Imagine taking a step where no one has stood before. Once you have that sensation firmly planted in your being, imagine nearly 200 kilometers of skiing where no one had ever travelled before.

Imagine looking out at vistas of only white and blue with a horizon line that parts only these two colours and that you ski toward for days at a time.

Imagine a silence so profound that your heartbeat is the loudest thing you hear. For days at a time.

How do I begin to find words to describe a landscape so profoundly beautiful and stark at the same time?

How do I tell you about hours and hours of skiing where each stride bought a new insight or new ear worm?

How do I describe an expedition where we navigated from forty-year-old aerial photographs and an aviation map that had a warning that “horizontal features can be displaced by approximately six nautical miles?”

I just, just like on any expedition, I start with a single step, a single word in this case, and then continue to put one after another until the goal is reached.

Prime.

Exploration.

Remote.

Cold.

White.

Blue.

Deep. Wide. Open.

Profound.

Silent.

Except for the swish of my skis against the snow. In a reminder to be present, I would bring my attention back repeatedly to the sound of my ski both gripping and releasing the snow. Both traction and glide. A bit like my mind both sliding over thousands of thoughts and gripping onto some.

We skied in hour-long blocks. In solitude for the most part. A 60 minute date with yourself. Repeated 4-6 times daily for 25 out of 28 days. Providing time and opportunity to listen to both inner and outer worlds. And to not listen, for there was little to hear, save the gliding skis and lumbering pulk sleds. And the wind.

The wind, along with its first cousin, the cold, often arrived like identical twins. Forever bonded yet inextricably separate. Rattling the tent like a doorbell gone bad or ripping through any opening in clothing to chill rapidly to the core. It usually arrived with gusto, breaking the silence of the place into shattered fragments between the gusts.

Humbled.

By a land so big and so vast that we are mere specks on the perpetual white carpet of the glacier, at risk of being swallowed up. By all that groundless space filled with endless brilliance of sun striking snow and the resulting dance of light in all directions.

Grateful.

For the privilege of traversing such a pristine and untouched part of the earth. For the sense and embodied knowledge of wilderness and wildness and wonder that comes from such a journey. For teammates on which to depend and for loved ones, deeply missed at home. Leaving to come home. Moving each day to discover. Back, but somehow, having left part of me amid the white, cold, blue world there.

It is easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.–Henry Ward Beecher

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.
― Anna Quindlen

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. -Maya Angelou

I arrived home this morning about 4:00 am after 15 hours of travel from Iceland. It’s great to see Marian and begin the transition to a more complicated life beyond the glacier. The daily routine will soon require much more than sleep, melt snow, eat, ski, eat, ski, eat, ski, eat, ski, eat, melt snow, eat, sleep…repeat times 28.

Here is one of my summit photos from Gunnbjørn Fjeld. It took us about six hours of climbing up and 2.5 hours of skiing/climbing down. Pretty exciting to have been to the highest point of the Arctic and Antarctica in less than six months. It was a great day that I’ll do a longer post about soon but wanted everyone to know I was home safe and sound.

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7wF_r/47.57006N/52.70166W

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DID YOU KNOW?
The musk-oxen’s that roam Greenland use their sharp curved horns to help defend themselves and their families by getting into a circle and lowering their heads pointing their horns at their enemy

Today’s Activity

For our last Worldly Writing Wednesday activity, we are going to write a letter to an explorer of your choice. The explorer you pick can be any of the ones we already learned about during Terrific Exploration Thursdays such as Eric the Red, Louise Arner Boyd or Sarah and Eric McNair-Landry or you can write to TA and members of her team.  The explorer you pick can be a modern day or a historic one, it is up to you!  In the letter, you can ask them all kinds of questions about their exploration that you want to know or about things you found interesting.

Click the link below to see where I am located.

http://fms.ws/7uxfP/64.13921N/21.91977W

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DID YOU KNOW?
The most northern point of Greenland is only 740 kilometers away from the north pole!

Today’s Activity

For the last Totally Artistic Tuesday, we have been learning about Greenland and following TA and her team climb to the top of Gunnbjørn Fjeld. Today for your picture, draw TA and her team crossing Greenland and getting to the top of Gunnbjørn Fjeld!

Message:TA’s location on her Go for Greenland Ice Cap to Gunnbjørn Fjeld Expedition. Inspiring Big Dreams & Big Goals!

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7uYPJ/66.07523N/23.12155W

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TA

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Every day is an Adventure. Share Yours.
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DID YOU KNOW?
The ice that covers Greenland is the second biggest connected mass of ice in the world and has a thickness of average 1,500 meters

Today’s Activity

For our last Marvelous Map Monday Activity we are going to find out the start and end locations of TA’s expedition! To find this information you must go back though all the “Where’s TA?” posts. Find the first post that went with their first camp and then find the last post where they are waiting for the Twin Otter Plane to pick them up and bring them back to Iceland. When you find the start and end posts you can look at the latitude and longitude that goes with each to see how far they travelled in total!

Message:TA’s location on her Go for Greenland Ice Cap to Gunnbjørn Fjeld Expedition. Inspiring Big Dreams & Big Goals!

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7tbxT/68.97508N/29.72818W

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TA

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Every day is an Adventure. Share Yours.
http://www.findmespot.com

Fun Fact of the Day
If you go to Greenland you can see many types of whales swimming in Greenlandic waters! Such as fin, humpback, minke, bowhead and blue whales!

Message:TA’s location on her Go for Greenland Ice Cap to Gunnbjørn Fjeld Expedition. Inspiring Big Dreams & Big Goals!

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7sv6k/68.91853N/29.89847W

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TA

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Every day is an Adventure. Share Yours.
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DID YOU KNOW?
All of Greenland’s cities are built along the coast because it is the only area in the country that is ice-free. Most of these cities are also along Greenland’s west coast because the northeastern side is comprised of the Northeast Greenland National Park

DID YOU KNOW?
In Greenland, there are basically two ways of covering long distances – aircraft/helicopter and ship. There are no roads connecting its towns.

Today’s Activity

Stop Light Skiing

In this activity when the teacher holds up the red light (or says red light), students must “ski uphill”.  When the teacher holds up the yellow light, students can ski cross country on level fields, and on the green light, students downhill ski as fast as they can all around the gym or classroom. This activity is great for a warm up and to get the students using their imagination on how they ski/move their bodies in relation to different slopes.

Message:TA’s location on her Go for Greenland Ice Cap to Gunnbjørn Fjeld Expedition. Inspiring Big Dreams & Big Goals!

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/7rZAw/68.97957N/29.73297W

If the above link does not work, try this link:

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TA

You have received this message because TA has added you to their SPOT contact list.

Every day is an Adventure. Share Yours.
http://www.findmespot.com