Arctic Mountains

G4 Expedition, Watkins Mountains, East Greenland

May 24 2004 - Camp Day

By 06:00AM, the weather was delightful as ususal. The Tromsø team was probably pleased to see the weather, and that they could expect the plane to arrive later in the day. Torstein paid them a social visit. The plane is believed to arrive approx. 17:00PM.

15:00PM: Weather is getting worse by the minute. Chances are that the Tromsø team will not make it out of here today. Since we're 3 dinners short, we're not having dinner today. Without any activities, the dinner isn't really needed anyway. We also seem to be marginal on gas. Which means we can not boil more water than we have done so far.

The plane did not arrive. Torstein and Per Ove returned from the Tromsø camp with even more snacks. They must have been loaded. We had to figure out what we should do in the morning, providing weather was good. The plane would probably not be here until noon. Should we move out early, or wait for the plane? The upside with moving out early was to avoid deadtime. The upside with waiting for the plane was a) we could get some extra dinners from the Tromsø team, b) we could get some extra lunch that the pilot was supposed to bring along and c) we could personally hand over a map and set of co-ordinates about our new whereabouts. Point c) meant that we didn't have to rely on the satellite phone batteries. Two were already dead, and could we rely on the third?

We had a group meeting. A principle about us being an independent expedition was put on the table. The majority seemed to be less concerned about the principle side. There was no question that we would do well without extra lunch and dinner. More concerning was the fact that we would have to rely on the satellite phone for giving location and weather report. If the satellite phone was to fail at our new location, this meant we would have to return to the original base camp. Several people in the group found this not to be an option. The meeting didn't last long. The majority of the group was in favour of waiting.

Weather got gradually worse, and the wind speed picked up. Torstein and I checked that the tent stood firmly before we went to bed. We killed off the evening by teaching each other knots. A very useful activity. By 21:30PM, visibility was improving, and we could see that some snow had fallen. Tracks up the glacier were no longer visible. Tomorrow seemed to be moving day.


1. No activities today (136KB) 2. Weather is improving (133KB) 3. Per Ove and Staale inside the tent (365KB)

No Javascript:

1 2 3

May 23 May 25


G4 main page westcoastpeaks.com