KiteGreenland.com

Tracking & latest news

¨ 09.06: Departure from Norway to Kastrup, Copenhagen

¨ 10.06: Arrival of both men and gear at Narsaq. All hotels full. Local farmer helps out.

¨ 11.06: The delivery of the pulks is delayed until 17.06. Earliest possible departure is now 18.06.  The city and the farm is nice, and so is the weather.

¨ 17.06: Lazy days at camp spent on BBQing, kayaking and mountain trips, a visit to the neighbouring city JulianeHåb, soccer and reading.  Hopefully the pulks will arrive today, but the transport to the ”drop zone” may be further postponed due to vast amounts of ice....

¨ 19.06,15:00 - 61N01231 46W44529: Boat with team and gear arrived at ”drop zone”. Nice weather.

¨ 20.06 02:22 - 61N04138 46W47236: First camp set at 02:22 after some hard hours uphill.. Feels very good to finally be on the road. Everyone is feeling strong, and the team spirit is high.

¨ 20.06 19:43 - 61N04138 46W47236: Sunshine and calm. We have now reached the snow, and are planning an early night in order to take advantage of crusted snow at night/early morning hours.

¨ 21.06 07:47 - 61N10012 46W49206: After tracking during most of the night in full moon & low sun, we have reached conditions good enough for sailing. The height above sea level is approx. 930 meters. We are now setting up the tents and waiting for wind.

¨ 22.06 06:30 - 61N27269 47W11070: Fantastic day that started with sun bathing at camp. Some time after being passed by the “jenter I kuling” team, we got enough wind in the largest kites to get going. We are now approx 1600 meters above sea level. Everything is fine.

¨ 23.06 04:20 - 61N39227 46W25829: Wind from the North. Sailing against the wind with heavy pulks has proved to be exhausting. Never the less, team spirit is good, and the place itself is fantastic.

¨ 23.06, 23:15 - 61N57073 46W15588: We are now some 2400 meters above sea level and today we looked down at clouds on both the right and left hand side - it felt like sailing on a sky. The wind is at a minimum - making progress slow. We are now setting camp and hoping that the wind will pick up tonight.

¨ 25.06 01:09 - 63N14870 46W37802: The sun remains and today the wind picked up! We covered approx 150 km, most of it between breakfast and lunch. The surface is quite hard, and both feet and knees are aching for those of us not used to this kind of abuse. I (Tom) hit one of my ribs quite hard today - I hope it is not broken. It's quite cold at nigh with temperatures down to minus 25 C. However, we have good clothing and are not cold.

¨ 25.06 ?:? - 63N40992 47W23786: Kiting on a calm wind from behind, slightly downhill with a heavy pulk is actually quite tricky... My (Tom) rib seems to be fine, and does not hurt as long as I am sailing.

¨ 26.06 23:00 - 64N50129 47W25679: Good wind for our large "Jakuza 14" kites. The sun is still shining. We have hardly seen any clouds since we started.

¨ 27.06 21:27 - 66N06921  46W29222: We had some frustrating moments earlier today, with snapped kite lines that had to be fixed. The surface is now a bit softer, which is a good thing. Everything, including everyone, is fine.

¨ 28.06 17:54 - 67N22032 46W39506: Got up at 01:30 and started kiting two hours later. Flew up to the old radar station for a quick look - it turned out to be a cool and strange place; operated by the Americans during the cold war, built  in 1960 and deserted in a hurry 18 years later. The weather remains nice, but with difficult winds. The weather forecast predicts that the hardest and best winds are to be found at night, so we plan to set sail again tonight. Erik misses Maren. Actually, we all miss the ones back home... We are of course a bit tired and have some blisters here and there - however, that is to be expected, and we are all feeling fine.

¨ 29.06 20:58 - 67N22032 46W39506: No wind and no progress. We have been lying down for so long that our backs hurt... Looking forward to a windy night..

Due to my own summer vacation, I will probably not be able to keep this web page updated for the next couple of weeks. News and reports from the four men out there in the cold, cold world of ice and agony will still be provided as I receive them, but only via the Google maps page  http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=no&msa=0&msid=116203244617417292204.00044f14957c16bcbe822&t=h&ll=62.643868,-43.17627&spn=4.607558,13.535156&z=6 .  This page also has a comments  function (”vurdere dette kartet”) that among other things can be used for sending ”poste restante” messages to the men (to be read upon their return) Remeber that the messages will be visible to everyone..   Thanks.  HH

08.07: I am back from vacation and are now updating this web site as we speak... This page and the maps.google page will both be updated from now on. The gallery page will be updated within shortly with more pictures mainly from the training at Finse, and from Ronny’s stay at Antarctica. Regarding the shaving event reported the 6th of July, the message does not give any spesific details, so the following link regarding shaving might NOT be relevant: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/lax/35274458.html  Rgds HH.

