Jaakko Heikka guided four Fins on the Horizontal Ice Cap Route from Point 660 and to Nagtivit kagertivat fjord.
An all Finnish Ankarat avotunturit expedition has crossed the Greenland icecap, skiing unsupported and unassisted, reported Jaakko Haikka to Explorersweb/Pythom.
Here goes Jaakko’s debrief:
This was a guided expedition, which started on 24.4. from Point 660 and ended to Nagtivit kagertivat fjord on 21.5. The icecap crossing via DYE2 took 26 full days being around 550 kilometers in line between camps and we waited for another one day for a boat pick-up to Tasiilaq. The original plan was to ski little further North and take a boat to Tiniteqiilaq and then dogsleds to Tasiilaq but the early spring and the lack of snow prevented dogsledding, so instead we took a boat directly to Tasiilaq.
Compared to my previous crossing in early season 2014, the conditions and weather were very favourable this season. Only a couple of days of high winds or whiteout, not much soft snow and mostly sunny and warm. Sure the beginning was a little wet and the snowbridges over crevasses in the beginning and especially the end were little dodgy but in general, the conditions were excellent. We had easy, relaxed going, doing typically 7-8 × 50 minute legs a day enjoying our time and even had a non-weather related rest day and made an improvised sauna on the icecap!
This was the first guided/commercial all-Finnish group to cross the Greenland icecap. The expedition also served to celebrate the first ever Finnish expedition to cross the icecap 50 years ago (Boucht-Pihkala expedition from Tasiilaq to Sondre Stromfjord, with dogsleds, in May-June 1966).
The Ankarat avotunturit expedition consisted of five Finnish members:
Jaakko “Korpi-Jaakko” Heikka (guide)
Tero Lähde
Tomi Löfman
Niina Rautiainen
Paula Strengell
You can find our route, some background info and daily photos (in the blog section) from the website: https://www.avotunturit.fi/greenland-2016/ Though it’s all in Finnish only.
Links:
Finland’s Jaakko Heikka talks to ExWeb about Greenland’s horizontal ski route
#polar #greenland2016
