“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.”

This is how Dr. TA Loeffler described her latest expedition on her blog. She left St. John’s on April 11 for Greenland. She and her three expedition mates then traversed 275 kilometres of unexplored Greenland by ski from the Brede Glacier to Gunnbjørn Fjeld, the Arctic’s highest peak at 3,694 metres.

The team summitted Gunnbjørn Fjeld on May 12, which took about six hours of climbing up and two and a half hours of skiing and climbing down.

Dr.  Loeffler said she’s already brought this expedition into her classroom through stories, pictures and case studies.

“I am teaching outdoor recreation management in intersession and have been able to demonstrate several real world applications of the theories and models we are studying in the course,” she said. “I’ve also used it already in my introduction to outdoor education and recreation class as well as giving the students the opportunity to see how the skills they are learning in class can be used in longer and more challenging environments.”

The expedition was aptly named Go for Greenland and also involved seven Newfoundland schools as virtual expedition members. With the help of third-year physical education student Taylor Lynn Marsh, who helped design and implement the curriculum, Dr. Loeffler was able to get daily expedition dispatches and curriculum activities to students in Grades 4, 5 and 6 around St. John’s.

She used technology called a SPOT messenger that beamed out her location to her website each day with both longitude and latitude co-ordinates as well as flagging it on Google Maps. The students could also post comments and questions to the website which came to Dr. Loeffler on her satellite phone so she could answer them in almost real time.

“It was really rewarding to have the students follow so closely along and it was the highlight of our days to download their questions,” she noted.

This was Dr. Loeffler’s second summit success in a polar region in six months after she climbed Mount Vinson, the Antarctic’s highest peak in December.

“I hadn’t planned to do both peaks in six months but it was a thrill that it worked out that way,” she said. “This expedition also included an ice cap traverse on an un-skied route which was also a goal of mine.”

Dr. Loeffler’s next adventure, which will be closer to home, has a personal element.

“My next expedition is to the George River in Labrador and Quebec. Fulfilling a longtime dream, I will paddle a canoe and walk in the footsteps of Mina Hubbard, who did the George in 1905. She is one of my exploration heroes and has been the subject of some of my research.”

She’ll be joined by three other Memorial employees and two Memorial retirees from mid-July through early August.

An iceberg at the edge of the sea ice in Greenland. This berg was soon to be set free to float south and perhaps reach Newfoundland one day.

I delivered a polar bear this week. Albeit a relatively small one. Without much bite and with lots of soft fur to a Grade Four class at Bishop Abraham School in St. John’s. This group of explorers in training under the tutelage of Mrs. Courage, aptly named for her love of all subjects adventure, exploration, and Everest, asked for the polar bear. Turns out they are becoming quite fond of adopting polar animals and polar explorers. This class threw me a party when I returned from Mount Vinson and Antarctic, and they were once again eager to celebrate my Greenland expedition.

They listened to the audio updates each morning and send along some very good questions for Paul and I to address from the expedition. They loved hearing their school named and having their very own questions answered from Greenland. One of their favourite parts of the Go for Greenland curriculum was the “Did you Knows” about Greenland. I had decided to include those because that class had shared many “Did You Knows” about Antarctica with me during our first party together. I knew my outreach goal for the Greenland expedition had been met when the class teemed with more questions about my Greenland expedition and they paid rapt attention to the answers. The students showed me their art work on the classroom walls and I loved seeing their renditions of the white and blue world I had described to them.

At the end of our gathering most of the students hugged me good-bye and I left smiling from ear to ear toting two penguins, a rock, and an iceberg. Thanks again to all the teachers who had their students following along. It provided a new dimension to the expedition to be fielding questions from students in almost real time. Thanks as well again to Taylor Marsh for her excellent work on the school curriculum and expedition communications.

Whatever is a reality today, whatever you touch and believe in and that seems real for you today, is going to be – like the reality of yesterday – an illusion tomorrow.
–Luigi Pirandello

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior’s world.
― Pema Chödrön

As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never
learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find
compassion.
― Pema Chödrön

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
― Pema Chödrön

The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.
― Pema Chödrön

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.

–St. Francis de Sales

We’d actually spent much of the night at advanced base camp wondering if the mountain and the weather would grant us passage. After two weeks of high pressure, blue sky and moderate winds, the sun dogs indicated a change. The sun grew overcast through the day and visibility dropped, where once we could see the entire route that we’d skied from the Hann Glacier, now we could barely see the near peaks. The sun seemed to try valiantly to sun through and on occasion found an opening to send warming rays through to our tents and to stoke the hope in our hearts.

“Could we really have skied 26 days to this point to have weather shut us down?” We asked ourselves over and over again.

“Of course”, the wind and clouds answered.