¨ 30.06 02:00 - 67N38934 46V38542: Most of the distance done in a few hours with easy wind from the wrong direction. This place seems to be cursed by sunshine and calm!

¨ 01.07 15:52 - 68N26323 46V31289: Started early and sailed during night. Set camp early at 10 O clock in the morning.. We are planning to sail really hard for a long time as soon as the wind picks up. The weather forecast looks promising. Time will show... Everything is fine, and everyone is feeling fine.

¨ 03.07 17:26: When leaving from camp 13 we had an accident..: "Eirik took a hell of a beating when falling hard while launching his kite and himself. He then was taken out by helicopter to the hospital in Ilulissat because we were afraid he had suffered back or kidney injuries. This happened day 13. We have now gotten reports from his family that he is recovering fine, and that no vital organs were damaged. Double bad luck for him, because after this the wind has picked up." The three of us remaining on the ice cap have continued, The wind is good and we have covered quite a bit of distance. We are having a lunch break right now and will call in again later tonight for updated coordinates. Eirik did not want any of us to follow him to the hospital. We have learned that he is doing well, and so are we.

¨ 02.07 h:m x.y: After Eirik was picket up, we had a tiny bit of wind for a couple of hours.

¨ 04.07 00:09 - 71N31219 48W21150: The wind increased to an ok level, and we "flew" with the wind for quite a while. Every now and then we could see cracks in the ice. We started at night at approx 03:00, and covered some 300 kilometers.

¨ 05.07 00:09 - 73N13308 49W48883: Today the conditions have been fantastic. Like yesterday we have only used the smallest kites. Distance today is approx. 200 km, and we are approximately 2260 meters above sea level. Everything is still fine. We are tired - correction: I (Tom) am tired, the other two are still feeling like spring has sprung. But once again, everything is indeed fine, we have no problems, and we hope that we will catch the return flight in time.

¨ 06.07 00:15 - 75N35493 52W54403 : Things are all right.  I (Tom) have a foot inflammation, but will endure living in pain hell for the rest of the journey, and finish. The sun is always shining. Ronny has shaved. Tom is not going to for a long time.

¨ 08.07 12:04 - 77N36562 61W41528: The day before yesterday there was no wind at all and we stayed put in the camp all day. Yesterday we started to kite on a very calm wind. After some hours the wind grew stronger, and the conditions changed to our favor. Everyone is doing fine, and we once again feel quite confident that we will reach our return flight.

¨ 09.07 19:15 - 77N57062 66W49356 : We camped here last night as progress today is at a stand-still. Nice weather but no wind…  We had expected to have reached the destination by now, but we are still here on the ice cap, waiting. Probably there will be a bit of wind tonight, and we expect that the next message will be sent after crossing the “finish line”. Everything is still fine with all of us.

¨ 10.07 16:50 - 77N42035 69W26124: The expedition has now reached the coast. This means that we have actually reached our destination, at 1055 am today! It’s lasted 21 days, and we’ve touched the world record set by Nicolas and co. This last stage was a very hard one with tough kiting. Among other things we had to jump over crevices with and without water, while kiting. Coming down the glacier went relatively smooth. Everybody is doing fine! We’re a bit tired after running the last bit to beat the record while carrying many kilos on our backs! The last bit we had to carry our stuff on our backs through a real ‘mean’ moraine which made us almost fall flat on our faces. Our camp is now set, we’re having a meal and have had a small drink.  Helge has shot a small duck. Our problem now is that the fjord is frozen and this means that the boat we had intended to call cannot get in here. We must try to get a helicopter to collect us. This seems like the only realistic alternative at the moment. If we have to walk to Qaanaaq, we can simply forget to reach our return flight back to Norway, and we don’t want that… We’ll figure out how to get in contact with them. Anyway, we made it  “Hei og hå”!

¨ 11.07 23:00 - A helicopter picked us up earlier today, and we are now back to the civilization.  The return plane leaves for Copenhagen the 16th of July.

Schedule of Events

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