Settling into Base Camp

Friday 27th June 2008

Finally the day we had been building up to via weeks of planning had arrived. We made the final leg of our journey to Renland and our home for the next month. Despite some moments of doubt as to whether we would actually make it due to bad weather, a spectacular helicopter ride gave us our first taste of the incredible scenery that awaited us and the challenges that lay ahead.

We set up Base Camp amongst towering rock spires on the middle of a glacier and having settled in, took some time to ponder our climbing objectives for the coming weeks. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will do a recce of the area and get our bearings before, if all goes to plan, our first climb on Sunday.

We are all healthy and well, and in fine spirits. And so far not so much as a polar bear’s whisker in sight…C, R, and N

Burgers and culture in Reykjavik

With great courage, teamwork and sheer grit and determination we have achieved our first goal: getting through Stansted airport. This challenge overcome, we found ourselves in Reykjavik (sp?) and cosily holed up at Snorri's guesthouse. Reykjavik (sp?) is pleasant, small and expensive. Icelanders are not as tall as we thought but sport a reassuring amount of facial hair. We have visited the museum where we learnt about the vikings and that the arrival of the photobooth in Iceland was a sign of the country entering into the modern age. Just had our last burger in anticiaption of 30 days of camp rations.
We leave Reykjavik on a 9am flight tomorrow for Constable Point. we'll spend two nights there before being choppered onto Renland. We're told Constable Point has an airstrip, alot of mud, drunken violence and a polar bear problem (they're drunk and violent) so we'll be pretty keen to move on from there. So that's the last blog entry direct from us and we'll be phoning them in via Emily and Catherine from now on.

Sponsoring...

A few people have been asking about sponsoring us. We are very grateful for this. There are two ways that you can sponsor us. You can make a donation to Sobell House via the link on the website. We have already raised over £500 for this great charity. Or you can make a donation the expedition, if you would like to do this, get in touch with one of us.

5 Days to go..

It's only five days until we depart for Iceland, the first stop on our journey to Renland. I've just been to pick up our new tent from Terra Nova, which is the final thing on my 'to do list' besides packing odds and ends like toothbrushes and eating loads of crisps and buiscuits!
We've heard reports, via other teams currently in Greenland, that it has been unseasonaly cold and that this winter's snow is still at sea level. This is far from ideal, but with any luck conditions are improving as I write.
While in Renland we hope to be able to report back by our sat phone, though this may prove impractical.
That's it for now.

Oh yeah, thanks Chris and Luke for the loan of their tracievers and can somebody remind me to pack some cutlery.