Cambridge Greenland Glaciology Expedition 2002

Day-by-day log This log is intended to be a mainly factual account of our activities in Greenland. It is extracted from Derek's diary which he, like most of the expedition members, wrote nightly. We hope it provides some glimpse of the experiences we had there.
Day No.	Activity
1	Evening flight from Heathrow to Keflavik - departure after some photo-taking by parents. Arrive early morning, discover no place to sleep at the airport, so make way from Keflavik to a welcoming hostel in the capital where we stay for the next three days. Sleep well.
2	Lie-in! Morning spent acclimatising and general discussion of plans. Sew Kobold badges on to sallopettes and RAB tops. Short walks around town.
3	Locate airport in Reykjavik - we are to leave early tomorrow morning. More walks around the city, and we find an open-air concert in one of the town squares. Eager to be off - and in to the Arctic.
4	Transfer to Akureyri from where we will fly to Greenland. Discover our planes have been held up due to mechanical problems and fog. Wander around town before settling in to hotel provided. Evening spent in the swimming pool. Pick up pulks etcetera - not quite what we were expecting (they're a different, less packable shape) but we decide we'll have to make do.
5	Made it! Flight out to Greenland was beautiful over the icefloes. Stop off at Constable Pynt to pick up freight and discover some is missing (essential items: tents and food). It should have been shipped on to Mesters Vig so we fly on to discover it isn't there. Some 'phone calls later we manage to find tents from CASP who kindly allow us to use them. We work out we'll be OK without the extra food and decide to fly on to our destination. Land in beautiful conditions - pure sunshine and flat snow all around. Everyone is slightly over-awed as the plane departs. Good to be home again.
6	A restless night - unfamiliar conditions and everyone's excited about the next few weeks. Slight problems with radio reception but we have time to sort this out over the next week. The day is spent sorting equipment and practising/remembering/learning skiing and pulking skills and crevasse rescue techniques.
7	One week on and we're on the move once again towards our science camp. We've buried half of our food at the landing site for retrieval at a later date but the going is still tough uphill. Still learning to work with the pulk, rope, and skis, so the going is slow at times as problems are fixed. Manage to reach the top of an ice-fall above the science camp and decide that the going is too unsafe to continue. Conditions worsening so we bed down before firmly making a decision tomorrow.
8	Blue sky! The weather allows us to see more clearly down the route and we decide to turn back and move to a secondary science area which should provide the same opportunities in better conditions. Very hard work moving back up the long slope we'd descended yesterday and we move very slowly over the top before gliding quickly down the slope on the other side towards our new location. After a long day skiing we manage to reach it and set up our camp for the next 3 weeks.
9	We're trying to get our feet on the glacier and plan the science project so we spend the day skiing around looking for suitable points to mount the surveying prisms. The sun is very hot today again! [Back to top]
10	All day today is spent moving around the positions for the surveying stakes, and drilling them in to the ground before mounting the prism on top. This takes longer than expected and by the late afternoon it is difficult to travel due to the poor snow conditions. We leave the stakes marked but there are five that still need drilled and mounted.
11	Whilst one group finishes the stakes, Chris and Derek set up the surveying equipment for the task in hand and practise using it. Discovering a couple of problems we have to move one of the points but by the end of the day we are able to take a first set of readings - a great achievement and a good boost to morale to have some results after all this work.
12	First thing this morning is to get a set of readings in which is done quickly and efficiently. Then we take the rest of the day doing odd jobs and dozing in camp, recovering from the exertions of the last week. The evening is spent walking up the ridge directly behind our camp, a confidence-building exercise.
13	Another set of readings in the morning. Plans to move down the glacier and scout out an exit route for our trek, but the weather closes in during the morning and by the afternoon we are fogbound and forced to stay in the tents instead. During the morning we discover a problem with one of the prisms that requires twisting back towards the tripod and we must go and fix this tomorrow. We see our first wildlife since we arrived - a small black and white bird flying past our camp.
14	Foggy once again and we're tentbound for another day, apart from a brief excursion to fix the twisted prism. Travelling through the fog is an experience never to be forgotten - everything around you is white and it really feels like walking on cloud. Navigation is a nightmare though and it is a great relief when a recognisable landmark comes in to view. Take the opportunity of a day in camp to have a bonfire of our rubbish, and do some rifle practise.
