The birthday mission

Many of us have a birthday at some point. Mine happened to be yesterday or the day before. Everyone were invited.
The locals : Hella, Kim, Lucas, Mats and André, and the non locals.

Well, there they came!
Four scooters lined up facing towards our camp site.
The birthday mission arrived.

You can imagine we welcomed all the things they brought but far and most of all, their coming was the greatest gift to me and will never be forgotten.

Driving two hundred kilometres in an unhabited terrain to a birthday party is not an expedition, it is a mission.

I was and I am still overwhelmed : Sigrid, Sanna, Päl and Trond celebrated with us in the best ever camping place you will find on Flatbreen or elsewhere in the universe.



They just left Northward with our best wishes for the journey, letters to our dearest and warmest thoughts.
Well there are good things happening in my life, friendship is one!

Our thoughts are with Sigrid, Sanna, Päl, and Trond. We wish you safe travel back and thank you very much!

Ulli

A chair, a dip in the ice, and speed kills

Burning news from the frozen Arctic!

I’m looking at a red mountain beside a frozen bay in the comfort of a sun chair.
I’m looking at the drift of sea ice from the comfort of a dip in the ocean.
I’m looking at wild glaciers of Southern Spitzbergen in the comfort of travelling at 45Km/h on skis.

If all this doesn’t make sense to you, keep on reading!

Last couple of days were full of excitement : new things to see and new stuff to think.

We spent a full day camping on a glacier overlooking the bay of ice known as Isbukta.
The contrast with the carven face of the glacier front and the frozen sea of the bay were astonishing and I spent a little time carving a comfortable armchair out of a snow block to be able to fully enjoy the beauty of the place.
Sorry but this beauty is not to be described here
Not that I would not like to, I just can’t find words.
I spent the whole afternoon and evening in the chair.
We returned to the location four days later and the chair remained where I built it, visible from a distance of more than three kilometres.


I learned how to swim in the garden of my parents. From early age they taught me swimming lessons in cold water. I kept the fashion.
Lucas and I celebrated the arrival of the Frozen five at the most Southern point of Spitzbergen. This point is also called the point of no-continuation, but we continued tough a 100 meters to make a meter wide hole in the 10 centimetres thick sea ice.
If you believe me or not I don’t care, but I enjoyed every second of that bath in minus 1.9° water.
Undressing and breathing and slowly sliding in the hole is the one moment in my life when my mind was so empty but under full concentration, and very few things can compare with that!



Well, how do you power up your skis to 45 Km/ hour on a flat snow surface without the help of any kind of machine?

Take a kite: a bit of fabric, a few lines and off you go.
A friend of mine lent me his kite for the expedition.
We still have just practised and so far haven’t used the kite yet to cover some distance.
It is just pure fun to be well over the snow by pure wind.
I like the rush of adrenaline in my veins and I must admit I like speed, speed without machine.
The wind whips the lines It is the song of speed.

Ulli

PS and erratum from Sylvia, French back up team : Another "swiss pools" story!
The distorsions in our satellite communication system ended up in another funny story!
The "PBM" mentionned in April 25 article as a smell dropping and body lotion is in fact a "VBL", or Vapor Barrier Liner, an anti-condensation bag to put inside your sleeping bag to keep it dry and avoid ice forming from human breathing in very cold atmosphere. Lucas sent me the exact meaning by sms.
Technology is not my part but now I have a great story to tell when I'm invited out to dinner!

Life is like a tent, it has 2 doors

Leaving philosophy behind, this new group approach to F5 blogging focuses on practical information in favour of the inner sauce from the inner tent.

And where else to start than in the inner tents themselves?

Like who speaks with whom, who uses the “PBM”(?) (a moisturizing body lotion that has a smell dropping function) and why our two youngsters only found their tent’s second door last week.

