Lots of Time Lost
Published on 20.04.2010 - Ice Dreams
The two young Canadians, Sebastien Lapierre and Olivier Giasson, have had countless setbacks before finally getting to the Greenland Plateau.
First there was the luggage that failed to arrive. Then all the irritating red tape before the expedition actually got going. Then there was the boat that failed to land them precisely where Sebastien and Olivier had had in mind. Consequence: the ascent had been extremely steep. To such an extent that they were both obliged to make return trips with their sledges.
But that's not all... The weather indeed had been pernicious during their ascent to the plateau. They had had to endure an enormous blizzard of wet snow that soaked them to the skin, which didn't make life all that easy for them. Pretty hard to make headway under those conditions. The days were long and painful: they advanced by approximately three kilometres per day.
During these last few days, their equipment was also put severely to the test. Everything fortunately held out OK, except for Olivier's ski-stick, which bent under the pressure. But somehow or other, they repaired it. With a process combining heat and force, they've repaired the poor twisted ski-stick! By the evening of 12 April, they were finally camping on the plateau.
On 15 April, here we go again: a large storm was raging over their locality, making any progress impossible and obliging the two young adventurers to put up their camp in the middle of the day. And thus to waste precious time. The next day, no luck: they were thinking of making up for lost time by using their traction sails, but now it was a lack of wind that prevented them.
On 18 April, their HQ announced a strong headwind, which had put them behind their envisaged schedule. But their morale remains high and the guys are sticking to their objective. An anecdote: when wanting to have their soup this midday (18 April), they realised that one of their thermos flasks was absent on parade. As it has disappeared for some unknown reason, they will from now on have to share the remaining thermos flask for the midday soup.Â
