No road through

So far we've put a couple of groups into the field for their expeditions. They have been relatively close to our base - 40kms or so, but coming soon are a few expeditions wanting to get up to north Liverpool Land. For the last few days we've been trying to find a way up there. Our usual route up Klitdal, is closed due to lack of snow, so we went across to the east coast of Liverpool Land though a valley called Kalkdal.

The start of this valley is barred by an impassable gorge, so you have to bypass it to the left. This in turn, has some steep slopes, so we had to 'build' a road through a wind scoop to get past. This took a few hours, but once passed, the route to the east was fairly straight forward.

Our plan was to go up the the sea ice and gain access to the north. Unfortunately the sea ice became more rough with ice bergs, bergy bits and brash forcing us to make numerous turns and detours to find a way on. At about 60kms out we were stopped by increasingly chaotic sea ice with pressure ridges and cracks stretching as far as the eye could see. We turned round and returned to base after125kms and a 10 hour drive. We will have to think again.

Today we went out to try other routes north, one up a valley which became too steep and one up a side glacier in Kalkdal, which we got the skidoos up, but the sledge became stuck and we had to dig it out. There will be no chance to get a group up with heavy loads. We will have one last look up Klitdal tomorrow to see if there is a route around the lack of snow.

Arctic storm video

Our camera crew have just posted this video of our storm last week.

Our Mechanic

Our mechanic from Iceland has now left after a week here. Hurry was just your perfect mechanic. He was a lovely helpful guy and what he didn't know about skidoos wasn't worth knowing. He has a dealership that puts turbo chargers into skidoos that improves the power up to 300hp. He kept us entertained in the evenings with video clips of skiddoos racing up hills on their back legs with their skis in the air and doing other impossible things.

He has given all our machines a through checking and fixed this and tensioned that, so they are all purring. He also gave us loads of useful advice and taught us all sorts of stuff.

Hurry is a skidoo monster. He has to spend most of the summer with his family as they never see him during the winter. If he's not selling them or fixing them, he's driving them. And can he drive them! He came on a couple of trips with us and we spent most of the time thinking 'I never knew they could do that!' Every time we got to a dodgy bit, we would send Hurry first to show us how it was done. We didn't quite manage his skillful handling across slopes on one ski, driving it like a surf board (with passenger all goggle eyed "when I lean, you lean' - "yeah right") but we did get up some steeper slopes to gain access to Kalkdal, one of the main valleys. The great thing is, we haven't put him off - he said he would be happy to come back.

We had tea and medals at the head of the valley before heading back down and back to Constable Point across the sea ice.

Today we have been looking at a route north, but were stopped by lack of snow in the main valley. It has been quite a low snow year this year. This has implications for the season as it was our main route last year west across Jameson Land.  To go west to get clients to Ren Land, we will have to find a route south to get round the bottom of Jameson Land. We will also have to find a route further east out to the coast to get clients to North Liverpool Land. Lots of work to do to find workable routes.

First video post

This is our first video clip made by our camera crew.

Digging out of the drifts

Our shipping containers stood up well to the storm and only let a little spindrift into the crack in the door frame. The temperature has risen to -4C so it's quite warm inside. Some drifting outside, but luckily the door opens inwards so we can always get out.

The Weather Haven also stood up well and was not too full of spindrift, although the doorway needs some attention to stop it getting blocked.

We spent most of the day after the storm digging our equipment out. The airport diggers soon got into action and started clearing the runway. The huge drift blocking the front of the Hilton was dug away, so we didn't have to climb over it to get in.

 On the next Twin Otter flight, the mechanic came over from Iceland, so today we have been servicing skidoos – I now know how to remove and clean a 'rave valve' whatever one of those is?

Storm

The forecast storm hit us yesterday and continues today. We managed to do a bit of work yesterday morning getting the weather station up and running and putting the power cable up on sticks so it doesn't get run over by a Skidoo or the airport bulldozer. We got allot of the gear in the Weather Haven sorted into boxes and labelled so we can have a chance of finding stuff. Getting into and out of the Weather Haven became a bit of a struggle as the door drifts up in minutes. It opens outwards, so 30 minutes or so after you are inside you can't open the door to get out and have to have someone outside digging or go out the back though the emergency zipper.

The wind really picked up last night gusting to over 80kms and so getting to the containers from the Hilton last night was quite an experience with visibility down to 6m in the driving snow. It's easy to get lost just a few meters from the buildings so we have to go in convoy for safety. We had to dig each door out, but once inside we were warm with our new power to the heaters.

This morning took us 30mins to get back to the Hilton from the containers. We had to dig our way out of our containers through the night's snow.  The front of the Hilton had a huge 3m high drift all along it, so we had to climb over and down to the doorway and dig our way into it. Not a day for any kind of camp work today.

We have power!

 We had a great view of the Northern Lights a few nights ago, but it was very cold in the containers, however the generator did stay on all night, so that was good and just needed filling up in the morning.

Another nice day of weather and we were able to get the sledges fixed up. The new red Siglin ones look good and very durable. We even got some roses planted!

It took us 3 days to dig out the generator stand which was under 2m of snow (3m to the bottom of it). Allot of digging and use of the chainsaw to get down to it. We need it to put the generator on so it stands about 4ft above the surface, otherwise it gets drowned in spindrift when the wind gets up and conks out. We eventually got it to the surface by person power and skidoo.

We had our first skidoo training session with everyone and today and got into this small valley which has changed from last year with blue ice on the snow surface and running water in places. We can't work out how this happens in -25C.

The best news of today is that we installed a permanent power supply to the containers! The airport electrician came up with 100m of 32 amp cable, a junction box and an outlet in one of the hangars. We now have permanent heat which will make it all much more comfortable. No more filling up the generator with freezing fingers at 11.00pm before we go to bed. Pity we spent 3 days digging up the stand that we now don't need!

Big storm coming in on Wednesday with 60km winds so we will be battening down the hatches!

Arrived at Constable Point

Arrived by Twin Otter from Iceland in great weather, and good views over the coast. No wind and about -20C and it's been like this for the last couple of days. We've made good progress digging out the containers and Weather Haven tent which has stood up to the winter very well with only a bit of snow inside. All the Skidoos started just fine and we've been just unpacking everything and sorting through kit so we can find things.

We have spent the last couple of days in the Hilton which is just the same, except the services have got a bit worse. No running water in most of the building and only one toilet which packed up on the first night! But we had a bed and it was warm. Now we have the containers emptied and the beds sorted, we are moving from the Hilton into them tonight. We are still trying to sort power for heating to them. The power cable that we hoped would connect us to the Hilton power outlet has the wrong plug on it and the other option, the generator, only lasts till about 4.00am when the petrol runs out. We have another generator which should last longer, but that has the wrong plug on it too! So we don't wake up to -20C and hoare frost everywhere, we will have some problem solving to do!