Day 17: April 19, 2026
Sheltering from a storm induces a "peaceful" mandatory break and reflections on the arrival of spring both in the Arctic and back home in Minnesota.
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Yeah, Will here on April 19th, Day 17. Storm day here today. And I saw it coming in yesterday. It was real bad setting up my tent last night in the almost zero visibility at that time. It wasn't too cold. It got up to about 10 o'clock ... to 10 degrees. And the wind was around 25 miles an hour, nothing too bad. It was much ... it was not as cold as the windstorm I had five days ago, where it was like 25, 30 below that night, and windy, real windy. But tonight was okay. Typical day off, you know, you're just killing time. It's a real luxury for me to have, you know, nowhere to go or nowhere to go even if you wanted to go somewhere. And so I did the usual thing. I wrote in the journal, read a little bit of a small book, reading parts of it, studying over the maps, shaved, and didn't shower but washed up. And just had a pretty peaceful day of it. I really needed a break here, rest up a bit. It's been pretty hard going with these heavy loads. And so I'm going to go to bed early tonight, and hopefully the wind will die down. There's a headwind. It's straight from the north, which makes it ... make it a little tough tomorrow. But we'll see what goes on here.
So anyways, cut this one short here. It's a warm day, April 19th, day 17. I'm wondering how the weather's down south there in Minnesota. Spring should be about ready. First day is coming up another three days. Usually around the 22nd of April was when our lakes started breaking up in the north, usually. You know, that varies a little bit. And so it's a beautiful time in Minnesota. Really don't miss anything, though. I'm okay here sitting in a cold tent on fuel rations. So I can't, you know, keep it heated. But there is a little bit of energy from the sun through the clouds with this black tent. So it's a little freezing, of course, but it's not too bad just sitting around here. I'll check in tomorrow night then, and this is Will here. Over and out.
Will’s location at the end of Day 17, unchanged from yesterday because the storm forced a day off. Visit Will’s interactive map for complete control of magnification and orientation.
Sheltering in a tent through a storm. This image is from the 1989 Transantarctic Expedition during a storm of greater intensity than the one Will describes in today’s dispatch.