(WIND HOWLING)
- REPORTER 1:
- The most northern
body of land in the world,
Greenland.
7/8 of its terrain lies
under a blanket of solid ice.
Temperatures fall to
75 degrees below zero.
Six months of the year,
the sun shines continuously.
But during the winter,
the pure white snow
is shrouded in darkness.
- REPORTER 2:
- It is imperative
that we push
the outpost line of defense
of the free world
far to the north,
in the very shadow
of the Pole itself,
the mysteries
of the Arctic wastes.
Until recent times,
the northern part of Greenland
was a total
unexplored wilderness.
You may well wonder
what Americans are doing
in this polar
wilderness of ice and snow.
A glance at the globe
of the world, however,
will readily show that
the shortest air route
from the Americas to Eurasia
is over the North Pole.
Seismic studies revealed
that the center of the ice cap
is almost 10 times as deep as
the Empire State Building is
high.
Never before had heavy vehicles
ascended the caps or attempted
to travel over its rugged
surface.
- REPORTER 2:
- Fuel caches had been
stored
along the trail the previous
year, and air drops,
showered supplies from the sky.
Crevasses,
many of them camouflaged
by a deceptive bridge of snow,
were an ever present danger.
They varied in size from shallow
cracks in the ice to massive ice
caverns as large as a cathedral.
Now, over a half century later,
other Americans await
the signal to start.
Expedition 7 was a project that
Greg and I started
talking about in 2011.
And the intention was
to take the same vehicle
to all seven continents,
which is something that had
never been accomplished before.
It wound up taking
two and a half years.
I was in the field 218 days.
It was a journey of 56,000 miles
and we had about 53 people
play a role in the expedition.
It was one of the
coolest things I've ever done.
In the wake of, E7, um,
I guess the natural question
was, what next?
So I got a call from Greg.
He said, hey,
come down to Salt Lake.
I'd like to talk about a little
project that I have in mind.
I wanted something else
that was challenging,
something that had never
been done before, something
that was, let's say, unprecedented.
SCOTT: Greenland brought
together all of the pieces that
make it the most extreme.
Even when you compare
driving across Antarctica,
going to the South Pole and
doing, a landmass, crossing
Greenland was far more difficult
and for a lot of reasons.
In Antarctica, there's already
existing infrastructure.
People have already done
it before many times.
And with Greenland,
that had never been done before.
Those glaciers had not been
climbed by a vehicle before
and we were in literally
uncharted territory.
There has been one notable
expedition that crossed
Greenland from the
west coast to the east coast.
That was done by
Arctic trucks in the late 90s,
but no one had even considered
trying to do it from
south to north because the
distances were an order of
magnitude more,
and the difficulties
were an order of magnitude more,
including fuel drops and other
logistics that would be
impossible to consider
really beforehand
for us to attempt it,
for us to leave from the
south and start heading north.
It had never been done before.
My roles in the beginning were
basically planning the vehicles,
uh, the route,
logistics around, fuel.
For me, the goal is simple
and that is to reach Wulff Land.
If we can do that,
the trip will be a success.
EMIL:
The route up north was unknown,
so we're going into a quite
of uh, unhospitaled area which
cannot sustain any life.
SCOTT: So the route
across Greenland starts
in Isortoq at the reindeer farm.
And then we need to get up
onto the glacier,
and then onto the ice sheet,
and then from there we need
to get to all of our fuel drops
along the eastern coastline.
And then from there we're up
into Wulff Land in the north
and we're going to actually
touch ground
before turning around
and heading back
to those fuel stops and then
to the summit station
and ultimately exiting the
glacier at Kangerlussuaq
and getting to our
shipping container.
And we've got to do
all of this in three weeks.
GREG:
Having the right team
supporting this project
was absolutely critical.
EMIL: Dr. Jon Solberg
was our medical doctor.
Kurt Williams, head of
refueling and, camp logistics.
Torfi Johannsson
was lead mechanic.
Clay was a driver and the
film maker for the expedition.
We had this amazing team of
people that had finally come
together and we were moving
towards the reindeer farm.
And I remember reflecting on
that.
It was just really
this sense of family,
this sense of familiarity
that I think is the best way
to start a trip like this.
There wasn't any anxiety
around the people that
I was traveling with now.
