2004-12-06 - Problems in -43,6°F
5 Dec, 04 - 20:50
GPS-pos: N66°39´ | E152°29´ | Alt: 21 M
-43,6°F, freezing cold, a light southerly wind, we´ve done 20 km;s today. We´ve pitched another icecold camp at N 66°39´14.3 and E 152°29´43.9
Johans skiboot broke today. After only 240 km;s of skiing. This is, of course, a minor catastrophy. But what to do? No use to complain. Fortunately there´s not too much snow, so it´s possible to walk relatively comfortably. Which Johan´s done for the last two days. He´s strong as an oxen, but as fast as bigger amounts of snow will fall, he won´t be able to walk and survive. But we´ll solve the problem, somehow. Nothing is impossible along the Kolyma. But we´ve had far too many problems. The skins, a binding and now the skiboot. No fun at all.
We don´t have too much energy to care too much, though. Regarding these problems. The cold takes all our energy. We don´t get much sleep at the present and cooking takes hours. The stove doesn´t handle cold to well and the quality of the fuel is so poor, that this morning we had to clean the stove 8 times! In -45,4°F this is no fun.
But it could be worse. Even though we feel constantly cold and every time we take a break, it turns in to a small struggle. But we do handle temperatures down to -43°F without any panicking at the moment, but it feels like it is getting slightly colder for every day that passes. Another sign that we´re acclamitizing relatively well, is that we´ve started to enjoy the surroundings again, the stark beauty of this ice landscape. Daily we pass fresh tracks after wolves and big moose. But, we do look forward to finding en Even village tomorrow, for company and warmth. Our toes are beginning to give us problems. But, it could be worse!
Read my dispatch on Thursday! |
