Wings Over Greenland II - The Icecap Circumnavigation (ENGLISH)

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Du 19 avril au 16 juin 2014
Wings Over Greenland II - The Icecap Circumnavigation (ENGLISH)

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Mid June, the german Cornelius Strohm and the french Michael Charavin were ferrying their equipment down the bare ice and the steep rocky moraines towards Qaleraligd Fjord, where they had started a little less than two months ago.

When they reached the shore again after 58 days out on the ice, a dream had come true: they had just completed a circumnavigation of the Greenland Icecap by kite and ski relying on katabatic wind systems for their progression.
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Wings over Greenland II Expedition- The circumnavigation 2014

5067 km

kite-skiing around the Greenland ice sheet

58 days

From sea to sea

In full autonomy

Pics and texts C. Strohm / M. Charavin

Expedition website : WWW.WINGSOVERGREENLAND.COM
The longest expedition on skis in full autonomy ever - as of today. Start and end at sea level in Qaleraligd Fjord, close to Narsaq. 5067 km in 58 days averaging 87 km/day. From sea level to an elevation of 2900 m at the East-Col, nearly 20 degrees of latitude - and back. Our journey enclosed more than 50% of the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
April 16 2014, town of Narsaq, southern tip of Greenland. The sleds were loaded: all our equipment took place in 1500 L that can hold our sleds. Uncertainty remains on the state of the fast ice by the Qaleralik fjord, where our expedition has to start. After the gale of April 16, will the ice still be in place, will be able to step on it and reach the sea ice front of the glacier ?
April 19 2014, day 1. After a few zigzags through drifting ice, the dropp off set on a safe ice of the Qaleralik fjord, 1.6 km from the glacier front. The boat starts again, leaving us with 360 kg of equipment and over 65 days of food autonomy ... Dice are rolled !
April 19, day 1. Qaleralik glacier front by which we had to reach the icecap. Together, we pull each of our heavy sleds in a steep snow slope that should allow the access to the glacier tongue. Then, sledges hauling continues in two-way, up to the point where we had set up our first camp in 2008. Seven hours of effort, 3.7 km traveled, 160 vertical meters climbed. Always better than nothing... we fall asleep, exhausted ...
The idea

The idea to circumnavigate the entire Greenland icesheet by kite and ski was hovering around in the small community of polar kiters since some time. Already the Norvegian team pioneering the route from Narsaq in the south to Qaanaaq in the north on skis in 2005 gave it a thought to return all the way back home. Once a few more teams had successfully repeated this trip, the possibility to efficiently use katabatic wind systems for long distance kiting in Greenland was taken for granted.

By extrapolation, it appeared only logic, that a circumnavigation of the entire icecap should be possible.

Not alone

And as is often the case with good ideas, several teams were considering to give the circumnavigation of the Greenland icecap a try. Yet it took some time of thinking, tinkering and preparation, until somebody made a move.
But finally this year not one, but three teams announced that they would attempt the first circumnavigation of the Greenland Icecap! Dixie Dansercoer and Eric Mc Nair - Landry with "Greenland Ice 2014", Ramon Larramendi, Hugo Svensson, Karin Moe Bojsen, Manuel Olivera and Eusebio Beamonte with "Trineo de Viento" and ourselves with "Wings over Greenland II".

Finally this year not one, but three teams announced that they would attempt the first circumnavigation of the Greenland Icecap!
April 20 2014, day 2. No wind, we spent another day ferrying up our heavy sledges (about 180 kg in total per person) on the glacier tongues towards the ice sheet. We have two sledges each of us, and the slope is still too steep, that we had to haul them one at a time. And while we did not make a lot of distance (3.2 km today !), every meter counts at this stage.
April 20, day 2. We reached an altitude of 390 m, bringing us a little closer to where we hope to catch the wind with our kites.
A break during a long day. Left Michael Charavin, right Cornelius Strohm.
April 29 2014, day 11. For tonight, Marc our meteorological router had announced a gentle storm. His advice was roughly: "Get the work done early, when the winds are still light, and make sure to tie down everything in time to get ready for the storm." Of course, we take his advice very seriously. But we also know very well what our storm sails allow and enable us to make : fast progress in bad weather ! Also, we take the opposite option : deliberately wait until the winds strengthen to take off the camp and get into a hard run...
Wings over Greenland II in Numbers

During our journey we covered a total of 5067 km at an average pace of 87 km per day. This is actually longer than a trip from Paris to Moscow and back ! And also more than the 5013 km covered by Dixie Dansercoer and Sam Deltour in their attempt to circumnavigate East-Antarctica in 2011-12, which by then had beaten the previous record of 4804 km established by Rune Gjeldnes during his Antarctic crossing in 2005-06.

