MURRAY: DAY 7, 29th APRIL

I slowly stirred this morning to the sound of the stove roaring and Niall preparing a finely crafted brew. The tent was warm, a toasty 16C. Sunlight was blazing through the open door which could only mean one thing - perfect hauling conditions. Shorts, t-shirt, easy navigation and a beautiful vista. My dream ended abruptly with a powerful stinging sensation in my eyes, snow blindness. After blinking a few times to clear my eyes the literally chilling truth hits me, it's -10C, there's a vigorous wind shaking the tent, and worst of all it's still snowing. However life goes on and there's a job to be done, a sequence of events to achieve it.
7am and on with the snow. Melt ice, make drinks and then breakfast. Eat. Get out of warm sleeping bag. On with the salopettes, harness and jacket. Retrieve dry and very, very smelly socks from bottom of sleeping bag. A bit of foot surgery. Squeeze feet into what we pray will be dry and flexible boots, and curse when they're frozen stiff. Pack everything and time to brave the conditions. Packing everything into pulks (sledges) has to be done as fast as possible or your extremities freeze pretty rapidly.
9am and we set out into what we can only describe as a blank white canvas. Visibility is about 15-20m, there is no sense of up or down, left or right. This becomes more and more apparent over time. When walking with no horizon you simply don't even know if you're standing upright. Niall has mastered the art of using a GPS and tracks a very, very fast straight line. I discovered in the early hours that my GPS kept losing signal. This mixed with no land reference and my blurred vision meant walking in a straight line is a bit trickier than usual. However it turned out that it was my old friend the wind that was to come to my aid. By using my body as a weather vain I discovered that I could track on an impressive straight line. So much so that I spent my leading hours with my eyes closed. Partly because my eyes stung, partly because the goggles were steamed up, partly because I could focus better and think of burgers, chocolate and jacuzzis, but mainly because there was absolutely nothing else to see. But we still managed to bash out a 22.1km stint with over 200m altitude. Over 8hrs of constant walking. Much credit to Niall who led some shifts of over 3km per hour.
We are settled in for the night and ready for the next day. Our position is 66 07.951'N 40 32.559'W