James captures an image of his skidoo in the foreground with the other three members of Team B searching the blue ice in the background.

 Nødtvedt Nunatak is one cold, windy, place. The winds this morning were strong but we ventured to the blue ice regardless. With some oatmeal in our bellies (it’ll be oakmeal per Juliane once our dried fruit runs out in a couple days) and some convincing to wake “Sparky” up, off we went. The first leg of the journey was pleasant enough. The wind at our backs, our skidoos traversed the surface of the blue ice skis clattering off the sastrugi like a light chop on the bow of a boat. Every few minutes someone would wave and we’d commence the bag-and-tag routine. In one particular instance, seven pieces, presumably from the same parent body, were found within eyesight of each other. Each specimen was individually recovered leading to some cold hands by the end of it. James, our hand model (holds the number and scale bar for the photos) and sample recovery expert (picks up the meteorite with sterile tongs and places it in the sample bag) took the brunt of the cold on his bare hands during this sequence especially. Shortly after lunch John made the call we’d turn around and search heading back to camp. With the wind now in our faces and blowing strong, it was a much different level of comfort on the return journey. It seemed to blow stronger and colder the closer we got closer to camp. After navigating some really rugged ice riddled with crevasses we found our way along the top of a ridge that overlooks camp on our inbound track. Quick stop x4 for skidoo fuel before harvesting some ice from our ice mine. (We are camped on snow for the benefit of Twin Otter landing/take-off. It’s 200m or so to the nearest blue ice we “mine” for our drinking and cooking water.) Now, nestled in our tents about to prepare dinner, we’re all thawed out and comfortable. As much as I describe the wind and the cold, it is to paint a picture of what it is like here and how it differs from our experience at Wisting. We’re all thrilled to be here, surrounded by such amazing beauty. And, on top of that, our meteorite counter is moving up at a rate we’re far happier with. In short, life is pretty darn good out here. Last night’s dinner menu was highlighted by “Butter Chicken Nødtvedt” (so good and warmed us up so much we actually turned off the stove for 15-20 minutes). Tonight, Chef James is thinking about Cottage Pie (Shepherds’ Pie but with beef). I’ll be sure to take diligent notes as we are due for episode 2 of “Cooking with James”. Don’t worry, I won’t lose them on the “messy side of the tent” – I guess I had that coming after the friendly jabs I sent his way in earlier posts. Good fun! We have covered 71 miles since setting up camp at Nødtvedt Nunatak.