Start: 1502
Weather: Cold and cloudy.
I woke up this morning – my mind racing. Did we make a rash decision? Could everything be piled into the three usable pulks? … Is there anyway of keeping the dream alive?
It’s so frustrating – we are all fit, healthy and strong. We can do this!
Then reality kicked in and all of a sudden there seemed no urgency required when doing anything.
A wise man once told me that the mind will crumble long before the body – he is right. Enough of the ‘what ifs’.
New objective: To get every member of the group off of this icecap safely.
First step – sort the pulks.
Alistair designed this amazing (almost Ray Mears like) repair to Iain’s pulk. If it is successful, we’ll repair Mark’s tomorrow.
Somewhat reluctantly, we headed off – West. As we are plodding along, my mind running trough all the possibilities for salvaging this expedition, I hit on something. I went to speak to Alistair…
I offered to take Mark and the two duff pulks back to the beginning, so that Iain, Matt and Alistair said that Iain had already offered to do this and he had declined his offer – it just would not be safe to split the group.
Alistair and I then had an open and honest discussion as to why the expedition was unsuccessful – lessons have been learned by both of us.
The ‘Ray Smirs’ repair to Iain’s pulk held up well to the crevasse crossings, but the moment we had to start to jump rivers, it fell to bits :(
As we plodded on further we saw our first bit of wildlife – no, not a polar bear, a tiny bird (probably an Arctic Tern) came swooping over our heads.
A bit further on we decided to set up camp and call it a night.
Camp: N 67° 4’ 16·4” W 49° 24’ 52·3”
Alt: 703 m
Distance: 8·45 km
Finish: 2006
Weather: Cold and cloudy.
I woke up this morning – my mind racing. Did we make a rash decision? Could everything be piled into the three usable pulks? … Is there anyway of keeping the dream alive?
It’s so frustrating – we are all fit, healthy and strong. We can do this!
Then reality kicked in and all of a sudden there seemed no urgency required when doing anything.
A wise man once told me that the mind will crumble long before the body – he is right. Enough of the ‘what ifs’.
New objective: To get every member of the group off of this icecap safely.
First step – sort the pulks.
Alistair designed this amazing (almost Ray Mears like) repair to Iain’s pulk. If it is successful, we’ll repair Mark’s tomorrow.
Somewhat reluctantly, we headed off – West. As we are plodding along, my mind running trough all the possibilities for salvaging this expedition, I hit on something. I went to speak to Alistair…
I offered to take Mark and the two duff pulks back to the beginning, so that Iain, Matt and Alistair said that Iain had already offered to do this and he had declined his offer – it just would not be safe to split the group.
Alistair and I then had an open and honest discussion as to why the expedition was unsuccessful – lessons have been learned by both of us.
The ‘Ray Smirs’ repair to Iain’s pulk held up well to the crevasse crossings, but the moment we had to start to jump rivers, it fell to bits :(
As we plodded on further we saw our first bit of wildlife – no, not a polar bear, a tiny bird (probably an Arctic Tern) came swooping over our heads.
A bit further on we decided to set up camp and call it a night.
Camp: N 67° 4’ 16·4” W 49° 24’ 52·3”
Alt: 703 m
Distance: 8·45 km
Finish: 2006
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