Murray: Day 13, 5th May

After a day of ultimate scrabble and book reading due to being pinned
in by severe winds, we woke to find a beautiful day, not breath of
wind and sheet ice - perfect. The temperature dropped to -20 during
the night, and then warmed to -18 when it came to packing up and
making a move. The day although very successful, in that we set
covered a new pb of 28.7 km, was riddled with a number murray
classics, starting with putting a metal clip in my mouth to free my
hands when packing up the pulks, which then stuck to my tongue, and a
mini tug of war ensued. 4 km in, and looking back to admire the
distance covered, I realised my thermos was missing, which is an ultra
important bit of kit due to limited supply and the fact it contains
3/4 of my days fluids, so a 4km dash back to recover was necessary.
The rest of the day went rather well, with conditions as pleasant as
could be. We just had some supper - chilli con carne, applied to
extremely dry cracked lips this caused a vibrant sting. on that note
i'd like to wish my cuz Dale luck on his first peaks mission, and
massive thanks to doms charity contribution in sport, its cracking to
have support of the community. Our position today is N66 25.576 W42
33.235, elevation 2374m

NIALL: DAY 12, 4th MAY

Failure to prepare is preparation to fail. Last night we erected the tent in near calm conditions. We could see the wet shaped front of a hostile weather system but knew that we had just outrun it and that it would strike with all it's force a little further to our east. Concerned that we might experience a little turbulence from this passing front we angled out tent so that the rear end faced into a light breeze and piled up a little more snow than usual on the snow skirt that is stitched around the tent's fly sheet. We were asleep by 11pm as usual, but at midnight I was woken as the tent shuddered. I was showered with little ice crystals of condensed breath from the ceiling and the tent groaned again. The temperature inside was -18.4C and the barrage had started. 6am came and I cooked breakfast (while Murray slept). I could barely hear the stove, normally so loud over the sound of the wind outside. The winds are raging at force 5, gusting 6, blowing from the N/NW as predicted, which would cut into our faces should we haul out into it. We had to make a decision. In these winds could we safely take down camp? And at these extreme low temperatures in lethal combination with the winds could we avoid frostbite? The answer was obvious. So we returned to our sleeping bags while the tempest raged around us. We resolved to wait until 12pm when the temperature would be much less dangerous and reasess our situation again. We played a game of scrabble, in which I scored a fine 275, then Muzz popped his head out to have a look at the weather "absolutely no way". The winds are forecast to subside at around 6pm today and we expect favorable easterly winds force 2-3 tomorrow and Wednesday which we aim to make up for this lost day, well I am at least. I think Muzz is quite happy with a day of R&R after the beasting I've given him these past couple of days. We are 70km to the highest point of our crossing and 368km to go to the finish. By my conservative calculations we should reach the summit in 3 days and the coast in a further 12 days. But I am assured by the people at Expedition Greenland that we may be even faster, given the ability to travel quickly that we have demonstrated thus far. As such, although it's a little premature to make bold predictions, I calculate our ETA on the west coast as being maybe the 18th or 19th.
Things are really rather serious today and are both eagerly anticipating a return to relative normality tomorrow.
Our position remains 66 20.476'N 41 56.849'W, altitude 2238m.
We are well rested but we are both in need of the loo. A polar poop is quite out of the question in conditions like these. A big polar hello to all of the kids at SuperClubs Plus and GoldStar Cafe. We will toast you a warm cup of hot chocolate tonight. We hope you are enjoying following our journey and are very much uplifted by your support. My love also to Rachel and my family.