There was certainly anxiety
about the unknowns to come,
but it wasn't about the
people that I was there with.
There are few,
adventures in one's
lifetime that he must not say no
to.
He must go to no matter what.
And this place of Greenland,
this great unknown,
it was that for me I had to go.
I had to make sure that
I was there to experience this.
Doing an expedition
in Greenland is, like this,
Greenland is very,
what was the word?
Ambitious.
How do you feel, Greg?
GREG:
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
Well, at the moment I have a
small bit of encouragement
that we're actually in
contact with the, barge that
transported our trucks up.
But for the last couple hours,
I've been really nervous.
(BOAT WHIRRING)
DR. JON: I think it was
interesting to see
how the group was just
coming together
and gelling as a team,
and we kind of kept adding
one or two more elements,
and everybody wondered,
you know, are we going
to click and are we going to get
along and are the trucks going
to be ready?
There was a lot of anxiety even
before we got on the ice sheet.
Oh, baby, there's the trucks.
(LAUGHS)
When I first saw the trucks
on the flow ice in Isortoq,
it was a wave of emotion.
(WHIRS, THUDS)
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
GREG: The team was together
for the first time.
Clay!
What's up guys?
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
How you doing, buddy?
CLAY:
You made it?
Yeah, I did.
Pretty monumental.
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
(CHUCKLES)
We had been waiting for quite
some time, and, we weren't sure,
you know,
if people even could get there
because of the ice conditions.
Everything must have been very
difficult.
So seeing the guys ride,
and that was the
first time I met Clay.
- Hi
- CLAY: Emil.
- Hi, Emil.
- CALY: Clay.
- Hi, Clay.
- CLAY: Nice to meet you.
EMIL:
Nice to meet you.
- GREG: How you doing?
- Hi, nice to see you.
Yeah, seeing the guys
with was really nice.
CLAY:
This is like another planet.
Uh. Getting all the gear
loaded up right now.
Pulling everything off the
barge.
The... The trucks are a lot
bigger than I anticipated.
They're huge and awesome.
The confidence that I have has
just.
For some reason,
just seeing the trucks has
skyrocketed my confidence.
EMIL:
So we had three vehicles
built on a Toyota Hilux.
The name of the trucks was,
Emma,
the truck I was driving.
We had E7, which was Greg
on the older generation.
And then we had Dreki.
GREG: (ON RADIO)
Gentlemen, welcome to Isortoq.
GREG: (ON RADIO)
All right, let's get set up
to go get Emil's truck.
KURT: We are here in the
workshop, Stefan's workshop,
fixing this tire.
We had a little, ice incident
the other day as we were
faring gear from the barge
over to the station here.
Emil's truck went into the lake,
cracked through the ice, and it
dented a wheel pretty bad.
We lost two tires.
We were all set
when the other guys came.
Other than fixing my truck,
which had fallen into a,
into a river through broken ice.
It was not, that was not,
good news for us
because I knew we just had
one spare tire of this type.
And, if you had to use that,
we had no spare tire
for the whole expedition.
And that was,
in my mind, not doable.
KURT: You don't want to
head into any adventure
with a vehicle that's, you know,
got something wrong with it.
We knew that truck, the AT44,
we call that one, Emma,
the one that went
through the ice,
we knew it had sustained damage.
It had a bent wheel, which means
it took a really hard hit.
EMIL: I knew something had
broken or really bended.
So, my first thinking is,
the expedition over.
How will we do it with two cars?
We can't carry what we need.
I think Emil carried a lot more
of that stress than I did,
because that was the truck
he was going to be driving.
But also he knew the
implications
of what would happen if
we'd be completely inoperable
and what that would mean
for later on in the trip.
And I don't know that
everyone even knew this,
but he called and placed
an order in Iceland,
had them get a spare part,
which is kind of proprietary
to that Arctic truck,
and had that shipped,
hopefully in a box that we would
see later on with one of
the fuel deliveries.
(TRUCK WHIRRING)
TORFI:
Again!
KURT: We drove across that
on the way in, and going back,
it broke through.
So, it's not good.
Already on a pretty
tortured front end.
It just always happens
at the worst time,
we're just trying to leave,
but stuff keeps happening.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
So we have the tools in this
one.
So our loose arrangement
is tools, recovery, spares
on this side, food,
and then your personal bins.
