After getting a rather large amount of excess baggage onto our flight at not too much cost, we arrived at sunny Keflavik Airport to be quickly transported to grey rainy Reykjavik. The following morning we flew to a sunny and reasonably mild Constable Pynt, East Greenland. Only -6, positively balmy! We met the airport’s new little husky puppies, Amanda and Dana, who in a very short time had tried to pull my ponytail out, stolen Warwick’s glove and tried to run off with Phil’s jacket.
Three days of hard graft followed digging out and building a Weatherhaven to house the snowmobiles and equipment. Then the blue skies and sunshine were replaced by zero visibility, snow and howling winds.
Finally two days later the sun returned and we could see the world again, so we headed to the remote mountains around Carlsberg Fjord in far Northern Liverpool Land. This part of Liverpool Land is rarely visited and most of the mountains here are unclimbed. The 85km snowmobile route in looked to be fairly straightforward, the weather forecast for the next few days was good and we were not expecting any major problems. However, conditions were not on our side! The snow was incredibly deep on the access glacier and despite their wide powder skids, the sleds struggled, we had to dig and push and pull several times just to get going again. This made our return journey into a bit of an epic.
We finally came off the glacier in the dark into howling winds that had filled in our previous tracks with snow. After the GPS stopped working, we were route finding under the spectacular glow of the Northern Lights. Suddenly we were travelling over wind scoured, exposed rock and as we tried to find a way around, every route we tried ended at an impassable ravine. We were progressively getting more tired and hungry and the temperatures were tumbling. The only option left was to make an emergency camp at 2.30am. Only a few hours later we were up again melting snow for water and trying to get the tent warm.
The following morning was glorious but very cold and the sun never lies. Our compasses were 180 degrees out, must have been something in the rock? In the light of day with the sun as our guide, we were able to navigate back and a few hours later we were back at base eating brunch and planning where to go next.