Let’s start with André. He sits outside, rain on shine, hidden behind a snow wall we make each evening. Next, we have “Romeo”, formerly known as tent 2, with Hella and her 2 mentors, Mats and Ulli. And then, there is the young and colleague tent lovingly known as “Juliet” inhabited by Lucas and Kim.

Our 2 homes with plenty of space (each is designed to accommodate 4 people) and two entrances each, provide useful shelter. Their tunnel design, double poles and ease of kitchen, make them perfect for the artic environment. We have cupboards with a kitchen hole we dig each night in the absid.

Our tent life is a pretty considerable affair.

Of course there are multiple maneers of melting snow for drinking water and cooking, each one preferred by our tents “Romeo” and “Juliette”.

The Romeo gang uses the stove within the inner tent, with storing temperatures usually up to +15°C.

In contrast, the boys in Juliet, live the Nansen way, growing beards for insulation and keeping the stove in the absid. Lucas makes the morning porridge, while Kim cooks the evening meal.



To conclude with Lucas philosophical remark, “the tent is the place we spend two third of our expedition” forming thus our home sweet home.

The Frozen Five

White out

The white nothing, a compact white feeling. Like a porridge.

A world without any reference points : without up, without down, but with a track left behind.

Forward, there is all white. There is nothing or maybe there is everything.
Maybe everything exists in front of me ?

The future is uncertain, next step might go upward or it might go downward.
Without a point of reference, time and space disappear.
Your brain starts to spin.

Is there a mountain ahead or is it only my mind spinning?
Where am I about to go?
My eyes are constantly trying to find a spot to focus on but everything is white, only white.

But there is something, a small spot. I focus on it, it’s hard, no there’s nothing. The small something is only some dust on my sunglasses

Heading onward, I start to sweat. It might be uphill, uphill since I sweat and there, far away are the contours of a mountain, something to focus both eyes and mind on for a while.
Then it disappears.

Once more I’m alone in the totally white world and I would probably be frightened if there would not be a track left after my skies and if the four others were not following in these tracks.

This is what keeps me going in the right direction. And there, in the back, Ulli is pointing out the direction. I have been drifting out of the course once more.

I correct my skies, I turn my head forward into the white nothingness.
Into my soul and my own self.
Into the white world where only my own mind creates the reference.

It’s white out once more, it’s white out.

Mats

“White out” is an expression for when snow fall, low clouds or snow drift by wind, lower the visibility and together with the snow covered surface make everything white.

Life, universe and everything

Breaking news from the Arctic

I have found the meaning of life!

Well not really, at least not yet.

But now that I have your undivided attention, let’s talk about more serious issues like how I feel about skiing the wild South of Spitzbergen and how I cope with the constant drag of “Bozena” and “Lyyli”, my two pulks, and always the big enchilada of questions: why?

Now that we are heading South again, I feel the excitement in my veins yet again. There is a destination out there: the lone cape of Sorkapp. The point at which most of us will be geographically closest to home yet also one of the most remote and isolated point in our voyage.

Well Sorkapp itself remains at least another three days skiing away. We have marched through the gate of Sorkapp land today, welcomed by fresh polar bear tracks but very dabbled labyrinth of melted water streams and the so familiar white out conditions. This last frontier is truly something special.

Everybody uses a different approach to cope with the physical strain of moving our heavily laden pulkas from North to South. For me, it all boils down to enjoying the movement of passing one ski in front of the other. Some steps are undeniably a struggle but if the body’s motion is in harmony with the mind, they become at least manageable.

But why put yourself in our position if it’s such a struggle?
To be frank I believe that life out here is the only way of escaping the real life with its unaccountable traps and society expectations.
Out here my usual over-busy life style simplifies itself tremendously to three things: eat, sleep and ski, in order of importance. The level of comfort I’m prepared to give up, for the chance to experience the need to abide only to nature, is a small price to pay.

