13 April 2016
The frozen Arctic Ocean
Elevation: 1m
Latitude: 88°14’16″N
Longitude: 131°24’02″E
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: -25°C
Distance covered today: 14.8km
Distance to North Pole: 133km
Ed is feeling: Happy tired
Fantastic to be finally here on the Arctic sea ice heading to the Pole! Bit
of an odd day as we were helicopter dropped at our start point at 6:30am
ski-trekked a while then camped and had dinner and a sleep (our first in
28hrs!) before carrying on for a few more hours. We are completely
self-sufficient now and like ants in a vast white land. It is stunning and
flipping cold! We have seen polar bear foot prints and lots of fox tracks
and a poo (which we have collected for scientific research purposes, nobody
knows what they eat this far north). Progress has been good but it is
really tiring, crossing broken ice pressures ridges and luckily so far the
sea ice cracks we have been able to step over with our skis.