MURRAY: DAY 11, 3rd MAY

While gazing at the vast expanse of snow as far as the eye can see, amongst the panting and puffing of the 7th hour of hauling our bulky sleds I catch a glimpse of what can only be described as an elf. With his little green hat and curly ended shoes, the elf is having a pee against a 6ft tall red and white striped lollypop. The elf catches sight of me and, as startled as it is to see me and I am to see it, jumps into a nearby hole. The dilemma – do I follow it? The decision is made quickly and I dive down the hole. After struggling with going down this elf sized hole I discover that it opens out into a huge expanse of toys. Toys being made, toys being packed. At the end of the hole is Santa Claus. The story goes on and takes all sorts of twists and turns. It is simply extraordinary what your mind and imagination can distract you with in times of boredom and pain.
We’ve walked another 24.1km today, taking us ever closer to our summit of 2500m. We had a rise and fall of 20C with -17C in the morning and a tropical 3C mid afternoon and then inevitably back down for the night. Preparing for such temperature fluctuations requires a range of personal equipment and layers including my daily clothing system which includes a t-shirt/board shorts base layer followed up with skiing trousers and a breathable jacket with a coyote fur lined hood which totally encloses our faces and protects us from the bitterly cold wind and snow. If conditions worsen we have a neoprene face mask and an emergency coat and gloves which are lined with goose feathers, otherwise known as down, and act just like a duvet. After a long day and back in the tent and the games commence in order to decide who has to get out of their sleeping bag and make dinner.
Our position is 66 20.476'N 41 56.849'W

NIALL: DAY 10, 2nd MAY

As long as you're in pain you're okay. It's when the pain stops that you are in trouble. This may sound like a paradox but for polar adventurers (and for people with leprosy) it is a very sensible paradigm. Polar adventurers, just like lepers, are most at risk of losing their extremities such as fingers and toes. Frostbite is a constant threat at these latitudes and we have been to be vigilant to avoid getting it and losing digits. If your fingers and toes hurt the nerves in them are still alive which means you haven't got frostbite. If you lose the sensation of pain then you are much more at risk. Today, like yesterday, my toes only warmed up at 4 in the afternoon, over 7hrs after hauling out. But I was never too concerned because I was experiencing the comforting sense of pain throughout. The wind is a real killer out her - if you expose your fingers for too long when stopping for a snack say, it can take the whole of the next hour's hauling to warm them up again.

Our day starts at around 6.30am when I wake up and put the stove on while Muzz grabs and extra 30mins of beauty sleep. The stove takes about an hour to melt all our snow for the day so we busy ourselves preparing our drinks and food and calling in our position to the staff at Expedition Greenland. After breakfast we pack up and haul out for the day. Each of us completes 4 leads where we break a trail through the snow for the other person. We have increased the time of these leads to 75mins to add more hours to our hauling day. After each pair of leads we stop for a bit of food and drink. The food is things like raising and peanuts and muesli bars - all high in calories and mostly quite tasty. Once we finish our day's hauling we whiz the tents up, brush off all the ice from the inside caused by condensation from breathing and cooking freezing on the tent walls and pile snow up around the tent to protect us from the wind. The stove goes on again for the evening's drinks and food. For meals we eat freeze dried packets of expedition food. Muzz is relatively new to this game so the novelty of these meals is yet to wear off. But I spent 63 days eating this rubbish and it all tastes the same to me, it all tastes of dung. We add 50g of butter and 50g of cheese to these meals for extra calories and creamy consistency and add salt and pepper to try and give it some flavour. Every night we brush the snow and ice off our boots and use them as a part of our pillow to keep them from freezing too much. It's time for bed. Muzz drops straight off while I read about while I read about the evolution of human nature.

We had a storming day today, pulling 27.2km And we are now at camp 10 and our position is 66 16.075'N 41 26.511'W and an altitude of 2125m above sea level.

Today's blog has been a bit more factual and a bit less rambling. I promise I will return to my usual rambling self tomorrow. Today's been a great day, here's hoping for more of the same tomorrow. Happy bank holiday all.

MURRAY: DAY 9, 1st MAY

“Don’t forget to take time out and view the fantastic scenery”, Niall shouts back to me. Me, a man who has 95% of his goggles duct taped up and the other 5% steamed up. We jump out of the tent today to a refreshing -16ºC with about a 15-18knot wind, making getting out of bed seem an unbearable idea. However what was more unbearable was the fact that phantom polar elephants had snuck into our pulks the previous evening, making the pulks seem twice as heavy as they should. Even Niall’s ….. mark of 2,000 couldn’t….. The proof of this was in the ground covered during the day – a mere 14km from the 8hrs of continuous pulling. Niall has proved an excellent nurse over the past day and I am well on the road to recovery. So much so that I was able to catch a spectacular glimpse of the fantastic scenery as evening dawned and the roaring orange sun set. We are hunkered down. We can only hope the snow firms and we can get an awesome slide on.
PS I overheard Niall talking hygiene in the previous blog. You will be glad to know that I’ve decomissioned my t-shirt after 165hrs of use.
Our position is 66º11.011’N, 40º52.566’W and elevation 1978m
Muzzy and Nially signing off

N.B. I was unable to distinguish what Muzz was saying at one point so the above blog is missing part of a sentence.

