Greenland Ice Cap 6/30

[lesvierra]

I'm living vicariously here. Read more at http://www.pittarak.com as Sarah 21, Eric 22, and Curtis 29 near the end of their 2300 km journey. Sarah hopes to give her presentation this trip this winter at a pow mow kite festival Im working on.

"Feeling a little left out of the Canada day celebrations back home, we decided to try something different for this evening's travel. Before heading into this leg of the trip, we had about 500 km to our estimated end point. During one of our early water breaks the idea of shooting for the whole 500 km in a single push was raised.

The winds were good, blowing from the southeast, the sun was sitting big and bright in the sky and team sprit was high. It was 9:30 p.m., June 30th when we first raised our kites. We had until 9:30 p.m. of the following day to make as much distance as we possibly could.

Group dynamics is obviously of immense importance when attempting an expedition such as this. The 24 hour push would challenge us as a team and push personal boundaries and limitations.

The push for the end became a singular team goal -everyone had to be on board, mental and physical status was re-evaluated at two hour intervals to make certain this was a decision made in the best interest of the team and the goals of the expedition.

During the past 34 days the team has worked together as a single unit on a daily basis with what was best for the group as paramount. Nothing was ever just one member's responsibility or one person's problem to fix. The last 24 hours was a brilliant, condensed example of how the past 34 days had played out. From changing kites, to making sure everyone was keeping hydrated, to keeping the mood light, all events during the push were handled with the group in mind.

With music blasting in our helmets and eyes heavy in the low sun, we kited into one of our last campsites on the Greenland icecap. We were 412 km away from where we started 24 hours ago.

Tomorrow will be a rest day, filled with food, sleep and a general sense of accomplishment. From here we have about 125 km to our pick up point and where we begin to head for home.

[Augie]

I am in Idaho working on my river guide license right now, but let me know if you need help with Pow Mow management. I am heading out tomorrow again but will return on 17 July.

[windzup]

An email just arrived from the Pittarak team with the latest......


Hey Brian,

It's already day 37 of our expedition and we only have a week left before the expedition ends and we start to make our way home!

Over the last month and a half we have covered 2000km. Just the other day, on July 1st we kited-skied 412 km in a 24 hour period!

But the trip is not over yet. We still have a week to make our way to the bottom of the glacier, from there we will have a two day shuttle to the ocean were we will be picked up by boat and head to Qaanaaq for our first shower in 45 days!

The kites have been awesome and we've been getting lots of good pictures.

Keep checking our updates at: http://www.pittarak.com

Eric, Curtis and Sarah