Tuesday July 6th - Final Preparations
A last note from Al Metelko before handing the Web Pages over to the KMC Webmaster
Excitement is mounting as final packing continues.
Three cars will leave from houses in Manchester, Warrington and
Whaley Bridge in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Friday July 9th - Delay due to bad weather
Update received from Jenny Varley via SMS text Message
The plane to Narsarsuaq has been diverted to Kangerlussuaq due to bad weather.
The team are currently staying in a hotel and hope to fly to Narsarsuaq tomorrow.
They are not sure about the helicopter.
Sunday July 11th - Arrived in Nanortalik
Update received from Jenny Varley via SMS text Message
Safe in Nanortalik today.
Yesterday Scott and Duncan put up a new route on a slab near the airport
called Scott of the Arctic, E1 4c.
Hoping to go on the boat to Pam tomorrow.
May have problems shopping on a Sunday, though!
Monday July 12th - Base Camp Established
First contact from Base Camp was made by Dave Bone at 22:00 BST (19:00 Greenland Time) on 12/07/2004
The team have arrived on Pamiagdluk Island, after being delayed for a day by
bad weather on the journey. Weather conditions on the Island are also less than
perfect - at the time the team called in, there had been 18 hours of non-stop rain!
The team are all safe and well. Supplies and equipment appear to be complete,
nothing obvious seems to have been lost en-route.
According to the team GPS receiver, Base Camp is located at:
| | latitude | 60° | 4.166' | N |
| | longitude | 44° | 24.149' | W |
The team expect to begin the exploration of the area tomorrow.
Sunday July 18th - Report on Week 1
An update from Dave Bone at Base Camp was received at 23:00 BST (20:00 Greenland Time) on 18/07/2004
The team have had four days of sunny weather. However, at the time of the call, it was raining again.
This rain was having an adverse affect on the satellite 'phone link, so some of the details shown
here may have been mis-transcribed.
Four peaks in the area have been climbed. A team has been up the Baron, this being the highest point.
There is a cairn on top, indicating that it had (as expected) been climbed before. Unexpectedly,
however, the team discovered another expedition (from Sheffield) at the top as well!
Various new routes have been put up on the slabs to the South of Base Camp in addition to those done
on the various peaks round the Baron.
Everyone on the team are doing fine. The Czech contingent (Karel and Helena) are acting as Chief
Explorers and are currently away doing reconnaissance elsewhere on the Island. Steve is, apparently,
in his element - catching fish to enhance the menu for most of the team members (the exceptions being
the strict vegetarians).
Contrary to some of the the dire predictions, mosquitoes have not as yet been a major problem.
The most prevalent insect menace is blackfly. Indeed, one of the climbs has been christened "Black Fly
Buttress" by the team!
The next scheduled contact from the team should be on, or shortly before, Monday July 26th.
Sunday July 25th - Brief update from Base Camp
The team made contact from Greenland at 22:00 BST (19:00 Greenland Time) on 25/07/2004
An initial attempt to "Phone Home" was made from Base Camp by Duncan Lee. He managed
to get as far as saying that things were "Fine, fine.", in his usual chilled out way,
when the satellite 'phone link was lost.
A few minutes later, Rob Allen had a go with the 'phone. He said that the weather had been
a bit poor. [Perhaps this explains the problems keeping the satellite connection going.] Rob then
handed back to Duncan so that he could provide a more detailed update on progress during week 2
of the expedition.
Dave Bone was currently away from Base Camp, doing some exploration of the Southern end of the
Island. He was due to return to join the rest of the team on Monday (July 26th).
A major new route has been put up: about 650m long, graded E3. This has been called "Bone Machine
Buttress" in honour of the expedition leader.
There has been a lot of rain over the last week, so the majority of the other new routes have
been much shorter. Climbing has been done whenever conditions allowed.
Another loss of connection via the satellite terminated the call. No further call was received,
so either communications could not be re-established or (more likely) the team decided that there
was no more significant news to be passed on. If the latter is indeed the case, then the next
call should be on Sunday August 1st, which is the day before the team is scheduled
to leave the Island.
Sunday August 1st - Final call from Base Camp
The last scheduled call from Base Camp was made by Dave Bone at 22:25 BST (19:25 Greenland Time) on 01/08/2004
During the last week there were three days of good weather. This enabled the team to do more
exploration and new-routing:
-
Another new line has been put up on the Baron.
-
Duncan and Dave have explored the ridge above Base Camp, heading up to far Northern end and then
following the ridge back as far as they could.
-
A team was still out at the time of the call (7:25pm Greenland time) putting up some last-minute
new routes.
In addition to the Sheffield team, met earlier, is now seems that there is also a Welsh team on
the Island. Little did these teams know that as they headed towards the Baron, a team from the
KMC was bivouacked on the col, waving to them...
Dave confirmed that the team would be leaving Pamiagdluk Island on Monday, August 2nd.
They should be leaving by boat at 1pm to head for Nanortalik.
Wednesday August 4th - Team safe in Narsarsuaq
Dave Bone called in from Narsarsuaq at 22:25 BST (19:25 Greenland Time) on 04/08/2004
The team have made it through Nanortalik and have arrived in Narsarsuaq, on their way back
home though Greenland. All went according to plan leaving Pamiagdluk Island. Arrangements
have been made to have their freight shipped back to the UK.
The team have a couple of days in Narsarsuaq before the next hop in their journey back, the
flight to Copenhagen. Everybody is relaxing, chilling out and downing a few well-deserved
beers!
Dave confirmed that the team should be back in Manchester on Sunday (August 8th).
Tuesday August 10th - Back Home
An e-mail from Al Metelko confirms that the team got back safely
We all arrived home without incident, typical that it's raining!
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