The Polar Diaries: Liverpool Land, Greenland. 6th-21st April 2007

Objective: Our plan was to make the first traverse from North to South of Liverpool Land by foot. This meant skiing and pulling pulks weighing around 70kgs over mountainous glaciers and sea ice for some 80 miles and in less than two weeks. We knew it was an ambitious and challenging objective but it turned out to be more adventurous than one could ever have imagined. Four of us took part in the expedition (from left): Phil B, Jerry, Geoff and leader Phil P.
Day 1 Friday
The rendezvous for the expedition was in Iceland. And having arrived at Reykjavik airport and easily transferred to our guesthouse I was soon able to meet the expedition leader and the other team members. Together we went through the itinerary and equipment list. We then went to get a few extra things from town such as a pee bottle (an orange squash bottle in reality) so one didn’t have to leave the tent in a blizzard to answer the call of nature in the early hours of the morning. Having got a few other bits and pieces we went to an Icelandic fish and chip restaurant that had recently featured in the Guardian and it didn’t disappoint.
Day 2 Saturday
Up at 7am,for the flight to Constable Pynt in Greenland. Assembled our pulks and equipment (including fuel) in the hanger at the airstrip and by 2pm we were ready for the skidoo trip. This was one of highlights of the day – a bit of a thrill but very cold because of the speed of the skidoos and the wind chill factor. So we all had at least four layers of clothing on and we were still cold! It was at least a 3 hour journey to our starting point at the north of Liverpool land so when we arrived our hands and feet were freezing. We set up our first camp as quickly as we could. A little later in the evening the temperature dropped to about minus 10 degrees centigrade.
As the night got colder so did our feet even though by this time they were covered by two pairs of woollen socks and buried deep in our thermal sleeping bags. The freezing conditions were not the most pleasant introduction to polar expeditions.
 Day 3 Sunday
The next day consisted of a short ski trip to the top of a nearby peak to find our feet and practice using various bits of equipment. We also practiced rescuing someone from a crevasse, just in case we experienced such a thing on the glaciers. Then we prepared our pulks so they were ready for morning. The plan for the next day was to be ready to leave at 9am for a small ascent and then some fairly easy terrain to get acclimatised to our pulks before we started the more difficult terrain that would face us later in the trip. The food in our packs was pretty good (mainly freeze dried which just needed boiling water to make it edible) and our stoves worked well. There were lots of polar camping techniques that had to be learnt but all was going well even if it was colder than we had expected.
Day 4 Monday
We got off to a bit of a slow start today. There were a few teething problems during day with kit and getting it to work correctly. Conditions were bad with quite strong winds, poor visibility and freezing temperatures of around 20 degrees, which meant we made slow progress.

The descent involved skiing without skins. It is quite an experience having got used to the slower pace of the skis with the skins attached. Due to getting used to skiing downhill with the pulks we were not as fast as we could have been, but once we were on the sea ice in the Carlsberg Fjord, the sun came out and we made better progress. Once we reached our chosen camp location we were surprised to learn that we had covered 10 km – twice as far as I’d thought we’d gone! Conditions had clearly been good and the downhill section had clearly helped our progress. Worryingly though we had a lots of uphill sections in the days ahead.

We found a nice place in the middle of the sea ice to camp. We put our skis upright in the snow and tied a nice pink cord around them, which would have been comic if it had not been for a serious purpose - as an anti-polar bear measure – the theory being that if they came into our camp we would hear them, thus giving us the chance to scare them off with the rifle shot or flares. Later that evening the temperature dropped again. The next day we planned to make further progress down the fjord. Generally the trip was proving to be harder than I thought it would be and my pulk seemed to push me more quickly when downhill skiing than I had imagined it might but so far so good. At least I am “enjoying” the experience.

Day 5 Tuesday
It was a reasonably good night as far as sleeping was concerned but it was cold in morning and there was quite a bit of frost in our tent from the condensation. No polar bears inspected our pink string fence during the night! We packed up camp and were away by 9am – a good improvement on previous days. We were now heading due south along Carlsberg Fjord. It’s easy skiing because we’re at sea level, so it is straightforward except for the strong winds and blizzard like conditions we had for an hour or two.

