04 06 99

Position: 66° 16' 12" N 42° 30' 43" W

Diane's note: good transmission today. The team has pretty much switched back to day travel. I'm hoping to resume our normal communication schedule.

We travelled from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and put in 19.3 kms. today. We're not actually sure of our elevation, probably around 7600 feet. It's a bit confusing what comes next. Our maps are quite conflicting. One map shows us going up to about 9000 feet, still about 60-70 kms. away from the high point. The second shows us only about 25 kms. away from the high point, not much more than 8000 feet.We're not really sure. We believe the second map because that's more in our favour (laugh). If it's true we should be at the high point tomorrow night or the day after.

Today was a great day. It started out windy and chilly. The surface was good, very crisp, not so much grooving. We found as the day progressed we were having to take various layers of clothing off because we were getting uncomfortably warm.We ended up, even at this altitude, at one point just travelling in a single layer of clothing. As soon as we stopped though we got quite chilled quickly. It was a pretty good day.

I'd like the young people following our reports to think about water. There is no water available here except what's frozen. Imagine that you get up in the morning and there's no milk, no orange juice, just ice cubes...

End of transmission

The team must melt snow to provide for their daily drinking water; glaciers have a large role to play in the world water supply. Visit National Snow and Ice Data Center, http://www-nsidc.colorado.edu/NSIDC/EDUCATION/GLACIERS/ and read "Do Glaciers Affect People".

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