April 6, 2010
Day 35. The Joy of Nothing
The wind of last night mysteriously died early this morning and at six am when we take our Sierra Designs sleeping bags out of the tent and start melting snow (we never have the bags in the tent when the MSR stove is going). Blue skies and sun. In the distance, a dark line of clouds. 'Away or toward?' I wondered. I couldn't tell.
By the time we were all out of the tent, it was obvious. The clouds had blown toward us leaving more whiteout. Bummer.
I spent a big part of today thinking about the whole one picture per day thing. I'm not really sure if I can sum up all the things we see and emotions we feel in just one picture - or blog post for that mattter. There are millions of subtle (and not so subtle) changes in the ice. We waiver back and forth between highs and lows with roller coaster regularity. Can anything be just one thing? Will this trip define who I am? Will one mistake define me? We are all so complicated - strange mixes of hope, desire, ambition, love...
'When the sun broke through for 10 minutes, it was like being on a different planet,' AJ said. 'Then it was gone and everything was just white again.' It was a surprising respite in a taxing day. We stood awestruck at the speed at which the clear swath of sky approached and then passed.
Sometime in the morning the wind switched abruptly and one type of whiteout was replaced with a worse one. Blowing snow, wet mist from open leads, fog and ground blizzard. We stumbled for most of the day in winds that topped 30 miles per hour.
We had to switch navigation styles as the leader could not see (Imagine walking around your house with a white piece of paper two inches from your face.) During several shifts, the second in line navigated shouting out left or right to the person in front - the only visible reference point.
Of course, there were other adventures along the way. We used a six foot wide piece of ice as a raft. Darcy had a near miss as several loose blocks of ice shifted while he lept off. Weirdly flat ice at the end of the day, a broken ski (we have a spare - thanks Madshus), ice bridges, falling in cracks, stumbling and falling over.
Funniest frrom today was when I tried to get AJ to look at the two ice blocks that were floating by. I thought they were in a distant lead - my eyes were playing tricks on me.
One thing? Not really.
On Newsvine (http://ericlarsenexplore.newsvine.com) this week, contributers are discussing renewable energy. Perhaps the folks from Goal0 could add some comments about their solar panels.
Image: Darcy and AJ in the snow and wind.
The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by Bing with major support from the University of Plymouth, Terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.
Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.
For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com
For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/
For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com
For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net
By the time we were all out of the tent, it was obvious. The clouds had blown toward us leaving more whiteout. Bummer.
I spent a big part of today thinking about the whole one picture per day thing. I'm not really sure if I can sum up all the things we see and emotions we feel in just one picture - or blog post for that mattter. There are millions of subtle (and not so subtle) changes in the ice. We waiver back and forth between highs and lows with roller coaster regularity. Can anything be just one thing? Will this trip define who I am? Will one mistake define me? We are all so complicated - strange mixes of hope, desire, ambition, love...
'When the sun broke through for 10 minutes, it was like being on a different planet,' AJ said. 'Then it was gone and everything was just white again.' It was a surprising respite in a taxing day. We stood awestruck at the speed at which the clear swath of sky approached and then passed.
Sometime in the morning the wind switched abruptly and one type of whiteout was replaced with a worse one. Blowing snow, wet mist from open leads, fog and ground blizzard. We stumbled for most of the day in winds that topped 30 miles per hour.
We had to switch navigation styles as the leader could not see (Imagine walking around your house with a white piece of paper two inches from your face.) During several shifts, the second in line navigated shouting out left or right to the person in front - the only visible reference point.
Of course, there were other adventures along the way. We used a six foot wide piece of ice as a raft. Darcy had a near miss as several loose blocks of ice shifted while he lept off. Weirdly flat ice at the end of the day, a broken ski (we have a spare - thanks Madshus), ice bridges, falling in cracks, stumbling and falling over.
Funniest frrom today was when I tried to get AJ to look at the two ice blocks that were floating by. I thought they were in a distant lead - my eyes were playing tricks on me.
One thing? Not really.
On Newsvine (http://ericlarsenexplore.newsvine.com) this week, contributers are discussing renewable energy. Perhaps the folks from Goal0 could add some comments about their solar panels.
Image: Darcy and AJ in the snow and wind.
The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by Bing with major support from the University of Plymouth, Terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.
Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.
For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com
For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/
For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com
For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net