April 14, 2008 by Lei.

Tomorrow we will sort out group food and gears, and pack our sleds to be sent to the airport. We are hoping to fly out early morning on the 16th to start our last degree ski trip.

For the previous few expeditions, almost every team suffered severe backward drift. The night before we headed out for the training trip, I ran into a familiar face at the bar — Steve Jones, the ALE manager at Patriot Hill when I visited Antarctica a couple months ago. He just came back from leading a last-degree expedition. They started at 89.30 degree, and got picked up at 89.28 degree six days later. But since then, the news was that ice drift has slowed down. There was even a positive drift (towards north) last night.

Pray for the good weather, and prey for the positive ice drift.

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April 14, 2008 by Lei.

Just got back in town from our shakedown training trip. For the past three days, we skied around valleys on the island while pulling our sleds. The picture looks familiar? But notice my new expedition anorak!

The first day was a total white out. We couldn’t see any scenery. The place we were dropped off was by the house for doggies. It was a weird feeling when the three seals (food for dogs) hanging in the whiteout was the only thing we saw that day.

We practiced pulling sleds up and down rough pressure ridges, which are very common on north pole trip, and broke two ski poles within the first 10 minutes. At camp, we took turns cooking and doing chores for the group. Testing out gears and learning to handle the unique dampness of North Pole trip are a big part of the training. The camp site looks familiar, but look carefully the thin lines surrounding the camp site:

Aha, the thin line is to protect the campsite from polar bears. At each corner, there is a little bell attached to the pole. If the bear crosses the line, a little bullet inside the bell would explode and scare the bear away.

I was curious enough to pull the line myself, however triggered nothing. It turned out that we had the wrong type of bullet inside it! Luckily, no bear came, though I’m really curious to meet one.

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