slow progress, taking Cas and Jonesy, on average, 30-35 minutes to ski one kilometre.
