Today was our first full travel day on the ice. Everyone slept ok last night. Not the best sleep ever, but sufficient. Some people were a little cold as it dropped to about -28C over night.
We woke at 6:30am and started the stoves for hot drinks and breakfast. It is quite comfortable in the tents once the duel stoves start pumping out the heat.
We had camp packed by 9:30 and hit the trail. It was about -20 but little wind so it was pretty comfortable. The terrain started out pretty good but quickly deteriorated into tough to navigate multi year ice that had been
pushed up into a jumbled mess. As the day went on the clouds built and visibility dropped with very flat light conditions. It was difficult and time consuming to weave through the ice with poor visibility.
We skied in 6 one hour ski blocks with a 10 minute break after each block. Late afternoon we seemed to emerge from the worst of the ice, but our speed did not pick up due to the flat light conditions.
We stopped to make camp at 4:30pm and by 6:30 we were cozy in the tents having dinner. After dinner we plotted our location on the map. We traveled about 16km but veered a bit east when we should have stuck due north.
Tomorrow we have the same plan and may add in a 7th ski block if conditions are good and people are feeling good.
Good night from the ice.