A new remote audio post has been added to the blog...

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and Terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Scream Agency, Sierra Designs, Stanley, Optic Nerve and Clif Bar.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

A new remote audio post has been added to the blog...

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and Terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Scream Agency, Sierra Designs, Stanley, Optic Nerve and Clif Bar.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

We use our watches religiously to keep track of time during our navigation shifts, but really there are only five basic times here: Tent time, is any time we're in our Sierra Designs tent. Happy time (named after Darcy's who becomes noticeably happy) is when we pull our sleeping bags out of our SD bivy bags and go to sleep. Soup time is the halfway point of our travel day when we pull out our stanley-pmi.com/" target="_blank">Stanley flasks and have warm soup. Break time - self explanatory hopefully. And the rest is simply, time.

Each day we put in our time. Add it all up. Multiply by the number of days we've been out here and maybe, just maybe, we'll be close to the pole. After 45 days, I can finally say we are close to the north pole. Somtime late this afternoon we crossed the 89th parallel. Now only 58 miles left. It feels good to be here. I can feel myself relax if even just slightly.

We struggled today in the morning with low visibility, ice blocks and drifts. Our bearing takes us perpendicular to the long ridge lines of steep snow drifts. It is hard work skiing forward. We did get lucky with a couple newly frozen leads that spanned in exactly the same direction we wanted to go. However, they are still wet and slushy and the thin layer of snow on top sticks to our ski skins which makes it hard to ski. We decided to take off our madshus skis and walk. It was a nice break, but we were soon back in deeper snow where we rely solely on our skis now.

There were two bits of excitement today. First, we had another track and field meet - meaning we had to jump across a four foot wide gap (too wide to span with skis,, too narrow to swim). Later, we would ski into an actively pressuring ridge and hop across unstable brash ice on the other side. Both situations were potentially dangerous, but realistically more fun than anything else.

Most important, April 17th is my nephew, Tyler's Birthday. He is officially now 12 years old. Soccer star, straight 'A' student and all around good guy, he is my hero. Happy Birthday old man! I hope you have a great day.

Every once in a while I bring my SUUNTO compass into the tent and use the mirror to check my face for cold damage. Mostly, I just want to confirm that I still exist. There are some new lines around my eyes now. Gray hair in places too. I have always loooked young for my age. Not so much anymore. With my own 39th birthday coming up soon, I think about time more than I used to. Time...

Time for bed, but first for us, happy time.

Image: AJ making a short stretch across a big crack. He is starting to be more comfortable around unstable ice.

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing with major support from the University of Plymouth, terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com

For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/

For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com

For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and Terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Scream Agency, Sierra Designs, Stanley, Optic Nerve and Clif Bar.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

A new remote audio post has been added to the blog...

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and Terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Scream Agency, Sierra Designs, Stanley, Optic Nerve and Clif Bar.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.

Question of the morning: what would today's ice be like? Answer: good, bad and then medium. We woke to sunny skies and a even a bit less wind than yesterday, and for nearly three hours, we skied on really nice ice. Visibility was poor but not terrible. Our moods soared. During our first couple breaks we joked and laughed - much different from our quiet effort to eat quickly and start moving again before we're frozen.

When the sun came out later we all stopped to marvel at the blueness of the ice and wind blown snow. Then, the ice changed and we were back to the usual grind.

There is a unique phenomenon that we see regularly that I wanted to share - superior mirage. Not really the mirage we are usually hoping to see. You know, the whole oasis thing. Palm trees, a small pond just inviting us to take a warm swim... No our mirages have to do with ice. When we navigate, we usually find a big distinct looking piece of ice and ski towards it. From far away, the ice chunk often looks huge (several stories tall) but when we ski up next to it, the ice is only a few feet tall. Superior mirage are formed as light is reflected off of warmer layers of air.

I somehow managed to melt one side of the lens of my Optic Nerve goggles when I was thawing out my nose beak. I can still see through them but visibility through my left eye is impaired enough to make navigation very difficult. My heart sank when I saw what happened. My whole face and eye protection as well as hood and ruff management is centered around my Optic Nerve goggles. Argh! I spent the day pulling my ruff out of my face and my neck gaiter over my nose to prevent frost bite.

What is that saying... You avoid mistakes with good judgment. Good judgment comes from making mistakes.

Image: One of the many unique features of snow we see every day.

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing with major support froque m the University of Plymouth, terramar, Seventh Generation, Goal0, Atlas, Sierra Designs and Optic Nerve.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com

For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/

For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com

For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net

The Save the Poles expedition is sponsored by bing and Terramar with major support from Goal0, MSR, Scream Agency, Sierra Designs, Stanley, Optic Nerve and Clif Bar.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.ericlarsenexplore.com. For media inquiries, please contact lora@screamagency.com. For technical inquires, please contact webexpeditions.net. For lecture inquires, please contact smakmaria@yahoo.com.