We took a lunch stop at a big iceberg in middle of Fjord then continued until 3pm when we called a halt as one of the team’s hips was playing up and we decided not to make it any worse by pushing on with the trek. We were in good spirits but concerned that Jerry’s hip may still cause a problem. There was glorious sunshine in the late afternoon until about 8pm when it got windier and chillier. During the day we had made another 9.9 km – we were doing alright but not fast enough bearing the mind level of difficultly that we could expect later in the trip– the terrain was not that hard (yet) only the weather and general conditions were making life difficult.

Day 6 Wednesday
At 12 o’clock the next day we were festering in our tents. Overnight Jerry’s hip got worse and now he couldn’t move his leg without intense pain in spite of being given some pretty powerful pain killers. The best course of action was to get skidoos to pick him up but that was going to be about a 5 hour journey for them to get to us. We spoke to the Scorsbysund guys on satellite phone and it was arranged. In the meantime Jerry packed his gear although we kept a few pieces. On the upside it was a beautiful sunny day even though we were waiting around. It was a pity Jerry had to go, but he felt he was in too much pain and didn’t want to take risk of waiting and possibly delaying our progress. Organising him to get out was relatively trouble free (satellite phones are a wonderful thing in the wilderness) and hopefully he would get a flight from Constable Pynt to Iceland later that day, if not then it would have to be Saturday as there are only two flights a week. It was an interesting day, if a little boring waiting for the skidoos which arrived at around midday.

We said our goodbyes to Jerry and we were done by 1pm, so we packed up camp and headed on. We managed another 5 km that afternoon. I had problems with bolts on my pulk, well the bolts attaching the poles to the pulk had actually fallen off because I hadn’t fastened them sufficiently tightly when we started.

I was feeling a bit bad about that but fortunately we had spares in the safety bag. We got into camp just after 5pm. It was bitterly cold; and I was shivering away in my sleeping bag with all my clothes on. Apparently tomorrow was going to be a bad day weather wise which we had picked up via a satellite phone conversation. We reflected on the sad loss of Jerry to the team because he really wanted to do the traverse and it must have been big disappointment for him. We wished him well and hoped he had got back to Reykjavik.

Day 7 Thursday
Got up at 7am and were away by 9am. We made good progress and by 1pm had covered just under 10 km. Then we did a little more until 3pm – totalling about 12.5 km. It was reasonably easy going down the fjord even if the temperature had been pretty cold. The expedition leader said it was as cold as he’d experienced in 5 years of coming to Greenland. A relatively uneventful day which left us reflecting on the finer things such as our freeze dried meals and supplemented by malt loafs, cheddar cheese, biscuits, tea coffee, sweets, drinking chocolate, energy drinks and cups of soup. Tomorrow we would continue along the valley for the next two days until we reached the glacier.

 

Day 8 Friday
It was a good day. When we started it was a bright sunny day. I lit the stove and nearly set my tent on fire because I had put too much primer in the stove which resulted in a much bigger flame than there should have been. Fortunately it didn’t quite catch the porch of the tent on fire and I quickly put a pan on it to quench the billowing flames. I didn’t tell the others I had nearly burnt the tent down! What a relief that we still had a tent as there were no spare tents out there in the wilderness.

With the boiling water I made hot porridge with sultanas for breakfast and flasks of coffee for later. We skied until 1 o’clock, taking small breaks every hour. We had lunch then skied until 4pm. We had covered about 13 km so we felt we’d had a reasonably good day.

The next day we aimed to reach the Istorvet glacier and then start the traverse but we were still debating which way to go. We were hoping to get to Scoresbysund by the following Friday but that was looking tight as we were just not covering enough ground.

The wind picked up that night. It was much fiercer and meant the possibility of a much worse day ahead. As the hours went by the wind continued to gain strength and we wondered if the tents would bear the strain over night – so we backed them up with shovel loads of snow on the outside. Had an evening meal of chicken curry and rice with an added tin of tuna. It was delicious and the chicken curry was undoubtedly the best meal in the pack!

Day 9 Saturday
As we had experienced gale force winds over night it wasn’t sensible to venture out, so we spent the whole day festering in our tents. We backed up the tents with more snow to make sure they didn’t blow away. I spent all day in the tent except for one call of nature, but apart from that I had been in my sleeping bag for over 36 hours, so that must be a personal best. 

