3rd of March, 2005

It’s been a gray day, -22°F plagued by a 3-4 m/s southerly and we’ve basically followed a fresh wolf track all day and we’ve done 27 km:s during two days.

We’ve made it half way between Srednekolymsk and Kolymskaya. It feels satisfying and at last there’s a glimmer of hope in us ventually reaching Kolymskaya. On top of this, it seems like the body is waking up from the days of the nasty cold. For both of us. Johan’s moved like the speed of a bullet today. Probably due to the fact that we ate 12 pounds of moose meat the other day!

Finally, camping is once again beginning to feel comfortable and neat. Naturally due to that the climate is warming up and due to the many hours of daylight. If you compare camping today with that during Mid Winter, this is a relaxing holiday. At that time we had severe problems sleeping at all, with ice thawing off the spine the first couple of hours inside the sleeping bag, and it was terrifyingly cold day and night. Gee, if we’ve caught a cold during that period, I doubt we would have survived. At the moment -40°F feels comfortable, -22°F much more so! (By the way, there’s a major difference between – 40°F and -58°F. Much bigger than between -22°F and -40°F) At the present we’re already warm and dry even before entering inside the tent and once the stove worked up some warmth.

We eat a bag of freeze dried, drink a couple of mugs of coffee together with a couple of sandwiches, before we slowly, not in panic as it was during mid-winter, strip down and creep into the sleepingbags. Together with our wet gloves, balaclavas and socks. It than takes an hour to work up sufficient heat and comfort to be able to sleep. We sleep extremely well in this fresh air. (Temperatures below -44°F are not fresh and healthy!) We slept 11 hours the past night.

We will try to ski at least a week before we take a break. Hopefully a place with one of the local personalities!