Research

In March we were contacted by Dr. Geoffrey Halliday who has been working on the Flora (flowering plants and ferns) of the central fjord region of Greenland since 1961. Although he has pretty good coverage of Scoresby Sound he lacks any information on Renland apart from a few coastal sites. Dr. Halliday has asked if we can make complete list of plant species occurring in the area in which we will be exploring and climbing, in particular he wants us to note species occurring above 1500m and recording the highest altitude at which species are found. We have a ‘Flowers of Greenland’ guide and will attempt to identify as many specimens in the field as possible - we have a bit of swotting up to do before we leave for Greenland! We have been sent an Arctic plant press for drying and transporting flowering and fruiting specimens back to the UK for further identification. It is great to be adding a research element to our climbing expedition and contributing to such a long-term study.

When not learning our plants we are in the process of planning a fundraising Race Night in Oxford for early June......watch this space

Sad News.

Unfortunatly Alex has decided, for personal reasons, to leave the expedition. This is a great shame for all of us, though the expedition will still be going ahead as planned.

Augustine Courtauld Memorial Trust.

The expedition is very grateful to have received another grant today. This grant came from the a trust set up in memory of Augustine Courtauld, a prolific adventurer, who took part in several expeditions to Greenland in the 1920's and 30's.

Information about the trust can be found at: www.augustinecourtauldtrust.org

packing.

We spent yesterday packing and last minute shopping. We are still waiting for some food to arrive, but we hope to have everything shipped off by the end of the week.

One of the photos shows Crispin trying to pack himself into a barrel. We eventually told that he was allowed to come on the plane with us as long as he promised to do all the washing up on the expedition.

Andrew Croft Memorial and Supplies

We were very grateful to recieve a grant from the Andrew Croft Memorial Fund this week.

We have been busy getting our supplies togther - we've got about 400,000 calories worth all together and spent a fortune in Tesco (I got the club card points). We will be packing everything off next week, then we won't see it again until we arrive at Constable Point on June 26th.

Thank you very to everyone who has helped us out with supplies: Wild West for the beef jurky, Soreen, Tunnocks and John West.

The mountain picture is of us climbing on Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis in March this year. I thought I'd add it 'cos otherwise this would be a really boring post.