Day 50

I take the lead first thing in the morning and turn due west again. I am very conscious this means tackling some big crevasses but am determined to make progress and reinject some momentum – food is now something of a concern – we need to be off the ice today if possible and we still have 15km to go in a straight line!

There is no doubt the first couple of hours are challenging and we frequently have to work as a team to ensure we cross some of the bigger crevasses safely. A dynamic risk assessment is required to understand where a rope helps and where it hinders. It’s a constant balance of the likelihood of a fall vs the potential implications of a fall. Before long, our direct approach starts to pay off with significant progress in the right direction, gradually the crevasses start to reduce in scale and complexity.

Inevitably, there is a sting in the tail. As we start to relax a little, Tom looks back and spots Col waving at us furiously from the back of the ‘Pulk Train’. Something is badly wrong and several of us drop pulks and run back fearing the worst. From the way he is lying thoughts of a broken leg, SAR rescue and an ignominious end to the Exped flash through my brain. As we get nearer, we can see it is potentially even worse. Col is lying flat on the ice with both his pulks dangling vertically in a huge crevasse and threatening to pull him in after them. He is holding them, but only just. Between us, we stabilize Col’s position and drag the pulks back up out of the crevasse and then take a long moment to check on Col. Quite apart from the physical strain, he has clearly been impacted by the situation.

We have allowed ourselves to be lured by success and got complacent. We have to change our approach. Roping up again is likely to lead to more difficulties in this terrain but for several reasons I’m convinced we have to do something different. After reassuring myself that Col is Ok to continue, I call the team in to talk through what has happened and adjust our approach going forward. We agree to switch to a single pulk each and close the separation between individuals right down. It will slow us down significantly but needs to happen to reduce risk and settle everyone, at least until we break free of the last of the significant crevasses. 30 mins later and we are once again into complex but permissible terrain.

Charley takes the lead and seems to have a gift for threading her way efficiently through the ice towers. It’s still difficult but we make good progress and are able to safely cross the challenging but narrow crevasses through a combination of lifting, dragging and jumping. We even find a hugely enjoyable and permissive downhill stretch where Charley must have broken the 500m pulk pulling record.

Nothing in Greenland is easy and the ice is not about to release us without a fight. Two more heavily crevassed ice ridges remain to be crossed, along with two significant meltwater rivers. Using the pulks as floating bridges works for the first, the second involves a more complex system of ropes and multiple people working together to get one pulk at a time over the fast-flowing meltwater. It all took time and energy, but success is infectious and the teamwork involved is strangely satisfying for everyone. Once again, I’m reminded just how well everyone’s strengths complement each other. Little things matter in situations like this, and everyone is actively looking out for each other without any prompt. It feels like we’ve become a well-oiled machine, a truly effective team. Despite all the challenges we’re now making palpable progress, and the end is in sight.

Finally, as evening approaches, I see Marcus cresting an ice ridge 50m ahead of me and raise both fists to the sky……….! After 28 days we have finally reached the edge of the ice, solid ground beckons.
By the time the rest of us join him the light is beginning to fail. I can see the moraine just a short distance ahead of us at the base of a long ice slope. What was less clear was the exact route off the ice and where we might camp when we got there. After a brief consultation we make the call to build our final camp up on the relatively flat ice on the ridge top. I ask Josh to lead a small recce party to examine routes off the ice while the rest of us make camp. In the hard ice it’s ice screws to hold the tents in place with a few snow pegs hammered in rather speculatively where possible and skis, ice axes and any other heavy hardware to hold down the snow skirts against the rising winds.

Before long we have three tents properly anchored and the happy roar of stoves as Josh, Marcus and Tom re-emerge from the gloom flush with news that they’ve found a steep but relatively easy route down off the ice…… we are almost there!