'I'm glad I'm not first going over that lead,' commented Darcy as he watched AJ step out onto a very unstable piece of ice. I watched AJ, too - carefully place his ski on the opposite side of a small open gap. With nothing to freeze against the ice nearest to the water bowed dramatically under his weight. I groaned out loud. 'Yikes' I thought as I knew the weight of AJ's sled would damage the integrity of the ice. But not totally, I would most likely be able to cross safely.

Looking back at Darcy I smiled and said, I'm glad I'm not the last.' We all laughed long and hard as each of us have all been in the same situation - first and last. With our progress inching closer to the pole, the stress is noticeably lifting. We laugh more and have actual conversations at breaks.

Today was full of wonderment and awe. It was difficult with a wide variety of weather from whiteout to blizzard to sun to cold to warm. The ice was bad as our mileage indicates; however, we stopped frequently to take pictures and watch with amazement. While there were many incredible sights today, there were three wonders that caught my attention most.

Wonder number one: Sleeping last night I thought I heard ice pressuring in the distance. Getting out of the tent first thing this morning, we were surprised to see a five foot wide lead of open water only 15 feet from the SD Big Kev. Had we pitched the tent slightly north, we would have been quite wet. By the time we left the tent after breakfast, the gap had closed to only two feet.

Wonder number two: we skied through a section of big thick triangularish slabs surrounded by water. The ice was moving and the pans were being shoved, cracked and twisted in all different directions. They bobbed haphazardly in the water. The light was rich and yellow. We all took several pictures.

Wonder number three: I don't have a list of the most incredible things I've ever seen, but if I did this would be on it. We walking were on a thin ice lead when suddenly we felt the ice shift violently to our left. We moved only two inches or so, but the whole lead we were standing on (nearly a half mile long) shifted at once. Simultaneously, we heard the loud 'CHUG' of ice sliding over ice. This happened five or six times. Incredible.

If you're on Facebook or Twitter, visit the Polar Explorer Eric Larsen page or @ELExplore to share the wonders from your week. Thanks!

Image: The second wonder of today.

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.

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.