So I thought that I would be far more comfortable sleeping outside in my two bags. John said that he would sleep in his bags by me—and in fact we slept very comfortably.
"The mist was so thick that I could not see ahead."
When I awoke in the morning it was 42 degrees below zero. Then we went into the house and had some coffee and reindeer meat for breakfast. As at all the post stations, there is a tariff for everything printed on the walls, so no overcharge is practised.
Many of the people had already left; we hurried on to overtake them, and as usual went in single file.
The weather had become windy, and the wind blew stronger and stronger as we went on, until there was hardly any snow left on the ground. It flew to a great height, and the mist was so thick that I could not see ahead. My reindeer was going of its own accord. I trusted him to scent and follow the other reindeer ahead of me. I hurried him on by striking slightly his right flank with my rein, hoping to overtake the people of our party.
The wind kept increasing, and seeing no one ahead or behind I became alarmed.
Where were John and the other fellows? I had no provisions with me. Where was I? Once in a while, when there was a lull that lasted about a minute, I saw nothing but huge mountains ahead of me. At sight of them I became more anxious than ever. I could only hear the shrieking of the wind, which at times threatened to upset me. Occasionally it blew so hard that my reindeer had to stop.
My head was entirely hidden by my mask and my hood, which had been made so secure that I felt it would stay with my head till both were blown away. Only my eyes could be seen; but the snow which kept flying in the air became as fine as flour and penetrated everywhere. It got through the open space for my eyes, then gathered on my hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, and mustache, and on my cheeks and nose; in fact, everywhere on my face, and made a mask of ice.
I wished I had no mustache, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no hair—for it was very painful every time I broke this mask of ice. It was hardly broken when it would form again from the particles of new snow adhering to each other. When I broke it, I thought every hair would be torn from my face. If I had not cleared it away the mask of ice would have become so thick that I would have been unable to see. I began to think that there was no fun crossing the mountains after all, if this was the weather we were going to get all the way.