International Climate Expedition Greenland

West Greenland, 13 - 19 April 2011

     

After the successful expedition in September 2010, Expedition Factory, together with Dutch TV weather anchor and climatologist Reinier van den Berg, organize another climate expedition to West Greenland in April 2011. The expedition will allow participants to experience firsthand what global warming is doing to one of the most vulnerable regions of the world. They will be able to witness the condition and changes to the ice sheet, and experience and discuss the situation with weather and climate specialists.

Video invitation by Reinier van den Berg

A true Polar Expedition

This is a real expedition. We will experience the Arctic climate at and around the icesheet by making a trekking on foot and camping in tents – on the ice. This means that we won't only see what is going on, but also feel, hear and smell. It also means that we carry all our own equipment, fuel and food for a few days. The emphasis of the trek will be on experiencing the landscape, nature and climate. The timing of the expedition is after the long Arctic winter in April. Nature will still be in winter mode, but daylight will have returned and the extreme low temperatures will have become a llittle milder. We will also see the ice at its largest extent, after the ‘normal’ winter grow. We will meet local fauna, still in winter dress (arctic foxes, hares, musk ox). Although this will be a relatively short expedition there will be plenty of time for filming and photography.

Climate neutral

This expedition will go to one of the most vulnerable and unspoilt regions in the world. Therefore the expedition will be carried out 100% climate neutral. Our full carbon footprint will be compensated, and we refrain from using unnecessary polluting transport like snowmobiles. Ultimately we will leave nothing but our own footprints.

 

Date and price

Professional expedition equipment like polar-proof tents, sleeping bags, back packs, cooking gear, navigation equipment and outer clothing will be supplied by Expedition Factory. This 6-day expedition will be from 13 to 19 April 2011. We will fly to Copenhagen on the evening of 13 April for our flight to Kangerlussuaq the next day. From there we will travel to the inland icesheet. The price for this exclusive one-off event is €4,750 per person, including flights (from Amsterdam), all necessary equipment rental, local transport, hotels in Copenhagen and Kangerlussuaq, food, CO2-compensation, and professional expedition and climatologist guides. Price excludes personal expenses and VAT. The minimum number of participants is 6, the maximum 11.

Expedition program

13 April: Travel from Amsterdam to Copenhagen (Denmark) where we will have an introduction dinner at a hotel close to the airport, followed by presentations about the Greenland icecap.

14 April: Early flight to Kangerlussuaq, just above the Arctic Circle in Western Greenland. Morning presentation about the expedition logistics and meetup with our local guide. Lunch at the airport restaurant, followed by a 4 wheel drive transfer to the inland icecap. On the edge of land and ice we continue on foot for a few kilometers and then build our expedition basecamp for 2 nights. We will enjoy an expedition meal and sleep in tents and bivy bags on the ice.

15 April: Walking tour over the icesheet, with plenty of time for photography and filming. Our guides will bring us to some of the most characteristic and spectacular features of the edge of the icesheet, using all necessary safety equipment. We spend a second night in our basecamp on the ice.

16 April. After breakfast we break up our camp to walk back towards solid ground. We traverse along the edge of ice, along small iceberg-filled lakes and the mountains. We then make our final expedition camp on land, right underneath one of the most spectacular glacier tongues of Western Greenland, at Russell's Glacier. During our overnight stay and subsequent day many cubic meters of ice may break off the glacier rim and fall into the river some 40 meters lower.

17 April: We spend the morning exploring Russell's Glacier and surroundings, after which we break up camp and follow the flood beds of the melt-water rivers back towards town. On the main road we will be picked up by 4 wheel drives and taken back to the local hotel for a shower and dinner.

18 April: In the morning we will visit the Sondrestrom Research Facility, a few kilometers outside the village. At this facility several US and Danish institutes research the polar upper atmosphere and space weather. After lunch we fly back to Copenhagen, where we spend the night in a local hotel.

19 April: Morning flight from Copenhagen to Amsterdam.

Registration

To pre-register for this expedition (13 - 19 April 2011), please click here to open an email form