Day 33 - Sticky going

Today we continued the wonderful 85 degree terrain. The only problem was that the snow was really sticky. Other expeditions reported the same; it seems that the snow from the day before is taunting us again, and the frost is only making it worse, making the gliding even worse.

Today we climbed a gentle uphill for almost the whole day, totalling more than 140 vertical meters. This can also be seen in the day's amount of kilometers; we didn't go fast but steadily. All in all, a good skiing day again.

It was pretty cold all day today. Maybe -25 degrees. It didn’t bother us much, as we were completely prepared for this kind of skiing conditions. There is nothing surprising with our stuff:

• There will be merino wool underneath. It’s warm and doesn't smell like a rotten cat after two days of use.
• A thin or thicker mid-shirt over the base layer. Down to -25 to below zero, this works fine; if colder than that, we would consider a third layer.
• On top of the previous ones (Sasta's) shell suit. The suit has ventilation zippers for fine adjustment while skiing.
• We don't start taking off and adjusting our clothes while skiing. We have a top (thanks Marmot!) and a skirt (self-made, these are not sold in the store in big boys' sizes). They are used to make fine adjustments on the fly and to block panic freezing when the weather changes rapidly.
• During breaks, a down jacket is thrown over everything.
• Head and face protection and skiing shoes were already discussed in one of the previous postings
• Gloves for hands, with removable wool mitten inside. When it's warm, we ski with just the shell, and when it's cold, we put mittens inside. Easy to dry when disassembled.

In today's picture, Tero illustrates a perfect form of skiing in a skirt.