Date 08/05
Day 3
Location N68 19.632 W 046 58.187
Distance (day/total) 0/106 miles
Weather Strong wind and whiteout for most of day
Wind 20-40 mph Temp -8c
Well not much progress today..strong winds and whiteout conditions meant that today’s activities were tent-bound administrative duties. We got word that the Norwegians that were with us in the helicopter had made progress today and overtaken us by about 50 miles. It is always a difficult call as to when to push in marginal conditions and when to play it safe. Because this is our first major snowkiting expedition we had previously set some ground rules so our go/no-go decisions were largely made without protracted debate on the trip. These basic rules were:
A) Wind speeds over 35mph would be avoided
B) Temperatures of below -30 deg C would see us in the tent.
C) Visibility less than 100 metres – stop.
So rule A and C kicked in today and that was that. That is not to say that we wouldn’t consider a little bit of flex in the rules but when the forecast was to worsen and we would have had to pack and unpack the tent again, it was an easy call. 1000 miles is a long way and it would be silly to put ourselves into the “red-zone” so early on. Snowkiting is very much a game of strategy, very similar to sailing the oceans – you play the long game and accept that you can’t win everyday.
So the childish glee at being 30 miles ahead of our Norwegian friends yesterday has been replaced by our despair at maybe missing an opportunity today – but safely tucked up in our warm sleeping bags with a copy of Peter Kay live on the tablet, we are the lucky ones….
Track the progress of Leo Houlding’s month-long 1000 mile snowkiting expedition across Greenland’s ice cap with 10 minute updates on the adventurers location.
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