Day 21 - Repair equipment

The same rally continued as yesterday. It's sticky, but unfortunately, you can only get past it by skiing. So we went skiing.

Since we have to be completely self-sufficient here, we must be prepared for various equipment breakdowns. Those inevitably happen on a long journey; the equipment is used more during this journey than the equipment would be normally used during its entire lifetime.

Some of the repair needs are handled with spare parts. E.g.:

• spare stick
• winter baskets (A rim in the lower part of a ski pole that prevents it from sinking too deep)
• backup NNNBC binding
• backup universal binding (in case of the mono breaks)
• two stoves
• four flasks and pumps
• spare blankets.

In the above cases, the immediate repair is easy: take the new item for use, and the journey continues. It is noteworthy that we do not have a spare ski. There are two reasons for that: 1) we learned on the North Pole trip to creatively make shorter skis out of broken skis, and 2) it's clumsy to carry a spare - we should have bought a short ski as a spare, and it never got done. Ski bindings are attached with so-called Quiver Killers, so the bindings stay better and are easier to change in the field.

We are prepared for various undefined situations with a bagful of different accessories, including:

• a multipurpose tool with screwdriver heads for all included bolts and screwdrivers incl. those already attached to the skis
• a small number of screws, bolts and nuts for ski and sledge repair needs
• instant glue and epoxy
• strong thread and needles
• cords in a couple of thicknesses
• rubber band cords
• spare buckle
• cord locks
• strong tape and sports tape
• iron wire
• stove and stove pump repair kits
• sleeping pad repair kit.

Of these, epoxy has already been needed to repair the tip of the ski shoe, sports tape to strengthen the blankets, sewing tools to repair the torn blanket of a rod, and elastic cords to change the hood of the jacket. In other words, the supplies have not been dragged behind for nothing.

Today's photo shows the moving caravan.