Sunlight and Storm in the High Arctic

by Jim Gregson

The mountains of northern Liverpool Land in East Greenland are no higher than Ben Nevis but they look like striking alpine peaks rising straight out of the sea. Having been a pioneer climber and explorer in this area I was eager to return to make further first ascents and explore new territory. So, in 2018, three years after my previous visit, I was able to put together a group of keen climbers and skiers to join a new expedition for that purpose. Four of the group members are members of AAC(UK) and, once our plans and organisation were in place, we were delighted to win the approval and support from AAC(UK) for grant aid towards our considerable costs.

From Iceland we flew into Greenland at the airstrip of Constable Pynt in the middle of April 2018, to find the place heavily snowed up after some recent bad weather. A day later we loaded up all of our kit and expedition supplies on to sledges and snowmobiles for a journey north over sea ice and winding river valleys on to a small ice cap in North Liverpool Land where we set up our Base Camp at the confluence of the two arms of the Neild Bugt Glacier. This was close to a previously used location which allows very good access to the most impressive peaks of the area.

It was noticeably colder, and there was much more snow on the mountains than had been the case in 2015: mid-April is still really winter this far north (Lat. 71 deg.) Once we had the camp set up, protected with a trip-wire to warn of any possible polar bear incursions and held a rifle drill just in case; we made an introductory ski tour so that those making their first trip to Greenland could get a feel for the lie of the land, maps for this area being somewhat cursory to say the least.

Luck was with us as far as far as the weather went at this stage and we enjoyed a run of ten or so days of very good sunshine and little wind as we set about some of our mountaineering adventures. The first outing we made yielded two new routes on Castle Peak, fairly close to camp, allowing us to test the snow conditions, but also to realise that the cold conditions would not be conducive to technical rock climbing at a high standard, so we looked for climbing of a more mixed nature. Over this first part of the trip we managed in various combinations to reach a number of new summits but also to complete several very adventurous new routes and traverses on some peaks which my own groups had climbed during earlier visits. These outings produced the first ascent of the impressive Tower of Silence, high level traverses over Høngbjerg (aka Mt Mighty) and Kuldefjeld, and the several tops of the Hulya group, the first ascent of "The Long Ridge" on the eponymous Longridge Peak, reminiscent of Tower Ridge, two more of the unclimbed summits in the Seven Dwarfs group and others. During some exploratory ski tours further new summits were reached, among them Bloqqortoq and Qaqqaq Jutta and Fox Tor on 0ld Man's Peak.

As we wished to investigate more new ground we skied further afield on some days to discover if other interesting objectives might be found. At this stage the snow conditions for ski travel and descents were very good so we covered quite a lot of distance, at the same time as picking up some smaller summits as part of our tours. In the more northerly reaches of the area we could see that access to new peaks would be more complex due to steeply falling glaciers which might need a change of camp location, but there remain any number of very attractive peaks for the determined explorer. Leaving camp heading south some of us made a very long ski trip into and along the southern arm of the Neild Bugt Glacier, covering several kilometres until we reached the very snout of the glacier dropping vertically into the still frozen sea in the fjords. Here we again came across quite a lot of polar bear tracks, having already seen many more tracks further inland, making us glad to have a firearm with us as a precaution in case the 'local residents' proved to be unfriendly. It was evident from our map that the glacier here had retreated for a noticeable distance inland by comparison with its position on the map. We also noted some very good-looking peaks which could be accessed from this branch of the glacier.

After ten days we were sitting pretty and anticipating more good days to come. Little did we suspect that fate would rapidly overtake us. Taking a rest day in camp in brilliant sunshine one of us commented "We'll soon be in fog"; very quickly we were as the bank of fog rolled over us and the temperature dropped as the sun was blanked off. Very soon after that a wind sprang up and then, with astonishing rapidity, we were plunged into a storm, the like of which I had seldom seen over the twenty-five years of Arctic expeditions in which I have been involved. The storm worsened, and raged non-stop day and night for the next three full days and, unusually for the Arctic, brought a lot of new, heavy wet snow. The tents of course formed obstacles to the wind and we were getting very heavily drifted up. For two of our four tents this led to almost complete burial and entombment for the occupants until it became absolutely necessary to brave the outdoors and go out to shovel off the masses of snow. I don't quite know how the pole wands of my own trusted expedition tent did not actually break but were left with bends that far exceeded their normal configuration.

Our very carefully constructed latrine was lost completely, with no sign that it had ever existed. Although the worst of the storm finally relented, the camp area had to be cleared somewhat, leaving us as occupants of a rather snowy maze complex. Worse was the fact that the peaks were now blanketed in heavy new snow with consequent very elevated avalanche risk that was to hamper our mountain activities. The weather stayed unsettled with no more prolonged periods of sunshine to settle things down, so in all we lost perhaps a week of our climbing time. We did though set out for more exploratory ski trips and a few more new summits were gathered in, before we had to ready ourselves for a pickup by our team of snowmobile drivers.

Having made very good progress with re-packing and sorting our kit, it was frustrating to experience another night which brought almost a metre depth of new snow once more, burying everything we had carefully got dry. Having confirmed our pickup arrangements by a satellite phone call, we were pleased that the drivers turned up as expected and after quickly loading up we were transported down off the glacier and ice cap to cross the sea ice in Carlsberg Fjord, with a stop to take a very close look at some spectacular frozen-in icebergs on the way. The return journey to Constable Pynt was smoother due to the copious amounts of new snow and, after our trials by storm, we were very glad to check in for one night at the amusingly named "Hilton", the airstrip's accommodation block and, after a much needed shower, to sit down at tables in the airstrip canteen for a good meal of non-expedition food.

The next day we flew back across the Denmark Straits to Akureyri in Iceland and thence to Reykjavik. We then had a day or two in Iceland to wind down before returning to the UK after a memorable and productive trip. The expedition group would like to express gratitude and appreciation for the generous support granted to us by The Austrian Alpine Club (UK) and also the Mount Everest Foundation and the Gino Watkins Memorial Fund. The expedition ran from mid-April through to mid-May 2018.

Expedition team: Jim Gregson, Sandra Gregson, Ingrid Baber, Ron Kenyon (all members of AAC-UK), Simon Richardson, Mark Robson.

11 new summits were climbed, plus 8 new routes on peaks previously climbed. Repeat ascents of 4 peaks previously climbed, plus a number of lengthy exploratory ski tours.

A full report will also appear on the AAC(UK) website on https://aacukeorg.uk/p-expedition-reports-and-articles.

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