Day Twenty-three - cleaning the skis

6am rise for John, Sam, Rob, Ed and Richard who are going to collect the automatic weather station from up by the nunatak. We were not happy people at 8:30am to find that they had scoffed ALL the porridge and left all their billies dirty. However I did manage to scrounge ½ tin off Ian (to whom we may be eternally grateful). The day was set aside for cleaning up and improving the ski situation. 

This involves:

1. Taking off ALL the wax – very tedious and quite yucky in the rain
2. Drying the skis off completely by bringing them into a tent with a primus and a person (Philippa or me) for about an hour
3. Varnishing them (with highly toxic stuff – to be used in ‘well ventilated places’ like tents!)
4. Leaving them to dry
5. Varnishing them (ditto)
6. Leaving them to dry (ditto)

TEDIOUS? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!