At the time of writing, Wings over Greenland II is the longest trip on skis in full autonomy ever! And enclosing more than 50 % of the surface of the ice sheet, our round trip is the most complete circumnavigation of the icecap as of today.

Seasons

When we had left Narsaq barely two months before, the village was still wrapped in snow, and we had started our trip on the sea ice that beset the last kilometres of Qaleraligd Fjord. Back then, the same steep moraines terminating the glacier over which we hauled ourselves and 360 kg of equipment from the shore towards the Icecap were deeply covered in snow, and its crevasses safely plugged. What a change on our way back south !
Soon after crossing the east col, the lowest passage between the 'Summit' and Mount Forel, and at 2900 m elevation the culminating point of our voyage, hesitant signs of surface melt appeared as a light shimmer in our tracks. They quickly developed into vast expanses of fast firn that made for a pleasant change in skiing.

Descending further in latitude and altitude saw us kite through deep slush, doubt the resilience of countless snow bridges covering abysmal crevasses, and navigate through mazes of blue melt puddles and grey ice pimples. We finished grinding our way down the dirty, hummocky ice, meandering between open cracks, melt water channels and cryoconite holes.

And in the very end, we had to laboriously ferry the remaining equipment over the steep moraines devoid of snow down to the blank rocky shore, where we had started two months before in an immaculate winter landscape. To our pleasant surprise, Narsaq now welcomed us dressed in vibrant green.

This is actually longer than a trip from Paris to Moscow and back !
April 30, day 12. We are in the storm. Several times we both thought of maybe taking off. But the work it would have been to get going kind of calmed down our will. Did we miss anything ? The winds are still gusting stronger than 60km/h, and it's still very humid. We would probably have transformed into ice cubes anyway...
May 1, day 13. The Helsport Svalbard 5 was our cosy home for nearly two months. During the stormy days we were only two layers of fabric away from the roaring elements. On calm sunny days the interior would sometimes heat up to 20 Celsius above zero!
May 1, day 13. May 1 2014, Day 13. Km 120 of this day, we pick a point on our northern horizon. Finally, a target on which the eye can be fixed on ! About 10 km later, we reach the abandoned radar base DYE 2 : This impressive building, which seems straight out of a science-fiction movie, reminds about the highly strategic position of Greenland during the Cold War.
... This base was then part of a vast sky surveillance network called DEW Line (for Distance Early Warning Line). Its purpose was to detect Soviet intercontinental nuclear missiles movements in time, to allow a response, before they would hit the United States. In 1988, the American army abandoned the base and left it on the ice as is...
Midnight sun and back

At the same time, our journey took us over nearly 20 degrees of latitude. Starting over five degrees south of the arctic circle we travelled from our usual diurnal rhythm of day and night into the realm of the midnight sun - and back.

Trying to catch any breeze of wind we often kited at night. In the beginning we remember sailing through pitch black darkness with the cone of our glaring headlights fasciated by the horizontally falling snow. Heading north we later first saw the sun setting just a little to the left of our heading, to re-appear only shortly after a little to the right, before we finally could enjoy skiing right into the orange glow of the midnight sun.

On our way back south, we gradually travelled back into a rhythm of night and day. With the midnight sun in our back we were now chasing our long shadows before they left place to twilight with its pastel colours. When finally hesitant night set again with shades of purple and gorgeous moon-rises, we knew that we were approaching our departure point far in the south.
Long haul

The gigantic trip around worlds largest island and second largest ice sheet is before all an endurance challenge. Physically, technically, and mentally. Being continually on the move for this long, making and breaking camp nearly every day is physically exhausting.

Permanent exposure to the cold and kiting through thousands of kilometres of sastrugis and rough surfaces requires to constantly hold balance between the urge to progress and the strain on the body, knowing that there is little hope to cure injuries and to recover from deep exhaustion.