MARGARET: UPDATE FROM SUPPORT

Niall and Murray are doing this adventure for our chosen charity, Help for Heroes. If you can please make a donation at www.justgiving.com/epicgreenland. Lots of small donations all add up, so even if you can only afford a few pounds please donate today.

Apologies for the delayed posting of Murray's day 7 blog. The support team spent a long time on the phone to the boys yesterday and we didn't want to cause unecessary alarm until we had dealt with the situation.
Snow blindness passes within a couple of days and we would like to reassure everyone, especially Murray's loved ones, that he will be absolutely fine. The boys have access to a group of highly trained Royal Marines and people with lengthy experience in the Arctic. Yesterday we spoke to all of them and, based on their advice, the boys were able to make some well informed decisions as to how to proceed. Their response was exemplary and there is no doubt in my mind they will complete this adventure safely.

NIALL: DAY 8, 30th APRIL

If you're going through hell, keep going. Unless that's just completely reckless, in which case put your tent up and enjoy a day of R&R. After a soaring days skiing yesterday we both slept well and awoke hoping for more of the same today. Unfortunately Murray's snow blindness has deteriorated so we aborted all attempts to ski today after 30mins and spent the day hunkered down and recharging our batteries.
Snow blindness is essentially sunburn of the retina. The best way to cure it is to cover the eyes completely, which is what we've done today. But there are several methods of soothing the discomfort. One that was recommended to us on the sat phone today was to place cold, wet tea bags on his eyelids. I had a quick look at our store of all of our tea, all citrus flavours, not exactly ideal to have lemon tea in your eyes "that's a negative on the tea, we've got loads of coffee though if that helps". Murray spent the day with a snow wet pair of used long johns wrapped around his face. Eating has become a two man operation, as has drinking. You can imagine my consternation when Muzz announced that he needed to pee. While Murray's been blindfolded Ive taken the opportunity to swap all the rubbish bits of food out of my food store for all the scrummy bits in his. And as for his toothbrush, he's going to get a big surprise tonight when he goes to brush his teeth as I've had all kinds of fun with that!
Today has been predominately about caution. Muzz is very tough and very brave and we could have been gung ho and pushed on. But what with a third party being evacuated from the icecap these past two days we well appreciate the necessity of a pragmatic approach to this challenge.
We have consumed our regular daily rations so our bodies will be enjoying a 2,500 calorie surplus tonight. It's now a week since we were dropped off onto the ice and over 2 weeks since leaving the comfort of home. This means a week without washing… for Murray… and 2 weeks for me. Amazingly though, we don't appear to be smelling too bad.
People have been asking what we do to occupy ourselves in the evenings. Aside from cooking, eating and drinking we chat a lot. There are so many interesting things to discover about each other that we are never short of conversation. We sometimes play scrabble (I won tonight) and each evening one of us gets out the pen and paper to write a daily blog.
Here are a couple of other interesting little titbits from our daily routine:
Toothpaste freezes at this temperature so we brush our teeth using tooth power. It takes about 45mins to melt enough snow for our food and drink every morning and evening. We are taking an extreme mix of nutrient tables to replace lost vitamins and electrolytes (a cocktail of NUUN, Berocca and Ola Loa) so much so that I feel like the Keith Richards of the adventuring world. The expedition beards are progressing nicely. Muzz has some great coverage and I look more and more like Confucius every day.
We didn't move far today but for those wanting to plot our position for camp 8 our position is: 66 08.203'N 40 34.319'W
We are well rested and, after a week on the ice, well into our routines. Everything is slick and efficient. Both of us are eagerly looking forward to continuing our journey westwards safely, rapidly and in high spirits. I'm off to get some more coffee for Muzz's eyes. Speak to you all again soon.