Day 32 - Uphill Day

It snowed a little last night. It formed a fine, thin layer of sandpaper between Antarctica and us. No worries, the plan was to take it easy because there was a steeper-than-normal hill ahead.

We skied for a couple of hours to a valley which was next to the hill. The valley was full of sastrugi. It was cold there! Cold, cold, cold. The trip to the North Pole came to mind. We rushed quickly from the valley to the hill pulling the bouncing sledges behind us. We climbed the steepest part for an hour and a half, then a couple of hours of flat and more, this time a gentler uphill to the campsite. We had a good day of skiing, although not fast or joy ride-ish. So far, 85 degrees is the best we've had in Antarctica.

Today both lunch and dinner were so spicy that the food had to be eaten cold, lunch with slushy snow. Those who know us know that we can handle hot, spicy food quite well. Thus, these ready meals are ridiculously hot.

We received a reader question related to hygiene and washing. Children are always the first to ask this, adults only when they dare.

We are both very particular about hygiene… given the circumstances.

Before the wash, though, let's start with the basics, i.e. the things that come off the body:

• at night, we pee in a bottle
• during the day, we pee anywhere; sometimes, it's really embarrassing when you think about how much piss Børge got on his face (picture of the day)
• The dumps are usually made gentlemanly manner to a hole at the entrance of the tent. Sometimes, if it's particularly breeze-free, we might "wild poo" outside.
• the snot, which here, because of the cold and dry air, is formed all the time, even if you don't have a cold, drops all over the place while skiing; here, you really don't waste paper on them. Frozen samples may sometimes be found in the mask.

Then the washing: two wet wipes per day are reserved for both chaps. You can use these to wipe whatever you want, but we tend to focus on intimate areas; nothing else matters for long-term performance and avoiding inflammation. In addition to this, we can occasionally use snow to simulate water washing. As a pro tip, leaving a piece of snow between the butt cheeks while wiping with paper helps significantly to get a clean end result. Another tip: try to keep feces and food separate; otherwise, you may develop a “tail cough”.