Day 18 of the expedition
Distance traveled: 0km / 0 mi
Position: N 66,50 W 047,17
Elevation: 1,774 m / 5,820 ft

No wind. That's probably the best way to sum up the last few days. Slightly un-enjoyable is another way to put it. Given the bad weather, a mix of head winds and snow that melts on contact, we have largely been confined to our tents. This confinement has its positives though, it gives us time to relax, read, charge our various batteries, film, and contemplate our futures. And when we have exhausted the joyfulness in these activities we can always resort to skiing.

We are easily a leisure 3 days ski from our point of departure, and a mere 8 hours by kite. Its staggering to note the difference, it makes one question whether skiing is even worth it, and we do pose the question often. As a general strategy we only ski to get to a location where we think there will be better winds, or out of pure boredom. We are quickly approaching the threshold of the second criteria.

Myself, I have spent these last few days enjoying the rest, reading a book regarding the future of electric vehicles and charging the variety of appliances in our possession using two Brunton solar panels. Currently they are strapped to the top of our hilleberg tent, and when wired in parallel they provide 28 watts of power. Inside the tent we have a solo battery pack which when fully charged has a capacity of 153 Wh, more than enough to power our satellite phones, palm pilots, music players, camera batteries, GPS, and even a small speaker. If this ever fails to be enough power we brought along, purely as an experiment, a 400 watt wind turbine.

Eric McNair-Landry