Arctic Trucks

18th to 20th Nov 2009

Weather still ok, but very cold, so even the -50C antifreeze is freezing. Packed up after breakfast, and made good progress, up to 45-50 km/hr at some times. However had problems with coolant on one of the trucks, leakage and air in system. Managed to sort out. Continued driving through small strusugi (blown snow features), then we had some problems with ice forming in fuel, but quickly managed to sort this and then continued. Still cold and nothing but blue sky and mirages

As we were making such good progress decided to continue on to the fuel drop area, and we actually arrived early in the morning on the 19th, and could see that it would be a good area for both the fuel drop and future landing area. We are at 83deg 20min south. Weather still cold around -35 – 45C, but we are warm in the tent…though the Vodka froze again…well this is a Russian expedition! Tried to get data link working but the signal strength intermittent, and bandwidth only bits per second at times!

The area we are at is basically featureless, a white desert that goes on and on for 100,s of km,s. The air is so dry at the altitude (2600m), you need to make sure that you drink lots of water. The weather is remarkably good with 24hr sun, and little wind. The arrival of clouds are always discussion points!

Prepared a 200 x 600 m drop zone. The drop is planned for the morning of the 21th, but may be delayed due bad weather in Novo. The plan landed there yesterday in 24 m/s cross winds on an ice runway!
Data link on Iridium phone is unbelievably slow and erratic so it’s impossible to send photos, or anything else that matter.