15	The weather clears and we're able to take our readings this morning before heading down the glacier to look at our exit route. The going is good most of the way until the ground turns very knobbly and difficult to move on especially with skis - they keep getting caught in the ground. So some of us have our skis off to get to the end. Crossing a moraine band off our glacier and on to the one we'll trek along we find a small river to cross - should be fairly easy to wade over though. The new glacier is huge and you can see for miles to where obviously huge mountains look tiny in the distance like, a disney cartoon. A very humbling experience and one to look forward to again when we trek along here in a couple of weeks. Looking back we spot a clear, less knobbly, runway along the glacier we've just come down. We make our way back up there in good time, stopping only to fix another of the stakes that has twisted.
16	A mix of rain and snow is frustrating and there's no chance of doing a survey today and we're tentbound again.
17	Shockingly cold this morning - a reminder of what it should really be like here when there's no cloud. A quick survey is followed by a day going round each of the stakes measuring their heights and getting an idea of how much they've leant over. The use of plastic stakes is not good in this respect. Meanwhile the camp is moved on to some unmelted snow - the sides of the tent floor were collapsing! Continuing radio problems leave us slightly worried about communications with Mesters Vig.
18	The survey today was really fast because we put markers by some of the hard-to-find posts yesterday. We plan to do our first ski-climb tonight so it's another lazy day in camp fixing pulk bits and doing odd jobs, then back to sleep.
19	We leave at 11pm in sunlight that is just as intense but strangely different to that we've seen before - a different angle perhaps? We quickly cover the routes we've been using to get to the stakes before breaking off towards the valley end we'll be working up. As it gets steeper and steeper the skiing becomes impractical and we change to crampons to get up the worst of it. Skiing along the ridge to the first summit it is very windy and when we make it there is some sense of satisfaction. There is a great view over the whole area reaching on to the ice-cap which we'll be on in a few weeks. We ski on to the other summit which is a long slog and provides a similar view, before cramponning our way back down the slope and home again. We finally reach camp at 10:30am before doing the survey, having breakfast and going to bed. [Back to top]
20	Quick survey again - we're improving all the time. This is followed by a change of plan from another ski-climb tonight to some rock-climbing. There's a couple of routes up the ridge we initially climbed so Chris, Mad and Sam make their way up one of them. It turns in to another epic 11-hour climb but everyone is greatly satisfied when they get down. Midnight sees Sam's birthday so he managed to just about meet his aim of being climbing on that day. For the others it is a day of tidying, reading and administration - stove cleaning and so on.
21	Sam's birthday party - sitting on the rocks under great sunshine and with his birthday whisky Sam calls his mum on the sat'phone. Meanwhile the girls are busy making a crumble out of uneaten biscuits, porridge, prunes and apricots. Delicious! To complete our science work we need to do some more geology and we take the decision to send a group off to the original study area and see if they can answer some of the questions posed by the GEUS.
22	(staying in camp) After a really early set-off for the geology team there's a long survey to be done. Two people in camp makes the task very difficult as some of the prisms need to be moved between stakes and we must be roped up to do this. Still, we manage to get it done by lunch time and begin to make our way back up to the food dump to retrieve the rest of the rations. Taking in a fun (fairly easy, and short) nunatak on the way we manage to pick up the goods and return to our base by downhill skiing (no skins) along the gradually sloping surface. A really fast and fun way to travel and nicely controlled too since the slope is gentle. We make 5km in under half an hour which is better that the 1 1/4 hours on the way up! One of our major routes over the glacier collapsed overnight leaving a 5m wide chasm with our tracks either side. We can get round easily enough but it's a reminder of how changeable this place is.
23	(staying in camp) Another long survey is followed by an odd-jobs day fixing and sorting various things in camp. The other group should return in a couple of days..
24	(staying in camp) Long survey followed by a travel-round of all the stakes measuring them and taking angles. Tiring work and we realise again how much the glacier has melted on the other side - some very significantly lengthened crevasses.
25	The geology group arrive safely early in the morning so we do the survey before they drop off to sleep. They'd found the other area to be nearly perfect for all the science and not so difficult as we had thought for the climbing, so there's a little frustration there. It had been difficult to get to though so it probably was the right decision not to head down there. More wildlife today - a pair of huge black birds (ravens?) circling round the bonfire. Late in the afternoon we do some extra surveying from other locations, to provide a framework for our readings.
