ONce again the winter cold in the Brooks Range caused us all sorts of havoc.  Neil’s boots broke!  We were both frostbitten.  (That was the first time ever for me and I don’t even know what caused it. )   The conditions in the Brooks Range as so varied it really is an amazing challenge.  Glass ice on the rivers sometimes but flowing water or dry rocky river beds at others.  Bottomless snow over fallen trees and gullies in the pine forests and bare tundra to drag our sleds at other times.  No one equipment setup worked in all the conditions, making us push ourselves even hard to try to overcome then.  So with Neil’s boots broken we pulled out.  I returned for a solo attempt a few weeks later, this starting at the Beaufort Sea end of the traverse but apart from dodging a few Polar bears for variety, the conditions were much the same.