28th of April 2013. Expedition covered half way from North Pole to Greenland through the drifting ice

28 April 2013

Fedor Konyukhov reports: “Today we covered 21 km during which we had to cross four ice cracks. All the cracks were covered with a thin ice, but no snow. Every time we had to run across this ice, it would bend underneath our sled. Thankfully, our sled is half empty. If it was as heavy as on the day of the start, we would take a dip for sure.

Today’s running is significant in terms of our overall distance coverage. We have crossed that imaginary line that marks half of the distance between North Pole and Greenland. Our expedition consists of several legs. The first one is North Pole- Greenland is considered the most challenging since we are navigating the drifting sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. As of right now, we have managed to cover half of our way to Greenland, but the route ahead of us is anything but easy. According to the satellite images there is a tremendous amount of open water which begins somewhere in the northwest and continues to the south-east covering total of 100 km.

We are heading straight towards this open water and don’t yet have a plan on how to cross over it but we’ve got our warning so we can’t be surprised by this challenge. Another puzzle is to find a strong, large and open area of solid ice to organize the landing strip for the Canadian Ken Borek Air that plane that is bringing our provision on April 30th – May 1^st for the next log of our journey. We will take a break and stay put on Tuesday and Wednesday, waiting for the plane to arrive. During this time we’ll pack up the sled with the arrived food for us, dry food for the dogs, and clothes – dry clothes! It will be a good break for us and the dogs in order to prepare for running the next 350 km before reaching the shores of Greenland. We are racing with time; as it gets warmer we are going to run into more and more areas of open water. There is nothing to do about it but to get out of these latitudes as soon as possible.