Cue the Blizzards !

Sunrise brought a much calmer, brighter and very mild morning promising a good day. Looking at the position of our sleds balanced precariously on slopes with deep, soft snow all round hinted at the fun and games to be had trying to get the dogs to the sleds and then again when setting off from camp.

Brian having been to collect water - it takes a while getting anywhere when the snow's this deep.

I think everyone felt very apprehensive about today's start and it would take a miracle to be able to get going without any hitches whatsoever. Sure enough people started having problems very early on. We made very slow progress, far to slow and for what seemed like no reason at all. Tove and Tore were not happy with the group's performance and made it quite clear people were going to have to work a lot harder and totally concentrate 100% of the time. Chastisement seemed to have done the trick and there seemed to be less problems later in the day. Once up on the plateau the scenery was superb - we were surrounded by "Toblerone" peaks of nearby mountains, everything seemed very peaceful and the morning's tension melted away. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip; one of those "special moments" beyond words.

These pics taken by Brian our Exped Leader

Before we knew it the weather changed again. Rapidly the wind came sweeping across the plateau stirring up the snow with a vengence. Visibility was limited to the point were the feint outline of the person in front could just be made out. You couldn't tell the difference between land and sky at this point. We tried to keep as close as possible so we wouldn't become separated. This was one of the "hairy" moments - I didn't want to blink in case I lost sight of the person in front of me. This seemed to last for hours. It was extremely cold; we were told later that it was -25°today.

Due to the weather Tove and Tore decided it was best to keep on the move. Going all day without a stop meant snacking on what we'd stuffed in our pockets at breakfast time; in my case nuts and raisins and mini Jaffa cakes as I'd forgotten to put my sandwiches in my pocket today and they'd been sitting in the flap on top of the sled - needless to say at today's cold temperatures they were rock solid. Despite or perhaps because of the bad weather, I think everyone was concentrating 200% and there were no mishaps and we managed to get to our base for setting up camp quite early.

Looking around we've stopped at what looks like middle of nowhere, a flat plain as far as the eye can see with a little hill like bump to one side. Amongst our "kit" we had been issued with 2 planks of wood and now it was time to use them! We had to dig a hole about 3 ft deep, tie our stakeout chains to them before dropping them in the hole, refill, stomp like mad to compact it all and hopefully when it was all frozen over it would be nice and secure and all the dogs would still be there in the morning!!!

Karen busy digging the hole for our stakeout line

This is me checking out Karen's handiwork - think its deep enough but dare I tell her the planks are a bit longer than the size of the hole !!

Feeding the dogs went like clockwork this evening and seemed to be over in no time at all. We were told to line up our sleds side by side and gather all our kit together and put it in a big heap, this seemed very strange and we weren't sure why. Next minute a huge skidoo arrived pulling a trailer took away all our stuff and 5 minutes later came back and we all piled onto it and had a quick ride - still didn't know what was going on but it was great fun. In minutes we were the other side of the "hill" and at a little cluster of cabins by a frozen lake.

Quick chat before distributing the dog food

Preparing the dog's food

Totally unexpectedly we are told we are be allowed to use the cabins for the night although Tove and Tore and Brian would be staying in their tents. This had not been part of our itinerary and we all are totally stunned, amazed, grateful beyond words as it had been a bit of a nightmare 2 days for some.

When Karen and I went inside our little cabin we could have done cartwheels. We had bunk beds, a kitchen area with stove to cook our meal, a little table and bench where we could eat our meal and most importantly HEATING to dry out our clothes - we couldn't have been happier even if we were staying at the Ritz!!!