Winter Diary Extract 2004 - 2005

Bomber is showing every sign of recovery but I dare not bring him back into the team too early. He’s been off for eight days and will have to wait another six before I get him in harness again. By which time Jo Kelly expects to have another dog for me.

Two hour run with seven dogs pulling just over quarter of a ton. A couple of friends have passed comment over the last week about how beautiful and fit the dogs are looking. They really are in wonderful condition. I was so hungry after training today I ate until my stomach hurt.

Spent an exciting evening peeling and wiping off sticky old duct tape with acetone from my tent poles. I always tape sections together, except the middle one, and leave poles in the inner tent sleeve. I drill holes through grommet ends and secure with a split ring along one side of any tent I use. Grommet ends I glue into pole ends. Rolled neatly it all packs well on my sled. Elastic cord runs through the middle of tent poles. Elasticity is lost in extreme cold so I shorten the cord for it to be effective.

Warmed enough for dog crap to melt snow. Usually it freezes on impact. Midnight Sun Bearing and Mining Supplies send 12 V 7Ah rechargeable that’ll team up with my 11-W Uni-Solar solar panel supplying me with an independent power source for batteries. Another long evening altering new gear like replacing plastic stove pressure plastic plunger cups with leather ones. These I douse with Neat’s-foot oil.

Walked Bomber out with Blitz in bright, bright sunshine; a glorious -10°C. Poor Bomber, I’ve had him penned up for nine days for his fight bite to heal. It has and today we tested it out. He was fine. Still, I’ll give him at least until Sunday before I bring him back with the others. They’re going full throttle and any lameness will prolong my departure date. I had chalked up February 23. We’re unlikely to be gone before March.
 

I feed my dogs and my meals are now taken standing up without taking my outdoor gear off, once swallowed I’m back outside again to pick up empty feed bowls; lumps of frozen beef fat and chicken for pudding. Not for me, the dogs. Daylight until 7pm and I love it. By 9pm tonight I was whacked. I was in bed about two minutes past. The earliest night I’ve had for months.

Ran Blitz with Bomber. All the time they were having fun I concentrated on Bomber’s bite injury for lameness. There was none. Good news.

Since Christmas I’ve spent hours at my Panasonic Toughbook. Polar expeditions are complicated. Add the dog facet and you’ve mind-boggling sums and information to work out, disseminate into spreadsheets or store. For instance, I had to calculate how best to spread out quarter of a ton of dog food, 50 litres of fuel, my food and safety aspects along a journey route this spring. Where do I start? I get it all down on my laptop. Logistics in the Arctic are not easy. Forget guesswork. This is precise detail.
 

My kennel and breeding plans are specific. It's important to monitor each dog to achieve ultimate performance. I started years ago with just a notebook of simple headings such as name, age, weight, feeding and comments with initial entries describing a dog’s general condition, worming and vaccination dates.

My laptop is vital for correspondence too. I’m 1,500 miles from the nearest city so it’s quite remote.

I’ve hundreds of people to liaise with throughout any one year. A phone isn’t always practical. Emailing is an efficient form of communication for me and the Internet also enables me to post diary extracts with pictures on my website to share my experiences with the outside world.

Drive 216 mile round trip to Tuktoyuktuk in a truck with food and fuel cache. This was unloaded in a lock-up outside Henry Nasogaluak’s place. I’ll pick up en-route to Liverpool Bay. A polar bear skin was neatly folded on top of a refrigerator. Henry said the bear was a ten footer.

Two weeks since Bomber sustained his injury. This morning I heard him and Thule going for each other again. I ran out outside to break up the commotion in my socks. It was -32°C. I separated them once and for all. Ran team for an hour, with Bomber. He appears fully recovered. I’m pleased so was he. So many tasks to do stopping to eat is a pain. Cooking anything certainly is.

Horizon socks came. So did tent floor-lining foam from Beacons Products. This lightweight 5mm closed cell foam is 1.5m wide and can be cut to length at Multimat stockists. Its thermal resistance rating of 1.76 tog improves quality of life inside my tent in brutal cold. I started preparing my sled; one Olav and I built for my 2003 Herschel Island journey. Only minor repairs and improvements necessary.

Woke, ran. More time spent preparing my sled with sporadic breaks for email correspondence. Five hours of dog training runs this week. I cut my hair without consideration to fashion.