Hello, this Tyler calling with a blog for Day 45. Well, many of you have been following us for a while now on this North Pole expedition and you've probably gathered that there are some skills that we have. whether it's skiing or maybe camp cooking or just staying warm. We also have some secret skills that are a little less obvious. They're sort of smaller skills, but they can lead to some big comfort and ultimately success. This expedition is an unsupported expedition. Unsupported expeditions are expeditions where you get no help from the outside world and they require some special abilities.

We have the best equipment we could use, but at some point any of it could break or need repairing. The equipment should be durable and it should be functional, but it should also be repairable. Every prepared expedition has a repair kit and every expedition member becomes a repair person. One of the best secret skills that we have on our team is the ability to sew. It's a very simple skill. It can help you prevent something from getting worse, help you patch something that is ripped, help you modify something that, although good because it is the best gear out there, but you're living in it 24/7 or that you're using it everyday, you want it to be just a little different than it is.

Well, in order to sew you need a needle or a couple different types of needles, some thread or maybe some thinner and thicker, maybe even dental floss, which is a great thread, and you need a scissors and potentially a pliers. Our Victorinox Swiss Tool has both of these. And you need some material potentially to work with. The sewing has taken our time now and again and it's helped us feel like we have some control over things; it empowers us from day to day. So that's one of our secret skills. I encourage everybody to learn how to sew. A few different stitches and you're ready to change your world.

Well, hopefully we're done with all that now because we don't have any time. Today we crossed the 88° latitude. We're very happy about this for this means we're in the final push; we boosted up our hours to 13-hour days. We're ready to get to the North Pole, and if everything goes well, we'll be there in about 9 days. We are fighting some easterly drift. The winds are blowing pretty good, moving the ice, and the terrain has been wind-blown and some of the hardest packed snow that we have seen. We hope this helps us move quicker. It seems to be; we've made 14 ½ nautical miles today; that's the most that we've done. So, we're optimistic. We plan on reaching the pole, and because of some of our secret skills, we'll reach it in style, also looking good.

Now today we wanted to mention that we skied for Jim "Piker" Hill, recently diagnosed with AML and he is a CaringBridge patient. CaringBridge provides free, personalized websites for patients and families in health crisis, treatment, or recovery. And we're supporting CaringBridge as part of our expedition helping raise awareness and to raise money for CaringBridge. If you'd like to give money to this wonderful charity, please go to our website www.northpole09.com.

Daily Expedition Data
Date: April 15, 2009
Location: N88° 03.593' W068 27.494'
Time Traveled: 13 hours
Distance Traveled: 14.5 nautical miles
AM Temperature: -10°F
PM Temperature: -8°F
constant W/SW wind, 10-14 knots
More overcast in PM
117 nautical miles to North Pole

CaringBridge Family: Jim 'Piker' Hill
John and Tyler are committed to raising
funds and awareness for CaringBridge.

DAY 45 - SECRET SKILLS