{"id":28749,"date":"2026-05-19T01:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/halverwege-de-groenlandse-ijskap-25-km-in-extreme-kou\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:33:10","slug":"halverwege-de-groenlandse-ijskap-25-km-in-extreme-kou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/halverwege-de-groenlandse-ijskap-25-km-in-extreme-kou\/","title":{"rendered":"Halfway across the Greenland Ice Sheet: 25 km in extreme cold"},"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-28749-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/audio-blog-25.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/audio-blog-25.mp3\">https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/audio-blog-25.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>This morning and the first few kilometers<\/h2>\n<p>Hi! Welcome to the fun facts, loose ends, trivia, and Q edition of this blog. But first, a quick word about today. It was freezing cold when we woke up this morning. It was around minus 16, but there was still quite a stiff breeze, so the wind chill was closer to minus 25. I have to be honest and say I didn&#8217;t really feel like getting the wind gauge out to check it anyway, because we were way too busy packing up as fast as possible and making sure we got moving. And move we did. In fact, Malene had the first shift and she took off like a rocket, which meant we all went from cold to overheated in less than 10 minutes. After that, things luckily settled down a bit and we could manage our body temperature by layering up, layering down, and venting a little.        <\/p>\n<h2>Distance, pace, and conditions<\/h2>\n<p>All in all, we had 25 km on the clock today, at least on my watch. The actual distance covered is a bit less, because we&#8217;re still moving across the ice sheet like a dark caravan every now and then. But that didn&#8217;t spoil the fun; we were having a good time. In the afternoon, the wind died down a bit. And especially now that we&#8217;ve set up camp here, it&#8217;s actually very pleasant, at least inside the tent with the sun hitting it. Even though it&#8217;s still minus 15 degrees outside. Inside the tent, you can just sit comfortably in your T-shirt because the sun is beaming right on it. So, good times, good times.       <\/p>\n<h2>Halfway point and outlook<\/h2>\n<p>A few facts and tidbits: if all goes well, we reached roughly the halfway point of the route today. We covered a record distance today, 25 km. And if everything stays on track, we&#8217;ll reach the highest point not tomorrow, but the day after. After that, it all gets a little bit easier. The weather is also supposed to stay calm and stable for a few days, so let&#8217;s make the most of that.    <\/p>\n<h2>Fun facts along the way<\/h2>\n<p>One of the fun facts is that I don&#8217;t think Malene took all her gear this morning. At least, I can hardly imagine she did. She must have buried half the pulk, because she was going so fast all day. Or there must have been something in her food that we&#8217;d all like a bit of. Another funny thing, a fun fact really, is that every time we take a break, everyone pulls off the path. There is no path; we make our own path. And yet, the moment we have a break, everyone turns right and parks next to the path, on the immediate ice sheet where there&#8217;s actually no one else, as if we&#8217;d be in someone&#8217;s way. Another cool fact is that all the expeditions currently out on the ice sheet are led by women. We have the Icetrek expedition with Mardi and we have Team ACDC with Annie. The two Norwegian ladies, Marta and Liv, are out on their own. And then, of course, there&#8217;s us. To circle back briefly to Camp Raven: there are three men and one woman there. And it was the woman who rules the roost at Camp Raven. So, women rule the ice sheet.             <\/p>\n<h2>Camp Raven and logistics<\/h2>\n<p>While we&#8217;re back on the subject of Camp Raven: the New York Air National Guard handles the logistics for the US bases in Antarctica. So, that&#8217;s another fact checked off. And they head to the ice sheet.  <\/p>\n<h2>Hallucinations and the little bird<\/h2>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s another good one. Apparently, it&#8217;s somewhat normal for people to experience hallucinations at some point on the ice sheet, simply because there are so few stimuli that your brain starts making them up. Actually, on one of the very first days, I thought I saw a little bird. I thought: I see a bird. And everyone looked at me like I was losing it. But now, two or three days ago, we all saw a little bird several times\u2014not just once, but multiple times. So now the question is: are we all hallucinating exactly the same thing? Or are there actually little birds? Then again, I can hardly imagine that, because when you look around here, there&#8217;s nothing, there&#8217;s no food, there are no shelters. But it&#8217;s a small black-and-white bird, looks a bit like a titmouse. So I wonder: can you have a collective hallucination, or are we all just seeing things by now?          <\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The expedition across the ice sheet begins in extreme cold, but conditions are improving. Female leaders are dominating the expedition, creating an inspiring dynamic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28750,"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-28749","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\/28749","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=28749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28752,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28749\/revisions\/28752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticadventure.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}