        
|
Diary
23.6.2008Location: 76 51.97 N, 48 34.19 W I couldn't sleep again last night; I was still awake at 1 am. This whole expedition has been different from many other treks when even ten hours of sleep hasn't been enough. There has been only a few times when I have fallen asleep right away. Being awake gives time to ponder about past and future, and make plans for the future. Although in the morning they are often forgotten, but perhaps some thoughts remain. Yesterday evening was calm and it was really quiet in the tent. I could hear Vuorenmaa turning in his sleeping bag. I was deep in my thoughts and heard raindrops hitting the tent; I thought I was in a tent in forest. It felt warm and relax. When I opened my eyes and saw my hat with Greenland 2008 Expedition written on it, I laughed realizing where I actually am. We continued skiing along the snow covered Traverse track following the mileposts. After a restless night it was hard to get going and the start of each leg was a struggle. Vuorenmaa on the other hand was feeling cheerful and glad of the fairly good glide. He was telling me on the breaks how many posts we have passed and what that means in terms of distance. When it was Vuorenmaa's turn to lead he kept a good pace and I was always left a little behind. But all and all we are pleased with the today's result. During the last legs we saw something dark in the horizon, but it is still too far away to tell what it actually is, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a good look.
The pulling harnesses are modified from the Ozone kiting harnesses. In the picture you can see the attachment to the sledges which still look like they came from the saddle smith Satu Ritari yesterday. On closer look there is some minor wear in the leather near the metal joint, but all and all I give the grade 10- for this equipment as well. There are still plenty of self-made bags and pouches, and the electronics equipment which we were forced to gather piece by piece since you cannot buy a full package anywhere. Everything has worked just fine, once we figured out the basics of electronics. Worst part of these self-made equipment is that they are made to last, so they don't fit the modern disposable world where products are made not to last very long so that there is enough growth potential to keep the wheels of economy turning. Vuorenmaa suggested that the dark shape we see in the horizon is an ABC service station. They are building those in every corner so why not here as well. We'll see tomorrow. 24.6.2008Location: 76 59.10 N, 48 57.85 W How weak one can be. We often read for a while before starting to sleep. Yesterday when Vuorenmaa put down his book and started sleeping almost right away, I stayed awake. After an hour or so I started getting hungry. I tried my best but couldn't resist so I took a piece of chocolate. And soon after another piece. Doesn't sound that big of a deal and it wasn't, but technically I was sort of stealing food from myself, food that was rationed for later. Vuorenmaa is admirably (and irritatingly) strict with rations, so I was sneaking my chocolate so he wouldn't hear. If it was up to me to keep the food rations in order, we would eat as much as we wanted and worry about it later. I'm glad I'm not here alone. The dark figure I mentioned yesterday turned out to be the local ABC service station Vuorenmaa suspected. A 12000 liter fuel tank. We circled around it hoping to find the personnel, but there was nobody there. No chance for a cup of coffee either. Summer is peaking here and for the first time it was above zero degrees during the day. It was nice and warm during the breaks and of course even warmer when we were skiing. We only did 6x50 minutes legs since we decided to take a little rest. The weather was quite calm and partly cloudy. There was another snowfall during the night and now there is 5 to 15 centimeters of fresh soft snow. And it is still 1,5 degrees outside at 8 pm. Maybe we'll get a good glide tomorrow. Speaking of glide, we did some tricks to add some to our skis. We invented a way to adjust the ski skins to our liking. Earlier I cut of part of the skin from the heal back and now we put some duct tape on top of the skin in the front part. So now there is less grip since before the skins covered the whole underside of the skis. And it is easy to take the tape of for more grip or add tape for more glide. Looks good.
Recently we calculated that our water consumption during the expedition is around 1000 liters. That includes drinking, cooking and washing, everything. That is a little over 165 liters per month per person. Nearly as much as one normally uses in one day at home. 25.6.2008Location: 77 10.76 N, 49 37.94 W We always get lots of good luck wishes when departing to expeditions like this. And it is needed. We are lucky to be this far and it seems we'll succeed in this. The main goal was and is to stay here for 90 days and that will most probably happen. Other goals such as staying on the planned route and visiting various research stations are more or less in the bag. The final, perhaps the most important objective was to figure out the meaning of life. We have accomplished that as well, our thoughts were finalized during the last few days and in that sense we could be airlifted out of here today and that wouldn't change anything. So it was easy skiing today with a clear head. The weather was nice, the glide was good and we were in good competitive mood. During the first 50 min leg we managed over 3 kilometers and that got us both excited. Vuorenmaa led the seventh leg and the result was 3,7 kilometers. Earlier in the day I pushed for 3,6 kilometers which is an excellent result for my beer and pretzels bred body. All the more so considering Vuorenmaa is the skier from the two of us. On a normal winter he skis something like 2000-3000 kilometers and usually the first thousand is done when there is only a half a kilometer of track available. That is really something. All and all it was a good day and the sledges get 7-8 kilos lighter every week so we are expecting even better days to come. We arrived today in the county of Qaanaaq, or maybe it's Thule, I'm not sure. Besides being huge, Greenland is also a peculiar place. The worlds biggest island, mostly covered in ice, even so far south that most places don't even have snow on those levels. Greenland is part of Denmark, Europe, but it is part of the American continental platform. And then there are the people.
