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 the same color of grey.

We usually navigate with the sun and take the angle of our shadow so we know that at 9 am the sun is due west and at 16:00 hours due north.
The sun rotates around us so you will need to use your own shadow to find its position.

If there is no sun you will have to find features on the ice to help you steer in the right direction.
Sastrugi - wind dunes - form here from the west to the east since the prevailing wind is from the west.
Going north means crossing them perpendicular, wind in your back.

A compass is absolutely useless here, the needle spins around and needs time to settle but it will never be a stable orientation and you cant trust it.
Leaves us to use a GPS but even that can fool you as you get closer to the North Pole.

So best on a day like today to use your senses, observe the features and check occasionally if the needle of the compass is at least going to the right direction.

Despite the low visibility we made good time - 16 km and we may be heading for one degree in two days time!