238 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
course we could not strip to this extent. But when we got 
into our sleeping-bags, if we were fortunate, we became 
warm enough during the night to thaw this ice: part 
remained in our clothes, part passed into the skins of 
our sleeping-bags, and soon both were sheets of armour- 
plate. 
As for our breath—in the daytime it did nothing worse 
than cover the lower parts of our faces with ice and solder 
our balaclavas tightly to our heads. It was no good trying 
to get your balaclava off until you had had the primus 
going quite a long time, and then you could throw your 
breath about if you wished. The trouble really began in 
your sleeping-bag, for it was far too cold to keep a hole 
open through which to breathe. So all night long our 
breath froze into the skins, and our respiration became 
quicker and quicker as the air in our bags got fouler and 
fouler : it was never possible to make a match strike or 
burn inside our bags ! 
Of course we were not iced up all at once: it took 
several days of this kind of thing before we really got into 
big difficulties on this score. It was not until I got out of 
the tent one morning fully ready to pack the sledge that I 
realized the possibilities ahead. We had had our breakfast, 
struggled into our foot-gear, and squared up inside the tent, 
which was comparatively warm. Once outside, I raised my 
head to look round and found I could not move it back. 
My clothing had frozen hard as I stood—perhaps fifteen 
seconds. For four hours I had to pull with my head stuck 
up, and from that time we all took care to bend down into 
a pulling position before being frozen in. 
By now we had realized that we must reverse the usual _ 
sledging routine and do everything slowly, wearing when 
possible the fur mitts which fitted over our woollen mitts, 
and always stopping whatever we were doing, directly we 
felt that any part of us was getting frozen, until the circula- 
tion was restored. Henceforward it was common for one 
or other of us to leave the other two to continue the camp 
work while he stamped about in the snow, beat his arms, 
or nursed some exposed part. But we could not restore the 