Dangers: another hard topic of discussion when it comes to expeditions, may be somewhat elevated in some aspects (polar bear attacks for example) but minimal in others (like getting run over by a car) and believe it or not, I am more worried about those dears to my heart than about myself here in Serkapp-land. I have four friends and my dog Andre to protect me after all!

Thinking of you, sending the ice magic around the world, and wishing you all a nice spring (autumn for those down under.)


Kim

PS : Last but not least, the big news of the day : we have finally seen the King of Arctic. We must smell rather funny tough, since the bear met a large loop around us never coming closer than about 1,5 km.

Time and Space

The last three days, we’ve been enjoying a very special Arctic cocktail that I named WBS : 1/3 Wind, 1/3 Blizzard and 1/3 Snow.

And so we keep on pulling endlessly our heavily loaded pulkas around Hornsund fjord trying to find our way to the South Cape.

The task is made even harder as we’re moving on deep and fresh snow.

Our arctic caravan, as if led by elephants, heavily and slowly keeps on moving forward.

But what on earth is giving us the energy to continue this useless quest in Spitsberg frozen desert?



Curiosity is certainly one of the main reasons that keeps us going : we are constantly curious to discover what is hidden behind the next mountain and looking forward to contemplate Arctic wonders.

At the same time, we each react with what science has taught us.

Kim, the geologist, can tell the history of moutains by observing the structures of rocks.
Mats, the biologist, spots the signs revealing presence of ptarmigans, the only bird to hibernate in the Arctic.
Hella is interested in zaturgis, the snow structures sculpted by wind.
Ulli follows closely the movement of glaciers and can predict crevasses.

As for myself, my favourite subject is the sea ice. Only a few centimetres of ice covering fjords and bays are required to open up new and infinite space and let us cross easily over.

But we have to be careful!

We have to switch fast from contemplation to concentration to navigate correctly in the Arctic universe and always have to be watchful to prevent from frost bites, meeting bears or falling in crevasses.

When I feel tired from walking and each step demands an extra effort, I try to concentrate on the present moment to extract myself from harsh reality, forget the snow constantly hitting my face, the wind that’s chilling me down to the bones, in order to fully enjoy the unique environment we’re going through.

“Infinity lies in every moment about to finish”.

Quoting Sylvain Tesson, as he crossed by foot the Oustiourt Desert in Kazakstan by plus 45° Celsius, I try to concentrate myself on the very second going by in order to forget space and time as a whole.

“Here and now, in this universe, eternal calm reigns for neither wind nor blizzard, deprived of reality, can take form”.

Lucas

Following nature's rules

Two days ago, on Wednesday morning, we left the Polish station in Hornsund with one eye crying and one eye laughing.

Crying because it was sad to leave behind civilisation , laughing because we were looking forward to continue our trip.
Only that now, the route is not as straight forward as it was the last two weeks.
Especially because the ice conditions in Hornsund are pretty bad this year.

At first we decided to try to go along the shore of Hornsund in order to cross it further East.
Therefore we crossed Hansbreen and walked down a small narrow gully or canyon to the next bay.

At the end of the gully we had to drag our more heavily loaded pulkas up on about a 10 meters snow drift and after some trying we figured out that the easiest way was to pull altogether on each pulka one by one.
The sea ice in the Bay was about 20 cm thick consisting of small floats frozen together.
A bit of a discussion started whether we could cross it with pulkas. But this was solved in the morning as the ice broke up over the night and there was no way to cross it now.



So Svalbard showed us again that the nature is the one who knows up here and if it doesn’t want us to go off that way, we have to turn around and search for another route.

That’s why we are back on Hansbreen now once more, planning to go East on the glaciers until we hit the route that we planned to go, back from the South cape where is a food depot.
So we will try to reach the South Cape this way.

But not only the route, but the weather is also unpredictable. Today we decided to stay in camp since the temperature grows above zero and it started to rain!

