Greenland Expedition 2010 » Preparations

This is it

Terje With Lunndal — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:13:15 +0000

Today is the big day. I can’t believe it’s finally here. In mere hours we will board our planes and meet up in Copenhagen where we will sleep over to catch the early flight on Monday morning to Kangerlussuaq on the west coast of Greenland. I’m still not done packing but I can see the end of it from here. It’s getting late and I need some sleep. More updates tomorrow.

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The Chocolate Cake Recipe!

Petter Skodvin-Hvammen — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:59:35 +0000

If you saw the video from Hardangervidda, you might have noticed our enthusiasm about a chocolate cake. On the third day of this trip we met a guy from Switzerland who was on his way from Lindesnes (the most southern part of Norway) to Nordkapp (the most northan part of Norway). We offered him some of our food, since we had decided to abort that day, and you should have seen this guy’s face when he ate this cake. One of our regular readers, Thorkild, commented that we “might have forgotten to give credit at the end to whoever made that chocolate cake“. Well, Ingunn (my wife); your cake was absolutely fantastic. Terje, you sent me a text and asked for the recipe the other day. I might just share it with everyone. Enjoy!

Ingredients

3 eggs
4 1/2 dl sugar
250 g butter
6 dl wheat flour
3 ts baking powder
2 ts vanilla sugar
3 ss cocoa
2 1/2 dl milk

Whisk the eggs with the sugar into eggnog (eggedosis). Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature, then add it to the eggnog. Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add gradually the dry ingredients and the milk to the eggnog. Grease a deep pan (langpanne) and transfer the ingredients. Bake in the middle of the oven at 180 C for 20-30 minutes.

Glace

300 g sugar
200 g dark chockolate
2 eggs
400 g icing sugar (melis)

Melt the butter and the chocolate. Add eggs and icing sugar and mix thoroughly. Note! Adding a single espresso or some coffee will increase the experience even more. Let everything cool, then spread ontop of the cake. For best result, served straight out of the refrigerator.

45.000 kcal

Terje With Lunndal — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:18:50 +0000

I just finished preparing our rations for our training trip. For those of you looking to trim your figure before the bikini season sets in, cover your eyes. 4,5 full day rations per head at 5.000 kcal a piece. This is slightly less than our daily rations on our crossing of the ice sheet. The horror…

Firearm permit approved in 36 minutes

Terje With Lunndal — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:48:22 +0000

In a spectacular display of service mindedness the Chief Constable of Greenland spent a full 36 minutes executing and approving our application for a firearm permit. That is – 36 minutes from the application left my email outbox until the signed permit entered my email inbox. I dare you to come up with any public office who can beat that.

Thanks Mia!

Application for firearm permit sent

Terje With Lunndal — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:47:18 +0000

After finally having our Expedition License granted we have now submitted our final piece of paperwork. This time around we are applying for a license to carry a firearm for protection in the very unlikely event that we should need to defend ourselves against an attacking polar bear. As stated in a previous post, the chances of polar bear encounters are slim to none. In any case we should be able to scare it, so the firearm is just a precaution. But we need to plan for these things.

Expedition license granted

Terje With Lunndal — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:52:13 +0000

A major milestone has been reached. The Government of Greenland has approved our application for an expedition license. Together with our SAR Insurance and Radio Permit this license composes the 3 required permits we need to embark on our journey. We still haven’t filed for our weapons license, but this license is more of a formality as it only requires that our expedition license is approved. In addition to this we have already purchased tickets for transportation by plane and helicopter. We have reservations for 4×4 transport to the starting point and boat transport from the edge of the ice on the east coast. Accommodation is also booked. We are still in the process of finalizing our nutrition plan, our medical kit and repair kit. Only 10 weeks left!

(Photo: STML)

Radio license granted

Terje With Lunndal — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:53:48 +0000

After filing our Radio License application last month we received word from the Radio Administration of the Greenland Home Rule that our application is granted. This gives us permission to carry and use our Personal Locator Beacon on the ice cap. Another milestone reached. We are still waiting for our expedition license with great suspense.

Milestone Reached: Insurance is in Place

Petter Skodvin-Hvammen — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:09:48 +0000

One of the major showstoppers are now cleared out of the way.

We finally chose PJ Hayman’s Adventures (Part A) insurance after a tip from Hugo Rolf Hansen (one of the guys that kited on the Greenland ice cap from South to North last year). Thanks for the tip guys!

We ended up paying ~ £312. This covers the both of us for 31 days with Search and Rescue (SAR) DKK 1 000 000,- and Ambulance DKK 280 000,-, equivalent to the Danish Polar Center (DPC) requirements.

Radio License application filed

Terje With Lunndal — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:50:24 +0000

To be able to carry and use our Personal Locator Beacon on Greenland we need to attain a license from the Radio Administration of the Greenland Home Rule. We recently filled out the form and submitted it. If we should need to send a distress signal the local Search And Rescue teams will be able to identify the signal and connect it to our Expedition Application with its route description and maps.

Preparing tires

Terje With Lunndal — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:37:27 +0000

In the last post I shared a short video describing how to get tires for hauling. Now it’s time for the sequel: “Preparing tires in 90 seconds” – a brief look into how we prepare the tires before we can haul them around in the forest. No surprises here – just me toying with my camera and video editing software.