IcelandMy fourth visit to Iceland, but by far the best. Armed...

Photo by Lauren Farmer

Iceland

My fourth visit to Iceland, but by far the best. Armed with 12 days and a 4WD camper van we felt totally free to explore. After wending our way through the beautiful Westfjords via a spectacularly narrow and crumbling road, we drove through deserts and lava fields, bathed in hot springs and hot rivers, hiked over sand dunes and year-old lava and cooked amazing meals in the van as we careered across the island.

My favourite part was the Highlands; they are a glaciated sandy desert criss crossed by rough tracks weaving through canyons lined by slabs of lava and dipping in and out of rivers. We went into the Highlands three times and saw the northern lights every time. We also got stuck in a river.

While we came to Iceland with high hopes it exceeded our expectations. It was the most adventurous road trip I’ve done, with several roads we weren’t sure we could get down, and plenty of time spent under the bonnet. Thank you to Lauren for being there to share the experience and for being an amazing travel companion.

Making the most of having a 4WD we tried out a route that was...

lauren: 3 years ago, I placed seeing the northern lights at...

lauren:

3 years ago, I placed seeing the northern lights at the “top of my list.” I wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish it, as the months I spend in Antarctica and the Arctic are in the polar summer, when it’s daylight 24 hours a day. 

But this 12 day road trip in Iceland was my chance, and I’ve been cautiously optimistic every night. Until day 7, we’d been bogged down with rain, fog and cloudy nights, but last night, last night was just perfect. 

We were in Askja in the highlands, a desolate expanse of lava fields, small mountains and endless horizons. What an incredible experience. I have huge respect for aurora photographers and their patience. 

Here are a few photos I took. I hope I get another chance to see more, but if not, this was an incredible first experience. 

I was lucky enough to see beautiful northern lights with Lauren last night. The Icelandic Highlands are stunning; we drove through lava fields and a desert, forded rivers, hiked through sand dunes, clambered across year-old lava and bathed in hot rivers. It was incredible.

Farewell to 50 let Pobedy and to ice breaking…on to Svalbard and...

Farewell to 50 let Pobedy and to ice breaking…on to Svalbard and adventures steadily further south. I’ll miss the ice but looking forward to more bears, walrus and far north eastern esoterica!

Flying helicopters off a nuclear icebreaker in the Arctic...

Measuring melt pond salinity and depth profile at the North...

Data Collection at the North PoleMy first time ever to the North...

Data Collection at the North Pole

My first time ever to the North Pole and the weather was gorgeous! It took several hours of searching with the helicopter to find a suitable spot a few miles from the pole itself, and Lauren had the luck to be along for the hour-long ride.

After enjoying the sunshine and scenery we get down to work, measuring the dimensions and salinity of two ponds. This all went surprisingly well for a first attempt and we learned enough to know what we want to measure next time and how we will include guests in the process.

Sailing to the North Pole is an expedition cruise like no other. It was a special experience, more so than I expected, and I’m really happy that the science went well too! I’ll be back three more times this summer and I can’t wait.

I’ve just returned from two weeks of breaking ice in the Arctic...

I’ve just returned from two weeks of breaking ice in the Arctic Ocean. Icebreaking is incredible, helicopters are amazing and we learned a huge amount about observing sea ice and recording data about it.

Traversing the Tete du Grasmusset, also known as Pointe Percee,...

Traversing the Tete du Grasmusset, also known as Pointe Percee, in the Aravis range of the French Alps. Easy but intimidating and occasionally steep climbing, with a lot of typical Alpine rubble, choss and unexpected abseils! Great views of Mont Blanc from the summit.

Our project to collect sea ice data in the Arctic Ocean this...

Our project to collect sea ice data in the Arctic Ocean this summer (http://ift.tt/1fhaoiZ) has been awarded the right to carry the Explorers Club flag.

Club flags have been carried to both poles, the summit of Everest and the bottom of the Marianas Trench. They’ve been carried into space, on the surface of the Moon and famously at the top of the mast on Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki.

The flag you are awarded may have been on many expeditions before, and so it is more than just an honour, it is a reminder that we are standing on the shoulders of giants, following in the Western traditions of scientific enquiry and building on the work of those that went before us.

Without traditions we are always starting from scratch and we can never aim nearly as high.

Our project (http://ift.tt/1fhaoiZ) to measure sea ice...

Our project (http://ift.tt/1fhaoiZ) to measure sea ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean this summer has been honoured by the award of an Explorers Club flag. Club flags have been carried to both poles, to the summit of Everest and to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Thor Heyerdahl proudly flew one from the mast of Kon Tiki, having planned the trip at the club’s NYC headquarters and they’ve been carried into space and on the surface of the moon.

It’s a great honour for our project to be recognised in this way, and given the flag may have been on many expeditions in the past it is a reminder that the work we do builds on the work of those that have gone before, following in the western tradition of scientific enquiry and standing on the shoulders of giants. Without traditions we are always starting from scratch.

Homathko Part Five – Nine Mile Creek

Homathko Part Five – Nine Mile Creek
Being just nine miles long, we felt that however bad the vegetation was in Nine Mile Creek, a day would be enough time. We were in no way prepared for it taking two entire days.
The first day and a half we had to keep skis on the majority of the time, making the steep and convoluted ground between the trees extremely difficult and very slow. At one point the ground suddenly opened up and the snow disappeared, allowing us to make very rapid progress on foot but within a few hours we were bogged down in incredibly heavy deadfall and Alder from hell.
We made an unplanned open bivouac in the woods, unable to get the tents up, but a fire allowed us to dry out from the rain and wet snow that had soaked us during the afternoon. At this point we were just 2-3 km from the beach and so we rang Roland Class, telling him we would be at the beach at 15:00 the next day (we thought we should add plenty of hours to allow for complications). In the morning the vegetation, amazingly, got significantly worse. We were climbing deadfall six feet high and dragging our packs through Alder so thick that during the first two hours we gained only 300m of distance towards the beach. We wove back and forth across the ridge with increasing desperation and under the strain our gear finally began to break up; ski boots were disintegrating and my pack began to shed one of its shoulder straps.
Finally, at long last we began to make progress. Game trails allowed to to move steadily and we navigated towards an area of braided river where we hoped we would really make progress; this worked out at first, but soon we were backtracking and struggling to cross the many streams. In the end, with time pressing, we started to just walk across and down the streams, struggling to stay upright in the knee deep glacial meltwater.
We emerged onto the beach at 15:40 and to our relief there was Roland with his boat. We were exhausted and collapsing under the weight of our packs, but it had been an incredible trip. Ironically, the best adventure was had in the final nine miles, with no skis on our feet, but that’s exactly why we came to Canada. It provided almost everything we came for and I will be back for sure.