Low temperatures, ranging anywhere from twenty to sixty degrees below zero, keeping a party’s brandy solid; having to march all day in the face of a blinding snow-storm, with the wind piercing every opening in the clothes, and then having to build an igloo for shelter at the end of the day, are other hardships. During some sledge journeys the wind scarcely ceases to blow for an hour. Its infernal rush and assault cuts and blisters faces and sets eyes stinging with pain, and at the end of every day’s march in the field faces are rubbed with vaseline, and sometimes wine of opium applied to the eyes.
Another ever-present danger in sea ice-work is that of breaking through young ice and getting wet. A mishap of this kind is to be dreaded, for even if a man is able to get out of the water quickly he would soon freeze in such low temperatures with no igloo and change of clothes at hand.
For a sledge-journey of any length across the polar sea the method of advance and supporting parties has proved the most effective. A pioneer party was introduced for the first time in my work, and while supporting parties had been used before in polar work, they had never been utilized on such a scale as on my last expedition.
CROSSING NARROW LEAD
THROUGH A CAÑON OF THE POLAR OCEAN
The pioneer party was made up of four experienced and energetic men, with lightly loaded sledges and the best dogs in the pack. This division left Cape Columbia under the leadership of Bartlett twenty-four hours ahead of the main party. In all kinds of weather and regardless of every obstacle except impassable leads, a march was to be made every twenty-four hours (later when the sunlight was continuous during the twenty-four hours the advance party kept only twelve hours ahead of the main division), breaking the way and in fact setting the pace for the main party, which, having to waste no time in choosing and breaking a trail, could cover the same distance as the reconnoitering party in less time, even with more heavily loaded sledges. Bartlett traveled ahead of his division, usually on snow-shoes, picking a trail. My main party was large enough to permit the withdrawal of the men from the advance party to the main party as they became exhausted by the hard work and lack of sleep; and the sending out of fresh men to continue the work. This enabled me to conserve the strength of those who were to make the final dash for the pole.
The advantages of supporting parties cannot be too strongly emphasized. It is impossible for a party, either large or small, to drag food and fuel enough to sustain life in themselves and their dogs for a distance of some nine hundred miles across the polar sea. Just as soon as a party consumes the provisions of one or two sledges the drivers and dogs, (being just so many superfluous mouths), should be sent back to headquarters with their empty sledges. When another sledge-load or two of provisions have been depleted, their drivers and dogs should likewise return. In all, four supporting parties were sent back one after another, the last one in command of Captain Bartlett, leaving me near the 88th parallel. Up to this point I had traveled in the rear of my party to see that everything was going smoothly. On sending back Bartlett’s division, however, I took my place at the head of the party which was to make the final dash. This was of necessity a small group and most carefully chosen, consisting of Henson and four of my best Eskimos.
The second important duty of the supporting parties is to keep the trail open so the main party can return rapidly. That this is no slight consideration is shown by the fact that in twenty-four hours or sometimes in twelve hours the fierce winds of the North will start the jamming of the ice-floes, throwing up pressure ridges and causing leads. Ordinarily, though, the ice will not change much in eight or ten days, and a party returning follows the outward trail, patching up any faults or breaks which have occurred in it since it was broken. The next party, returning a few days later from a point still farther north, knits together the broken places in its own trail, and, coming to that of the first returning party, smooths over any breaks which may be found. The next party does the same, and so on until the main party on its return has simply to follow the trail of the supporting parties instead of having to reconnoiter and make a new one. With no trail to make and the dogs eager to follow a beaten track leading homeward, the speed of the main party on my last expedition was greatly increased on its return march, the upward journey having been accomplished in twenty-seven marches while the return was made in sixteen. In addition to the advantage of having a well broken trail to return by, the returning division uses the snow igloos which were built on the way north, thus saving time and energy which the building of a new igloo at the end of each long march would mean.