Long Journeys

It’s been a busy week or so, in fact I’ve lost track of time as we have been delivering and collecting parties to and from the mountains nearly non-stop. We had a long journey up to North Liverpool Land which was a round trip of 100kms and took about 10 hours. Everything went smoothly, we got past the terrible 30kms of bad snow near Constable Point (CNP) and the group set up camp next to a glacier snout near the sea ice. We had time to take pictures and film past ice bergs on the way back, then disaster struck.  One of the Doos broke down just before the bad snow. We had to tow it back the last 30kms through tundra, snow, ice, sand and rocks. It was slow going as all the Doos started overheating due to the hard snow and we had to stop numerous times to let them cool down. It has not snowed for many weeks here and the surfaces are really suffering and getting really dirty.

 Setting up camp in North Liverpool Land

 Icebergs in North Liverpool Land Fjord

We had to take two groups of 5 and 4 into the Staunings Alps and Ren Land areas a day or so later and so we had to hire a local driver and Doo to help. On the day, the baggage of the Swiss group of 4 did not arrive on the Air Greenland flight leaving them stranded, so we only had 5 to take and did not need the local driver, Magnus, a great guy, so it was a pity not to use him. (The Swiss are still stranded at CNP with no bags, weeks later, the flight that the bags were supposed to be on yesterday was cancelled!)

We did the trip to Sydcap with 3 Doos and it was long; 150kms, but uneventful, even past the bad snow area which was by now getting desperate and we only just got though. Lovely ice bergs on west side of Jameson Land and Polar Bear tracks everywhere as we got close to the Hut and even all around it.

 Polar Bear tracks outside Sydcap Hut

 

Planning a route during bad weather day at Sydcap

The next day was bad weather so we were stuck at the hut. Darren did us all proud by getting the oil heater going so it became quite cozy and much better from the -20 we had on the last visit. The next day was fine and our objective was a glacier in the Staunings Alps north of us a few hours dive away. We were not sure how far up we would get and I was a bit worried about deep powder snow which would bog us in. We passed through corridors between mountainous ice bergs and got to the valley OK, but had to put tracks in deep snow up the moraine valley before we could get the loads and group up to our high point. Unfortunately, the narrowing valley, deep snow and boulders stopped us well short of the glacier and we had to leave the group about 10kms short of our target. With heavy Pulk sledges and deep snow it took them another 3 days to make that distance!

Our high point in the Staunings Alps - our group had to walk from here

 Ice bergs on the way to Staunings Alps

We had another night at Sydcap before starting the journey home. The weather was foggy as we started and I had no tracks to follow as the fresh snow had covered them all up. In sometimes total white out, it took supreme concentration to follow the GPS which kept on getting covered in snow, pick up shadows of tracks, lose them again, catch glimpses of ice bergs as reference points, keep an eye on the guys behind and worry about snow blindness, as I could not see the GPS screen or tracks through goggles or glasses. I became covered in snow from the fresh powder but as we got to the fuel depot, visibility improved.

 Travelling in white out

 I used ice bergs as reference to keep us straight

 The powder snow covered everything

 

Musk Ox beat a retreat on Jameson land

The rest of the journey across Jameson Land went fine and we passed the herd of Musk Ox that we had seen on the way in. Even the bad snow area before CNP was fine with the fresh snow – however…! A huge steep bank of snow in a gully had now turned to a cornice of deep powder and we could not get the sledges up. We were only 20 kms away from CNP and after 4 days away and 9 hours of driving, we were tired and wanted to be home. I really did not want to have to spend hours digging stuck Doos and sledges out, so I wanted to nail this snow bank first time. Heart in my mouth, I took my unladen Doo full pelt up the bank to put a track in and lost my steering in the deep snow and started veering towards the cornice drop. I recovered just enough to get to the brow before toppling over the edge and pulled the Doo over the other side. On the return trip downhill, l was able to put a better track in away from the edge and went up and down several times to improve the track and make a firm base. I then got the others one at time to follow with unladen Doos, both as practise so they knew the route and body movements, but also to firm up the track. Then it was the big push with sledges. We only had one chance not to get stuck. Going at full blast we each made it to the top and I knew we were nearly home.

Our CNP helicopter pilot took this footage with on his way to the village and I’ve made short film.

More tomorrow……