But after all, even with having all these problems to face, I am very happy to be back on the skis and going back to the tent after two days in ”civilisation” feels like coming home!

Hella

PS : Ulli invites everybody to his birthday party on the 26th of April. The location is to be found from our tracer. Birthday presents are welcome only if they are digestible or eatable.

Hella mails from Hornsund

It's probably a surprise to get an e-mail from me - no worries, I'm not yet back in Longyearbyen, but we are in the Polish research station in Hornsund and we even have internet here! (next to warm rooms, shower, food ... a bit of luxury..).

So I have the opportunity to write my first personal report:

Our start from LYB 2 weeks ago was quite exciting, about 50 people came to the UNIS building to say good-bye. With the words: "I don't know where you go, we go to the South! See you in Sommer!" we started, it was really great start. Since then we were 12 days on the way till we arrived to Hornsund, 3 days before the planned date thanks to the good weather and optimal conditions.

First 2 days we went along the Scooter-"motorway" in the direction to Svea and it was great to leave this path on the 3rd day. At the beginning the pulka was for me quite heavy though I've got it a bit lighter than the "boys". With the time it was better and fortunately after about 2 days my knee got used to the burden, so I didn't have yet any problems with it! Then we crossed Van Mijenfjord, luckily well frozen just as later Van Keulenfjord. Inbetween we had one day with bad weather, our camp was on the pass between the two fjords and although it wasn't really bad storm we decided to stay in the tent.


Since the Van Keulen crossing we move along on the enormous gaciers and the landscape is fabulously beautiful!! Since then I also feel it was right to come here and I can really enjoy the trip.

Also with the team is everything ok, we understand each other and we can coordinate ourselves well. I share the tent with Ulli and Mats and meanwhile we have quite good routines - even when we have huge tents, sometimes it is with 3 people a bit narrow and we need to arrange who how when is moving. In the temperatures (often till -30 degrees in the night) everything needs its own time, above all to melt and cook the water, so even when we wake up at 7 we can be on the road at 10:30 and also in the evening we need few hours. So we are three we alternate always in cooking, so everyone gets 2 "free" evenings to write a diary etc. and especially on 2 from 3 mornings gets breakfest practicaly into the sleeping bag (you can't underestimate this factor with -25 degrees).

My sleeping bag is luckily warm enough, just becomes as the others very icy from the outside, but the daily sunshine allows to let it dry on the pulka. Here we had opportunity to let ourselves and our equipment dry and sort a bit and above all pack the heaps of food for the next 27 days. Starting from here will be a bit harder as the fjord here (Hornsund) is not frozen ehough, so we will need to find our way along it. On the other site it should be again easier, we'll continue on the big glaciers about 40-50km till we reach Sudkapp. You'll be able to follow it further...

Also it is great to have our dog Andre, it pulls quite a lot and hears very well - and is always happy to be stroken. It's really lovable and trusty friend.

Generally I'm very fine and I'm looking forward to the next weeks of the trip.
Thanks a lot for all sent messages!!!!



Hella


p.s. from Mathias: FrozenFive sent also few photos.
The pictures in this blog are actual, not from the archive.
(it pays off to click on the last one to get it bigger ;-))

Skiing is inspiration

It is great to feel the hospitality here at the Hornsund research station. We owe everybody here at the station a big thanks. We had time to rest, eat, sleep and repair some equipment and last but not least reflect on something which I felt the last three days before reaching Hornsund research station, our first depot in southern Spitsbergen.

Skiing is inspiration

If nature speakes
You can listen to your inner self.
The landscape is in harmony
And gives us travelers the freedom we whish for.

