Saturday, April 26, 2014

Picking up speed

25/04/2014 day 7
Distance today: 104 km
Total distance: 182 km
Position: 62.5342 N 47.6857, alt 1900 m
Hours kited: 5h30

With a good forecast for the evening, we took it easy in the morning. At around 13h30 we got going on our Speed 3 19 m2 and quickly made 35 km. We enjoyed a spectacular view on the coastal mountains and nunataks in the west - probably the last time for a long while! At 15h30 the wind got weaker and we took advantage for a lunch break. During the next 15 kms we had to loop our kites continuously to barely keep moving before the wind died completely around 17h30. After 2 hours of waiting, (and Sudoku for Mika - imagine a guy, concentrated, a pen in the hand, sit on a sledge, in the middle of a ice desert !), the wind picked up again, as promised by Marc, our meteorologic router. In the following two hours, we covered another 50 km, kiting leisurely at speeds well above 20 km/h and top speeds around 40 km/h. The daylight faded, and when the wind raised to averages above 35 km/h and gusts well above 40 km/h we were definitely pushing the limits of the Speed 3 19 m2. With another promising day ahead, we set camp after a little more than 100 km. We finally start to get going ! At an elevation of 1900 m we are still climbing, but the slope gets weaker and weaker. Yet the landscape is far from flat! At our position the icecap is textured by a succession of undulations, and while their scale of meters or tens of meters of several kilometers may seem absolutely ridiculous, we have the perception of climbing hills and crossing valleys.
Ps: we have crossed fox prints, the courageous animal went towards the east side of the icecap...

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