COVID drags on, but a few resourceful expeditions have made it to Greenland and are now underway.
Belgian guide Dixie Dansercoer and three clients have set off from Point 660 on the edge of the ice sheet. The group plan to snowkite roughly 1,500km to Qaanaaq in the north. The group includes Matthieu Tordeur, who became the youngest person to reach the South Pole solo and unsupported last year.
The team spent the first day meandering toward the Inland Ice through the heavily crevassed icefall. The warm late-summer weather has complicated progress. Pulling 110kg sleds, they have waded through several small rivers and are skirting around the widening crevasses.
Straight-line progress has proved impossible. By day four, they had still not reached the kite-friendly plateau, ekeing out just over two kilometres after a full day. Dansercoer has admitted that he may need to tweak their strategy in these difficult conditions.
Dansercoer and company plan to snowkite 1,500km north to Qaanaaq. Photo: Matthieu Tordeur
Are Johansen and client Preet Chandi can breathe easily after negative COVID tests and should fly into Tasiilaq on the east coast today. Chandi is in Greenland to prepare for a solo unsupported trek across Antarctica in 2021. They hope to begin their crossing on Friday morning.
The Seeberg sisters have already set out from Tasiilaq on their east-to-west traverse. The pair made it through the icefall safely. The crevasses were not too bad, but it was very wet, thanks to temperatures around 5oC.
