A group of ten caribou were surprised by our campsite and took off full blast into the sunset.

Happy Easter! Though we have seen many caribou and howled with the wolves this week, one animal we did not see, which Mille was really hoping to track down, was an Easter Bunny with a big chocolate egg! "It's the first thing we are doing in Pelly Bay - buying the BIGGEST egg they have," she exclaimed. Easter is one of Mille's favorite holidays when in Denmark, because of the huge amounts of excellent food. Family and friends gather for what they call "Easter Lunch" and sit down to eat for five or six hours.

One of many windy moments over the last week.

Today is Good Friday - many of you are probably recognizing the occasion; maybe enjoying a good dinner and relaxing with your family. In our own way we are relishing today as well, simply because it is a stunningly gorgeous day outside: blue sky, intense sun, and just a slight breeze from the south. It is the kind of day that can almost make one forget the violent force of the Arctic weather. But, we will not soon forget. This past week has once again made us appreciate the degree to which we are at the mercy of the Arctic weather and her whims.

Lining up the teams to make camp, we can barely see each other. The high winds whip the snow around us, causing low visibility though there is blue sky above.

Early this week it seemed as if the elements were at full-out war. Tent bound for two days, we fought to keep ourselves, and the tents, safe as a blizzard raged. Between delays caused by Mille's illness and the many stormy days since leaving Baker Lake, our dog food supplies were getting low, which necessitated that we contact Michael in Pelly Bay and have him arrange to bring a cache out for us by snowmobile. We had no choice but to get on the trail, as we needed to reach this dog food cache. Even though the storm conditions continued for three more days, we were forced to travel in difficult whiteout conditions through the maze of rock gardens.

Finding ourselves completely dependent on the mercy of the weather and sky - or Sila, as the Inuit traditionally call it - daily we realize, and appreciate, its importance in the life of the Inuit living and surviving on the land for thousands of years.

Aaron standing next to his sled. It is windy out!

As it reads in this week's curriculum unit article "Learning to Observe, Read Sila All-Important to Inuit": "You didn't mess around with sila, she might determine your fate…When sila was good, she was a real treat. There was plenty to eat, travel was a pleasure, and the very sun seemed to smile down like a blessing from above. At such times, it seemed as though the nuna (earth) and sila were in harmony. And, witnessing them, you felt as though you were in harmony within your own soul. At other times, the sila was treacherous. It played tricks on an unsuspecting mankind. The sila might start out calm and well, then like an injured friend, suddenly turn upon you. It could make you distrust your own senses by throwing mirages and all manner of wretched weather at you. When sila was angry, there was no appeasing her…And all be damned who stand in sila's way."

During high winds, the snow drifts and piles on the upwind side of the sled. Listen as Eric explains all about it, on our first storm day of the week.

That is just about the conclusion we came to during the blizzard. Aaron recalled, "This past week we definitely experienced the best and worst weather of the expedition....again. When we stopped for camp on Tuesday evening the winds were picking up from the southwest. By the middle of the night, the tents were shaking, calling for a storm day on Wednesday. It was like any other storm day where we stay in our sleeping bags with our stove on low, conserving fuel while listening to the howling wind and blowing snow. We cooked and made dinner and as we were cleaning up the winds began to change.

On the second storm day spirits were low after a challenging night. Aaron is pouring fuel to try to get some heat in the tent.

The winds shifted from the southwest to directly from the west. We were proactive and immediately decided that we would reinforce the tent as the winds were now hitting us on the side. At 9:00 PM Mille screwed in three additional ice screws and attached the ropes to the tent to make sure it would withstand the storm. We were guessing the winds would continue to shift to the northwest, so our reinforcing would definitely be good for the night. We crawled into our sleeping bags, filled the lantern and stove with fuel, and snuggled down under the hoods of our sleeping bags for the night. Around 11:00 PM we heard Paul and Eric outside. They had just finished reinforcing their own tent for the wind and made their way over to see that our tent was secure. We hollered that we thought it was good, they agreed, and said good-night.

The hole in the outer tent wall of Aaron and Mille's tent which happened during the night of the blizzard while trying to dig out the tent to keep it from collapsing.

