Woke up this morning to frightening sounds outside. The tent walls flapped noisily in a whistling wind! Thankfully, conditions beyond the tents were not as bad as they sounded. We were able to walk upright, and to move about unhampered by the blustering winds.

In these conditions, the hoods of our Sasta anoraks are welcome hiding places. You can ski all day in a nasty gale without even noticing the weather.

Visibility was so bad today that the lead skier continually `bumped into´ snowdrifts. The surface profiles of the snow and ice were hard to picture. Progress was also hampered by a challengingly high ridge of pack-ice boulders. To get round it, we had to ski for a while in completely the wrong direction.

Perttu, Tero and Jermi found a surprise waiting for them in their snack bags. Their nuts and chocolate tasted strange, and had a pungent smell. Then they discovered the reason for this: a bottle of rum had leaked its contents into their food hamper. The rum didn't do much for the taste of the nuts (Ed: we presume they were forced to eat them anyway), but the chocolate was positively enhanced by the (fortunate?) accident.

All is well with the Expedition.