Just put wherever you need them,
because you're gonna
probably run those down,
have them inside
the house to be able to
start moving into your boxes.
Okay. Let's take
one of these cardboard boxes.
CLAY: Every single piece
of equipment is crucial.
It's as close as I think I'll
ever get to a...
A NASA mission or something.
Even in Antarctica,
there is some infrastructure
that's designed to allow, uh,
either scientific expeditions
or just adventurers
to travel across the ice sheet.
In Greenland, i'm told there's
one Twin Otter that services
the entire island,
and there's a lot of demand on
that.
So if we get in trouble in
Greenland,
we could be in for a long wait.
Everybody's super excited and
stoked.
I haven't seen anybody take a
drink of water yet today either.
So at some point,
maybe just grab
a candy bar and drink something,
you know.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I don't think anybody
will ever be able to fully
comprehend how much I worried
about everybody's safety.
I mean, every single person on
the expedition was 100% integral
to the success, and you just had
to trust every single person.
So, I mean,
nobody ever inspected my med kit
or asked for my credentials.
I think everybody
just trusted that
I had had the right training
and would be able to lend
assistance
in the event of an emergency.
Just like I trusted that,
um, the trucks would
operate and there
would be enough fuel at the next
stop, and there was enough food.
It was just.
It was collaborative survival
for the entire expedition.
(TRUCK ENGINE WHIRRING)
SCOTT: When we first left the
reindeer farm,
the one thing that
was top of mind for me is,
"don't fall through the ice.
Don't fall through the ice."
And I don't tend to
feel that level of anxiety.
But it was this immediacy of,
we need to get through
these freshwater lakes.
We need to get across
the ice before it melts.
It was getting warmer.
The snow was melting
at the reindeer farm.
We were in danger of being able
to not even make it to the
glacier.
And there was no backup plan.
I remember the
reindeer farmer and his son
getting out with these giant
poles and testing the ice.
And then it would break
through the ice and we'd have
to find a new way around.
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
EMIL: I already knew this would
be a big challenge.
I did a lot of research on the
glacier, and I got help from a,
specialist glacier, team to
analyze, satellite imagery,
but you still never know.
It's always this big
unknown with the glacier that
is moving constantly.
One of the things that
I have learned, about challenges
in expeditions and even in life,
I suppose,
is that there's
no point in speculating
about how bad it could be.
GREG: I was really nervous going
towards that glacier
once it came into the
windshield.
It was as daunting and as
scary as I had imagined it.
GREG:
But we had these two guys,
Stephan and his son,
at the reindeer farm.
They had gone out,
found this spot.
It just went up beautifully.
You could tell there was
crevasse lines in there,
but it was all filled in.
EMIL: Okay, I'm gonna take mine
down to three
and see if that helps.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- It'll help
later on, but right now,
we need to get you.
You can get to my right Emil
or the left.
Whatever's easier.
Either way, that's good.
CLAY: Once we stepped on it,
the truck started to cross it.
We weren't falling in.
Pretty soon we were past,
you know,
steepest topography, terrain,
and the confidence was like,
hey, we're on top of this thing.
I had to pinch myself because
the first, you know,
the last three weeks
I've been afraid of this,
and it turned out to be nothing.
(TRUCK ENGINE WHIRRING)
(LAUGHS)
This is day one, and we've
moved, like, this far
on the map, out of this far.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- I think it
would be probably a good time
to stop driving for the day.
Let's take advantage
of the remaining light,
make camp for the first time,
try to get some heat generated
inside the tents while some are
Doing that,
others can be refueling
and hopefully we can have a
successful first night without,
trying to fumble through the
dark
and, get some rest,
be ready to hit
it early in the morning.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Yeah then we gotta tie it here.
I remember the first time
we were behind schedule,
was the first day.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER IN
BACKGROUND)
We were either gonna
have to get a lot better at,
performing each one of the
functions and condense the time
it took to pitch and break camp,
or we weren't gonna have
time to set up camp at all.
So from the time we parked
the trucks, set up camp,
made a meal, did any repairs
we needed on the vehicle,
and got a full night's sleep
was about a 24 hour period.
So we wound up pitching camp,
I think seven times in the 20
days that we were on the ice.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Another challenge that we faced
was how, to transport the fuel.