Each time I peed that night, a frequent occurrence when I am acclimatizing to a new altitude, I zipped open the back vestibule to see if I could see the summit. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Finally when the next morning came, I unzipped one more time exclaiming to Paul, “I can see the summit through a break in the clouds.”

He replied, “Let’s go climb it then!” He quickly added the caveat, “We’ll monitor the weather during all of our preparations to see what the trend is, hopefully it will get better as we go.

We started melting snow into water as we had every other morning of the last month, packed our summit packs, and enjoyed a feed of “Mango Hot Start.” At the beginning of the expedition both Paul and I avoided it like a dread disease but at some point, we began to eat it as a sort of “wind totem.” A term from sea kayaking where the group erects a sculpture to try to get the wind to drop to allow paddling to happen. Us, on the other hand, took it to mean a great personal sacrifice (i.e. eating icky breakfast) in exchange for good mountain weather. We done it on a few occasions on the expedition, it hadn’t let us down yet, and I found that by adding hot chocolate into the mix, Mango Hot Start was much more manageable.

Finally, with water bottles and packs full, we set out. It was the first time on the trip to ski without the burden of a pulk. With the excitement of beginning, Paul set aside his normal “easing into the day” pace and seemed to me to be zooming up the slope. Finding myself breathless and sweating for the first time on the trip, I finally called uncle and asked Paul to ease the pace. I didn’t want my climb to be over before it started. It’s always a tough thing to do to ask the team to go slower but I knew it made sense. We had a decent day in front of us and I knew if we went out too quick, it might cost us later. It was the toughest hour of the entire expedition for me.

As we had the rest of the expedition, we moved up in 60 minutes intervals. By the first rest, I had begun to find my rhythm, thank god and by the second, I was feeling a growing strength in myself. It will be a moment I draw on in future climbs when the going gets tough. After a hugely rough start where I thought I’d never make it, I was able to switch my mind and energy to a different channel and that was huge relief and made the day infinitely more fun.

There is such joy in finding a pace/rhythm on a mountain where breath and step are linked. It makes moving at high altitude possible and is a skill to be practiced over and over again. I had forgotten to prime my mind for the additional physiologic challenge of climbing in a polar region where reduced air pressure makes an altitude feel higher than its numeric value. I experienced this before on both Denali and Vinson.

After four hours or so, we reached the bottom of summit ridge and exchanged our skis and poles for crampons and ice axe. We roped up and I took my favourite spot at the back of the rope team. We were literally tied together in pursuit of our goal. Paul led the ridge in excellent form keeping the team moving over the more challenging ground with skill and just the right amount of encouragement. The terrain dropped steeply to either side and an uncaught misstep could have had dire consequences but the team moved deliberately taking care with each step. Nearing the summit, Paul brought each member in close and we took the last steps to the summit together, sharing that moment of exuberance and satisfaction.

A round of handshakes and high fives led to summit photos. I was trying to call off a message from the summit via sat phone but it was highly uncooperative and I missed truly drinking in the view from the summit because I was working so hard to troubleshoot the phone connection. On the last go, it finally connected and I could share the thrill of standing atop the Arctic (listen to that call here). Paul was worried about the snow conditions on the ridge as well as the weather, so we didn’t spend much time on top-maybe 15 minutes total. We got set to descend and I led the team down the ridge. I took each step with care trying to find a pace that had each team member moving slowly but efficiently down.

Back at the skis, we took a longer break for food and water and to prepare our tired legs for the ski descent. Patrik showed his downhill prowess (and the wonders of his alpine touring gear) while I, on my nordic gear missed my ski edges that were covered by my full skins. We slowly made our way down and almost 9 hours after we began, the team skied safely back into high camp. I got the stove lit so Paul and I could celebrate with our traditional end of day soup and Pringles. It was a fairy tale ending to a fabulous expedition that we summitted but it was even more of a miracle that we still had Pringles after 27 days in the field. During the whole evening, Paul and I kept looking at each other with mischievous grins saying with more than a hint of disbelief, “We did it, we did it.” (listen to the call from back at advanced base camp)

For it was never at all certain that we would summit. Never at all certain we would even reach the mountain. Indeed, it required us to move 12 days straight, it required good weather, and it required that we find a route that traversed five mountain passes just to reach the base of the mountain. So it was with sweet delight and appreciation of all things that needed to come together, coming together that we kept repeating for much of the next 48 hours, “We did it, we did it.” (hear the joy in my voice calling in from Iceland on our first evening out)

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
–W.B. Yeats

In Memory of Shriya Shah-Klorfine

Life is short, fragile and does not wait for anyone. There will NEVER be a perfect time to pursue your dreams & goals. – Unknown

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
–Lily Tomlin

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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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!