Consistency seems to be the name of Penguin Alpha's performance at the moment, another five nautical miles tucked under their belt today. Their position tonight being 83deg 35N 74deg 10W. The lead encountered by the Dutch Northpole 1997 team two days ago and seen on the satellite imagery here in Resolute yesterday, miraculously appears not to have halted progress.

The weather remains fairly docile, although a low is reported to be building over the Arctic Ice Cap which may produce some winds in the next day or so.

Yesterday's report on the radio of pressure ridges as high as houses was a timely reminder to us all, of the work the women are having to put in to make any progress. The large pressure ridges are a feature of the early stages of the trek to the Pole from the Canadian side of the Arctic Ice Cap. They are caused in a similar but opposite manner to the leads (i.e. the general movement of the ice) with the leads being caused by the separation of the ice and the pressure ridges being a product of a section of ice being put under pressure and therefore upwards.

The women will be most likely tackling the pressure ridges in one of two ways: walk/ski around them or climb over them.
The latter will invariably involve taking their skis off climbing up a certain distance and then hauling their sleds up the slope behind them before repeating the process.

Interestingly the women have reported that already there is daylight for 24 hours a day but not yet sunlight, this will come soon.

Penguin Alpha have now been on the ice for a week - thirty nautical miles covered 387 left to go.