More Pensioner Pioneering of Icecap First Ascents

By Jim Gregson

Sandy and Jim Gregson were yet again Peter Panning their way through another unexplored part of NE Greenland during May 2011.

The group we were with made a total of 13 first ascents - with some peaks attained and/or descended by more than one route - in a range called "Saven" (Danish for The Saw). Seen from the south the mountains look like a row of triangular teeth, hence the name; we had seen them from 25km away during previous trips in 2008 and 2010.

In 2011 we were joined by old expedition friend Geoff Bonney and four others to fly from Constable Pynt airstrip up onto the icecap to a point at the head of the glacier flowing through Saven. As it was May, earlier in the year than some trips we've done, it was noticeably colder, for this is really just the tailend of winter. But, it meant that the glaciers were very well snowed up so we didn't have any real crevasse problems this time. Also, we didn't have to climb and ski in the middle of the night as it would have been far too cold.

The Saven peaks gave us some very good alpine ascents, varying in height from c.1980m up to 2225m, and our routes were a variety of icy north faces, mixed ridges and a few more problematic rock buttresses. We skied to get around on the glaciers and to access the mountains, occasionally doing two peaks in the same day. There was the odd moment or two of excitement: on one peak we had a rope chopped as a result of trundling a few awkward loose blocks, and on a descent one day Geoff tripped over a crampon and shot off headfirst at high speed down an ice slope. Sandy, quick as a flash, dropped onto her axe and stopped Geoff with a twang on the rope, and all I had to do was back her up with a tight rope. The mountains we climbed were among some of the most beautiful we have seen and done in Greenland (see photos). [Fuller details will eventually appear in the American Alpine Journal].

At the end of the trip, the ski plane came to pick us up, and in the time it took to load up all of our kit, the skis had frozen solid to the glacier. Even under full power the aeroplane would not budge. There followed a lot of digging and shovelling, and eventually the use of a huge soft-faced mallet to "crack" the skis free, before the aircraft could take off.

Later the same day we flew back to N Iceland in the same plane, landing at Akureyri after being blown all over the sky in violent turbulence. A day or two later we had only just left Iceland bound for the UK when this year's volcano blew up. Just a couple of hours later and we'd have been stuck for another week in Reykjavik.

Jim Gregson.

*** My book "Echoes from the North": Twenty Years of Expeditions and Exploration will be published later in the year by Carreg Limited. It will have lots of photographs in it. You'll all want to buy a copy (I hope!). JG.