Expedition to Greenland 2009

Catherine Kelham from Withington Girls' School took part in a BSES Expedition to Greenland sponsored by the Trust  during summer 2009
 
During the 2009 summer, I participated in the British Schools Exploring Society expedition to Tasermiut fjord, South Greenland.  BSES is a youth development charity which aims to provide young people with inspirational, challenging scientific expeditions to remote, wild environments and so develop their confidence, teamwork, leadership and spirit of adventure and exploration. At the briefing weekend before the expedition, we split ourselves in to four groups, historically called fires, each focusing on a different science project. I was a member of the glaciology “Ghostbusters” fire- named after the description of the equipment used to drill holes in the glacier as part of our science work. There were twelve Young Explorers from all over the UK in my fire and three fire leaders who helped us with science, mountaineering and camp life.  
 
 
We left Heathrow airport, on the 20th July. This was the first time since the briefing weekend that the fire had met. We were organised into travel groups and flew to Iceland. After stopping of overnight in Hagaskoli School, Reykjavik Iceland, we flew to Narsarsuaq on the South coast of Greenland. We then got a boat around the coast to the north end of Tasermiut fjord, our base camp for the next four weeks.
 
 
 
Wearing head nets to cope with mosquitoes, we sorted our stores, and learnt basic skills in primus maintenance, river crossings and radio situation reports amongst others before briefly visiting our work glacier to drill holes for ablation poles. These are poles put into holes we drilled in the ice with a steam drill (the Ghostbusters), so that we could measure how the ice level on the glacier changed during our visit. We also bivied (camping without a tent) out for the first time in Greenland. My fire then crossed to the east side of the fjord for the mountaineering phase of the expedition.     Our mountaineering phase lasted nine days starting with a walk to mountain base camp. It included our first river crossing that did not quite go according to plan. In rescuing fallen walking poles from a mountain stream, sun glasses were lost and the last person to cross wisely took off their boots to “avoid wet feet”.
In order to be able to complete an expedition on the glacier, we had to learn how to walk in crampons, rope up and use an ice axe.  Our first training day at mountain base camp was learning how to use an ice axe. We had lots of fun sliding down a snow field and practicing ice axe arrests. A second training day was spent learning how to rope up. The following day, we roped up and walked on a glacier for the first time. We also had a go at ice climbing down a steep slope and practice crevasse rescue (without any crevasses).
 
 
During our time on the mountaineering phase we had dehydrated food.  The meals were easy to make and tasted good after training or walking. Our main expedition was planned to be a four day journey on the ice, aiming to see the Greenland ice sheet. To get to the glacier we had to climb up a scree slope and tie into fixed ropes that prevented us from falling off the mountain. On arriving at the glacier, we discovered that we had forgotten a rope. Nobody remembered seeing it not packed and the mystery of where it was still remains. Our rope teams quickly changed from four teams of four to a team of six and two teams of five. We travelled up the ice for about two and a half hours before deciding to camp or bivi on a line of moraine. On the second day of the expedition, a warm föhn wind was blowing off the ice sheet. We continued to travel up the glacier, but to avoid any bad weather, we crossed the ice sheet, having to avoid many crevasses and camped off the ice on a mountain ledge. The third day, the weather had cleared, and we decided to climb the mountain that we camped on. Spectacular views of the fjord, mountain base camp, the ice sheet behind us and even base camp across the fjord in the distance made the climb seem even more worthwhile. The final day of our expedition started at 4am. We packed up tents and were soon walking down the glacier feeling the sun come up behind us and listening to the crunch of crampons along the hard frozen ice. After going back across the ropes and down the scree slope, we arrived back at our mountain base camp and spent the rest of the day relaxing, sorting our equipment and eating.  
 
 
The glaciology fire’s science research was looking at on glacier to the west of the fjord which is connected to the Greenland ice sheet. There were four projects all looking at different aspects of the glacier and its processes:
The main projects was measuring the heights of ablation poles set into holes in the ice that we had drilled into the glacier with the Ghost Buster on our brief visit to the glacier before the mountaineering phase. The height of the ablation poles above the ice is the distance down is has melted as the ablation poles are stationary in relation to the ice. We measured the heights at twelve hour intervals for 10 days. We then compared the melt rates to the altitude of the poles their angle to the ice and the weather. A separate project of microclimate took weather readings of rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, humidity and air temperature on the glacier and at our science base camp throughout the day. These readings can also be compared to the melt rates on the ablation poles. From drilling the poles before the mountaineering phase and when the poles were taken out at the end of the science phase, the difference when on the glacier could be seen. Streams on the glacier changed places and disappeared. We heard several ice falls from our “tarp tent” mess tent while at science base camp.
 
The fluvial project compared the temperature, depth and conductivity of a river coming of the glacier and another river that came off a snow field. The conductivity of a river depends on the amount of silt dissolved in it. The more silt in the river, the higher the conductivity.  We were surprised to find that the glacial river which was cloudy to look at had a lower conductivity than the other river; however the amount of silt in the river and the cold temperature of the river may have reduced the amount of silt that could dissolve into the river there for lowering the conductivity.
 
