Adventure on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Navigating through White-Out

A Challenging Day on the Greenland Ice Sheet

It all started this morning at 6:11. After a reasonable night, we were ready to set off, but as has been common in recent days, we faced a white-out. The low-hanging clouds made the difference between visibility and no visibility just a few meters. We had to make our way through deep snow, which made pulling the sled a tough task. It felt like sandpaper was attached under the sled, and I could only think of dragging a sack of potatoes behind me. Sometimes there were patches of blown-away snow, allowing us to ski for a bit, but most of the time it was a struggle. I estimate that about half a meter of snow has fallen in recent days. After about an hour, we reached an area with frozen snow and even a small stream running to our right. This was unexpected at this altitude and so late in the season, but the stream followed our direction, so we left it on our right. During the second shift, I was in the lead and saw something blue in the distance. It turned out to be a wide river crossing our route. Crossing the river was irresponsible, so we decided to follow it downstream in the hope that it would end. After about half an hour of walking, we came to a small creek that flowed into the large river. We found a snow or ice bridge where the water was thicker frozen and were able to cross the creek. However, the large river followed a different direction than we needed to go. After about 2 kilometers, the river suddenly disappeared into a moulin, a large hole in the ice where the water plunged down. This moulin was impressively large; if you had sailed on it with a pleasure boat, it would have completely disappeared. It’s unheard of to have rivers at this altitude so late in the season. After this ice waterfall, we were fortunately able to reasonably follow our old course again. However, the wind had shifted from southwest to northeast and was getting stronger, making navigation extra challenging. Despite the fresh snow and the wind, we covered 22 kilometers today, bringing our total to 459 kilometers. All in all, it was a tough day, and although Point 660 still seems far away, we keep persevering. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.