28 05 99

Position: 66° 01' 40" N 40° 02' 85° W

Diane's note: good, clear transmission today.

We had a prolonged day. We started at 9:25 a.m. and didn't finish until 6:30 p.m. and still only managed 11.7 kms. However all during the previous night we could hear the fine crystalline snow rattling off the side of the tent. That made the surface rather sticky. It wasn't as bad as it has been on previous occasions but it was certainly a lot slower than we had hoped for. Not only that the wind picked up very unusually from the south, which meant that it was slightly behind us and slightly to the side.

So we decided to have a go at the sails. Tore with his sail managed just fine. He has a parafoil which is different from the Spider sails Sunniva and I are using. We had a lot of problems with our sails. We tried different configurations. We kept falling; the lines got tangled and we had difficulty keeping the sails in a single position. The winds just didn't seem consistent. Our lack of success is partly due to the winds and partly our inexperience. I shouldn't say we wasted a lot of time because it was very good for us; we have to learn. It meant that perhaps we didn't make as much progress as we might have without the sails.

It just seems like we're constantly fighting slow conditions. We know that one of these days we'll get a break and be able to make some distance. We're gaining in elevation. We've made camp we think at 5 300 feet so we're getting up there.

We started off this morning in absolute whiteout conditions. We couldn't see anything up front, behind or to the side. Suddenly though we saw two black dots ahead; they were actually moving ahead. We think they were two small snow buntings. It's great to see something alive here.

End of transmission

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