Location: Isortoq
Altitude: 30 m
Weather: temperature above zero, big wet snowflakes falling down.

Today we have been drying our equipment and gotten to know the village. We sent 2 crates of our things back to Finland, they should arrive sometime in June. We also visited a local family, who welcomed us kindly. We had some discussions with the help of a dictionary and got to try out traditionally made seal skin clothes.

We informed Tasilaq police that our expedition has finished. They congratulated us and told us that by yesterday any remaining expeditions on the glacier would have been evacuated.

Tomorrow we fly to Kulusuk and then head back to Finland, where we will be by Sunday.

We are again reading your messages via e-mail at retkikunta (at) greenland2009.fi. Diary will quiet down, but pictures will be added later.

All is well with the Expedition.

Our 6 hour plan was a bit underestimated. In the end the day was 12h. We left in whiteout and started going downhill. We got down to a lake and had some trouble finding a good course towards Isortoq due to open water and hills.

But in the end we found our way to the sea ice. After one more uphill we saw the village and the mood in our group was great. When we approached the village, local children came to meet us and helped to push our sledges. We got to the village and the circus was ready. Locals and a couple of Norwegians were there to greet us.

We made it - now we are in a gesthouse, indoors with showers and warmth.  After this the diary updates will not be daily.

All is extremely well with the Expedition.

All good things end at some time, it seems. But we still have one day of skiing left if weather permits. It feels good to return to civilization.

Today it was a proper downhill at times. The weather is still bleak, we have seen no land or mountains yet due to whiteout even though we know they are there.

All is well with the Expedition.

Basic weather returned. Well, we had good enough weather yesterday. Today it was full whiteout again. In whiteout it depends on the one skiing in the front whether we go straight or tend to stray. Timo and Jani usually stray a bit, Kari can follow a whole leg on a straight line. In any case the direction is made sure with compass by Jani an Timo. Rami follows with his frying-pan fixed ski.

Whiteout is an interesting condition to ski in. You can’t see what is straight ahead of you and reading the terrain is not possible. We notice changes in the terrain when we feel them under our skis.

So far no land has been seen after the west coast. Just ice and snow, and in whiteout not even that.

This morning we spent some time arranging the helicopter pickup and other things. This is why we did only 7 legs, but still managed to ski 22.7 km.

All is well with the Expedition.

The wind has blown the new snow away during the night. The terrain was OK for skiing, some soft snow and snow dunes but also hard snow in places.

We have about 80km left. On a straight line, the distance to Isortoq is now 60km. We have been waiting for the possibility of showering and eating
something else than dried food. About 3 days is now left if no storms appear.

Rami’s broken and fixed ski is working OK.

All is well with the Expedition.

The going has been a bit easier downhill, but not much. The whole day was spent tramping on new, soft snow. The first skier did not see his skiis very much.

We have seen no other expedition here. The only time we have met other people were at the evacuation sites. It’s been quiet.

All is well with the Expedition.

What a day. Like in the previous days the snow was not very good for skiing. After 7 legs we had to stop for the day because Rami broke his other skii from behind of the binding. We fixed the ski with Timos frying pan! Let’s hope the patching holds.

Greenland does not live up to its name. The only green things are the peas in our food.

All is well with the Expedition.

Landscape continues as yesterday, but the snow was harder. The view is like wind shaped snow dunes all around. Basic skiing the whole day.

All is well with the Expedition.

Today we returned to normal schedule. We left the camp at 09:00 local time. The whole day the skiis and sledges sunk into new snow, but this was mostly less than 5cm and the sledges followed us ok. The days catch was a nice 28.2 km, downhill but not very steep.

We hope the weather continues like this and that the sun and wind will harden the snow a bit more, letting us get faster towards Isortoq.

All is well with the Expedition.

We already had made plans that if weather permits we will ski 10 legs today. A couple legs were in nice weather and high spirits, after that came snowfall and whiteout, with occasional clearer moments. Downhill we came and made a good days progress, 30.9 km even if we had 12 m/s headwinds after lunch.

All is well with the Expedition.