UKC

Anyone been ? I am seriously considering booking myself onto an expedition to the east of Greenland. Ski touring, a bit of climbing - nothing too hard, I would just love to spend time there.

Cheers,

FT.

In reply to Fume Troll: Yep. I went to the Stauning Alps region in, ummm... 1991. It was summer and close to the coast so we didn't need skis at all where we were. I am possibly the only UKCer to have turned 18 in Greenland!?

My regular climbing partner Dave went on a Tangent trip more recently than that and had a great time on all accounts. They flew onto one of the glaciers and then ski toured and climbed lots of peaks including some first ascents I think.

In reply to Fume Troll:

My mate was there this summer. £5K for 3 weeks on a supported bagging trip of new peaks. He did 4.

He said the ice was terrifyingly hard. Even grade 2/3 stuff was challenging. And the rock is just choss. They didn't even carry rock gear for runners/anchors.

That said he said it was an amazing trip and the photo's were stunning.

In reply to Fume Troll: I too have been out - used tangent for logistics but mainly did my own thing out there with my climbing partner. Quality very much depends on area and aspiration. My partner and I were very inexperienced but were still doing easy Alpine style ridges etc - some of the others were doing more snow plod type summits and even ski ascents (and also some decent stuff, don't get me wrong). Rock quality ranged from superb to awfull just like any other glaciated area. If going as part of a supported/semi guided group ensure your aspirations match - if you are equiped and ready to go off on your own obviously no problem but if theres shared gear and group mentality going on you may find yourself in the middle of somebody elses rope walking up something you'd bum slide happily and calling it a first ascent when you get to the top......

In reply to TobyA:

Sorry, but I'm afraid that I did as well. Also in the Stauning alps. Where did you have your party? Might have been on the same glacier!

Mark

In reply to Fume Troll:

Did a Tangent trip this May: fantastic experience. We did about a dozen first ascents between us (mostly F/PD) and some ski touring. Photos at http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/~markb/sortebrae2006/pics/

Yes, the ice was hard and the rock awful: there are areas with much better rock than where we went, though. Can't wait to go back.

In reply to Fume Troll:
Went on a self supported trip to the Lemon Mountains in '99 and 2000 and got huge amounts done. In a total of 10 weeks there I can remeber four bad weather days. The rock there is superb (in the lemons, not greenland in general) and it's all really alpine. Lots of fantastic ice routes, mixed routes, you name it!


http://www.wayupnorth.co.uk/green00/index.html
and
http://www.wayupnorth.co.uk/green99/index.html

In reply to Mark Bull:

You're name rings a bell. Were you there with Calum and Alec (a mad old beardy geezer)?

In reply to gourd: Yep that's the boys right enough!!

http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/~markb/sortebrae2006/pics/slides/day08b.html

In reply to gourd:


Yes! Mad b*ggers the pair of them, but fantastic company: got on really well with them. I have a worse picture than that, but I'm not putting it on the web!!

In reply to Mark Bull:

Fancy sending it to me?

I've known Cal for years. He comes across as a very eccentric character but he's actually much worse!!

In reply to Anonymous:


I was actually down on the coast near Mesters Vig on the day. I guess there is a good chance that you were on a BSES trip as well? Or something similar?

My day was mildly spoitly by having to fight off about five lads who wanted to throw me in the sea and the first very confused gossip coming from the one person with a SW radio on the trip who was elsewhere - that something very bad had happened in Moscow and the Gorbachev had been deposed. This was of course the "Moscow coup" and I think by my birthday they had already caved and Gorbachev was on his way back to Moscow - but it was quite worrying when you had no real info on what was happening! Different times...

In reply to All: Thanks for the feedback, and the photos. Looks exactly like what I want to do. Sounds like several people have used Tangent, I'll take a look at them too.

Cheers,

FT.

In reply to Fume Troll:


Their programme for next year should be available in the next month or so. Paul Walker is a really nice guy: I'm sure he'd be happy to chat about possible trips if you drop him a line.

In reply to Fume Troll: Yep - Paul Walker is the man for Greenland, and very nice and helpfull too - a very high percentage of those doing things in the interior of Greenland (i.e. not just pootling around the coast) either use his trips or use him for logistics on an otheriwse self led basis, kit hire etc - economies of scale and all that. I suspect most other UK based Greenland activity is either very expensive or requires a fair bit of work to get from airports to your main destination with probably a lot of lost time man hauling from coast to inland glaciers. Most of the mountains you want to be in are in a belt about 200km wide around the island - the interior is virtually all ice domes. To get from easy coastal drop off points to the climbing involves some tortuous hauling over glcial rubble, up dry and then convoluted wet glaciers. Easier by far to split the cost of a plane or chopper and get dropped on the ice cap itself.

In reply to Fume Troll:

Yes - I've been on three expeditions to the Staunings which we organised ourselves. Done many new routes and unclimbed peaks. The area is like the Chamonix Alps, but more extensive and with fantastic rock. There are many other ranges all along the coast. The rock varies a lot though - the staunings and the Lemons are probably the best. May is good for ski touring, with July/Aug better for alpine climbing. Not cheap though, chartering aeroplanes, shipping out supplies etc all mounts up, but very rewarding and you don't ever queue for a route. There are some good round ups of what has been done in Greenland in old American AJs.

In reply to Stephen Reid:

Interestingly the areas where we climbed just west of the big Staunings peaks and south of Mestersvig, had really crappy rock.

In reply to Fume Troll:

I am going in April for 4 weeks. NE Greenland. We are arranging it ourselves, with some help/service from others.But that is mainly just logistics/flights.

In reply to gourd:

Email me and I'll send it to you!

In reply to Mark Bull:

Cheers Mark. I'll mail you in a week or two once I've got my email set up in my new house.

Don't want to use my work address (just in case!!).


Ta'

In reply to Fume Troll: Hello,

I live upthere working as a guide, if you have any questions whatsoever feel free contacting me directly I will then try to help you as much as I can


Lindholm