Still in the beginning of the 20th century the people from the east coast didn't know much about the west side people and vice versa. Their languages were evolved so that they barely understood each other. And that remains even today. For example the word for a fjord, which is like a lake is Tasiilaq in the east and Tassiussak in the west. We could very well be on our way to Thule, US. At the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century there were many US expeditions around these parts. The most famous one was Admiral Robert Peary (who by the way took 19 years leave of absence from his Admiral duties) who practically lived in Thule 1891-1909. He was obsessed with the North Pole which he probably reached in the spring of 1909. Peary didn't much care for the Inuit, if you don't count all his children along the coast. The Danish Peter Freuchen and Knud Rasmussen on the other hand established a trading post in Thule in 1910 and taught the Inuit trading but were careful not to influence their hunting culture. Another US expedition arrived and leader happened to ask from Knud Rasmussen to whom this area belongs to. At that time the Thule area didn't belong to anybody, but Rasmussen realized the motives for the question and said it belonged to the King of Denmark. From there on the area has belonged to Denmark, although the King at that time wasn't very pleased when he found out what he possessed. Nowadays the Inuit live in a very European way, but the fast transition from one culture to another has left it marks. "Civilization" is like a plague destroying original cultures and people. 26.6.2008Location: 77 22.26 N, 50 18.99 W It's getting quite warm in the tent during the nights. The other night I used a light sleeping bag (a freebie from Musta Pörssi store when I bought a cell phone). Or actually I only used it until about 5 am and then switched to my regular, warmer sleeping bag. Last night I used the light bag to make a sort of a sun blocker to the side of the tent. There has been plenty of blue sky and white snow, not so much dull grey weather so I guess you could say we've lucky in that sense. I can't help thinking when looking at the blue sky that behind the horizon, not so far away are all my friends and loved ones. I'm sure somebody might think that we get lonely here on this vast icecap, but that's not true. In fact you feel easier alone when surrounded by people. Who would you best feel comfortable with if not yourself, the person you know the best.
We felt like we had to work hard all day to get anywhere. Yesterday it was easier with the weather being better. Today wasn't a bad day but somehow we felt a bit sluggish. We have now descended below 2500 meter level so the AMS or Acute Mountain Sickness is no longer threatening us. We haven't really noticed any difficulty in breathing since we left Summit, but today I noticed that I'm breathing more or less normally despite the physical efforts. On one leg I stayed behind to take some video footage and used that opportunity to sing out as loud as I could without any shortness of breath. The NEEM base is 20 km away and we can see the main dome with binoculars. I'm not sure where this Traverse track leads to but tomorrow we will change our course 30 degrees to the west and head for the dome. So tomorrow we will see what is going on at NEEM. 27.6.2008Location: 77 26.74 N, 51 03.84 W NEEM. North greenland EEMian ice drilling. That is the name of this station. We arrived here in the afternoon and this is our last pitstop before Qaanaaq. And the 2000 km milestone is now achieved so we are feeling festive for many reasons. Here is a short report of todays skiing. The glide was pretty good with 5-10 centimeters of snow and it was hot. There was hardly any wind and after a couple of legs we took off the shell layer coats and opened the side zippers of the pants halfway down.