Mille and I fell asleep. After an hour I woke up to view our entire tent shaking. Everything had fallen off the drying racks and as I looked toward Mille a snow drift was crawling up on the side of the tent next to where she was sleeping. I woke her up and she elbowed the snow drift away, stating that she could feel the pressure from the snow but it wasn't too bad. Mille faded back to sleep. I laid in my sleeping bag watching the drift as it once again crawled up the side of the tent. It looked as if there was a rope whipping over the top of the tent and I realized it was the snow coming off the drift through the reflection of the moon. I woke Mille up and she tried to move the drift with her elbow with no luck. I tried to push it off her and I couldn't. Then the side of the tent came down from the pressure of the blowing wind and the weight of the drift. Mille yelled for me to open the vestibule door to release the pressure inside the tent. I moved with my sleeping bag to the tent door, unzipped it, but could not get the vestibule door open. The zippers were buried with hard-packed snow on the outside. Even with the pounding from my fists and spurts of adrenaline, I could not get the zippers open. I yelled to Mille that she needed to get out of her sleeping bag as I couldn't get the door open and that I had to go through the back vestibule door. I threw on my wind-proof jacket, tent booties, pants, and gloves then crawled out of the back vestibule door, knocking down a drift to exit under the guidelines of the tent. I worked with my hands to remove the snow drift but realized I did not have a chance of preventing the tent from further collapsing on Mille. Although I knew I shouldn't use the shovel as it could put a hole in the tent wall, I grabbed it and started to remove the snow from and around the tent. However, I still couldn't keep up by myself. Mille screamed to, 'Go for help!' I tried to locate Paul and Eric's tent as they were the closest and although I could barely see it, believed I could make it there safely. I ran to their tent and yelled to Paul and Eric that we needed help as our tent was being buried, then returned to our tent and continued to shovel. It wasn't five minutes before Paul and Eric arrived. Eric continued to help me move the snow and Paul went into the tent. Paul yelled that we were going to move the tent. At this time the winds had increased and we could see Paul and Eric's tent for only seconds at a time. Eric grabbed a ski and said he was going to stake the ski between our tent and theirs. We decided he would take ten steps and insert the ski into the snow while I watched to make sure he wouldn't disappear into the flurry of white. Mille was packing up the inside of the tent and soon we were ready to do what seemed the impossible - move the tent in a blizzard where we couldn't see five feet. We created a chain, handing the bags out of the tent and covering the light bags with the heavy bags to prevent them from blowing away. After our bivy bags and all of our personal bags were out we worked with our headlamps to move the tent. We removed the snow from the snow-flaps, untied the downwind end of the tent, and carefully collapsed the tent, rotating it so the vestibule was facing directly into the wind. We staked the tent into the new position, covered the snow-flaps and worked on returning the bags back inside the tent, very happy with our efficiency.

The storm stepped it up one more notch. Paul and Eric now had to get back to their own tent to ensure everything was okay and get into safety. We all went to our sled, about ten-feet from our tent, to locate the safety flasher and a safety rope to guide them back to their tent. We located the flasher and rope, turned on the two-way radios, and wished each other a safe return to our respective tents. However, when I returned to look for Mille and my tent, it could not be seen. Paul, Eric, and I used the safety rope, tied to the sled, to lead me to my tent and they then used the fifty-foot safety rope to walk in the direction of their tent. As they walked away with the safety flasher on, I could only see it for a few seconds before it disappeared in the blowing snow. To our relief it wasn't long before they called on the radio that they were safe and that their tent was at an angle that would withstand the winds. Mille and I starting organizing and sweeping snow out of our bags. We lit the stove, and realized it was 3:30 AM.

Aaron and Eric next to his and Paul's team as Paul is up-front getting ready to get the team moving on a stormy day.

We were sleeping again by around 4:00 AM and although our tent was shaking, it was in-line with the winds and we were not being drifted. It turned out that Eric and Paul were up most of the night holding up their tent walls and although it wasn't being drifted by snow, the wind never let up. In fact, the storm did not let up for five days total. After spending two days in the tent, wrestling with the winds, we decided that we needed to travel to make our next cache. The following three days of travel were quite intense as we worked to keep all three sleds within seeing-distance of each other, which was virtually impossible. Nuka, Freja, and Aksel all did an incredible job following Will's ski trail as he lead the way out-front. Our miles were limited on those three days, but we did make progress."

