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Greenland Climbing Expedition with Alpine Ascents


Greenland Expedition with Alpine Ascents

Burleson
Burleson
First Ascent of Mount Robin
Monday, June 8, 1998

Hear the Satellite Call from Greenland

Hey Mountain Zone, it's Todd from Greenland. Things are good here! We just had a fantastic ascent today, a first ascent. About a two hour ski then a nice glacier climb with some steep terrain and interesting route finding. Nice ridge; from the top of it we could see all down to the valley with just another 100 peaks to climb.

Greenland
Unclimbed
[click to zoom]
(photo: AAI)
It's just been fantastic in Greenland. Life is great. It was a nice ridge climb. We actually were pretty hesitant about whether we could get up it today because there was so many crevasses, but we were able to get around the crevasses and on the ridge. I think we're going to name it after Dierk's son, Robin, but we have to climb another unclimbed peak for his other son Tobias, otherwise you know how that'll be.

We did see some people. When we got up to the summit ridge, we looked on the other side, and we saw some people, surprisingly enough, in another camp. I think they'd skied 300 or 400 kilometers possibly to get where they are. So we may see them in a day or so, too bad, huh? But we are in our own wilderness, and we have found numerous first ascents I think we can attempt. We're probably going to rest tomorrow and shoot for Gunnbjornsfjeld the next day, come back down and then go back up and put a camp up there and try to climb some unclimbed peaks. Basically, we all have blisters to the point that we can hardly walk. We are all climbing in Randonnee boots that are brand new. I think Bene's are the worst, but Dierk's are pretty bad today.

Skiing is fantastic. Dierk and Bene are so much better than me. It scared me to death coming down this steep slope today — scariest part of the climb — but I made it. I'm back. What else guys? Dierk is making salad right now; we just had Raman soup; life is good in Gunnbjornsfjeld. So, I'll talk to you later. Bye.

Todd Burleson, Expedition Leader


Unclimbed peaks [click to zoom] (photo: Alpine Ascents Collection)


EXPEDITION


Expedition Updates
Sat-Phone Bear
(original photo: Art Wolfe)

Alpine Ascents International
Greenland Expedition Updates:

ON THE LAST DAY, THEY RESTED
[June 16, '98]
Avoiding crumbly rock and hoping the plane comes.

POSSIBLE FIRST ON U-TURN
[June 14, '98]
Team climbs a possible new peak with a U on top.

THE CONQUESTS GO ON
[June 13, '98]
Dierk and Bene take on the 45° slopes of a new peak.

FURTHER THAN IT LOOKED
[June 11, '98]
Skiing for the re-supply cache seemed like a good idea.

MOUNT GUNNBJORNSFJELD
[June 10, '98]
French champagne after an eight hour summit of the highest peak.

REST DAY IN PARADISE
[June 9, '98]
The many varied approaches to communing with nature.

FIRST ASCENT MT ROBIN
[June 8, '98]
Team climbs new peak, nursing epic blisters, need more supplies.

RIDGES AND VALLEYS
[June 7, '98]
Great climbing and skiing in the arctic sunshine.

CIGARS AND GLEN LIVET
[June 6, '98]
There's nothing like a lamb barbecue after skiing at 3200m.

INTROS AROUND THE GRILL
[June 5, '98]
Meet the climbers, have a look around, and keep an eye on the chicken.

THE ONLY PEOPLE HERE
[June 5, '98]
Base camp is set up and not a neighbor to be seen.



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Alpine Ascents International: [email][website]

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