The battle against the storm

Listen to Sunday’s update from the Greenland ice sheet.

🗺️ Our live position on Greenland.
📢 Read all previous posts.

Sign up for the Expedition Newsflash.

During the expedition, receive alerts of new blogs in your mail.
[mc4wp_form id=”4505″]

Stuck in a storm

This latest vlog update comes from inside the tent. The team are stuck in the middle of a violent storm. This storm has been ongoing for 24 hours and is expected to continue for at least another 24 hours.

The tour

The participants got up around 2 a.m. on Saturday morning and left at 4. They skied for five hours and arrived at their destination at 11 a.m. as scheduled. The trip is mainly based on the wind direction, which must come from diagonally behind. However, while skiing, they noticed that they were inadvertently making a turn. In fact, the wind had turned 90 degrees in a short time and is now coming straight from the northwest, the direction the storm is coming from.

The storm erupts

The participants decided to get together and soon the storm begins in earnest. The wind picked up from 5, 6 and finally after fifteen minutes to as much as 15 meters per second. Fortunately, they quickly set up the tent as planned. After all, the storm had already been announced. The big red tent now serves as a sleeping place for three people, while the other two participants sleep in a tent behind them. The tent is additionally reinforced with large pegs and a climbing rope stretched across the tent and anchored with skis deep in the snow.

The battle against the storm

During the storm, large blocks of snow are blown against the side of the tent. Participants shovel away these snow blocks to prevent too much snow from entering the tent. However, the snow granules are blown against the snow blocks with great speed, causing these snow blocks to decompose quickly. So regularly, participants must go outside to check pegs and guy ropes and put new snow blocks against the tent.

The expectations

It is currently Sunday afternoon and the storm is expected to abate Monday afternoon. Then participants can resume their journey. In the meantime, they use the time to catch up on sleep and refuel. Because of the twitching noise of storm in the tent, participants really have to shout at each other when they want to talk to each other. At least that ensures clear and straightforward communication. The team members remain positive and make the best of it. They use the time to rest and entertain each other with great conversations and jokes. With 24 hours to go, they look forward to when the storm subsides and they can continue their journey.