The Schedule
April 5: Fly from Melbourne, Australia to Copenhagen, Denmark
April 9: Fly to Reykjavik, Iceland April 10-12: Rest and prepare equipment for shakedown trip
April 13-16: Shakedown trip (familiarization and acclimatization)
April 18: Fly to Kulusuk, Greenland
April 19: Final stocking, packing and checking of sleds
April 20 – May 18: Haul and kite from Isortoq to Kangerlussuaq
May 19 – May 31: Rest and sightsee
June 2: Depart Greenland, returning to Australia via Copenhagen
The Route
Start: Isortoq, East Greenland
Finish: Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland
Distance: 650km
Maximum altitude: 2600m
This East-West traverse follows the route of John Rymill in the 1930s, who was the first Australian to cross Greenland. Conditions along the route have been discussed with adventurers who have completed similar crossings, and pilots who fly in the area.
We will traverse the icecap in early summer to beat the melt season, which takes hold in July and August. Streams of water, created by the sun's heat, flow down the icecap in late summer, creating hazardous ditches and pits. The melting surface exposes dangerous crevasses (crevasses are chasms caused by internal stresses in the ice cap as the ice itself flows, very slowly, towards the sea). These crevasses are usually covered with hard snow in winter.
The most hazardous parts of our route will be the entry and exit of the ice cap. Most expeditions begin with a helicopter flight to the top of the ice slope, avoiding the steep slopes onto the ice cap. We will haul our sleds from the very bottom of this slope, using boot crampons and ski skins to grip the ice. We will pick an ascending route avoiding crevasses and dangerously smooth or steep ice.
The ice slope eases as it gains altitude, and gradually flattens into a smooth plateau over 2000m high. Crevasses will be fewer in this icy interior, and we will be more concerned by sastrugi, long mounds of wind-blown snow that cross our path.
We will haul our equipment and supplies unassisted (except by the force of the wind in our quadrifoil kites when conditions allow) through the harsh interior of the icecap, until the ice plateau descends toward Greenland's west coast.
The descent will pose similar hazards to the ascent, including more melt-related dangers because of the increasing summer heat. In this region, summer streams of frigid meltwater gouge pits many metres deep, and flow into deep holes and crevasses. We expect that we will have to rope up, glacier-style, to traverse these areas. We aim to finish the expedition early in the summer before many of these features form. Biting cold will be the price of going early in the season, but for this we are prepared.