Location
Greenland is after Antarctica the biggest polar region in the world. The local inhabitants of Greenland, the Inuit or better known as Eskimos, are living in solitude for centuries already and survive of local hunting and fishing.An enormous amount of pristine unclimbed mountains are located around the world?s biggest fjords. No humans have even set foot on these summits due to the isolated location. If unforeseen calamities take place rescue is far away and will take a significant amount of time.
The destination of the expedition is Renland. This peninsula is situated on the east coast of Greenland 500 km north of the polar circle at 71 degrees northern latitude. The region is situated at the end of Scoresby Sund Fjord. This fjord, with a length of 350 km and a depth of 1500 meter, is the world?s deepest and longest fjord. Renland is bounded by Scoresby Sund in the east, ?fjord in the south, Nordvest fjord in the north and the Greenland icecap in the west.
The peninsula is characterized by glaciers, mountains and arctic conditions. It contains a huge potential of unclimbed mountains up to 2300 meter high with faces and pillars up to 1200 meter high.
Previous expeditions
Until now very few expeditions have taken place in the region. In Milneland, south of Renland, some expeditions have taken place. Unlike Milneland Renland has only seen two expeditions, at least to our information. In the summer of 2007 a group of 50 members from the West Lancashire County Scouts explored Renland. The group did some scientific research and climbed and named 32 unclimbed peaks. They reported in the American Alpine Journal that they identified major climbing objectives, particular for those into big wall climbing. The walls were thought to be well in excess of 1200 m high.The second expedition took place last summer in June 2008. Six members of the Queen's University of Belfast Mountaineering Club climbed some big alpine routes up to 1700 m in length and up to TD-.
Our expedition in 2009
The expedition takes place at the end of the summer. In August and September we will put up base camp for 6 weeks on a strategic spot in relation to our objectives. We fly to Constable Point from where we take a boat to the end of the Skillebugt on the Apusinikajik glacier. From here we will walk 14 km up the glacier where we will put up base camp. All the equipment will be transferred to the base camp by foot in the first two day?s of the expedition.From the base camp we will search for the most obvious and interesting faces/pillars to be climbed for the first time. We will try to climb all the routes in alpine style. This style of climbing is seen as the purest way of climbing and is also called ?by fair means?. We will not make use of fixed ropes and try to climb the route(s) in one push. Depending on the conditions and the progress the possibility of a bivouac on the wall exists.
Until now very few information is known about Renland. Therefore the expedition will have a high amount of adventure, pioneering and exploration content. The expedition takes place late in the season so the snow and the ice on the rock will be melted creating good climbing conditions. During the start of the expedition there will be 24 hour daylight.