Weight limitations only allow for limited redundancy in the technical equipment. We thus had to maintain and repair our gear, in order to withstand the wear and tear of hundreds of hours of kiting, camping and cooking.

Our journey took us over nearly 20 degrees of latitude - and back !
Night from 5 to 6 May, day 17-18. Setting up camp in high winds during a cold night. -30 C and 40 km/h - equating a -47 C considering wind chill. We saw the sun setting just a little to the left of our heading. We set camp when it re-appeared only shortly after a little to the right. Soon we will enjoy the midnight sun.
Dressed up for a chilly night on the icecap. We spent quite some time every day, putting on several layers of woolen undergarments, Gore Tex trouser, and jacket followed by down trouser and down jacket and topped of by face mask helmet, ski googles, undergloves, big mittens and isolating overgaiters for the boots.
May 15, day27. Stepping into the Knud Rasmussen land (named after the famous greenlandic-danish explorer), at the very north-west of the icecap, marks a new stage of the expedition : from now, entering a territory that we unknown. Very few ski expeditions went up there (above 78°N), crossing the ice shell before us... We set up the camp near the Humboldt-G automatic weather station.
May 18-19 2014, days 30-31 We have entered the North East Greenland National Park (its size is approximately the one of Egypt !), exceeded the latitude of the northermost part of Svalbard (Nordaustlandet island), attained the northermost point of the expedition, covered nearly 20 degrees of latitude since the start, and set camp at about 1005 km from the north pole. A busy day ! From now on, we are heading south - back "home"
Traces of civilization, wildlife and views

We were rather free in our choice of route as long as we would stay high enough to avoid melt water lakes and channels, crevasses from glaciers draining the icecap towards the coast, low enough to benefit from katabatic winds, and make our way at least around the summit of the icecap and back.

We found it a futile diversion to pass at the abandoned radar station 'Dye2', home-in on the automated weather stations 'Nasa-U' and 'Humboldt-Glacier', and to chase down the 'confluence' of the latitude 81 N and meridien 40 Was our northermost turning point. Yet one of our biggest surprises were not traces of human civilisation.

Far in the north-east we had the unlikely chance to cross polar bear tracks - more than 200 km from the coast. And further south again, we thoroughly enjoyed the incredible view on the impressive mountain ranges separating the icecap from the eastern shores.

Being our motor for all but a few kilometres at the start and in the end, we were ruled by the wind
Uniform, yet never boring: surface, light, and wind

The long journey is not only characterised by the uniformity of the effort, but also by the apparent monotony of scenery. But, although imperceptible on the time-scale of direct observation, the ambiances were constantly evolving !

Each day, the surface was different. We had days of hard, icy snow, surfaces plane as a mirror with a velvet cover, gently undulated dunes of packed snow, dry powder, molten firn, and of course: lots of sastrugis. And even though dreaded for skiing, they come in a multitude of fantastic shapes with a particular artistic unity due to their common principle of formation.

