13 days of Arctic "rat packs" - how much food?!
6pm
It's our day off but we woke to refreshingly clear skies so headed out on skis for the first time. Hilarious. Took a few priceless wipeouts which left us flapping on the ice like penguins as we headed off down the path beside the road going far too fast but having no idea how to break (turns out you still snowplough, it's just fairly ineffectual due to loose bindings, poor edges and it being more ice than snow out). Once we got onto the flat we looked a little less like a beginner's ski class and actually not bad. Simon, Dom and Ness even managed to look pretty pro. Not quite sure how we're going to deal with pulks behind us though...
This afternoon we headed into town for a team "nose-bag" grab. Won't have time to stop for lunch once we're on exped so went for a supermarket sweep to buy lunch snacks for the next 2 weeks. Was a bit like a school tuck box shop all over again. which we'll keep somewhere handy to snack on. We all have our own systems: mine is in a chalk bag around my waist so I can get at it without taking my glove off.
You'd think a £130 (£10 x 13 days) stash of Toblerone etc would be heavenly, but looking at the amount of sugar we'll be consuming over the next two weeks it just doesn't appeal! What have we got? We've each chosen our own but basically Japanese crackers (mmm), dried reindeer meat, salami, cheddar, yoghurt-coated pineapples, dark chocolate, M&Ms, apricots, cranberrys, papaya, pineapple, mango, raisins, cashew nuts, chilli nuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, prunes & muesli bars... Exciting, eh?! Still it's much more appealing than Mark's which basically consists of fish and fish sweets (made from real fish - seriously). Full of protein, I'll grant that but the smell from the dehydrated fish was so bad that Jim's banned it for fear polar bears will hunt us!!
Amusing moment: after finding she was under budget, Ness made a mad dash across the supermarket to the cheese counter, to the amusement of the team. General consensus was she hasn't been so excited about anything all week - apart from maybe the balaclavas (everybody calls them "gimp masks" because they do look rather scary - when Ness saw them she had a fit of giggles) and dancing (Ness was up on the table before we could blink - good lass!).
Also waved off Jack, who's been an awesome addition to the team for the last 2 weeks after joining us to train for his unsupported North Pole push next year. His jokes will be missed - by SOJ (Simon - aka Son of Jim) at least! Turns out the taxi was late and he missed check-in but managed to wing his way onto the plane... Uh oh, there's a theme going on here.
After dinner, we route-planned our upcoming 2-week exped. The plan is to head up-valley to camp within a mile of the hostel for the next few nights, until we've sorted a good camp routine and the storm that's hovering has passed. Then we're going to head down to the river valleys of Adventdalen, a 30-kms valley that follows the Adventdalselva ("Advent River Valley"), which is basically the main valley near Svalbard that leads up onto the surrounding glaciers. We're all looking forward to getting out there and away from the (albeit welcome) lights of town.
0 comments:
Post a Comment