26	More surveying - going well now, despite the poor weather today. This cancels the opportunity for a big ski-climb tonight so Nat and Derek go up the other of the two climbing routes with Sam. This proves much shorter than the other one and they're back in good time. A good exposed route with plenty of technique.
27	After the morning survey a group takes to sleep before attempting the last of the ski-climbs. For the non-climbers the afternoon is spent doing odd jobs and trying to make sense of the mass of data coming in from the surveys. Rough calculations (hundreds of mental arithmetic sums) show about 50cm movement for the fastest stake which is a large distance. More insight will have to wait until we can analyse the data on computer.
28	The climbers return early after a long but successful trip and they're straight to bed before rising at 12 or so to survey - nearly our last one! The afternoon is spent sorting out equipment and discussing logistics for the trek ahead.
29	More sorting and tidying of camp, after the speediest survey yet! We're very aware that this is the penultimate one. We distribute the food and begin to pack up the store tent. An experiment in burning on snow leads to a small oilslick and we spend some significant time trying to clear this as best we can. Experiments with removing the stakes indicate that this will be impossible as well so we elect to leave them in the glacier and hope that another team will come and re-survey them at a later date. [Back to top]
30	A few mistakes in the final survey and one of our reference points has fallen out overnight and we count ourselves lucky that this didn't happen earlier. Everything is covered in an inch or so of snow which makes packing a bit messier than would be ideal, but we make it to bed in a state ready to pack up and leave tomorrow.
31	We're off! Travelling on the route we'd scouted out before the going is fairly easy and we travel the 5km to the glacier end in good time. After carrying the pulk contents over a moraine band (you can't pull them over rock) we reach our first river and experiment with ways of getting over it. Eventually we wade across in our ski-boot outers which is painful but works. We discover that our pulks will float across even when fully laden, too, so it'll be easy to travel over rivers next time. Everyone's very happy to be on the move and off the rope.
32	`Half-way through our time away by anyone's standards now. The glacier surface is becoming more and more rough as we travel over it and the going is very difficult towards the end of the day. Several minor problems with pulk harnesses and attachments start to manifest themselves and we spend some time in the evening fixing these.
33	Very rough going this morning before a brief remission on to smoother snow. This was a glorious change before the conditions worsened again and we decided to camp and eye out a route forward. We're still on unexplored territory for a few days before meeting some of the route that the 1999 expedition took - all hope is that since they reported fewer problems we'll have some easier going.
34	Dishearteningly bad today after a short period of good fun and smooth snow. We moved from our previous camp and within a few hundred metres the ground had cleared and we could once again ski. Crossing a few frozen rivers we get over an hours' worth of skiing done before we have to head downwards in to some truly awful terrain. We're heading towards an area the 1999 expedition said should be slightly easier than the route they took but our view from here is not promising. Pulks still causing problems as one of the Snowsleds loses its trace attachments - our fixes with rope and wire are holding for only a few hours and we have to last 2 more weeks at least before we run out of materials. Several more stream/river crossings today and everyone has damp feet. The weather has closed in too with a lot of cloud - a very frustrating day for everyone.
35	Yet another appallingly bad day - we end up carrying the contents of the boys pulks over the bad ground to protect the sleds, whilst the smaller pulks of the girls can be pulled. Knowing that the pulks float we attempt to pull them down a stream whilst walking on the bank. This is fine on the smaller streams but once the water becomes fast flowing the pulks begin to fill with water - obviously not useful. No sooner had we decided to ditch all the pulks than we came to the biggest river we've yet seen - at least 10m wide and deep enough that even in the glacial water we can't see the bottom. We set up camp here and start to think of ways past.
36	We started today on the same ground as yesterday, retracing our steps to collect all our left-over equipment. This takes up more time than expected since due to over an inch of snow we are unable to see the best route over the glacier and keep putting our legs in to in ice-covered water pits that we've usually been able to see until now. We make it back for a late lunch and begin to work out a way past the river. A scout some distance along the bank each way shows that it isn't going to become any easier to cross and we decide that the only way will be to boat over using the pulks as boats. We spend the afternoon testing various combinations of pulk and eventually manage to get Nat across using two smaller pulks strapped together with rope and skis. This combination is too small to get anyone else over, though, so she is left stranded on the far side and unable to empty the boat of water. Eventually we manage to get her back across and reasonably dry, and resolve to rethink our options depending on tomorrow's weather.
