Week 1: Loads and loads of carrying loads.

"Arriving at one goal is the starting point of another" - John Dewey

 

 

Up until the 16th of July my goal was to be mentally, physically, fiscally and equipmentarily (it is a word... now) ready to disembark on the adventure for which I had been preparing all this time. Physically I wasn't as close to fighting fit as I had planned, having spent 6 weeks immediately prior to leaving in a sling to treat the broken collarbone which has forced radio silence on the blog for sometime now. Fiscally life kept getting in the way and consequently I left having not technically cleared the entire balance that I owed the Society, They were good enough to permit me to go on the agreement that I pay up on my return. Equipmentarily I was very very lucky indeed to receive generous help from Multimat UK, Asolo, Osprey packs, Mountain Equipment and Rab to get me off on my way with all the gear I needed. Reviews on all the gear I got to use will follow But I must take this opportunity to offer them my humble and heartfelt thanks. Finally mental preparedness, Here I feel I was strongest, I had dedicated myself  to preparation in the run up and was ready to meet the challenge head on.

 

 The Ferry from Oksfjord



 

So I left my darling teary at Edinburgh Waverly station, and with a heavy heart and just a pinch of excitement gradually building I headed to the airport to meet the Scottish contingent of the advance party. Advance Party, the term itself felt very weighty and serious. We were the intrepid pioneers breaking a trail and establishing safe havens for the following explorers. A deep sense of the expedition as a whole took over me and I was ready for whatever tremulous dangers the Advance Party might encounter. As it turned out we simply had a couple of pallets of food to organise through and some tents, stoves and rations to carry up to basecamp. But none the less I felt as though I and all my compatriots were now valuable and intrinsic members of the expedition.

 

Big piles of stuff to be carried up.

That is not to say that the weeks work was particularly easy, and what with my fitness being lower than I'd have liked the pace was not as nippy as I and the rest of the team would have liked at times. But the week was at large successful. I got to clap my eyes on a glacier for the first time in my life another tick off my childhood dreams list. Food and tents were carried counted and deposited as needed and everything went of without a hitch....

 



Our walk to base camp included a minor detour through the Somme.

 

 

... almost. After load carrying for a few days, we were given the exciting news that we would be heading up onto the ice cap... to carry loads. None the less, I was eager at the prospect of getting crampons to ice and so we loaded our bags with all that was needed (some more than others - I'm looking at you 'Bill' ;) ) and set off. The first section of climbing was slow going due to the fixed static line, but the prussic tying from previous blogs got put into practice, and then re-practiced and practiced again as we slid our selves up the ropes and around the anchors.

Iced up static lines are really nice and grippy....

 

We then got to the top of the first section and got to sample some of Norway's famous waterfall climbing! sadly someone forgot to point out to whoever had planned this section that Norway's waterfalls are usually climbed in winter. When they are frozen. Not very much wet and flowing. Much excitement was had teetering over the rocks and back onto the ice. we continued up slogging away on the steep ice and battling the slushy snow until we met our chief leader within sight of our campsite for the night. He delivered the disappointing news that one of our party had been injured and we had to return all the way back to our camp from the night before. Given that there was no other option we all set our engines running on the little reserves we had left and after a chilly bottomed wait on the snow below the waterfall headed down to our camp.

 

 

Frost bite of the cheeks is a common problem !

 

By the point we got off the ice and started decending the boulders below I was seriously tired out, clumsy and frustrated at myself and if it wasn't for my gnome being similarly tired and equally hysterical I may have given up and lived there in the boulder field under a rock. Little did I know at this point that I would spend the next 5 weeks relying on My Gnome, My Dwarf and The Home Bird to keep me sane and focused.

 

 

The week was finished with more organising, and a bit of personal time including a chilly did in the melt water river. A long and at times tedious week, but a great insight into the 'behind the scenes' processes that keep and expedition like this going.