After leafing Longyearbyen, the beauty of the landscape made my mind settle down. Since the year 2007 started, many things in my life has happened in a short while and I had hardly any time to catch up with it. As I ski along my mind is moving from one side to the other like a broom, cleaning up all the mess I left behind in my little brain. Now everything seems to just settle in the right place. Being out here on the glaciers, between the mountains sets everything in the right relation. Worries I have had are not left behind, they become small, smaller and finally disappear. They were self made or at least artificial. This is a great feeling. I love freedom and that’s what I can find out here. If my mind settles my inner voice speaks up. This inner voice of me is one of the most important things I actually own. One reason to be here skiing is to listen to that voice. The lectures I already learned by listening to that voice are one of the most important in my live. It guides me. I believe it is the truth in me that speaks up. This voice is very silent and it needs a harmonic setting to be heard. Among the glaciers, on skies and leaving nothing behind then silence, that’s the right place for me.

This journey is not an adventure, my life is the adventure. At this moment I don’t want to be anywhere else then where I am. With my five companions, in the breathtaking landscape of southern Spitsbergen and with the snowprincess in my heart.


I want to thank anyone who has helped us to make this dream of mine come true.

With the best arctic whishes
Ulli

Let's face the storm

The only place we have Internet access on our trip is the Polish research station at Hornsund. The hospitality of the local scientists and station crew is tremendous, and since I cannot sleep this night (too nervous of the things to come), I would like to use this opportunity to thank them for all the help and support extended our way. The same goes for all the support crews back home, especially Sylvie Girard for transmitting our sat phone messages into a great blog (you're doing a great job!). Thanks for all the messages from around the world!

We had a busy day today, fixing various pieces of equipment (like a tripod, sealing the VBL - a plastic bag we sleep in to avoid ice forming in the sleeping bags) and repacking our pulks with the new food. Now we're real ready for the next stage, scheduled to last 27 days (!!!). This means the pulks are about twice as heavy as when we left Longyearbyen. And thanks to the ice conditions in Hornsund it's also not the easiest route. It feels like a labyrinth of steep cliffs, uncertain ice foots, (lack) of sea ice, polar bears (lots of tracks around here) and also a little bit of headwind (like 10 m/s). I guess it's not hard to understand why we're all a little bit nervous, but at least we feel positive about the new challenges ahead and want to "face the storm", in a hopefully not literal sense of the word.

Greetings from Hornsund, and have a nice spring!

Kim and the rest of the F5 team

A night at Hornsund Palace

A quick message from Hornsund Research Station : yes! Even here in the middle of the Arctic desert, Internet brings everyone close!

We got here on monday in the late afternoon and people welcomed us warmly.

Ten minutes after we got in, they served us a full hot meal!!!

Hornsund is a rather small research base. Only eight people live here during the winter, twelve at the moment.

The Polish scientists are very friendly and greeting us very warmly. It's a great pleasure to get to know them. Life here is so different from Longyearbyen.

It is a unique opportunity for us to be here, to meet these people and share a little bit of their lives and activities.
The Hornsund area is totally forbidden to snow scooters and tourists. There are only scientits around.

I looked at the blogs and Iwant to thank the support team for all they are doing updating them. It feels great for us to to have all this information network around our expedition!

I just loved the "Swiss pools" story !!! (NB :support team members spent a few hours on that one!) I also checked the web site and the number of visitors is up to 700 per day this week!

I 'm falling asleep so I guess I'll go to bed now. Everything is going so well, it sounds too good to be true... Things might get a little tougher around thursday, as there is a storm forecast with a 30 knots wind!

Kim is going to try to send some pictures but I'm not sure the Internet connexion will let them get through.

NB from support team: Kim's pictures did get through, you just discovered the first ones!

Another Easter surprise

Yesterday, in the evening, we had a call from Lucas.

One thing for sure: our Frozen Five explorers are really happy and enjoying every second of their skiing trip.

They are moving fast on the map and are even a few days ahead of schedule.
The storm they went trough at the beginning didn’t stop them for long.

During the storm, they had problems because their tent wasn’t totally closed and the freezing wind got inside and froze part of their stuff.

