IN PROGRESS THE GREENLAND 2017 ICERIVER EXPEDITION WITH RAMÓN LARRAMENDI
Ramón Larramendi begins in mid-May the new WindSled expedition 2017 IceRiver Greenland, on a route that crosses the heart of the Arctic island. From the departure, May 20, until June 27 it will have a purely scientific objective, and that is also a new challenge for polar exploration. The expedition officially left Spain on May 15 with all its equipment.
In the 2017 Greenland IceRiver Expedition, led by Larramendi, creator of the polar eco-sled, five crew participate. Together with the explorer, the team is made up of the Australian scientist Ross Edwards, the mountain guide and logistician Hilo Moreno, the audiovisual producer Nacho GarcÃa and the Greenlandic crew member Jens Jacob Simonsen. The WindSled travels with its most complete configuration, 12 meters in length distributed in four modules: two for load, and the handling and habitability ones. Driven by wind and kites, a total weight of about 2,000 kilos.
The scientific expedition has been made possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Tierras Polares travel agency and the support of the EastGRIP scientific base.
The WindSled, after crossing about 1,000 kilometers of the Greenlandic Inlandsis, will be located on the island’s largest ice current, in the northeast, where its crew will collect data for the projects developed at the EastGRIP scientific base related to the impact of melting in Greenland in the increase of the level of the oceans and for other research projects of Spanish institutions. The expedition members will take samples and drillings on this “river” of ice, collecting data by grounding, collection of microorganisms, meteorological parameters, and so on.
At the presentation in Madrid, Larramendi affirmed that “it is the most sophisticated WindSled crossing, due to the number of technological projects and devices it has on board.” On his part, Paul Travis Vallelonga, researcher at the Ice and Climate Center of the University of Copenhagen and collaborator at EastGRIP, highlighted in the presentation the important collaboration of Larramendi’s polar eco-vehicle: “It will allow us to have much data of the ice current at different locations than where the base is, more superficial but in wider territory.”
The expeditionary, in the 37 days approximately that the expedition lasts, foresee encountering temperatures of down to 30 degrees below zero. Through the WindSled web site (Spanish) and Inuit WindSled (English) you may follow the media and the latest news on the 2017 Greenland IceRiver Expedition.