Start: 0801
Weather: Sunny.
Our taxi to the icecap arrived bang on time. We quickly loaded up and set off. As we drove through the hills, I was amazed by how much the place looked like Scotland!?
Chomi (our driver) kept saying how we are going at the wrong time of year and how people rarely attempt this first section, since the ‘VW ice-road’ was no longer being maintained. He also told us story after story of people who have recently not made it – a Danish group, a Spanish group,… They had even lost two skidoos rescuing one group!! Yet I still cannot wait to get on the ice – what’s that about mad dogs and Englishmen?
By 0930 we had arrived on the icecap and after negotiating a few rickety bridges and rebuilding Alistair’s pulks and mine – we were ready to go…
It was so tough – the ground is really broken up. My ‘pikey pulk’* broke twice in the first hour and kept flipping over. Poor Mark has taken tumble and has grazed his arm really badly.
The going was slow – after the first hour we had only travelled one kilometre (maybe we should have listened to Chomi!?) and after covering only three kilometres in six hours, we set up camp.
After repairing the pulks, etc… We had a group discussion about how unbelievably hard today had been. Disappointingly, some of the group want to go back and get a helicopter to the easier ground. Eventually we came to the decision that we would carry on :) I hope it was the right one…
Camp: N 67° 8’ 19·2” W 49° 58’ 45·0”
Alt: 594 m
Distance: 3·02 km
Finish: 1702
*As Matt has so kindly name it!
Weather: Sunny.
Our taxi to the icecap arrived bang on time. We quickly loaded up and set off. As we drove through the hills, I was amazed by how much the place looked like Scotland!?
Chomi (our driver) kept saying how we are going at the wrong time of year and how people rarely attempt this first section, since the ‘VW ice-road’ was no longer being maintained. He also told us story after story of people who have recently not made it – a Danish group, a Spanish group,… They had even lost two skidoos rescuing one group!! Yet I still cannot wait to get on the ice – what’s that about mad dogs and Englishmen?
By 0930 we had arrived on the icecap and after negotiating a few rickety bridges and rebuilding Alistair’s pulks and mine – we were ready to go…
It was so tough – the ground is really broken up. My ‘pikey pulk’* broke twice in the first hour and kept flipping over. Poor Mark has taken tumble and has grazed his arm really badly.
The going was slow – after the first hour we had only travelled one kilometre (maybe we should have listened to Chomi!?) and after covering only three kilometres in six hours, we set up camp.
After repairing the pulks, etc… We had a group discussion about how unbelievably hard today had been. Disappointingly, some of the group want to go back and get a helicopter to the easier ground. Eventually we came to the decision that we would carry on :) I hope it was the right one…
Camp: N 67° 8’ 19·2” W 49° 58’ 45·0”
Alt: 594 m
Distance: 3·02 km
Finish: 1702
*As Matt has so kindly name it!
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