Expedition To The Third Pole By Power Of Kite
Intrepid explorer Sebastian Copeland and his partner Eric McNair-Landry, are trekking across Greenland by power of kite to raise awareness for Global Warming.
After completing a trek to the North Pole last spring, Copeland needed a good training trip in preparation for an upcoming expedition to the South Pole in November. The opportunity to travel to Greenland fit the bill, a destination that many explorers consider the “third pole”.
Copeland and McNair-Landry started their journey from the small hamlet of Narsarsuaq after arranging for a local fisherman to take them and 240 pounds of gear to the glacier.
The boat ride itself was jeopardized by ice drifting between the islands, but this is why they call it an adventure and from here it only gets more adventurous. The plan calls for a crossing in 42 days in order to meet their pickup plane at Qaanaaq in time, but the weather has not been cooperating.You can follow the expedition on the official blog.
Amongst the dangers right from the start was deep, crusty snow that when broken through revealed rivers of water running underneath and obscuring the crevasses that could end the journey, and their lives, prematurely.
The trek started on May 15th and was uphill right from the start. While good progress was made the first days of the trip, days eight through twelve had the adventurers pinned down in their tent to seek refuge from a violent Greenland storm.
With winds reaching 80 plus miles an hour, even their smallest kites were too big and left them just hoping their tents would hold up as they were shaking like rag dolls. With temperatures at -10 Celsius and wind chill taking that to -48, a failure of their tents would be almost certain death
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