Day 21 - Skiing to the Pole

We get a decent start but again there is no indication of the hoped for increase in speed as we again average under 3k an hour; the solution is to 'redistribute' the group gear - which translates into giving it to me so I end up carrying all the fuel and quite a bit of food. We manage to ski for 7 hours so get our 20k for the day done but I am not convinced that we will make the same tomorrow.

We have tended to ski in single file so far and so end up only really looking at the tips of our skis and the polk of the person in front. This gets quite boring and so I decide to break out of the single file and ski alongside the rest of the group. I can now chat to others in the group much more easily or head off for a bit of a wander and do some skiing at a reasonable speed. We end up skiing with low cloud and snow all day.

Walking through the snow and cloud

Even less to see now when we stop

The conditions are very volatile today. At times, there is sun as well as the low cloud which has the effect of trapping heat in so we get pretty hot and I ski with all my vent zips undone. At other times the cloud thickens and the wind picks up making it very cold indeed so we have to zip up and at times put extra layers on.

The polar plateau is pretty much flat ice from horizon to horizon so there is very little to see unfortunately - especially when there is low cloud so you can't even tell where the land finishes and the sky starts.

In comparison to the North Pole this is a lot warmer which makes things a lot easier but you don't have the pressure ridges that provide the interest and challenge up there.