Regular readers of my blog will recognize the name Heather Courage. She is a reader of Everest books, climber of Signal Hill (nearing 425 ascents), and long time supporter of mine. When the call went out for schools/classes to follow closely along on my upcoming Greenland expedition, Heather (as usual) jumped at the chance to share the joys, challenges, and excitement of exploration with her students. I received this note from her yesterday:

“I showed my students the video from Tangent Expeditions. Expressions could be heard throughout the classroom wow…awesome…did you see that ….cool. So, of course, that sparked a bunch of questions.

Here they are…..

1. Are you going to go snowboarding?

2. Are you hoping to see a polar bear?

3. (And I love this one) Are you going to bring us back a polar bear?

I would like to know how do you pronounce Gunnbjorn Fjeld?”

So, here are my answers…

1. We won’t be snowboarding on this expedition but I am skiing on Nordic Telemark gear which should allow me to carve some turns on the way down from any peaks we ski to the summit of. I haven’t yet learned to snowboard but I did learn to downhill ski at age three. My parents said that I initially learned to stop my skis by running myself into the side of the chalet. Perhaps that explains a few things… 🙂

2. I would both love to see a polar bear and hope we don’t. We will be taking bear deterrents and I hope we don’t have to use them. Polar bears are magnificent and beautiful animals but they are also very scary since they can sometimes treat humans as their prey. I saw polar bear tracks when I did my polar training trip in Iqaluit. That was close enough for me.

3. Seeing as how I found a penguin willing to come home from Chile with me to hang with your class, I’ll keep my eyes open for a polar bear of the same ilk.

Gunnbjørn Fjeld…I may have to get back to you on that…once I hear it said aloud…so far I only know how I am saying it in my head. Here is a link to an intro to Danish website in case you can’t wait until I get back. Here’s how Google Translate takes it on…

Four other schools are also participating in the expedition. You’ll be able to see updates and participate every week day of the expedition. I hope to be able to take questions from students along the way and call off the answers by satellite phone. The technology/preparations are falling nicely into place to allow that to occur.