KURT: The fuel delivered
by helicopter and air came
in a traditional 55 gallon drum.
Well, we would pump the fuel
either into the bladder
or right into the trucks.
Part of our permission and
the permit to do
this trip was that
we would leave nothing behind.
And that included those fuel
drums.
So every time we emptied a drum
that we weren't
going to be reusing,
we would have to make several
cuts.
We'd cut the top off of it,
the bottom off of it,
and one slice
down the middle of it
and we could roll that up
just tight enough to
fit it into another drum
and we could get five
or six drums into each one.
It's noon and we
still haven't left camp.
Grinding the barrels
has become a big chore.
We had to get the generators
out.
The generators hadn't been
fueled.
They're brand new out of the
box.
It's 12:39.
And we just left our first camp.
So obviously we're a little
late getting started, which
is discouraging,
especially since I'd like to try
to cover 150 miles today.
All right, so team Dreky
back here has discussed it.
We're totally on board
with a little marathon.
It is, we're looking at 497km
to the DYE 2 station
on our current pace.
So anywhere,
our speed's changing,
so we're anywhere
between 15 and 20 hours
to get there at this pace.
So we'd love to set that as a
goal.
And we fall a little short.
That's all right, but
let's just motor towards that.
To me it was really simple.
We just had to cover 150 miles a
day.
And if we could do 150 miles
a day for 20 days, we would
cover all the ground we needed.
Sounds easy enough.
But I learned in the
first couple of days
that trying to stick to that
schedule was really difficult.
(TRUCK WHIRRING)
SCOTT: So Emil and I
were out in the lead,
and we're trying to work through
these really difficult
conditions and that
we just really can't see.
And all of a sudden,
it felt like
we were in really deep snow,
like the vehicle was fighting.
And I said, "I think it's
something with his steering."
And he says, like, he says,
"I don't know if it's
the snow or the steering."
And then Greg cracked
through the radio, and he says,
the radio, and he says,
"I think there's something wrong
with your steering."
And, we hopped out, and the
front tires were like that.
(WIND HOWLING)
It's really hard to see.
: Yeah.
- Nothing to see.
Torfi hops out
all spirits and said, oh, well,
we'll get this fixed, you know,
and crawls under there,
gets a board out, gets his
yellow jumpsuit on and, you know
waves his little mechanic hands,
and all of a sudden,
that thing's driving straight,
and we're up and running again.
Yeah, when I was a kid,
I... I was very curious how
things work on many things
I took apart, and sometimes
I was able to put them back
together and,
even modified a little bit.
But, yeah, sometimes it
just went into the trash.
So, yeah, that's
kind of how it started.
And it's just ongoing.
It's still there.
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
GREG: For the first three
or four days.
I remember just living with a
constant sense of frustration
that no matter how hard we tried
to overcome the challenges, uh,
early on, they were mostly
mechanical challenges
we couldn't get caught up.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- Yeah, we're
feeling good about, doing
some marathons,
I think, you know,
probably two or three marathons
during the duration of the
drive.
This... this
expedition has us covering
about 3,000 miles.
As I said in the driver's
meeting,
all of a sudden,
I felt the truck
starting to slow down.
Like, there was
some drag on the truck.
And I looked in the mirrors,
and I could see that the.
The trailer was listing like
this.
Hey, guys, we got a problem.
We just lost a wheel.
Um...
We're stuck.
GREG: It rolled about 100 yards
ahead of the truck and literally
came to a rest
between the two tracks.
As if to say,
this trip will be one
challenge after another,
One obstacle in the road after
another.
KURT: (ON RADIO)
Copy that.
We're coming your direction.
(TRUCK ENGINE WHIRRING)
KURT: We're going to make this
the time to eat
since we're down,
and get, some water going
while that's getting fixed.
It's all part of the adventure.
(HAMMERING)
SCOTT: You See, a lot of
mechanics,
they kind of repair by rote.
So they just.
They go that this is the
way that it's always done.
This is the problem.
This is how I fix it.
Whereas Torfi,
he looks at it more like a
scientist and dissects the
issue, and he very quickly
determines the best way to fix
it.
So some of the things that we
think
maybe would take an hour to
repair,
he'll have fixed in 20 minutes.
(TRUCK WHIRRING, REVVING)
KURT:
It's super cold.
We're all tired.