But this misfortune left apart, they are lucky and enjoying a superb weather, very cold and sunny. The low temperatures (down to minus 30°C) ensure good snow and ice .
Their muscles are getting used to pulling the pulkas although they had one very hard day, with a continuous climbing and had to put on their crampons.
When the snow is deep and fresh, the pulka seems heavier to pull, but on hard freezing snow, they even forget their burden.

As for food, they planned extra-large! Except for Ulli who manages to finish his daily rations, the other four have too much to eat. They plan to leave their extra food at the Polish research station where they are to arrive on Monday.

They have met reindeers but no polar bears yet. The bears though, are not far : bear footprints are to be seen here and there in the snow.

Lucas is totally amazed by the awesome landscapes he and his companions are discovering everyday. Although he’s already spent some time in the Arctic, he still feels very little in front of the gigantic beauties of mountains and glaciers large as two highways brought together !

Erratum : In one of our last messages, we told you it was sometimes difficult to hear every word in Frozen Five messages: so we must confess after checking with Lucas during this conversation that the F5 actually crossed recently“Nup passet” and not passage…

Sylvie

Behind the scene 2

FYI (For Your Information):

Martin (yes, the one who is also behind the daily maps and progress, so we can follow Frozen Five in almost real time) found yesterday some other blogs mentioning the expedition. I'm taking the liberty to post the links here:

100th blog of Laurel (photographer- ecologist- journalist- healthcare researching- animal wrangler) with some nice photos taken when the expedition started.

Guardian Mobility blog posted on the 1st February 2007 in the connection with the tracer testing during the Frozen Five preparation trip in France.

Northern Waterways blog posted on the 28th March 2007 with general information about the expedition and its start.

Thanks, Martin!
Jitka

Easter update

Hello!

This is Mats from the Frozen Five delivering the blog for today!

It’s been quite hard for all of us to start again after the break. Today we were entering the Nup passage and we left the old mountains and valleys behind. As we entered this completely new area, I realized how long we had spent in the same place.

The sun has been shining today and we have done quite a good distance. and it’s been a really nice day for all of us. The weather has been really nice everyone is happy and even our dog André is going well along with us. He is actually walking freely in the camp from time to time.

We all wish you the best and a Happy Easter to everyone at home. We thank you for all the messages that we received so far and we hope we’ll hear from you soon.

Bye Bye!

Mats

PS from Sylvie : As Martin wrote, we are sometimes having problems hearing F5 voices during their phone messages. We're doing our best to update the blog!

Behind the scene

First of all, congratulations to F5 - today their route tracer reported that they reached the first 100 km (in reality they did it already sometimes ago because the tracer does not record all nitty-gritty route windings).

Now back to my "behind the scene" theme. Last evening I felt like a decrypter from the Bletchley Park. Kim called Sylvia (a head of the backup team in France) asking to check about... well, about the "Swiss pools". His voice, torn by wind and storm, was obscure and impenetrable. Sylvia made an evening call to England, transmitted us the Kim's voice message, and deciphering started. What the hell, could he mean?

Was it a subconscious message reflecting Kim's hidden thoughts about a thermal pool in the luxury of Switzerland? :-)

Of course not. Finally, after few dead ends, Jitka hit the jackpot: Kim's resting email box shown that he negotiated a deal with a sponsor about the ski poles (ski sticks), which have not arrived before the expedition started. But they are on the way, and Kim definitely wants them. And their name? Well, "Swix poles". Melodically not so far from the "Swiss pools", is it?

Martin

PS. At least, we think we solved it... Let's wait for after Eastern.

Stormy weather

Hello world! speaking from the Arctic !

It is really a truly special place and difficult to describe for someone who hasn’t felt its wind on its bare skin. Still I will give you a go through this blog.

Almost a week ago has passed since we left civilization last Thursday but we are still getting used to the environment.

