Day 2

A very kind Finnish team who had set off a few days before on their long arduous journey across the ice cap to the east coast for 35 days, had shared with us their track. It was amazing to have some new intel and with the satellite images, it looked promising - but deep down we all knew we had a complicated jumbled maze of a glacier waiting for us, with 2 pulks weighting a total of 100kg each - so there was no doubt we were going to be in for a tough ride. On top of this, the forecasts were predicting 100km winds tonight into Monday - so apprehensions were justified I think. Despite all of this, we were all buzzing with excitement as we jumped into Chris’s truck - our long journey had begun and no matter what happens I think w
e all knew we’d figure it out.


As we drove up the long old road from Kanger, passing Reindeers and Mountain Hare - the sun came out and gave way to amazing blue skies, stretching out towards the distant icecap - our home for the next month. We reached Point 660 at around 11am and decided to build a robust camp tucked in between the glacial moraines - placed on the ice itself we made V-threads with the ice screws to secure the tent ahead of the forecasted blow. Once set we decided to make use of the amazing weather and try to take one load and depot it on the glacier. At first we glided along the ancient blue ice, but soon the ice steepened and we dug in our front points to haul the loads up the never ending hummocks of ice.


After 3km we entered a frozen melt water channel which helped us navigate past hellish crevassed terrian, following Icey runnels and hoping they would lead us to a flat begnin expanse. To our luck the channel was a good one and with few detours we managed to haul our first load 5km without too many dramas. Up on the rolling blue, distant hills stretched up like towering white mountains in an arctic mirage. After enjoying the views, we scooted back to camp and made tea and ate homemade brownies, hunkering down before the storm. Sila, the name of this expedition is Greenlandic word, and is the name for both weather and consciousness. The winds have started to pick up - so I’m going to drink my tea, contemplate that some more. In the morning we will see what SILA brings (: over and out