Day 48, 22 February 2016

Problems and challenges all day

Today was meant to be easy! We travelled down a long thin lake in a steep ravine, which had open water at both ends, so we went to the edge of the lake for safety reasons. After the lake we came to a totally windswept area, where all the snow had blown away so we had to join narrow ribbons of snow. It was like a giant quarry with hillocks of gravel.  It became worse, so we had to take off skis and drag the sleds over rocks. It was a real maze. The summer markers led to a really steep valley that we had to find a way down. The ascent up the other side was near vertical, so we had to kick footsteps. Then Conrad broke the tip off his ski pole! He spent 2 hours doing a repair (at the cabin) cutting a piece of metal , forcing it into the end of the pole, then wiring it in location, sharpening it and putting in grooves to get a grip, before finally gluing it. We will see how long it lasts... It was a testing day where we had to try and find solutions to problems thrown at us. The cabin was very old, but very cosy. We seem to be in an area devoid of snow, so hopefully we can find some tomorrow.