37	Good weather so we decide to have another attempt at boating. An improved raft with empty fuel-cans can carry each of our weights and we manage to get across in the morning. During the afternoon we ferry our equipment across in waterproof bags and by the time we are ready to set up camp it is absolutely freezing with a howling wind threatening to blow away our tents even with us in them. We recce our route forwards to try and see some better conditions and are able to spot a good area of flat ground about 1km away which continues for a long while around the end of the moraine we've been heading to for the last few days.
38	A morning of carrying over the rough ground to the smooth and then we are able to load up the pulks again and pull over easier ground for a couple of km. At the end of this we reach the moraine band we've been after for so long and work out a route past it. More carrying ensues, another 4 trips over a 1km distance and the mileage is soon mounting for the day. We camp in the shadow of the mountains and the air is well below freezing.
39	The weather has now cleared in line with the terrain and we are able to spend a day of steadily more pleasant ground and glorious sunshine. The morning sees us skiing along a frozen river bed before finding another river. Not to be put off we find a route along the end to where the lake that feeds it has frozen over and we can ski straight over it. After this the conditions become rapidly better with a continuous snow covering, and becoming flatter and flatter towards our camp. Damage to some of the pulks means that they are taking on snow and Derek spends the evening superglueing Pepperami wrappers on to the holes to try and prevent this. [Back to top]
40	Amazing! The snow surface is brilliant - lovely and firm underneath with a dusting of powder on top. Because of this we manage to make a huge distance today compared with previous ones - 16.7km. The sight of valleys unfolding in front of us as we move round them is a gorgeous one and everyone feels some sense of awe at the size of where we are. The conditions are certainly becoming colder as we head further in to August and towards the ice-cap.
41	More skiing today and experience of many different types of snow - hard ice, compacted powder like fondant icing, and windblown ridges. Each has its own characteristic when you're pulking over it and it's a learning experience to feel what they're all like under your skis. The hard work of skiing so far again (18.2km) is showing with a few frayed tempers, but generally we're enthusiastic about moving well.
42	17km today and on to the Greenland Ice-cap. Once again we are humbled by the sheer scale of the landscape around us though it is frustrating to spend all day travelling and see no visible change in surroundings. The GPS is a useful morale-boost here as we realise how far we really have come. As we finish the day the wind begins to increase and anything left out becomes covered in snow. Our first weather 'warning' over the radio - an assurance that this is a temporary low and should be over by tomorrow.
43	We're in complete whiteness again during the morning and attempts to move proved abortive since we found it nigh on impossible to navigate on the featureless icecap. We managed to make 5km but we were unsure as to exactly which direction this was in. We decide to head towards an easier-to-navigate, although perhaps harder work, route so that we are able to continue even in bad weather.
44	Our plans of yesterday proved useful as we headed in towards the mountains and managed to pinpoint our position early in the day. Winding our way across a crevasse field we make nearly 15km today. The snow is deeper here than it has been and the skiing is harder work.
45	The deep snow is deeply frustrating today - the going is exceptionally hard work and we feel like we're travelling nowhere. All morning we were chasing a horizon that always seemed 20m away. We didn't even realise we'd reached it for a while since the going was still so hard due to the snow depth. winding snow-snakes formed by spindrift blowing in the wind were beautiful during the evening but soon everything is covered.
46	At last we can see our target - still veiled in the blue haze of distance the other side of the valley is at least a day and a half away. But it is good to be able to recognise it and roughly correlate things on the map. The ground is very variable with a mix of heavily messed up regions, a few crevasses, and other smooth sections which we head for. We saw our first animal tracks too, today - looks like an arctic fox. Interesting to be able to differentiate the running and walking tracks.
47	Shattered dreams - the target that we were so sure was our exit turns out to be a nunatak blocking our way and which we'll have to go round. This is extremely demoralising and there's at least another days work to get to where we thought we should be. The ground it atrocious - the same bumpy stuff we've been trying to avoid throughout. We end up travelling not over the top but through the gulleys between the lumps. We are fortunate that the area we're in has a grid structure so we can go along and up the lines to wind a route to where we want to be. We camp late in the evening and send Chris and Mad off to check the route ahead which seems not much better although may have a clear route through to where we need to be.
