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12 Jun 2009 13:52:31
Senior lecturer Danny Golding is back from a trip of a lifetime to Greenland.
Danny, who lectures in PE and sports psychology at the University of Bedfordshire’s Polhill campus, has spent the last month trekking more than 300 miles across the polar ice cap.
He said this week: “It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done and I’m ever likely to do. I’m planning to be as normal as possible for the next six months!
“Greenland is very remote but with good preparation and a very lucky weather window, we were able to get across the polar ice cap. Skiing for seven hours a day is really tough, plus you can factor in the extreme cold and wind chill.
“We were carrying out science projects on the journey and we were in regular contact with schools, colleges and universities from all over the country.
“I was speaking to the students here at the University who have just got back from their own expedition to Scotland.”
The expedition was organised by the Fuchs Foundation (www.fuchsfoundation.org) which gives teachers the chance to venture to the polar regions and carry out scientific projects to inspire their students.
The party trained for a year for the trip including two visits to Norway. They were supported by three teams of dogs, crossing by skiing and using the dog teams, with two days of kite skiing.
Danny, a 48 year old from Enfield, lost about a stone in weight over the four weeks. He said: “I conducted investigations into the psychology of coping with Arctic conditions and group dynamics. I hopefully got some interesting data in dealing with stress and the demands of such a journey, as well as cohesion.”
On arrival, the party was delayed by four days due to bad weather conditions and discovered that eight out of ten expeditions this year had failed to make it across, many needing to be rescued mostly due to frostbite!
After making it onto the ice cap to start the 500km journey, they faced extremes in weather down to minus 27 degrees centigrade (even colder with the added wind chill factor) but also sunny days where they skied in just their thermals.
The party was forced to sit out two storms, each lasting 36 hours, where they needed to dig out their tents from drifting snow every four hours.
Danny said: “The sheer scale of the ice cap was a challenge as we didn’t feel as though any progress was being made in the first fortnight. Other challenges were skiing for up to 25km a day, learning how to drive dog teams, and dealing with the extreme cold.”
Highlights included making it across the ice cap, meeting Greenlandic people and learning about their culture and using some of their skills, the excitement of kite skiing, as well as reaching Dye II (an abandoned US early warning radar station which appeared just like the set of a sci-fi movie!).
Latest news» 2009» June» Danny's back from his Greenland adventure