The beautiful, even though rather cold Thursday lets us enter into the world of Artic much more easily

Right now the weather god has planned a week 14 storm on our way and after contacting the meteorologist at Longyearbyen airport, we decided to set foot for a few days until it passes.

Getting behind the largest snow wall ever built we now have some spare time to reflect up on the things that I feel personally important up here.

For a start dirty socks and smelly clothes are no reason for panic up here.

Ice in the sleeping bag on the other hand is a worry.

Communication is, just like everywhere else for it matters, key for keeping a good moral.

“So far so good” : we‘ve got the Frozen Five spirit on our side after all.

Before I return to the cleaning and repairing of the broken equipments at fifteen degrees below zero let me give you a small advice :

Live your dreams !that’s what I’m doing right now and even if I may be somehow cold and a little smelly and physically bruised from pulling around a couple of tons I ‘m still the happiest guy in the world.

Kim

PS :I ‘m even more happy from reading all your messages! thanks for all the support from around the world!

April 1, first satellite message from the five...this is not April Fool'sday!

I received a satellite message from the Frozen Five Sunday night around 11:30. I will get a message every three days or so which will allow me to update the French and English blogs. Visit the website to follow their progress on the updated map.

Photographs illustrating articles come from the Frozen Five pictures gallery.

Here is what Lucas told me :

The five members of the team and the dog André are all well. At 11:30 PM, they had just finished setting up their tent as Sunday has been a long and hard day : they have covered twenty kilometres, skiing in extreme cold with lots of wind and managed to cross Van Mijen Fjord.

The weather has been perfect since they left Longyearbyen last Thursday but at the same time, very cold : temperatures go down to minus 30° Celsius and more!

They have to go back to an almost-animal like life or rather a survival life. Every movement can turn out to cause great pain. For example, touching metal is very painful, so one has to anticipate to protect oneself, and secure fingers, feet, or face from frostbites.

However, the extreme cold has helped them in their progress because it ensured very good ice and snow conditions on the fjord.

Friday, friends from Longyearbyen visited them by scooter and brought some forgotten necessities (see previous message ). The team sends their warmest thanks to their visitors for the great time and evening spent together!

They also want to thank all the people who attended their departure ceremony in front of UNIS : the cheers and help from everyone will follow them all the way!

Many encouragement messages also reached them by e-mail. One point though : please send e-mails using the form available on the Iridium website :

http://messaging.iridium.com/

or the following address :

881631578544@msg.iridium.com

but not the Frozen Five website (the messages sent by the F5 site were not easy to read).

To-day April 2 is an off-day in order to relax aching muscles after the quick pace of the last four days and to dry frozen and wet equipments!

Sylvie

Web site panic

[This is only a technical post, nothing to do with the expedition itself. Sorry for bothering you...]

Due to problems with the domain name frozenfive.org, it may happen that the usual link to the expedition main page will not be available during the next 24 hours. Therefore, if you see a strange page please go instead to http://frozenfive.senger.dyndns.org. I hope that everything will be back to normal soon...

Martin

greetings from the F5!

Sanna, a friend of the F5 has met them yesterday and sends some good news :

"So far they have reached the end of Gangalen and heading towards Reindalen and Van Mijen fjord. As results of two days of skiing they have zero frostbites, zero polar bears and a big list of things that they forgot to take with them.
Some of the missing things, which were the most important and reasonnable, Sana delivered to them yesterday, like the fuel for the stoves...with a tiny communication problem, she tought they forgot ALL the fuel but later in the evening she found out that they had some, they just missed the emergency fuel...Looks likes they were more prepared than what was expected!
Some of the important things are still missins like a peeing bottle (500ml) to Ulli because it is too cold to out to pee in the middle of the night...he needs his luxury.
So if anybody plans a trip to their way...and even though you don't have anything to bring to them and you are going their way, they would be happy to get visitors.
Like Kim said : "Three visits a day makes the doctor go away!"

Sanna did that yesterday, now it's somebody else's turn!