48	The potential route across the glacier turns out to be far better than expected and we make good time over generally smooth terrain. The last section of 1km is terrible once again but we push on through, narrowly avoiding an ice-fall, and reach the rock edge by lunch time. What a sense of relief as we climb 400m carrying loads up to our camp site - pulks on our backs (the only way to carry them any distance) for the first time.
49	Slightly frustrated to discover that the best route for us to get on to our exit glacier is up another large distance, but there's nothing for it but to do what we can. At 10:30pm we finished our second load carry up the 6km route (24km in total, 12 with loaded packs) and returned to camp. Meanwhile we'd seen a very strange sight - another expedition arriving along the same route as us! During the evening we drop in on this group of 4 - recent conquerors of Shackelton berg and kind providers of flapjack, whiskey, and coordinates for the route down to our boat pickup (they'd come up that way). More confident, after their reassurance that we'd make it in time, we returned to bed late. [Back to top]
50	An early start and we'd packed up the camp and made it up to the pulks by lunchtime. We had some trouble moving off due to the steep snow but with some perseverance managed to get on to flatter ground and work a route towards our exit glacier. Much of the trip was spent gliding down the valley - a very pleasant way to travel - but by late afternoon we were on ice-slopes so steep that we had to remove our skis and walk the pulks down the slope. We camped in sight of the water that will take us home, above what looks to be the steepest and most messy ground yet. Armed with a route of GPS coordinates we are confident that we'll make it through in good time tomorrow though, ready for the pick up the day after.
51	That was it! The end of our trek! The route down the glacier was difficult and made more so by the heavy pulks we were pulling. At times we were working with two people per sled to make sure the descent was safe and we all had mountain boots and crampons on to give us the best control we could get. Still a very hard morning of work, especially on our legs which were constantly pushing or pulling to stop the sled running away with us. For a late lunch we made it to the end of the glacier and feeling like we were about to fall off the end of the world, we dodged off to one side to a lovely site near a waterfall, about 300m above our pickup. We spend the afternoon in to the evening carrying loads down this steep slope and reach the edge of the water in time for a relaxed dinner. Our pickup, which we expected to be here tonight, hasn't made it, but we expect them to arrive tomorrow.
52	Waiting for the boats is frustrating - although noone will admit it we're all positioned to look down the fjord at every opportunity in case they arrive. The Icebergs toppling and splitting give us some distraction though, like a slow-motion picture they spray water plumes in to the air. Because of the initial loss of food, we're now running short and we would really like to meet the boats before we are reduced to eating only chocolate rations.
53	Surprised at 7am to be woken by the drone of boat engines combined with the shrill scream of the girls tent shouting "They're here!" Our pickup - having left early from their hut of the previous night's stay - made it to us with all welcome grins and food hampers we could want. Packing up camp for the last time seemed a strange thought but there was no hesitation to be off. At a greater speed than we'd travelled for the last two months we shot down the fjord past the icebergs and towards home, the weather clearing to provide magical views throughout.
54	Another day of boating and more beautiful sights - we made it to Mesters Vig tonight and are camped by the expeditions hut in the tents we should have been camped in all along - our freight had arrived two weeks after we'd left.
55	Packing, cleaning and folding our equipment and helping those who'd helped us home to do the same. Good to meet all the people on the base - there's so many interesting visitors here.
56	Spend the day painting the outside canteen in the base, in return for an invite to the end-of-season dinner that night. The weather is beautiful so the painting isn't a chore at all and we're all quite enjoying ourselves. The dinner itself is great and everyone on the base seems to be having a whale of a time. Meanwhile the sunset outside is beautiful too.
57	More packing up and walking around Mesters Vig with the dogsled team based here. A day of chilling out before the flight out of Mesters Vig tomorrow. Our flight from Iceland home has been brought forwards too so we should make it back earlier than expected - a good thing since noone wants to be hanging around now.
58	The flight back to Iceland is a gradual re-introduction to the city life and we return to the hostel at which we previously stayed. Some problems with our tickets home mean we're quite unsettled but we have to wait until tomorrow until we can sort them out.
59	Great relief as the ticket changes for home are confirmed and we are on our way home. As we arrive in the UK we're met by cheering parents with banners and fresh fruit! Then we're all off to our individual homes for sleep, home cooking, and report writing... [Back to top] ©Derek Marshall for Cambridge Greenland Glaciology Expedition 2002