Posted: May 12, 2009 12:01 pm EDT
(ThePoles.com) Jesper Melin and Erik reached another cairn. Inland teams on the horizontal crossings reported much colder temperatures on the summit. A stove nearly burned down a tent and some serious binding repairs had to be done. “Fish glue” ice conditions were experienced. And another team was reportedly evacuated.

Jesper Melin Ganc-Petersen and Erik Bruun Jørgensen (Denmark)

The two men traveled from the Thule Cairn down an unknown valley to Independence Fjord. “It is extremely nice walk here, the river snails ahead and one can almost imagine how it has cut down in the landscape over more than 1000 years.”

“We still see many animal tracks, which in turn justify the name Vildt (Animal) land. Hares, foxes and some musk ox has crossed our path today,” they reported.

Jesper and Erik arrived at another cairn.

The guys took some rest days to recover “after a somewhat hard time through "vildt land" and the first stage of Independence fjord”. They fixed all equipment that had to be fixed. They said they were camping at a spot where they could see the cape, which was about 120 km or four days ahead.

Day 59, 12 May 2009
Distance travelled: 63 km
82°14N, O25°31W
minus 15, 5-10 knot wind

Carl Alvey and Carolyn Bailey (guides) and Helena Nunan, Nicola Rowland, Danny Golding and Andy Stevenson (Fuchs Foundation)

The team had to play the waiting game in Angmagssalik/Tasiilaq because of bad weather, They reported that a Swiss duo was waiting for an evacuation on the Icecap near their start point.

On 8 May the Fuchs Foundation teachers left and were dropped near Carl’s base camp. They met the two local mushers, Ullric and Salou, and the dogs, and started skiing. After five hours of travelling they set up their first camp.

On the first full day the team were surprised to see polar bear tracks. Midday temperature rose to 15.8°C but plummeted below zero in the evening. “The snow fall during the night coupled with the searing heat of the sun meant breaking trail was more like stomping through syrup rather than gliding over ice,” wrote the team.

The next day the first member of the team was to take the reigns on the dogsled.

The teachers reported meeting a Danish team who had been on the Icecap for 24 days.

Position 11 May: 21.8 km
66.0307N, 40.1928W

Simon Elmont and Steve Wright (Channel Islands)

The team reported on 6 May, “Simon saw the doctor at a hospital in Tasiilaq yesterday and will obviously need ongoing treatment when he returns to the Channel Islands. It is believed to be ligament damage rather than a break.”

They are back home.

Henry Cookson (UK) and Jenna Viney (SA)

“After whizzing back to the edge of the plateau it was time to return through the ice that gave us so much trouble on the way up at the start of our trip,” wrote Henry.

“The weather behaved itself so you could actually see where you where going instead of stumbling blindly into 4m high ice ridges and waist deep snow drifts.” The latest report was 12 km from their pick-up point.

Niall McCann (UK/Can) and Murray Smith (UK) - Team Epic

The guys crossed the Icecap summit on their route on Day 15 and Murray reported, “Getting to the summit is a great stepping stone on our voyage, both physically and mentally.”

Niall called Day 16 “the most arduous day of the expedition to date”. Temperatures were very low, lower than –25°C in the tent and –18 during the day. Niall’s bindings snapped, the wind picked up and it was too windy and cold to dig into their bags for water so they “guzzled their rations in seconds and were off again,” said Niall. A white-out set in. “We were in a serious snowstorm at –15°C and travelling very fast.” They were surprised to have travelled 34.1 km at the end of the day.

Two days later Niall’s binding broke again and he had to make some serious repairs.

Position Day 19, 11 May:
N66° 52.295, W46° 16.315

Antony Jinman (UK), Bill Colson (UK), Aanneli Nesteng and Alekander Filibombombom Gamme (Norway), Dennis Steinemann (Switzerland) and Hans Horvath (Austria)

In the last dispatch Antony reported -31°C plus a steady wind from the east. “Very cold!” he said.

Antony and his tent mates nearly had a fire accident in their tent. He explained, “We have a good routine where the person who cooks the day before gets a 30 min sleep in whilst the other two tent mates cook and brush off the ice inside the tent.”

”It was my turn to have the sleep in this morning and Hans to cook and Bill to brush off the ice. The stove had been on for about 10 mins when suddenly flames exploded from the stove itself. Hans very quickly threw the stove and fuel bottle out of the tent. This was a fuel leak and could have easily caught our tent on fire. As it happens we suffered a slight melting of the door but that was all.”

On Day 15 the team reached the highest point of their expedition. They celebrated and Antony said, ”We have come so far but Mother Nature gave us a reminder that it is far from over.”

Cecilie Skog (guide), Silje Padøy, Linn Katrine Yttervik, Bjørn Sekkesæter (Norway) and Ryan Waters (USA)

Cecilie and her team crossed the highest point on their route and hoped to get the wind from behind as the wind is blowing from the highest point to the coast. They also experienced much lower temperatures and reported -38°C at night.

The home team said, “That is very cold and slows things down. But even more so on skis. The Polar cold gave them a snow Amundsen famously christened ‘Fish glue’.”

“The word says it all; it was slow going with no glide. It was more like pulling sledges in sand dunes. And it showed in the rather disappointing distance of 32,6km. This came even thought the day was great.”

Position Day 16, 11 May: 66.2565N, 042.2980W

Links to Arctic 2009 expeditions

Greenland
Devon McDiarmid, Derek Crowe and Adrian Hayes (Emirates NBD Greenland Expedition)
Jesper Melin Ganc-Petersen and Erik Bruun Jørgensen (Denmark)
Carl Alvey and Carolyn Bailey (guides) and Helena Nunan, Nicola Rowland, Danny Golding and Andy Stevenson (Fuchs Foundation)
Timo Stenros, Kossila Kari, Kokko Jani, Parkkinen Teija, Suhonen Arto and Västinsalo “Rami” Raimo (Finland)
Simon Elmont and Steve Wright (Channel Islands)
Henry Cookson (UK) and Jenny Viney (SA)
Niall McCann (UK/Can) and Murray Smith (UK) - Team Epic
Antony Jinman (UK)
Norwegians, Cecilie Skog (guide), Silje Padøy, Linn Katrine Yttervik, Bjørn Sekkesæter and Ryan Waters (USA)
Chloë Courtauld (UK), Constant Tedder (UK), and Dines Mikaelsen (guide, Greenland) Ice Cap Station Expedition
Nerthus-Explore west to east expedition (Danish)

Other
Spitsbergen: José Mijares and Hilo Moreno (Spain)
Baffin Island: Baffin Babes (Sweden, Norway)
Northern Scandinavian ski traverse (Czech/Polish)
Lake Baikal: Hogan Beernaert (Belgium)

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