Battling the Kraken

Some days I feel like I’m drowning. I’m being pulled to dark and icy depths by the dreaded many-tentacled kraken of logistics. The sheer enormity of planning and provisions and strategizing solutions threatens to overwhelm me, and I go into panic mode; flinging out emails and phone calls like desperate little air bubbles. Hours and hours are spent googling murky options… All in an attempt to reach the surface and gasp some air and realistic solutions.

Every once in a while, it works. My head breaks the surface, the sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day on the Logistic Ship. Maybe we landed a new sponsor, found the perfect piece of gear, or made some good progress plotting our route across some far off river valley I’d never previously even heard of. It’s been interesting piecing together our route, like compiling a multi month long puzzle. Using a combo of Lena Rowat’s old maps (from the original 2001 traverse), Ryan Bougie’s google earth track from his 2013 adventure, a little beta from John Baldwin’s Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis, and just some good old fashioned asking around while pouring over maps and google earth. It’s really starting to float together now!

It hasn’t all been desperate tentacle fighting battles; some of it has been quite entertaining – like testing out this crappy little 3lbs $12.99 Canadian Tire raft on the Elk River here in Fernie.

Fingers crossed this baby gets us across the Homathko, Klinaklini, Dean, and Whiting Rivers. (By the way these have been discontinued, and we need a few more rafts so if anyone reading this happens to have one that they could bear to part with I’m buying!)

What does 40lbs of apples, 30lbs of pears, 30lbs of bananas, 15lbs of kale, 10lbs of squash, 10lbs of beets, and many more pounds of nectarines, pineapples, broccoli, carrots, parsnips. leeks, cabbage, quinoa, shrimp look like once Tania has battled with it all? Feeding the beast for 6 whole months is a full on war on it’s own. In her words: “This pile looks humbling and small. Just a reminder how much more I have to do. So back to work.”

Sleep and focus can be difficult when captaining the Logistic Ship. I’ve found yoga to be a great way for the mind to let go of everything but the present. Tania’s go-to is playing with Summit (A.K.A the Munchkin). The sheer excessive amount of cuteness would make even a sea monster forget everything and just wanna cuddle for a bit…

We’ve come a long way, and we definitely still have our work cut out for us if we want to keep our heads above water with only 70 days left until departure. Our sponsors have been just incredible to us so far. (I’m too deep into this theme to quit now so I’m just going to keep swimming with it – sorry…) Like lifejackets keeping us buoyant in a stormy sea, let me introduce our sponsors:

Genuine Guide Gear
Is supplying us with an incredible line of sexy gear to keep us afloat on this season’s fresh powder – stay tuned for when we go to test it all out!

MEC
Has been our lighthouse through the fog of expenses and equipment problems – rounding out a plethora of gear and doling out a generous expedition grant to support us.

Arc’teryx
Has the challenge of keeping us toasty and dry throughout an entire winter of coastal storms, with the added bonus of looking pretty damn stylish while we’re at it.

The Gear Hub
Has put the wind in our sails, offering to mount our new skis, provide us with custom boot fitting and fill in some gaps on our gear list.

Thank you to all the people and companies that have gone out of their way to support us in so many ways. Without Y’all we’d have been wallowing deep in the Kraken’s belly for sure by now!

~ Martina & Tania

www.CoastMountainEpic.ca