Change of plan
Published on 27.04.2009 - Greenland 2009 (West-East)
As soon as the two Channel Islanders arrived in Greenland, they changed their plans. They won't be doing a coast-to-coast crossing any longer, but just a short crossing of the icecap. The snow was just too bad. (And undoubtedly the challenge was too great for them!)
We're not quite sure when these two pleasant polar tourists decided to change their plan. In their update on 24th April, they reported that the helicopter had just dropped them off on the icecap after flying over some absolutely extraordinary coastline. Then, a little later, Steve Wright and Simon Elmont announced that they would "only" be attempting to cross the icecap and that on that particular day, after skiing for 7œ hours, they had only covered 8 kilometres!
Was it the snow that prompted them to change their plans? Almost certainly not, because they had tested out the snow conditions when they were dropped off by the chopper on the icecap. So it seems that once they arrived in the tiny village of Tassilaq, they suddenly realised that they had bitten off more than they could chew and the whole undertaking was beyond their abilities.
So, they have been on their way since 24th April and are already immensely tired. It appears first that the snow was really sticky and impossible to ski on. They responded by deciding to get up in the middle of the night (at three in the morning) and try to cover as many miles as possible before the sun rose to warm up the snow. But as luck would have it, the two young men were no more fortunate the following day, with white-out conditions throughout the day. But despite that, they were still on the move for 6 hours on that particular day (25th April).