Being our motor for all but a few kilometres at the start and in the end, we were ruled by the wind. And although, the expedition was designed around the strong link between Greenland’s topography and the katabatic wind systems, each day was very different. We therefore often were enjoying the wind three quarters in the back, or from the side, but occasionally we would have to tack downwind not to outrun our kites and to keep them inflated, and on rare occasions we earned a few hard kilometres tacking right upwind. [...]
May 19-20, days 31-32. Preparing an evening session is a bit tricky, as the temperatures are at the coldest, and constantly decreasing. We're taking off under great blue sky around midnight (picture took around 10 pm ; the sun stay pretty high above the horizon at this latitude). A strong west-southwest wind blows and raises the snow on the ground, generating a snowdrift 50 cm tall and about 7 m long away from the tent ...
May 29-30 2014, days 41-42. For a few hundreds of kilometers we have kited onto a pretty corrugated ground. The gigantic trip around worlds largest island and second largest ice sheet is before all an endurance challenge. Physically, technically, and mentally. For thousands of kilometers we kited over rough, corrugated ground and sastrugis. We had to constantly hold the balance between the urge to progress and the strain on the body, knowing that there is little hope to cure injuries and to recover from deep exhaustion.
Day 36. Polar bear tracks on the icecap ! We found this absolutely remarkable, as we crossed these at about 200 km from the coast (Jokelbukten bay, east of our position). If we naively extrapolate the bears heading, the animal had to go for another 400 km to reach the sea again (in our northeast, in Danmark Fjord area, on Prince Christian Land)...
Close to the Land of Queen Louise we could notice wider undulations, as we were getting higher in altitude. Today the corrugated grounds were even more noticeable. Every uphill bit was marked by a strong flow of katabatic winds. On those grounds we saw the biggest sastrugies we've ever seen : some kind of "monsters", with edges up to about 60 cm high. No way we were gonna try to get or skies through there ! With winds up to 40km/h we tried our best to take them sideways, and navigate through them as good as we could ; we had to be very focused and pay attention to our wing positions and to what was going on the surface.
On some days we had difficulties to harness the almost imperceptible breeze with our biggest kites on long lines, whereas on others we had a good wrestle riding the wake of a storm with our Beringer Skisails with their short bridles. Adding to this the incredible lighting with the sun often sweeping low over the horizon makes for an infinite variety of different atmospheres. And when the degrees of latitude passed slowly and the kilometres accumulated laboriously, these wonderful ambiances were our biggest rewards.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge our equipment sponsors Flysurfer Kitebaorading, Snowsled Polar and our media partner, the french magazine 'Carnet d'Aventures'. Many thanks to our routers, the home team, and for the support and donations from our friends, families and followers. Without you, this journey would not have been possible - our achievement is also yours !
Day 41. Already more than 800 km skied on this really annoyingly wrinkled field, the "corrugated sheet" of the northern latitudes. Today is one big of a day, by the size of them, their amount, shapes... With our biggest kites, we fly through this army of "trolls" for hours, tumbling nearly 25 km / h, and hit them sideways. Well powered and propped quiet high in the "window", we even sometimes use the momentum to take off the ground for a few meters. The pulkas do the same (despite their load - still 150 kg). Tirelessly.
We were often making our way through a thick layer of driving snow with limited visibility, starkly contrasting the perfect blue sky above.
May 31 2014, day 43. Mika in front of the Mountains of Kong Christian X Land. We have not seen land for more than 30 days. On the eastern side, the icecap slopes in increasingly pronounced depressions and terrasses down towards the coast. After hours of hide and seek in the hilly terrain, with isolated peaks emerging and disappearing at the horizon, the full panorama suddenly unfolded to our left.
We wonder how many people had a chance to enjoy the view of these mountains from the icecap since the meeting of the motorized (weasels) icecap crossing expedition of Paul Emile Victor, and the geological sledging party of H. R. Katz in 1951 at Cecilia Nunatak ? And how many people have actually reached this place on skis ??
Challenge is our incentive. We find our satisfaction lays in the daily handling of the hazards and unknowns, and is hidden behind the scale of it. Even though our experience and knowledge of the traveled grounds help a lot minimizing those risks and hazards they're still always here and we constantly have to deal with them.
Day 51. The sun still offers crazy lights; like a piece of glowing gold on wavy milky surface. For probably the last time [we still a few minutes above the polar circle, latitude where the sun, only once a year, stays exactly on the horizon for 1 day a year, at the summer solstice], we observe the sun going down to the horizon line before to come up again
At around 150 km in our north-east, stands the summit of the Schweizerland mountains, Mt Forel (3380m).
Day 53. We enjoyed kiting in the surreal light of the midnight sun. On our way north, we were kiting right into its orange glow. In the second half, during our way back south we were chasing our long shadows casted far ahead on the carpet of driving snow.
