{"id":28590,"date":"2026-05-10T23:40:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/stormtactieken-en-navigeren-in-de-barre-kou-van-groenland\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T00:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T22:27:54","slug":"stormtactieken-en-navigeren-in-de-barre-kou-van-groenland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/stormtactieken-en-navigeren-in-de-barre-kou-van-groenland\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm tactics and navigating the harsh cold of Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1gwz1si-65b00dbab9504b8c861c7b322dfe2eba\">\n.flex_column.av-1gwz1si-65b00dbab9504b8c861c7b322dfe2eba{\npadding:0 20px 0 0;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-1gwz1si-65b00dbab9504b8c861c7b322dfe2eba av_one_half  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_one_half  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-mc64ztu3-ecb9863e6085779f3701ce94be0d98ca '  ><div class='avia_textblock' ><h2>Listen to the Greenland Expedition Update<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-28590-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/audio-blog-14.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/audio-blog-14.mp3\">https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/audio-blog-14.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 <a href=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/onderwerpen\/greenland-spring-2026\/\">Read all blogs in English.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\uddfa\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/expeditions-overview\/groenland-expeditie-voorjaar-2026\/\">Our live position in Greenland.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udce2 <a href=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/expeditions-overview\/groenland-expeditie-voorjaar-2026\/\">Read all previous posts.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1bmxhhu-f5224d651b560eb192fac74ab38ea33f\">\n.flex_column.av-1bmxhhu-f5224d651b560eb192fac74ab38ea33f{\nborder-radius:3px 3px 3px 3px;\npadding:10px 10px 10px 10px;\nbackground-color:#f2f2f2;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='flex_column av-1bmxhhu-f5224d651b560eb192fac74ab38ea33f av_one_half  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_one_half  el_before_av_hr  flex_column_div  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-mc64zgdb-764a03b10f56dacf5f241b503f2c1109 '  ><div class='avia_textblock' ><h2>Sign up for the Expedition Newsflash.<\/h2>\n<p>Receive alerts of new blogs in your email during the expedition.<\/p>\n                <div class=\"ml-embedded\" data-form=\"HO1phZ\"><\/div>\n            \n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n<div  class='hr av-s1j460-8b84e45465358f2aa3aef05aedecf6b4 hr-default  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_one_half  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div  class='flex_column av-rnnpki-558c6bf59fdaafc19ab18598bf38c424 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-5  el_after_av_hr  avia-builder-el-last  first flex_column_div  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-mc64ytx1-f782ba5f3613bbe73186e5a4eaf44b03 '  ><div class='avia_textblock' ><h2>Update from the sleeping bag and the storm<\/h2>\n<p>Tonight\u2019s update comes from the sleeping bag. It\u2019s 6:30 PM and everyone is already in bed\u2014I hope, because I can&#8217;t actually see. Everyone is in their own tent because we\u2019re in the middle of a storm. I\u2019m not sure if you can hear the wind flapping against the tent in the background, but if you can, you might be able to imagine what it looks like outside. It\u2019s snowing, there\u2019s a lot of snowdrift, and we\u2019ve had gusts of up to 80 km\/h. So we had to take serious measures to protect the tent. We built a nice wall and dug the tent in a bit. It\u2019s actually been going on since 12 noon today. Everything is holding up well, so we can go to bed with peace of mind. If the wind dies down at 2:00 AM, we\u2019ll secretly stay down for an extra hour to enjoy the calmer conditions and maybe get some good sleep. Then we\u2019ll get up at 3:00 AM and be back on our way by 5:00 AM.          <\/p>\n<h2>Navigating without a reference point<\/h2>\n<p>Just like this morning, visibility will likely be very poor again. You can see in the photo that the moment you head out, you really have no idea. There are no mountains here, no trees, so you have no reference point for your navigation. Nothing else but the wind, really. So what we do all day is recalibrate our course at every shift change. We use a compass to see which way we need to go. I think I explained it before: you point your skis in that direction and then look for landmarks. The only thing we have now are our wind vanes on the poles. After that, your whole world basically becomes that wind vane. With every step, you check if you\u2019re still pointing roughly the right way. It\u2019s never perfect, so you\u2019re always zigzagging a little. But generally, between breaks, we end up at the right spot with one or two degrees of accuracy. It\u2019s really cool to see that it actually works like that.            <\/p>\n<h2>Disorientation in a white-out<\/h2>\n<p>The moment you stop looking at your vane for a second and stand up straight to look around, you immediately head off in the wrong direction. You just don&#8217;t realize it. That\u2019s the crazy part. Then someone from the back of the line shouts: \u201cHey, banana!\u201d And when you look back, you see you\u2019re actually walking 45 degrees in the wrong direction, even though you genuinely feel like you\u2019re going straight. It\u2019s a very, very strange sensation that everyone has to get used to, but that\u2019s also going better and better.     <\/p>\n<h2>Rain, wet gear, and freezing<\/h2>\n<p>When we got up last night, the weather was actually quite bad. The one thing you absolutely don\u2019t want when winter camping happened: it rained. So everything got wet. We had packed our beds in waterproof covers, but your clothes get wet, your gloves get wet, your down jacket gets wet. It\u2019s just very unpleasant. Anything that\u2019s wet will freeze as soon as the temperature drops later in the day. And when things freeze, you get cold. Fortunately, it got colder very slowly and the wind dried us out a bit. At one point, we really got into a good rhythm.        <\/p>\n<h2>Broken ski and the decision to set up camp<\/h2>\n<p>Just as we saw a team walking far on the horizon\u2014and thought we\u2019d pick up their tracks to make some good progress before the storm hit\u2014a connector on a ski broke. We did a quick field repair and set off again. But half an hour later, it broke again. That\u2019s when we decided: we\u2019ll have to set up the tent and prepare for the storm very soon anyway, so let\u2019s just do it now. Then we can figure out how to fix those skis in the tent and get some rest at the same time. It does mean we only covered 13 kilometers today, while we actually wanted to do 20. So we\u2019re a little bit behind schedule. We\u2019ll have to see how and where we can make that up. But I think it was important to make sure those skis are in good order, because without skis, you obviously won&#8217;t get anywhere at all.        <\/p>\n<h2>Planning for the night and tomorrow<\/h2>\n<p>We\u2019re heading to bed quickly. The alarm goes off again at 3:00 AM, which is a somewhat normal time in expedition life. Actually a little late, but we decided to treat ourselves to that extra hour. Then it\u2019s full speed ahead again tomorrow.   <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During a stormy night in the tent, adventurers navigate through disorienting white-out conditions using wind vanes and compasses. They brave snow, rain, and freezing temperatures while carefully planning their route and making preparations for the next day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[311,513],"tags":[307,486],"class_list":["post-28590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","category-greenland-spring-2026","tag-expedition","tag-greenland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28593,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28590\/revisions\/28593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}