 

Day 10 Sunday
The next morning, the wind had died down and we got off at 9am. There was a lot of digging out to do because of the snow drifts. We made our way along the valley and turned left towards the Istorvet glacier.

We had travelled about 7km when we came across polar bear tracks that looked fresh – they must have been made after the recent snow drifts so the bear may have been only 1-2 hours ahead of us. We experienced strange emotions, excitement at the thought of seeing a polar bear and the apprehension of anticipating what to do if we did encounter the king of the food chain! As a precaution we loaded the rifle and checked which flares we would use if we were confronted as we had a wide range from mini to powerful rescue flares. We were not going to take any chances as the bears are very hungry at this time of year. Our safety was going to come first if they came towards us.

It was evident from the tracks that the polar bear had walked for some 2-3 km along the route we were heading but by mid day it seemed that the bear had turned off, so we were very relieved.

Towards the end of the day I nearly got stuck in a thawing ice sheet. I got out just in time and before the ice gave way under my weight. It was a lesson (although obvious with hindsight) not go where the ice was starting to melt. I had just imagined that in these cold conditions the ice would be inches thick but not at this particular spot! My skins on the skis were sodden wet and quickly froze making it difficult to ski for rest of trek because of weight. The situation was made worse because the snow was really soft and came up to our knees, making it also very difficult for us to set up camp. That evening we erected stronger polar bear defences by crossing our skis and adding the main climbing rope and pulks to give us more protection. We kept the gun and flares ready loaded in the tent, should a polar bear come by for his supper. We prayed they wouldn’t be in the area any longer but if they were we were prepared.

The next day we hoped to get up the steep climb to the Istorvet glacier then we would ski down the other side into the valley before an ascent of the next glacier - the Bjering Pedersens glacier. We knew it would be a hard day and hoped the weather would be kind to us. Anyway we had experienced a day to remember because there was proof of polar bear activity in the immediate area.

Day 11 Monday
We had camped in a difficult spot with soft deep snow, which meant us sinking up to our knees in it. In such conditions it was difficult to get tent pegs to hold as the snow was so soft and fluffy. Anyway we left just after 9am and from the minute we started we climbed up the valley and onto the glacier. We covered some 6km during the whole day because we climbed some 300 metres in height.

By night fall we had still got another 2km to go before the top, but we finished at 4 pm exhausted from our efforts. We drank lots of tea and liquids as we were all quite dehydrated. We all slept well that night and hoped for good weather as we were getting further behind schedule and were unlikely to reach Scoresbysund by our target date. At best we were making an average of 12-15kms a day but today we only made 6km as the crow flies.

Day 12 Tuesday
We completed the ascent after the first hour in the morning. Then it was literally downhill from there. We took our skins off the skis and the pace quickened. I had 2 or 3 wipe outs including one spectacular one where my skis got caught up in the poles of my pulk and I couldn’t get out without releasing myself from the harness first. After that I took it easy. Anyway we had made pretty good progress and by about 12.30pm we were down the glacier. We then walked up the next valley past couple of frozen lakes. Just as we were near the base of the glacier Geoff discovered he had mislaid his camera which had all his photos of the trip on it. He had put it on his pulk before leaving and then 40 minutes later had found he didn’t have his camera, so we decided to set up camp whilst he skied back to search for it. Luckily he found it 30 minutes later and skied back, delighted by his good fortune.
Our new camp was 1-2km from the beginning of the ascent to get onto the Pederson Glacier. We were about 200m above sea level and the height of the peak was 700m, so we had 500m to do in the morning before going down the other side to the sea ice on the eastern side of Greenland before starting another ascent if there was time. Then the plan was developed to call up some dog sleds to pick us up from the sea ice and take us to Scoresbysund.
Day 13 Wednesday
We got off to a good start and left just after 9am to go up the Pederson Glacier. We skied for 1-2km before we hit some lateral terrain and had to cut through a little opening. We then skied a few yards along the sides of a steep ridge to get to a small snowy bridge across to the main glacier. Luckily we traversed this narrow and bumpy ledge without incident. Then we had about 3 hours of steep climbing, some 300-400 metres in height, but 2-3kms in distance. One bit was particularly steep, so we traversed across the mountain to reduce the gradient of our climb. By lunch time we were on top of the glacier, and then traversed across another section.