Sailing into the full moon through an endless succession of rolling undulations in shades of pastel colors.
Mika fully geared for a long ride into the cold. With the exception of the beginning and the very end, we rarely could afford the luxury to expose bare skin, and got used to the reduced freedom of movement and field of view.
June 12 2014, day 55. For a long time we only had seen the light blue milky skies typical for the large extended ice surface and the far north. Today we enjoyed a dark blue sky with marked stratospheric clouds and sharp lenticularis over the coastal mountains, indicating very high winds at altitude. Very soon, we get a first glance at three marked peaks playing hide and seek with the ethernal succession of small depressions and terasses, that we were navigating accross. That's the Treforken, 2150 m high, the most westerly summit of the Thors Land.
June 12, day 55. For the first time, we are getting closer the reliefs. Fascinated by this show, we almost touch the Lokes Nunataks (separating Rinfaxe and Guldfaxe glaciers), then Berge Skirners that are stretching toward the east coast. We observe many glaciated peaks, separated by gigantic glaciers. How many of these peaks have been already climbed and skied ????
Crossing the drainage basin of the Heimdal glacier, we notice large cracks in the center of our path. Further, a huge and anonymous glacial basin drains the ice from the inlandsis to Tingmiarmiut fjord : its slopes are pretty cracked, even with seracs, and force us to divert our course to avoid the risk of being trapped in such a maze.
Day 55. We set camp after 174 km with an incredible view down the drainage basin towards Tingmiarmiut Fjord. For the first time in 52 days, we can again distinguish, far east, the packice in the fjord, around Ingmikortukajik and Uvtorsiutit islands, and beyond, the open dark blue sea. Room with a view !
June 13-14, days 56-57. Around kilometer 90, we can see 2 nunataks on the horizon, to our south and south-east. The one to the south, like a rampart, peaks at about 2820m and is well above the glacier cap. We're heading towards the other one.
It's 2:30 am when we drop the kites ; daylight is now rising already. We can see like a ridge of nunataks to our east, peking between 2000 and 2300 km. We're not gonna go further in that direction.
June 14-15, days 57-58. We are now heading west to bypass the huge glacial basin in the northern region of Narsarsuaq. We approach close to the spotted yesterday Nunatak and begin to lose altitude when we come across a slope, steep enough to worry about. And indeed, we see immediately that snow bridges covering large crevasses. Unable to go upwind to circumvent, we have to cross... Now very vigilant, we identify other huge crevasses fields in the direction of our road far away. We decide to modify our heading to keep more altitude and not risk to go astray in these labyrinths ...
Days 57-58. It's 4:30 am when we finally set up camp after a 11h long kite session without a break. We look at the previous forecast, received about 15 hours earlier : Marc said then that we should try to finish in the next 36 hours (21 remaining now) or else there is a risk of total absence of wind for several days. None of us wants to take the risk of getting stuck : instead of getting in our sleeping bags, we wrap up the camp, drink coffee and get going ; we'll sleep later...
June 15, day 58. This is a critical zone : we are now at a point where the snow is melting very fast. And the further we go, the more confindent we get on power through all of this. We shall not stop, or then would start to be difficult even to get out of this on our own. Further down, we get into some hard ice areas : the snow cover is more and more missing, and crevasses are now quiet open. As much as possible, when we know of a clear and safe grey snow patch, we ski along it ; but when there's no more choice, we need to face the crevasse, looping our kites to gain speed and ski over the snow bridges...
The wind drops ; we decide to tak our kites down, about 8 km away from the fjord. We're now hauling the pulks by feet or skis, on a light grey bare wavy ice.
June 15 2014, day 58. Another slope down, a bit steep on the right hand side of the outlet glacier takes us to the only place we can get out of it, cause everwhere else the glacier ends up as a frontal cliff line over the see. It's now about 7:30 pm, we've been moving for close to 9 hours without a break, and near 20h over the last 26 !
Even though we're only at 100m elevation, we have to will to keep going, carrying all of our things any longer towards the Qaleralik fjord for today. We decide to get some rest ; there's no place to pitch the tent, so we decide to "bivouac" there, on the rocky ground of the moraine. If a couple of small rain showers woke us up during the night, it didn't really disturb much our sleep...
Upon arrival back at Qaleraligd Fjord. Left: Michael Charavin, right: Cornelius Strohm. A dream has come true, we just have completed the circumnavigation of the Greenland icecap - with 5067 km the longest trip on skis in full autonomy ever!
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Published articles
- GO TO FRENCH PAGE

Wings Over Greenland II - The Icecap Circumnavigation (ENGLISH)

Wings over Greenland II Expedition- The circumnavigation 2014

5067 km kite-skiing around the Greenland ice sheet 58 days From sea to sea In full autonomy

The idea

Not alone

Wings over Greenland II in Numbers

Seasons

Midnight sun and back

Long haul

Traces of civilization, wildlife and views

Uniform, yet never boring: surface, light, and wind

Acknowledgements

To go further

Published articles

5067 km

kite-skiing around the Greenland ice sheet

58 days

From sea to sea

In full autonomy