#9: Final day

The temperature in the tent dropped to -17C overnight, wouldn’t be much different outside given the heat from our bodies is well trapped inside our sleeping bags. We skied the last few kms down the frozen and snow covered Advent river and onto the broad plains of the upper Advent valley. It wasn’t long before we hit the snowmobile highway and ground out 12km to make just short of the road where a bus will pick us up tomorrow. It’s already our final night. What an adventure. It was a tough trip with some truly bitter days and nights and some grinding climbs. We missed Henry and Heath on the trip but they had very good reason to leave us on the second day, Heath with Covid and Henry with some mild frost damage to two toes. We look forward to seeing them again tomorrow. Mardi also tested positive on the 4th day but persevered, isolating in the single tent. She’s tough as nails. Thanks for following our trips this season. We’re sad that our North Pole expeditions were cancelled due to the Russia Ukraine conflict but Svalbard and the people who joined us brought us so much joy, we hadn’t guided a polar trip since November 2019. We will go home very happy.