A life in the tent
People have asked what our camp life is like and what we do once we crawl in the tent. Our tenting routine is quiet laborious but also very disciplined because by the end of the day we are not only tired but extremely cold, so we need to get warm in a hurry. We all […]
If there is a God. Today he is in the Arctic.
If I had to choose a favorite day so far on this expedition, it will be today. Not just because we are now on the other side of the countdown to 90 degrees but because of the gifts the arctic gave us throughout the day. Thanks to the excellent weather forecast from Helga van Leur […]
Replay: Facebook Live met Bernice Notenboom
Replay van de Facebook Live vanaf de Noordpool. 12 April 2017. Volg Bernice op Facebook
Halfway the trip… halfway our luck?
It warmed up in the Arctic today and we noticed! For the first time I did not have frost inside my jacket or clumps of ice hanging from the fur in my hood. The inner soles of my Baffin boots were not frozen neither were the zippers of my outside pockets. All this to a […]
The Arctic changed in a very frightened way
A journalist asked me for a few days ago if I can see the difference here at the North Pole between 2007 and this year. I had a think about it because you are here so briefly in one area at a specific time of the year so any observations I can make and compare […]
It’s like walking in a glass of milk
The weather report of today (thanks Helga van Leur and Mark Drinkwater) finely came through. Warmer temperatures (-28C), snow and wind from the southwest, luckily in our backs. Navigating becomes challenging in this kind of weather, you don’t know what north or south is or up and down. The sky and surface all blend into […]
Tracks on the ice… We are not alone here
Once in a while the Arctic throws something at you which makes you stop in your tracks and you need a moment to comprehend what just happens. Today we had such a moment. Still being unbearable cold, the first hour out of the tent is the moment of the naked truth - rested, warm and […]
Our first important milestone
A milestone today - skied 1/2 degree of latitude. Victor Serov who I call into every night with our position is really happy with our progress: ” You are doing very well Bernice and you are doing science” is his encouraging response every time I call in. I imagine he is sitting in a tent […]
non-sexy, unglamorous, protocol
Every 2 kilometers we stop to measure snow. Sometimes we would rather ignore this science because stopping and doing 10 measurements, writing down coordinates and snow depths is tedious, and time consuming. We know that this kind of science is non-sexy, unglamorous but perhaps one of the most important contributions to understanding the arctic. After […]
A little green sledge is my life support
I don’t want to keep banging on about the hardships up here and I will say that they’re far less than what real Polar explorers endured a hundred years ago and more. The pressure of the environment, however, remains the same. This little green sledge is my life support system. Without all the kit - […]
