In what some climbers call ´slug mode´, you simply exist, waiting out poor weather, disciplining yourself not to eat or cook out of boredom. I read a lot, completely buried inside my sleeping bag. This is the view, and you´d never know that outside are thousands of square miles of icecap...On this trip I took ´The Epic of Gilgamesh´, a volume of John Keats, Dan Simmons´epic science fiction novel ´Hyperion´, Tolkien´s ´The Fellowship of the Ring´ (about the tenth time I´ve read it, and it gets better each time) and a volume of Jack London stories. I decided to skip a walkman, a device I´ve only once taken on an expedition. I just prefer to read. Image copyright Cameron McPherson Smith, 2003.