Amelia Russell and Dan Darley contacted Pirhuk over a year ago looking for some specific arctic polar training.  Together with Matt Spenceley, they started out in Finse, Norway and then headed for the sea ice of East Greenland.

Their main focus is now on their big trip, for which they'll be leaving in February '10: an unsupported ski journey from Canada to the Geographic North Pole.  We wish them the very best of luck.

Progress can be followed on their website.

 Chamonix-based IFMGA  guide Neil McNab's outfit, McNab Snowboarding, run a programme of dedicated freeride courses as well as 'backcountry' trips to some of the most exciting destinations around the world.

In '08, Pirhuk put together the details for Neil and a team to head out to a glaciated island on the East Coast of Greenland.

For the last 5 years, my wife Nina Alpinice and our dog Garro have been on the Oberhasli-region alpine rescue team, specialising in avalanche search and rescue.  Each winter, when on-call, they have to reach a heli landing point within 8 minutes, from where they're flown directly to the accident site.  

It took quite a few years of training to qualify for the team and since then, every 2 years, they're required to attend a 5-day test to make sure they're still working well.   It was time to go again this season,

After the heavy rains that reached towards the summits on Monday, the temperatures have again dropped.  The sodden snowpack is quickly re-freezing and making a strong bond with the ground, at least above around 1500m.  Lorenz and I headed for a sleepy pre-season Grindelwald First.  The first thing that stood out was just how cold it was on the chairlift up to the highest station, Oberjoch;  a big contrast with the almost balmy conditions down at the lowest (Bort).  With a strong wind blowing, the upper mountain didn't offer any safe powder but the slopes dropping down to Schreckfeld from First provided around 20cm over a crust - enough to ski with a light touch.......

After Engelberg last Wednesday, we ended up waiting until the weekend to get the skis out again, using the time to get back into some winter rock training - always a strange transition after so much climbing outside over the summer.  The reports on the touring conditions from a couple of folk who had been out weren't great, the lack of a firm base making for some BIG scratches in the skis.

Our local resort, Meiringen Hasliberg, opened for the first time this season so Lorenz, Rahel, Nina and I met on Saturday morning, all pretty excited.  Many of the pistes were in good nick but the deep powder meant that we barely touched any of the groomed surfaces.  Rocks were still lurking, but by sticking to the clean slopes, we avoided any major damage.  It was great to be all out together again, with a whole season to look forward to.

In August 2008, Patrick Peters (from Luxembourg) and Pirhuk guide Matt Spenceley made a coast-to-coast, kite-assisted crossing of the Greenland Icecap.  Starting in Nagtivit fjord on the east coast and finishing in Eqi Sermia 17.5 days later, they encountered variable winds and some testing conditions - rough ice, crevasses and meltwater - in the coastal regions.

Patrick has just completed a book covering......

Every autumn, before heading out onto Greenland’s Inland Ice the following spring, the Pirhuk icecap crossing teams get together to train and run through the details of the coming months.  This year we reckoned on the Lakes, N. England to offer some good training and beautiful scenery.  The storms and subsequent flooding that have hit the region in the past 2 weeks even made the news in Switzerland so it was with a bit of trepidation that we set off.  The drive to Borrowdale ended up going fairly smoothly, with one long diversion in place to by-pass a bridge damaged by the high water.  The floods must have been fearsome to experience.

We've set up a new news service in the form of a blog as an easy place for you to check out general Greenland expedition news as well as more specific stuff like late availability on expeditions and special projects that we've got in the pipeline.  We hope you'll find it useful!

The Pirhuk team

The book written by Patrick Peters on our crossing of the icecap last summer has just been published.  Have a look on the Latest News for more info.  Some beautiful photos....   

It’s been a slow start to the ski season this year.  In the last two winters, we made our first tours in early November, but over the past month the temperatures have remained high and the first light flurries of snow melted almost as soon as they fell.  Back in the UK last week for the expedition meetings and trad climbing, I kept an eye out on the forecast and the high-pressure system holding the snow away from the Alps (and directing the rain at us in the UK!).  It looked like we’d be waiting into December for first tracks.  In Manchester airport, I received a text from Nina that there was snow falling in Meiringen.  An exciting return home to deep snow down to the valley floor!