Abby and Elizabeth went down to the sea ice today to set up their tent, check its guylines, and add extra cord to the tie-out points. As they walked towards the ice edge, they were surprised to find newly-formed sea ice along the shore, extending out forty feet to the jumbled, old sea ice where the dog teams were staked.

The new ice was very slick and smooth, with some sections of standing water. It took them a moment to realize what had caused this change on the shore. Abby and Elizabeth soon realized, however, that the tide had recently come in, inundating the shore, and then had gone back out, leaving behind water that was quickly freezing into a skating rink. They realized that the old ice, further from the shore where the dogs were staked, had risen and fallen in tact with the tide and stayed dry on top.

Abby and Elizabeth knew they would need to make it to the old, jumbled ice to find a dry and safe place to pitch their tent. It was so slippery, however, that they barely made it across the new wet ice without falling.

As they pitched their tent, the wind picked up and whipped the tent noisily. Once fastened to the surface with ice screws, however, the tent was secure. Abby and Elizabeth crawled inside to check out the tent that will be their home for the next three months.

John S. and Nancy cut poly rope for dog necklines.

The team is working full-time to finish the gear preparations for the upcoming departure. Even though they did a lot of work on gear before they left Minnesota, there are certain tasks that had to wait until the team arrived on Baffin.

Collapsible tent poles have to be taped together and pinned into the ends of their sleeves to make tent setup easy, stove fuel has to be purchased and put in bottles, sleds have to be lashed, satellite phones and beacons tested, ropes cut, dog necklines made, leather mukluks and mitts waterproofed, and food repacked into duffle bags.

John S. and Jim cut ropes and burn the ends to keep them from fraying.

Marie Airut and Killa Ikummaq help make dog necklines (a process called fidding).

Elizabeth uses an electric drill to make holes in tent poles to pin the poles into the ends of the sleeves.

Simon Qamanirq and John Huston stuff sleeping bags and bivy bags.

Elizabeth waterproofs her mukluks.

Boxes of satellite phones wait to be activated and tested.

Webmaster Jim works to add images and videos to the website.

Using pins Nancy secures tent poles into the ends of the sleeves.

Jim mounts ski bindings and Elizabeth tapes collapsible tent poles together.

• Windy day
• 28 mile travel day
• Cramped, but comfortable quarters
• Simon and Lukie on the radio
• Longer days with ~5 hours of night