To get these posts out every night is quite an ordeal. The cold saps battery power so quickly you can watch the meter tick away. Every piece of electronics needs to be warmed against the body to restore power, then used quickly. We generally collaborate on our posts then, just before dinner, we will hook up all the various devices and start the long process of uploading our posts. I have to admit it is a pain, but something we both look forward to every night in our tent.

I believe Mike is going to write about the noise we heard last night so I won't go into great detail, but I will tell you it was incredibly loud and seemed to go on for minutes. My guess is that it was an ice sheet snapping apart and the ocean was rushing in to fill in the newly opened, highway sized crack. It is certainly a sobering thought to realize it can happen at any place, at any time in this dynamic environment.

On to other things. Just when I thought we were adapting to the bitter cold we get hit with a one two punch, a biting, relentless, bone chilling wind that carried with it every shard of icy like snow directly at us. It was a difficult, cold day with very little to show for it.

We would move north directly into this wind, then 10 minutes later encounter a newly opened lead so we would head west only to encounter the same in that direction. The visibility was less than 100 feet so we were basically driving north blind with very little chance to plan our route ahead. Of course by we I mean Maher and CP.

Every spec of my face was covered except for my eyes as anything you would wear would instantly fog then frost from your exhaled breath rendering your vision from 100 feet to two inches. Now without eye cover your breath would flow up your neck gator, which was pulled up to cover my mouth and nose, then directly to you eyes, which would then create interesting little icy flecks on your eyelashes. These little icicles would then freeze together creating an interesting sort of eyeglass forcing you to either risk a cold hand removing it, or hope that your other eye did not freeze together making you blind until it was removed.

I found that by simply letting the icy little blowing snow crystals sand blast it away would save me the time and effort of risking a cold hand. Regardless, today was difficult yet an experience I will not forget.