We're making our miles
and kind of just chugging along.
And someone pops on the radio,
the bladder just
fell off of one of the sleds.
(GROANS)
Um, okay.
(GRUNTS)
It's always something.
Towing a bag of fuel
behind a big old Arctic truck
contained in a blubbery bladder
is just seemingly impossible.
And it nearly was.
It was just so much
work because it just.
It doesn't want to stay
anywhere where you put it.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(SCRAPES)
Those sleds should be burned,
and then their ashes
should be burned again.
(CHUCKLES)
Man, we keep making it like
20km at a time before another
problem hits.
That actually took
us longer to fix than a,
tire falling off the trailer.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SCOTT: One of the most
unusual things that
I have ever experienced in all
of my Travels was the DYE 2
station.
This is part of the
DEW Line that was used to
early detect Russian bombers
coming over to the United States
to drop nuclear bombs.
So this was a very significant
piece of military history.
And we were driving right
towards it.
As we got closer and closer,
we actually started to get a
sense of
just how massive this building
was.
It's quite special for Arctic
Trucks having
been the only cars being here
before.
- That's right.
- 19 years ago.
That's right.
Now it's the only cars again.
Yeha.
Nearly two decades later.
Yes.
I guess it's coming like,
running at the space station or
something,
the way the snow
is all drifted up
on the west side of that thing.
Yeah, let's get wind from that
side a lot from the other side.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
I think DYE 2 does the best job
of explaining how inhospitable
the ice sheet is.
One day it was an
operating radar station,
and a few days later,
everyone was gone.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- Will do guys as
we approach
the facility to the right.
DR. JON: So the DYE 2 station,
they were monitoring it
in the 50s, 60s, 70s.
This was an early
attack warning system.
They were keeping an eye
on the air movement
and air traffic in that area.
So.
So it was a strategic position
to have it located there.
And I cannot think of a more
inhospitable place to be
stationed.
- REPORTER 3:
- Hidden behind these
icy ramparts
lies one of the great military
secrets of our time.
December 1950, when communist
aggression was in full flood.
President Truman had
proclaimed a national emergency.
Built with the permission
of the Danish government,
the base would push our defense
line 2000 miles to the north.
Industry developed new designs
that would stand up
to the severe strain
imposed by the Arctic winter.
Your corps of, army engineers.
CLAY:
Okay, camera.
All right, coming in.
(GRUNTS)
I think the biggest thing
is making sure
you don't get lost in the place.
The old light fixtures and,
I mean imagine the amount of
time you would have taken
to assemble this thing
and the amount of expense
and effort to fly in,
what looks like to be a five
story building in the middle of
the Greenland ice sheet.
And then imagine being
that new recruit that lands
in an airplane and they get off
and the plane takes away and
this is what they're left with.
Pretty remote.
Even wood trimmings
on some of the walls.
They tried to make it
like home best they could.
- SCOTT: Oh, wow!
- CLAY: Dude!
- SCOTT: I know.
- CLAY: There's a pool table.
(CHUCKLES)
Oh, wow.
DR. JON: There were lots of
things in DYE 2
that were exciting.
I was especially interested in
looking around the infirmary.
There were still
some medical supplies there.
Step into my office,
get tetanus.
There was a prescription
for methylcarbamol,
which is a muscle relaxer
that the physician had
written for somebody who works
there who must have been having
some back pain or something.
And I don't know if their back
is still hurting or not.
They never did get
their prescription.
So the building was built
so that it had stilts on all
the col-the corners, like
columns, quite a few of them.
And they could raise
and lower the building.
So you see here instructions
on how to level the building.
Raise the building,
raise all the jack support.
So using these, these are all
the different columns around
the corners of the building.
They could level this place out.
And this may even tell
this is like ground pressure
on each of the columns.
So it tells you how much
force they're exerting.
I imagine as this thing was used
in different times of the year
and heat, the building would
sink into the ice and,
and move around.
So they had to constantly
adjust it to keep it level.
And I don't know,
there's beds in this room.
So it may have been happening
enough that they were
worried about, having guys
on call to move the building
in the middle of the night.
- KURT: USSR
- GREG: That's right.
CLAY:
This thing has...
It's been frozen in time.
People walked out without
straightening up their desk
or they just,
they literally stood up,
walked out to their airplane
and got on it
and no one ever came back.