The empty sled and "all-star-cache-Polar Husky-team" ready to take off in search of the cache. Watch the wild take-off as Paul and Hugh head out. Listen as Paul explains the search. Check out the incredible landscape through which we have traveled…and seen so little this last week. Can you find Paul, Hugh, Will, and the team looking for the cache?

We have to admit that it was with deep relief we "heard" silence the night of the fifth day - giving us all hope for the best. The next morning we woke to blue sky and a long descend onto the Haze River watershed with much easier travel. In subsequent days we have enjoyed a real Arctic treat with slick river travel, mild temps, hardly a breeze, and intense sun smiling down like a blessing from above. Wednesday we crossed the Arctic Circle, yesterday we successfully reached and found the cache, and today we can celebrate day 100 on the trail!

Happy Polar Huskies looking to go!

We did not take a picture when we crossed the Arctic Circle, because it looked like every other piece of land we have been traveling upon (there is no fancy sign that marks this imaginary line). The Arctic Circle is a line of latitude where exactly fifty nautical miles north and south are the limits of 24-hour sunlight and 24-hour darkness. This is due to the fact that our earth tilts on an axis towards the sun in the summer and away from the sun in the winter (speaking from a northern hemisphere point of view of course). We now have close to seventeen hours of daylight with the sun rising at 3:38 AM and setting at 6:30 PM - and gaining about eight minutes a day!!!

Is something wrong with this load? Nope. Eric is enjoying a few minutes sunbathing… Watch the dogs excited to go as they enjoy the nicer weather as well.

We are all very thankful for the coming of nice spring weather, even if it took a blizzard to bring it around. Mille is of course telling us all "not to talk about the wind." As you might remember, she is slightly superstitious on this topic, believing that if we talk about it, it will return or strengthen its force! Another taboo to Mille is to "loose a candy wrapper." This will make Mother Nature get mad…and bad weather will follow," she explained. The rest of us might have our doubts about these superstitions, but lately Aaron has been seen running around like a madman trying to catch any loose pieces flying through the air…

Aaron carries a medallion he was given by his parents. Listen to Aaron explain about the medallion. Watch Eric's medallion and its meaning to him.

Living together in a tight group it is obvious that even though we do not all have the same beliefs, it is of the greatest importance that we show respect and tolerance for one another and our individual beliefs. Though we might not all have taboos, spirituality, in one form or another, is important to us all out here on the trail. Just like amulets cut in ivory or bone were traditionally very valuable items that the Inuit believed to bring them powers and protection, several of us are carrying items with us out here to bring us luck - or give us strength as we are reminded of loved ones.

Paul, Eric, and their team - beautiful dogsledding on a calm day!

To share thoughts about YOUR spirituality, favorite holiday, sacred places or item, bullying, or maybe how you think "tolerance" affects our world, your country, and YOU, visit Collaboration Zone 09! Share your thoughts! Be expressive! Make sure to join this week's chat on "Tolerance," Friday, April 16th.

Low on toilet paper supplies until we reach Pelly Bay, Aaron is drying out wet-wipes to use instead.

If we make it to the community of Pelly Bay in time, we might try to join the chat from there! With about 150 miles to go, we should be there in time - if the weather holds. The odds look good as the moon has just been full and we have had beautiful conditions ever since. It is an old Inuit belief that large weather changes come at the full moon - and our experience is that this holds very true. Just like the Inuit, we pay close attention to the night sky for changes in the weather patterns. And adds Mille, "for shooting stars - wishing for good weather and safe travels ahead!"

This week's two Polar Husky Superstars, Fuji and Aya. Listen as Hugh tells all about these two spirited girls!

Talking about shooting stars brings us to this week's two Polar Husky Superstars, Fuji and Aya. Running together as point dogs in Hugh's team, they did an incredible job during the storm days, staying focused on the difficult task at hand. Both very sweet-natured dogs, they never let their tail down or tugline slack as they stuck their heads into the winds.