Day 25

After a long and tiring day on Monday, Tuesday got off to a leisurely start with reveille at 0800. There was a lot of pulk and personal admin to sort out after the massive kit explosion in the valley and getting it all up onto the glacier, so it was 1100 before we set off. This was to be our first experience of the double-pulk system. Needless to say, initial progress was slow, not helped by the soft snow and crampons on the boots. The initial gentle gradient in the slope steepened up as we started to climb out of the valley and up the snow slope that lay before us, leaving the last views of Umivik Bay behind us.

At the crest of the hill the complex glacier terrain started to become clear. The snow slope gave way to progressively enlarging ice patches with interconnecting snow bridges, and it quickly became clear that the crevasse risk was increasing, and the rope was going to be required.

As we progressed across the plateau heading north the ground to the east started to fall away from us into a large bowl, and meltwater channels were becoming visible across the landscape. The snow was getting very wet in places, and it was clear that we were not going to be able to continue on the current heading. A quick drone recce showed that the extent of the meltwater channels, but helped to identify a route to the west of the plateau on a snowbank, allowing us to skirt around the increasingly large channels, and small lakes that had formed on the snow surface around 1km away.

By this stage in the day the snow was very soft and half the team decided to switch to skis. Progress on skis was much quicker, but as we were on the final stretch of the day, the rest of the team finished off in boots.
Camp admin got underway with tent pitching, dinner, and setting up the bear fence. Post dinner gave way to the opportunity to test firing the rifles we are carrying for bear protection. Each person got two shots at the targets we’d set up, but the results of the practice are remaining a secret! We rounded of the day with a small Danish rum, courtesy of our Danish colleagues, celebrating the last time we’ll see the Denmark Straight. The other half of the rum will be saved for the time when the sea is again visible on the west coast! Good day all round, good progress.