Greenland! peaks, snow, sea ice and Polar bears.

Greenland... The Fine Art of Polar bear evasion!

The Northern lights lit up the skies for about an hour every night from bang on 8pm.

We gaze down into another untouched valley, no houses, no settlements, no tracks, just mountain peaks, Snow and Ice and in the distance the frozen sea and towering ice bergs that look like super tankers lining up to come into port.

Every now and then we come across paw prints in the snow, small animals such as arctic fox live here in this frozen winter wilderness, other animals must also live here, the foxes must eat something but so far we've seen nothing.

Damian arrives at another unridden summit.

We scale peaks and feast on the amazing views that fill the skyline in every direction. From these high vantage points we plan out further peaks to climb and tours to follow, big loops that will give us great riding, high peaks and that will explore the unknown and open up even more possibilities for the oncoming days. If we have planned it right our loops bring us back via a final ride down the wide open and completely smooth Glacier to where we are camped a few hundred meters above the sea ice, a few small sleeping tents surrounding our big communal mess tent. Tiny dots amongst this immense landscape but a reasonably comfortable home on the ice for us during our visit to this amazing and relatively still unexplored country.

Unexplored valleys and peaks surround us and big descents are to be found everywhere!

As we reach a new summit or crest a new ridge and look down into another new untouched and unexplored valley we all scan the landscape for signs of life. Amongst the Whiteness we scan for signs of the Polar bear. The local Inuits have warned us of their ferocity and recommended that we carry a rifle with us at all times. Whilst we would all love to see one out here in the wilds we all also know that if we were to come across one, even at a great distance, the bear would already have us in his sights and would be hunting us having been able to smell us and our camp from many miles away. Back at camp we make jokes about how the bear could just simply cover his eyes and nose and sit outside the tent invisible. The clever bear would watch our activity and then simply hide behind the giant boulder and wait for us one by one to go over to the toilet there. Apparently the Polar bear is a cunning hunter, once he's on your scent there's nothing much going to put him off and the thin walls of the tent aren't going to slow him down so much.

We have a shot gun, which we have decided not to carry with us but which is close at hand in the camp. When we're out we carry flares, something to distract and give us a bit of time. Apparently every bear loves to watch a good firework show before lunch and anyway, we don't all have to be able to outrun the bear, the real competition is amongst out group, we only have to be able to out run or out ride each other. The old joke about the guy putting on his trainers in front of a hungry lion and his friend saying, 'you won't out run a Lion mate!' to which he replies,'I don't need to out run the lion dummy, I only need to be faster than you!' runs pretty true here too.

Apparently if a Polar bear wanders towards camp we should first fire a warning shot whilst it is still some distance away. If it continues to approach, calmly reload, wait until the bear rears up at close quarters and then shoot it calmly in the chest for the kill shot. When weighing up the possibilities of this or popping a quick shot into the leg of the slowest member of the team whilst running away the odds for taking on the bear aren't the best option. I decide to keep the shot gun hidden away pretty close to me, all of the team are pretty fit and quick off the mark so I need to keep the advantage.

Obviously I'm joking right!

This years Greenland trip. scheduled for the end of the season, early May, will see us explore a new area some 800km further North into the Arctic circle than our last trip in the region known as Liverpool land. Accessed by a full days Skidoo journey, our tent village base camp will provide us with a home for 8 days of hiking, riding and exploration in this rarely explored and far less ridden landscape.

After our last amazing trip to explore a tiny piece of this incredible land I simply knew that I'd have to go back and so have been busy working out the logistics for this new trip ever since. As with all our courses for the coming winter, places on the Greenland trip have been quickly filling up and only 2 places now remain.
So if you have a sense for adventure, a quest for exploration are fast on your feet and have a good pair of running shoes give us a call, but remember this...

McNab on Polar bear watch

...the shot gun is mine!

I'm only joking of course!

All is good in Chamonix,

Neil.