Preparing for a Greenland expedition: the logistics

Preparations at base camp

I’d like to use this update to take you through the further preparations for a Greenland expedition like this. Of course, there are four participants and a guide who are training incredibly hard physically. But at base camp, we’ve also been busy for several months preparing the entire expedition. In a previous update, I already mentioned all the paperwork—the permit, insurance, weapons permit, communications permit, all those kinds of things. And let’s not forget the bank guarantee. But of course, so much more has happened in recent weeks and months.

Sending boxes and equipment

I, Henk-Jan de Geel, have sent about ten boxes of 20 kg each to Greenland. Those boxes already contained quite a bit of expedition and group equipment—think of tents, shovels, and pegs. But all the food has also been sent to Greenland. We don’t want to land in Kangerlussuaq on the west coast of Greenland and spend another day or two buying food, with the risk that what we need isn’t available. So, all the food has been sent. There are five of us on the Greenland Ice Sheet. We have food with us for 30 days, and we have about 1.2 kg of food per day. That means 5 times 30 times 1.2. I’ll have to do the math quickly, but I believe we sent just under 200 kg or 150 kg of food to Greenland. This includes, of course, the famous stroopwafels, but also the expedition breakfast—the special Arctic Adventure expedition breakfast—evening meals, lots of nuts from Noten.nl (one of our loyal supporters), Haribo sweets, marzipan, energy bars, and vitamin pills. We’ve sent all of that. So we don’t have to buy it once we’re in Kangerlussuaq. But it still needs to be repacked into special daily bags, so you have one bag of expedition food per day.

Logistics and shipping control

So, a lot of gear has been sent. How did I do it? I didn’t send everything at once. No, I first sent three boxes to see if they would even arrive. We have a contact person in Greenland who receives those boxes for us. After those boxes arrived, I sent the remaining seven. It’s quite exciting. Initially, I weighed all those boxes on my regular bathroom scales. Once, I got to the post office and they weighed the boxes again. It came out to exactly 19.980 kg. I found that a bit too close for comfort. So, I bought a box scale. Now I can weigh all the other boxes to exactly 19.990 kg. When I get to the post office, it roughly matches what I weighed beforehand. They aren’t allowed to weigh more than 20 kg per box. By the way, sending a box to Greenland isn’t a three-day delivery. No, it takes about three weeks to arrive. So you always have to keep track of when those boxes have arrived. Furthermore, we don’t send those boxes randomly. I’ve numbered each box from 1 to 10 and indicated exactly what’s in each one. So I know at a detailed level what is where. If a box hasn’t arrived, I can check the list: okay, box number 8 is missing, for example. What exactly is in box number 8? That way, we know what we might be missing and what we need to rearrange in Greenland.

Routes, communication, and contacts

We’ve also looked at the routes from previous years. All those routes have been combined. We’ve reviewed satellite images again for the crevasse fields. Based on that, we’ve mapped out several new optional routes to the other side of Greenland. Not that it’s very complicated, as it’s basically just walking from west to east. But you can always go a few kilometers in the other direction if you need to cross a crevasse field. The list of important phone numbers has been updated. We have some new contacts in Greenland, so it’s good to have their important phone numbers. SIM cards have been requested and will be sent to us in time—specifically SIM cards for the satellite phone. And I’ve updated the contact person for all emergency beacons, since I am currently the base camp manager and the contact person for the expedition. In previous years, someone else was the contact person and I was the expedition leader.

Final coordination and departure

Those are the kinds of things that have been done. I have a whole checklist that I’m slowly but surely working through. This coming Thursday, April 23, Karin is coming over. Then we’ll discuss the details of the expedition again to ensure we’re both aligned with our expectations and assumptions. Then we’ll basically be ready. Plane tickets are ordered, hotels are booked, contacts have been informed, and the permit is in. It’s really just a matter of checking in for the flight and going. It’s all still exciting, because you only really know what you’re in for the moment you set foot on that Greenland Ice Sheet. Until then, it’s a lot of running through scenarios in your head and anticipating them.