Another project that I worked on was taking GPS points of lines of moraine below the glacier and in the valley between Tasermiut fjord and the next fjord to west. Using the coordinates from the glacier and the moraines we worked out how far the glacier had retreated from that point. Although the date that the glacier was in the valley between the two fjords is not known, archaeological ruins of Old Norse settlements were found on the moraine. They would not have built longhouses next to a glacier or on newly deposited moraine due to the presence of ice, so it can be presumed that the glacier deposited the moraine a long time before 1500 when the Norse left Greenland. Within this project we also look the GPS coordinates and diameter of patches of one type of lime green lichen. This lichen is one of the first plants to grow once the glacier has retreated. The diameter of the patch can be used to date approximately when the glacier was in the valley. From the circular moraine in the valley between the fjords, the glacier has retreated 2218 meters.
 
 We spent eleven days at Science base camp. During this time, the fire split into two groups to spend two days looking at the archaeology in the area. Group 1 spent an extra night away after bad weather at the fjord prevented them from being collected from the archaeology site.  After a four hour wait on the beach, they arrived at expedition base camp too late to make the journey to our science camp. The boat men, feeling sorry for them gave them extra food. They made the journey back to science base camp the next day and passed group 2 on the way. Group 2’s time at archaeology went more according to plan.   During the archaeological study, we visited the site of an Old Norse settlement. The Norsemen came from Iceland in about 985, lead by exiled Eric the Red. Tasermiut fjord forms part of their Eastern Settlement and there are many sites along the fjord where they settled. At the time when they settled, Greenland was about one degree warmer than it is now. The settlers farmed the land and grazed sheep. Due to the lack of trees in Greenland, most of the buildings had thick stone walls and the ruins of these are what remain today. When the Norsemen arrived in Greenland, they had the Old Nordic Pantheon as their religion but Christianity soon reached them from Iceland. The Norse people sent a polar bear as a present and received a bishop in return for the church in Gardar. At the site which we visited, there is evidence of a sand spit harbour for long boats, a first long house looking out over the fjord and several other long houses behind the first that would have probably interlinked with each other. There were also rock circles, which could have formed a tent circle for animals. After 500 years of living in Greenland, the Norse disappeared without a trace. To see where the people used to live and farm throughout the year makes the mystery of why they disappeared bigger. The settlement even had its own irrigation channel. Seeing where they lived and looking across the fjord, makes you almost envious on a bright sunny day. However, imagine the fjord on a cold day in winter with few daylight hours and their life seems exceedingly tough.
 
 At science base camp, food was cooked and pots were cleaned on a rota. This gave everybody the chance to use their creativity at cooking. We almost managed to eat twenty kilograms of jelly over the eleven days. Other food included pasta pesto with dairy free cheese, chocolate cake, couscous and exceedingly spicy lentils. Porridge was made with real oats and powdered milk and eaten for breakfast on all but the second to last day, when after discovering a shortage of oats, the team decided to have custard and apricots for breakfast.
 
While in Greenland, we completed the second (explorer) level of the John Muir Award. The aim of the award is to discover a wild place, explore its wildness, conserve it and share your experiences with others. We did this through individual and group activities throughout the time at our science base camp. All the members of the fire chose an activity for the rest of the fire to carry out during that day in order to really appreciate where we were. They ranged from collecting a pet stone for the day, drawing what we could see in any direction, or just taking five minutes out to look around you again and remember where you are. Every day we made sure our environment remained special and it constantly amazed us. Seeing sea eagles when on GPS walks and having four arctic hares that sit and watch you from just a few meters away, makes you remember where you are.   
 
On our last full day in the fjord, we had the opportunity to visit the glacier at the head of the fjord. It has retreated away from the sea and now ends on the land so no longer produces icebergs. When photos were previously taken of the glacier at the head of the fjord in 1997, it joined with another glacier which is now gone and both glaciers extended into the fjord. The landscape of Greenland is changing rapidly over time. At the moment, the glacier that we studied may be advancing in the winter as more snow falls onto the ice sheet and retreating in the summer. In the future, our glacier may be gone.     Our last two nights in Greenland were in Narsarsuaq. Arriving late after our boat journey from Tasermuit fjord along the coast, we ate our last dehydrated tea of the expedition and slept inside the clubhouse. We might have seen a whale on the boat journey, but the waves and darkening sky made it hard to tell. The next day we explored Narsarsuaq and rediscovered the joys of real food; especially fruit other than the blueberries that we had picked and eaten our fill of at Tasermuit fjord. When in Greenland, I learnt to work efficiently as a team member. This was important for living together in tents for five weeks and when completing science projects. We worked as a team on the ice during the mountaineering phase, when we were roped together using newly learned rope, ice axe and crampon skills. I found out how to cook porridge, identify rose quartz and amethyst from other stones that the glacier deposits and how cold streams are in Greenland for washing in. I also found some amazing people, who smiled and without whom, there wouldn’t have been so many laughs!  
 
Thank you to:
 
Ghostbuster fire
Expedition people and BSES
The Ogden Trust
Philip Barker Charity
Vandervell Foundations
The Mercers’ Company
Cheshire County Scout Council
Withington Girls’ School                  
 
Catherine Kelham 28th September 2009