(FOOTSTEPS)
See if you can push it.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(THUDS)
(LAUGHS)
It's like a picture in time
that you can walk around in
and you can tangibly touch
the items of October 1988,
in the last moment
of DYE 2's life
before the life
that was in it left.
And it makes
an impression on you
to see something like that.
(WIND HOWLING)
(WIND HOWLING)
GREG: Probably by the
fourth or fifth day,
it did start
to get a little monotonous.
And I remember feeling like we
were a,
a bowling ball on this huge
white trampoline.
These white sides that
just went up to the horizon.
And no matter how far we drove,
we couldn't get to a point
where we could see over it.
I don't even know how many audio
books we made it
all the way through because
you would press start on
them and you wouldn't like,
stop for two, three days
till you're done with a book.
But it did, it was tiring.
And you wanted to get out
and just stretch your legs.
You wanted to get out and just,
you know, hey,
wouldn't it be so nice to lay
down and sleep flat tonight?
But there just wasn't the time.
So we just kind of endure
and keep moving forward.
Everybody had a lack of sleep,
you know, basically from day one
throughout the expedition.
I remember I had been asleep.
I'd been taking a nap in the
passenger seat and Emil was
driving and I, I kind of woke up
and I look over and Emil was
completely crashed out too.
The radio was going
and he was sitting.
He was sitting in the seat,
like, with his hands like this
and the wheels going
back and forth in the rut.
We were both completely out
and I'm like,
I'm not gonna wake him up.
(CHUCKLES)
He had his foot... he had his
foot steady on the throttle
and nothing bad was happening.
So I just kind of like
side seat drove for a while
while he was sleeping.
He finally kind of woke up and
he looked over at me
and I got this
big grin onto my face
and he's like, you know.
Very soon he was asleep again
and, I guess I was too.
We were just.
We just kept heading
and we continued.
We decided that
it technically wasn't
falling asleep at the wheel
unless your eyes were closed
for more than 60 seconds.
Um, we made,
we made a rule that was
a real rule that if you were
going to stop that you had to
get on the radio and audibly
announce your intent to stop
because there was a good chance
the truck in second position
or third position, uh,
the driver may have been
taking a short nap and
might run into you.
All right guys,
coming to a full stop.
Full stop.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Hey guys, we lost the trailer.
Come on back.
Uh, neville.
Scott.
We just happen to have
a spare pintle hitch
just laying around
in the back of a truck.
Actually Greg shipped that from
home.
SCOTT:
Good job Greg.
(CHUCKLES)
I'm pretty sure that
came from Salt lake.
(CHUCKLES)
KURT:
At 1:45 in the morning.
We're halfway on our push
between our last camp
at the next fuel depot.
So we're just running all night.
It's too cold to set up camp
anyway.
It's like minus 22 so it's
not even comfortable to start
trying to get tents up.
So we're just going to
kind of take some little naps
in the car.
Recycled drivers.
But we have to refuel because
it's a long push, about 720km.
So we're draining off the
bladders here,
filling up Greg's truck.
We'll drain off this front
bladder draining the rest
and get onto
the checkpoint where
we're meeting position one where
the fuel is being flown in.
There's already 10 barrels there
and 11 more showing up tomorrow.
So we'll be able to
refill all these bladders
once we get there.
SCOTT: One of the most difficult
considerations for this
expedition was planning fuel.
Not only how much fuel do we
need but where do we drop it,
how much should we drop
and then what do we do
if we have too much or too
little and there's something as
simple as we're doing better on
fuel economy or the
conditions is approved.
Let's increase the tire
pressure in the tires.
It's easy to just forget that
and continue to operate at a
lower pressure
which increases resistance
and then increases fuel
consumption.
So it's really finding
that perfect balance.
And that comes from a
combination of
very in depth calculations
and a lot of experience.
And then that is all filtered
through what's happening
right now on the ground.
EMIL: If you're wrong,
we basically run out of fuel
and it's probably gonna cost
five hundred thousand dollars
to get you off
and you're not gonna
finish the expidition.
SCOTT: When we got to the first
waypoint for the fuel drop
on the east coast and we're
getting closer and closer
and we're expecting
to begin to see
the influence
of man on the horizon.
Like some barrels and drums
or shapes that are not natural
in the environment
and they didn't show up.