By 5pm we had covered about 10km – good going considering the steepness of the glacier. We pitched the tents in front of a glorious view looking out across the sea ice.

The next day we would start our final ascent which was likely to be another 2-3hrs to the top of Age Nielens glacier. Then we planned to ski down to the sea ice at Lille Fjord and get back to Scorsebysund on Friday by dog sled. It was quite windy that night as we pitched our tents. The weather overall had been good for the past 48 hours but it was now getting very windy and our tents were in danger of being blown away towards the vast expanse of sea ice.
Day 14 Thursday
Having camped at the bottom of Pederson glacier looking onto sea ice below us, we then climbed up towards the Aga Nielsens Glacier which took 2-3 hours. It was pretty hard going to get to the top. Once on top we skied down which was a tricky passage. I went flying a few times before recovering my composure. Until our fearless leader stopped suddenly in his tracks…something was up.

Was it a crevasse he had spotted I wondered? Then came the forced and deliberate words “get the gun…get the gun” and you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. Phil, who was leading us down the glacier, had spotted two polar bears coming towards us – a mother and her cub. So we went into a state of high alert and got the rifle out of my pulk.

Before too long we were in a state of excitement or was it panic? For a moment we moved towards some higher ground and away from our pulks. Then we thought better of it and headed back to the pulks which we could at least use as a rest for the rifle. By this time the bears were about 1 km away and Geoff, as the appointed rifleman, got to fire the warning shot towards the polar bears which seemed to head them up to the cliffs to our left. We later saw them going right towards the top of a high col and moving pretty fast. At that stage they were about 2km away. It was all quite unexpected. Phil, who had been to Liverpool Land several times over the previous five years, said it was the first time he’d actually seen polar bears, so it was exciting to see them and made a great end to the trip. Eventually we were able to watch them climb away over the col.

Anyway after the excitement we proceeded down to sea ice at Lillefjord and recovered ourselves. We arrived at about 5pm and camped on the sea ice 50 metres from the edge of Lillefjord. Here we would wait until the following afternoon when hoped we would get picked up by 3 teams of dogs pulling sleds. So we had basically come to the end of the traverse of Liverpool Land.

We hadn’t quite made it to Scoresbysund but 2 or 3 more days would have been enough. But in spite of not quite completing the expedition as planned, the last day had been very exciting thanks to our polar bear friends and we had the prospect of an amazing dog sled journey of some 5 or 6 hours to look forward to for the next day.

 

Day 15 Friday
As the dog sled teams were not due to arrive until about 2pm in the afternoon (they had to come from Scoresbysund) we got up later than usual at around 8.30am. We packed up our equipment and aired our tents and tried to dry as much of the kit as we could. We were packed up by 10.30am and then had plenty of time to reflect on our journey as we waited for the dog sleds.

Just after 2pm we spotted a black spot on the horizon – sure enough it was the first two sleds coming across the deep snow. The third arrived about 10 minutes later. It was fantastic sight to see the dog sleds coming up to our now dismantled camp. We were excited and took lots of photographs. We loaded the pulks onto the sleds and the local Inuit dog team drivers secured them with ropes.

We set off on our three sleds for what they said was 19km trek back to Scoresbysund – a fantastic finale for the last day of the trip. The journey took about 6 hours and the most memorable part was going up some of the steeper hills where we had to get off and help the dogs get up the steep inclines. It was no wonder the dogs stopped when things got too much for them because of the steep gradients, as we were exhausted just running beside the sleds. We enjoyed fantastic sights as the sun started to go down on our way to Scoresbysund because by this time it was quite late in the evening.

We finally arrived at about 9pm and after seeing the dogs tied up, we were taken to a warm guesthouse for a nice hot shower - our first for two weeks and extremely welcome. There were a couple of other adventurers at the guesthouse who had been climbing and we exchanged a few stories. Then we repacked our kit and dried anything that was still damp before an early morning start to get a helicopter back to Constable Pynt. And having re-stowed some of our equipment at Constable Pynt we then transferred to a small twin otter for our flight back to Reykjavik. And all too soon our great adventure was over, made memorable by the company of the 4 of us on the expedition, the freezing cold at the beginning of the trip, the polar bears and the final dog sled ride.

Anyone up for a similar trip next year?

 

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