300

For three days and nights, you trek northwards across the bleak and inhospitable glacier. Irian and Fenor have both suffered from severe snow-blindness, and the relentless north wind seems to sap everyone’s strength. On the morning of the fourth day on the glacier, the wind finally drops. A bearing can now be taken to find out your exact position. To everyone’s dismay Irian announces that you have veered a long way off course.

You turn to face the ancient grey peaks of a mountain range, looming up out of the northern snow. It is a bleak and forbidding sight. ‘The Myjaviks,’ says Dyce, disappointment written all over his bearded face. ‘We’ve come too far east.’

The Myjavik Mountains now lie between you and Ikaya. To cross them will mean having to leave the sledges and Kanu-dogs, packing your equipment on your backs and continuing on foot. There is an alternative, but it could lose you two precious days: you can retrace your route to the glacier and resume the march from there.

If you wish to abandon the dogs and sledges, and cross the Myjavik Mountains on foot, turn to 12.

If you decide to lose two days and trace your way back to the Viad Glacier, turn to 238.