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Mountaineering, 'BSES Greenland Arctic Adventure', Greenland, Jul 2009, ID 822

877 (Inverurie) Sqn ATC

After nine months of preparation and fundraising, on July 13th 2009 I finally set off for the Tasermiut Fjord of Southern Greenland!

The Adventure Phase
The expedition was split into two phases, the adventure phase and the science phase. We started the adventure phase with our training, where we learnt how to:

  • tie ourselves into harnesses and rope lines
  • use crampons and an ice axe
  • and rescue someone should they fall into a crevasse.

I really enjoyed the training as I had never used crampons or an ice axe before.

Once we had completed our training we were able to begin our adventure expeditions. We decided to spend one day trekking through a valley which had not been explored by anyone from BSES before and found that a great deal had changed over the 22 years since our map was produced!

For our other expedition, we decided to go away for three days along one of the glaciers and up two peaks which overlooked adventure base camp and across vast fields of glaciers and a great deal of the fjord. The views were truly breathtaking.

The Science Phase
The science focus of my group was geology. We started our science by looking at the geography of the area and then moved on to looking at the different types of rock. On the east side of the fjord we found that the mountains consisted of sedimentary rocks whereas on the west side of the fjord we found that the mountains were made of metamorphic rocks.

I really enjoyed the science phase as I had never done any geology before so I learnt a great deal in the perfect environment.

How The Expedition Affected Me
Apart from ecstatically enjoying the expedition I did learn a great deal about myself and 21st century life. In particular I learnt how easy our lives have been made by modern conveniences and how these are damaging our environment.

After spending five weeks with the same group of people day in, day out I also developed my social skills and realised that I should learn to be more patient.

Through the expedition I learnt a huge variety of new skills and gained masses of new experiences; it truly was the trip of a lifetime and well worth all the preparation and fundraising!

I would like to express my gratitude for the generous grant from the Ulysses Trust.

Alan Clark

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