Routine and challenges on day 4 of our Greenland expedition

Day 4 and the routine that’s starting to set in

So, day 4 already. The routine is starting to set in. The team got to sleep in a bit this morning. They definitely deserved that after two super tough days. Besides, visibility was expected to be very poor this morning. That’s why we didn’t get up until 7:30 and were on our way by 10:00, so within 2.5 hours. You might think: that takes forever. Yeah, that’s true. But it gets a little faster every day. We hope to eventually be on our way within 2 hours of waking up once we’ve really mastered the routine. I’ll tell you more about that another time.

Heavy pulling and an unexpected track

There was plenty of other stuff to tell today. When we left this morning, it felt like there were still rocks in those stupid pulks. We struggled with that a bit yesterday too. Back then we thought: that’s a typical day 3 feeling, that the pulks suddenly feel a lot heavier, instead of being 3 or 4 kilos lighter from the food and fuel you’ve used. But today wasn’t much better. The thick snow didn’t help either. It hadn’t really bonded yet, so it was very heavy to pull the pulk through it. After half an hour we thought: wait, is someone walking up there? In the distance, we saw two little feet with what looked like a small line behind them; those are the skis. We had to go around that way a bit. And well, why would you put in all that effort if someone has already done it for you? Besides, it looked like they were heading in the right direction, something towards the east. So we thought: instead of struggling through the snow ourselves in parallel, we can just follow them.

Broken binding and field repairs

We were almost at their track when a ski binding flew off. And not just one screw, but the whole binding at once. It was still attached to the boot, and Neil walked on without a ski. But of course, we’re prepared for many things and have a repair kit with us. So we were ready for this too. We drilled new holes by hand and screwed the binding back on. After that, we continued. We walked for 40-12 minutes, or short bursts, and then a 10-minute break. The track we followed was almost like a highway. It wasn’t just those two people who had walked over it, but also a large group from IceTrek. They are ten people with two guides. Later we realized that Annie Agans’ group was also ahead of us, but they had passed through here a day earlier.

More bad luck, but making good progress

In the second hour we thought: now we can really make some progress, now we’re moving. Suddenly from behind again: stop! Another binding came off, but this time on a different ski. By now we were quite good at it and it went really quickly. We remounted the binding. Now Neil at least has two skis that are balanced again, because when you remount a binding you have to put it in a different spot. Now they’re in the same place on both his skis. After some more hassle with poles and blisters, we had already run into quite a delay. Because it was such a beautiful day and because it’s going to be tough tomorrow — which is very tricky with the skins under your skis, as the snow won’t stick properly — we decided to make it a long day instead of a short one and just finish the full eight hours. Maybe we’ll make tomorrow a short day.

Overtaking, setting up camp, and a “shower”

At the end of the day, we passed two Norwegian ladies. We had a chat and exchanged details. After that, we also passed the large group. About a kilometer further on, it was time for us to set up camp. We stopped around six o’clock, local time, in lovely sunshine with no wind. So there was plenty of time and opportunity for a real shower: using a piece of soap and melting some snow in your hand, then washing your armpits, your groin, your face, and your neck. Not in that order, not from top to bottom, but it was truly wonderful. Looking at the camp now, I see Jasmijn sitting outside writing the vlog. I just sat outside for a bit myself too. But tomorrow’s weather forecast looks very different, with strong winds, low visibility, and probably a lot of snowdrift. So we’ll see what we can make of it.