Blog from the Arctic Ann Daniels: "This was never going to be an easy journey, but it’s clear now that some of the conditions that could have favoured our progress are not going to oblige.

Although we’ve all spent a lot of time in the polar regions, this particular route is unfamiliar to us.

It’s impossible to know until several days into the route how it’s going to play out.

This particular transect is full of backwards drift – so it feels like climbing up a ‘down’ escalator.

We’ve all chosen to be here and nobody’s complaining, but things are tough at the moment. Each day we aim to work our way north, inch by inch, trying to push as far north as possible.

At the end of a 10 hour sledging day we put up the tent and have our supper but the cold is all consuming and refuses to go away.

I lie in my sleeping bag and close my eyes but it’s so bitterly cold that I’m always half-awake, shivering.

All I can think of is that while I’m lying here we’re constantly drifting southwards.

All that effort, day-in, day-out, but when we stop to rest we’re being carried back the way we’ve come and it’s completely beyond our control. It’s soul destroying.

Some nights the desire to head north is so strong I want to get out of my sleeping bag, strap on my skis and get going!

But, I stick it out until morning, when we prepare to do battle again.

Drift is something that has to be beaten and we will beat it, it does however make a tough trip even tougher.

The delayed resupply has been extremely frustrating but has at least given us the opportunity to recover both mentally and physically from the extreme rigors of our first few weeks on the ice."

Follow the team’s progress at catlinarcticsurvey.com