Yet another retirement
Published on 21.04.2009 - General Info
While the team of Finns is still making steady progress over the Greenland icecap, one of the expedition members believed he was not physically fit enough to continue the journey.
Arto Suhonen, a 51-year-old craftsman, came to the conclusion his fitness was not up to the standard needed to support the efforts of the trip and could handicap the whole group. So, like the other member of the team, Teija Parkkinen, the 41-year-old surgeon who was forced to give up on day two of the trek, Arto decided to stay where he was and be picked up by helicopter on 14th April at 7.00 pm.
Apart from this second retirement, everything else is running smoothly for the four remaining expedition members. Having said that, progress has been far from easy, because over the past week. They have had to contend with a major blizzard blowing right into their faces (i.e. from the east), as well as two days of whiteout conditions -we shouldn't forget that Greenland's climate is still polar- which forced the men to stay inside their tents the whole time.
The long descent towards the east coast will begin soon, which should make the going less difficult for them.
