Day 20

Lat S83deg 53.002’
Long W80deg 33.639’
Altitude 1318m
Daily distance 13.81nm

After getting off to a flying start things changed rather rapidly. Within an hour I was gaining height, the sastrugi materialised from nowhere and the wind picked up to a decent 15-20 knots into my face. It was noticeably colder too and it took quite a while to rewarm after the first break so after that I used my down gilet to keep some heat in on the breaks. On these I normally stop, plant my poles, unclip from my skis and pull Percy towards me. I’ll turn my back to the wind with my hood up and get down on my haunches before checking my blood sugars then grabbing a snack and drink from the front of my pulk. After that it’s a quick stretch, back into the skis and off.
Every movement forward seemed to have the pulk pulling the other way and there was an absence of glide from the surface. On at least one occasion I had to look round to see if Percy had gone over but it did ease slightly towards the end of the day so hopefully tomorrow will be more fruitful.
Despite the small drop in distance I did pass through 1300 metres so generally quite happy.
Today was also a test mentally. This is as much a mental challenge as a physical one and days like today can make negative thoughts creep in so you have to be ready and deal with them too. I know there’s a lot harder days to come and I’m nowhere near throwing the towel in but it was a little taster and I’m sure there are some dark days ahead.
It’s not all doom and gloom though and today brought a little covering of wispy cloud which looked amazing when seen with the empty whiteness. There’s not a lot here but every day it looks different and never stops to amaze how beautiful it is. I have a reality check every now and then to remind myself exactly where I am!

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