We opted not to wait, and took the next opportunity that the weather permitted us to jump. Armed with Arctic survival attire and the 28th OSS guidon, Flanders jumped. He and his fellow jumpers landed smack-dab in the middle of a blizzard. I don't feel as indestructible as I did before. The North Pole is one of the true deserts in the world.
Nothing lives there.
It's a purely inhospitable environment. The blizzard conditions made a helicopter recovery of the skydivers impossible. The weather didn't let up for three days, so the jumpers bunked with people at the balloonist group's base camp. There were about 80 people at a base camp equipped for 35. Food supply was a real problem.