2003 Greenland East-West Crossing
- Start date: April 2003
- End date: May 2003
- Start / end point: Isortoq- Kangerlussuaq
- Total km: 700
- Expedition days: 18
- Challenges achieved: First east-west expedition of the WindSled
THIRD WINDSLED CHALLENGE
The 2003 Greenland East-West expedition was considered from the beginning as the third great challenge in polar territories for the WindSled, with the aim of making technical improvements and testing them on the ground. On this occasion, the east-west route was covered, a total of 700 kilometers in 18 days. He would be accompanied by the geologist Juan Manuel Viu, who joined the project in 2001, and the mountaineer Luis Miguel López Soriano.
Larramendi had already been on this route, one of the busiest on the island, but in the opposite direction, in 1986 during the Trans Greenland expedition, but on that occasion he went on skis.
DIVIDED IN THREE
The three expeditionary took three days to reach the ‘plateau’, at an altitude of 1,000 meters, before being able to start navigating with the WindSled. On this occasion, each of the expedition members had one of the three parts in which the polar catamaran had been divided, with 100 kilos of weight. Once on top of the ‘plateau’, they set up the vehicle and began to “sail” towards Kangerlussuaq.
The problems arose when they commenced descent towards this town, because the snow was scarce and the land became ice, making it difficult for the sled to slide. With great effort they managed to reach an abandoned Cold War military base, known as Dye-2, located about 100 km from the coast.
The Dye-2 base is used by US aircraft to train for landings at the South Pole.
Not far from it, they found that a brand of off-road vehicles had set up a camp to test their engines, for which they had prepared a track on the ice, which paved the way for the expedition to reach as close as 15 km of Kangerlussuaq, where a truck ended up taking them to their destination.
One of the great advances of this trip was to have the WindSled moving forward even when the wind does not blow in favor.
