Seven intrepid Loretto School Sixth Form pupils and two members of staff leaders, together with one external female assistant leader, have successfully returned from a 30-day mountaineering expedition to East Greenland. The group trained for 18 months prior to embarking on this venture including taking part in a practice expedition to Borrowdale in the Lake District in March in temperatures (in the valley of -10°C).
The expedition had a strong academic focus to augment the specific mountaineering objectives and, as always with the Borealis Society, a substantial programme of visiting lecturers visited the school in the 12 months leading up to the departure to talk on a variety of topics with northern themes.
The conditions in Greenland were indicative and supportive of the hypothesis of “Global Climatic Instability” as a more accurate reinterpretation of that of “Global Warming”. The sea ice was not only of the greatest extent seen for many years but it not only delayed our journey into the expedition area but ensured that we were delayed in leaving it – which caused the group some concern as the food and fuel was by then virtually all used up!
An adult group, just to the east of us, had to call in a rescue helicopter after spending 6 days trapped in the ice – so we were somewhat relieved that we eventually managed to get the boats through the sea ice. The sea ice also brought Polar bears much further south at this time of year than is perhaps normal again causing plans to be changed and decisions to be made. The area had also experienced very late and prodigious snow fall in February and March and the glacial crevasses were not visible under their thick white blanket which caused some major changes in our plans and mountaineering objectives.
All this is symptomatic of arctic East Greenland though and shows just how important multi-layered planning, flexibility of decisions and patience are!
However many successful journeys were made and peaks climbed and all those who took part were left with a great love and many vibrant memories of a truly amazing wilderness area.
A number of the expedition group successfully completed the expedition component of their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award during our extended visit.
The group comprised;
Nigel Bidgood – Vicegerent (Deputy Head) Loretto School – Expedition Leader
David Howie – Head of Outdoor Education Loretto School – Expedition Deputy Leader
Anna Bidgood – Student of Earth Sciences Oxford University – Expedition Assistant Leader
Iona Urquhart
Fabianne Jones
George Dobson
Miranda Smith
Hannah Sharp
Robert Dobie
Fedor Myachin
The next Loretto Borealis Society Expedition will take place in 2015 to Arctic Norway.