This May, a four-person team consisting of two British adventurers a Norwegian, and a Namibian, will attempt to ski unsupported across Greenland from the east to west coast - a distance of just under 550km. The team will be towing all survival equipment and food on ‘pulks’ (sleds), including equipment to carry out medical research in association with Expedition Medicine Ltd.
The team is comprised of Per Thore Hansen and Kobus Alberts, photographer Mark Hannaford and medic Dr Sean Hudson. Members will traverse this 335 mile (539 km) ski trek over 27 days the expedition demanding the highest levels of team cohesion and commitment. The first crossing of Greenland by ski was completed in 1888 by Fritjof Nansen.
While not a first, the 2006 expedition hopes to accomplish a major achievement by undertaking not only the physical and mental challenges of skiing across the Greenlandic icecap unsupported but by paring it with acquisition of medical data throughout the crossing, and documenting one of the worlds last remaining wildernesses.
The expedition team works either freelance or full time for a charity challenge company, Across the Divide Expeditions, who will be providing backup for the trek. Across the Divide has first-hand experience of trips such as this following their setting up the Lake District-based Expedition Medicine Course and the Norway-based Polar Medicine Course. The research carried out on the expedition will aim to evaluate the effect that of extreme cold and physical endurance on the body. The team’s findings will be presented on the Polar Medicine Course in 2007.
Along the way the team will also be raising money for The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), through lectures and the sale of photographs and sponsorship. All costs of the expedition will be met by the team, and so all profits from the sale of photographs will go directly to the charity.
To sponsor the Greenland Expedition Team, please click here.