We quickly set up our tent and then went to the main tent where there was plenty of food, coffee and cake. After the cook finished his duties he took us to the pantry where we collected a box of emergency food for the weeks to come. In Summit we and Grispin Day met a French researcher who had just come back from a 12 day research trek and would you believe it: we met Fabien Gillet-Chaulet again, here at NEEM. It was amazing considering that after leaving Summit he had spent a few weeks in England while we were here skiing towards NEEM. Fabien is researching the ice movements with radars for the British Antarctic Survey. We spent the evening eating and drinking with the crew of NEEM. The station is governed by the University of Copenhagen. Nearly every member of the crew is a researcher or a student. Everybody does everything (except the cook) and the feel of the place is excellent, equal. There is still a lot to be done here since the construction only started last year. Most of the crew is from NGrip and looks like this station will be very similar. We'll spend some time here tomorrow and find out more about this place, so stay tuned. 28.6.2008Location: 77 32.37 N, 51 48.49 W We spent the morning talking with the crew of NEEM and checking out the base. There were people from five countries, the most excotic being Korea. Most of the crew are naturally from Denmark as this place is governed by the University of Copenhagen as I told yesterday. The main purpose of the base is to drill a three kilometer deep hole into the ice and then collect samples. The idea is to study the differences in global temperature now and way back in the last warm period called the Eemian period. There is already various research activities going on and more will be done in the years to come. We didn't see the actual drilling but if we make a wrong turn somewhere along the way we'll probably end up here again and see the drillers in action, they are due to start within the next few days. More information about the drilling and NEEM in general can be found from their website: http://neem.ku.dk/. We took off eventhough we were asked to stick around for a day or too. But something tells me we are now on our way back home and this was our last pitstop. If we had more places to visit I guess we would have stayed here a bit longer. For the first time today it felt like there will be an end to this what has felt like endless skiing.
In the morning before we left I visited the loo which was sort of a tent. After finishing my business I glanced at my behind and I was almost startled. I don't think I've ever seen myself so skinny, it was almost worrying. Luckily we got some treats from NEEM, so we are enjoying a non-unsupported evening. From our box of goods we took out 200 g of goose liver patee and some emmental cheese along with a bottle of nice French red wine Pinard which we enjoyed before resuming to our normal food. After the meal we'll have some real coffee which I'll make myself, Vuorenmaa always makes it too strong. 29.6.2008Location: 77 37.95 N, 52 57.70 W
For some strange reason we slept last night very good and had diffulties to wake for first legs of the day. We skied on record pace again, but still it felt quite heavy. Snow surface has changed. Today it was very steady, almost like freshly fallen snow. Sun also affects a lot, and starts to make skiing easier. We have already removed our ski skins. My beard starts to be in a condition where I eat and drink it all the time. I have decided to take it home for my family, soon after that it will be cut. I have previously talked about moving waves to Greenland. The latest one happened around 1000 years ago. Current Inuit are descendants of those people. Before that there were 4 other waves, first one (called "Independence") 4500 years ago, but they were not strong enough to survive. Going downhill with accelerating phase, so we expect good results for forthcoming days and weeks. And we hope downhill will give us some changing sceneries, which we have waited so long.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© 2007-2008 Petet |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Self-made equipment is a must even now as there is still plenty to do in the trekking equipment area. I'm especially proud of our sledges. The reason why I ended up in the sledge project with Pekka Tyllilä in the first place was that there simply weren't any good Finnish sledges for our purposes. We would have had to order them from Norway. Now with these sledges the situation is quite the opposite.
We did some washing again. I even washed my hair with shampoo and used excellent alfasport.com wash clothes acquired from Sanser to wash my critical parts. We did some laundry as well as you can see from the picture. The picture shows our muscle powered washing machine in action and the washing powder for the whole expedition is in front of me in the little bottle.
The people of Greenland originated from Asia from where they came during a few hundred years across the Bay of Bering and through Alaska and Canada finally settling in the Thule region. There were of course several waves of people and they scattered around with most of them heading south and over time habited the west coast. A smaller group went north and then to the east coast.
Somebody might also think that we miss the action and life in the city, but we don't. When discussing what to do after this expedition our plans usually include trekking and bird watching and other such activities. We mostly miss trees and other green stuff. And of course a good ole campfire.
The crew at NEEM didn't know we were coming so it was a surprise for them when we arrived (again straight through a clean area) in the middle of the construction site. There were about 15 people working preparing for the ice driling. First one to greet us was the head of the base Dotie who showed us the place and then invited us to the temporary main tent while the actual building is still under construction.
As we took off so late we only skied for six hours before making camp. After the first leg we saw something peculiar. It was Fabien Gillet-Chaulet with his assistant in a special Toyota Land Cruiser as you can see from the picture. They were doing some research in the surroundings of NEEM. We might meet again with Fabien on the 27th of July in Kangerlussuak if his departure is delayed for a couple of weeks due to bad weather or something. I do have a feeling that someday, somewhere, we'll meet again.
We have now passed 70th date and 10th week on ice.
