The stay at Eureka Weather Station is now finished and we are now ready for the next leg, which is from Eureka towards Grise Fiord.

The team ready for departure From left to right: Stepan, Oba, Al Eureka station manager and me.

It is approximately 540 kilometers by air, and most of the distance is on the sea ice in Eureka Sound. It has been good to be able to reorganize and get hold of new equipment. The Canadian government employees at the weather station have been really helpful to us. They made it possible for us to stay at the weather station and to use a garage with heat, so we could dry all our equipment, and at the same time we could go through checking, controlling, modifying, and repairing our things.

The handles on my sledge were ripped off, so the mechanics helped me with a lot of good advices, facilities and equipment.

Only after two weeks on the ice some things had to be replaced. For example Mr. Ohba's ski boots.

Ohba's ski boots

We really used the opportunity to cut as much weight as possible, so our sledges will be lighter and hopefully faster. And we are very happy to confess that the weight has been reduced between 10 and 15 kg per sledge. It seems that the conditions are better down here than further up north where we came from. So we will try to do something with our daily progress.

My sledge before and after "filling".

Thanks to the staff of Eureka !

Eureka the garden spot of the artic!

Håvard Svidal-Haugan