
The team upon reaching the east coast
The team upon reaching the east coast
After nearly a month on the ice, we can safely say the Inspiring Explorers are going to be looking forward to a hot shower.
In his account of the first crossing of Greenland, Nansen described the sight of the men, as they fought their way across the interior of the ice cap.
“We were a remarkable sight by daylight next morning. Our complexions, hitherto comparatively fair, and washed moderately clean by wind and weather, had undergone a complete transformation. In places the incrustations of soot were so thick that they could be scraped off with a knife. All wrinkles and depressions were full of this foreign substance…The only parts still clean were the eyeballs and teeth, and these now shone out quite uncomfortably white in contrast.”
Nansen’s expedition did not wash between departing from the Jason, to reaching the west coast of Greenland (78 days in total). Water had to be melted every morning and evening over their cooker and was scarce, leading to a constant, unquenchable thirst. As a result, they could not spare a drop for bathing. Furthermore, Nansen stated that the risk of wetting the face in the harsh glare of the sun reflecting off the ice could lead to the skin peeling off and blistering into sores.
He stated, “between this and uncleanliness, the defenders of cleanliness will be found few and far between.”
From Bengt: Another long day. From deep snow to good surface during the day. Total whiteout the last 4 legs. We did 33.4 km in 11 and some hours. Look forward to a new long day tomorrow. Plan is to ski down (perhaps with a long break in the middle of the day). All weather and temperature depended. Also look forward to a long night sleep, quite tired now 😉
From Bengt:
This morning we met up with the English team, and decided we ski down together to join forces in the heavy snow we are having at the moment. We had snow and whiteout conditions throughout the day. It’s hard going in the front, but nice at the back. Now we have 29km left to the magic point on top of the icefall. Spirit is high and we are looking forward to seeing the first mountains!
Snowblindness is just one of the things the team want to avoid in Greenland. Snowblindness is a temporary loss of vision caused by the sun’s rays – think of it like sunburn of the eyeballs!
Of course the Inspiring Explorers have sunglasses and protective goggles to protect their eyes, but things were different for Nansen’s expedition. The use of sunglasses have been documented as early as the 18th century, however they were not widely popular until the 1920s. While the explorers had primitive spectacles, they mostly utilised Inuit snow goggles. Made from wood or walrus ivory, the goggles had thin horizontal slots cut into them that limited the amount of sun exposure.
The goggles did not provide protection though, and Nansen documented having to apply cocaine drops to Samuel Balto’s eyes when he was struck with snowblindness. This is an early documented use of the drug. It would later be used by Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition, and Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition for the same purpose.
From Bengt: Long and nice day. Sunny and no wind. Today we walked 11 hours and some. That gave us 34.7km! We followed the tracks from yesterday, bumped into the camp of our English friends just before the last leg. We silently passed since it looked like they already had gone to bed. We skied another 3-4km before setting up camp Conditions are gettin’ better minute by minute, right now actually not too bad. Going to bed now at 15 minutes to 0200.
From Bengt: As predicted, it was whiteout in the morning. Almost no wind and the sun was trying to get through the clouds.
In the middle of the day we found tracks from another team, which we followed. We did around 9 hours and got 27.3km. It cleared up in the end of the day.
From Bengt: Lots of snow, powder that would have been great in a slope, not so good for us. We still managed 31.6kms. We are happy about that!
Going to bed now, a lot of the same tomorrow, and another 11.5 hours are waiting in a bit.
From Bengt: Not much sleep tonight, we had to get up and use the weather. We were on schedule till the middle of the day, then we got hit by weather, we continued but with less progress, decided to cut one leg, and hide it for later. The windy weather is supposed to continue all night, we look forward to 8 hours of sleep 🙂
In all we did 24.6kms and we descended 100m.
From Bengt: Another 10 hours plus. This morning was quite windy, but it settled during the day. Since it snowed a bit in the night the sliding conditions weren’t exactly perfect 😉
We also came in to an area with a bit of loose snow in the end of the day, so we worked quite hard the last legs. In total we did 30.6 km. Look forward to descending now!
About 170km left to the magic point before the icefall. Ideally we should be there the night of 29th…
At least we’re going to do our best. Cross fingers for our weather.
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