We got right to the waypoint
and there was nothing there.
We are parked dead on the
location,
(COUGHS)
based on Torfi's GPS and my gps,
but there's nothing here.
My guess is they flew over this
and said it's too rough
for them to land,
so they found something nearby.
So this was kind of a big, issue.
It triggered a calculated panic.
SCOTT: They even launched the
drone
to go and look for the fuel
(BEEPS)
SCOTT (ON TADIO): Uh,
disturbance that I could see.
It does not look like sastrugi,
but I don't see any barrels by
it.
I mean, we shut right down.
We stopped.
It was like satellite
phone with the pilots.
We're sending messages via
the inreach satellite system.
Everybody had a question mark.
PAUL: (ON PHONE)
Hello, Paul.
Hi, Paul.
Emil here again.
We provided the
waypoint of our location.
We had them confirm
the waypoint that they were
going to drop the fuel.
And then that's when we
realized that the location
that they dropped it was
different from where we were at.
They had a wrong location and
they delivered it, uh,
to a location that was
in the first original plan.
That was a trust plan
made quite early.
Well, we got the info on where
the fuel's at, and the bad news
is it's not here where it was
supposed to be, which is our,
scheduled rendezvous point.
It's 50 miles north of here.
EMIL: Okay, that means going
into a crevasse area
which we have no satellite
imagery for.
We have no research for.
What is the best route to take.
How do we approach this?
What's the most likely safe
route?
If we have another
mistake like this,
it's going to be a disaster.
So will you please call him back
and say, you know,
we'll call you in two hours,
three hours when we get there.
But just to confirm
that we've got it.
In the meantime,
please keep your
phone on your, in your palm.
EMIL: Decided to go back onto
our route,
which we had already planned.
And we choose kind, of a almost
90 degree on our old route
and go there in after the fuel.
I think it was about 30,
40 kilometers to go in,
in an unknown territory.
And we could see the crevices,
on both sides.
Big, big relief to find those
fuel drums
and know they're there.
There's one point where
we're like, is this kind
of another wild goose chase?
But, we're here.
It's frigid out here.
Probably one of the
coldest camps of my life,
if not the coldest camp of my
life.
KURT: Making some repairs
this morning.
One of the,
hitch extensions cracked.
It's a lot of work
pulling those sleds,
fatiguing it all
through the day.
Torfi's getting all geared up
to lay some weld down on it.
We're gonna add some reinforcing
bracing to it so that it
doesn't do it again, hopefully.
Fingers crossed.
CLAY: Let me see if you try
and cross your fingers, Kurt.
They're too frozen, actually.
(CLAY LAUGHS)
It's actually very important
in every expedition,
successful expedition,
that, you can have the
team spirit all the time.
You know, you have all
the members with you.
You know, they're all working
together, you know,
backing each other, up exactly
like it was in this expedition.
It was amazing.
Another day in the ER.
Always problems.
Mostly the plumbing.
We basically negotiated them to
come back to the location
where we were,
(WHOOSHES)
EMIL: Take the rest of this
fuel because we already knew
we didn't need all this fuel.
We could use part of this fuel
to bring part of what we had
there further up west,
more on the top of the glacier.
This would save us
time on the way back.
This meant we could turn,
a bad thing into a good thing.
(WHIRRING)
It's all working out.
We got three drums that we're
putting on that we're leaving
out to fuel the airplane so it
has enough fuel to go and do the
mission that we've
asked it to do now.
And then we're reloading it
looks like
four or five more drums
that'll be sent out further
to the west so that,
we don't have to come this far,
towards the coast
on our return trip.
It puts our fuel in line
with the straight line south.
Pilots have agreed to take at
least nine and as many as 12
of these empty drums out of
here.
So not only do we not have to
spend hours cutting them up,
we don't have to haul them with
us, all the way back and forth.
So this is a big win for the
team.
(WHIRRING)
(WIND WHOOSHING)
CLAY: We're calling this the
last flying fuel drop.
Dro... The airplane dropped
these five drums off yesterday,
Drove through the
night to get here now.
Now we're gonna drop
off a couple more drums,
and this is our cache
for the way home.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
And it is wicked out right now.
Whooh.
TORFI: You think you're gonna
roll up at the gas station
and fill up
but when you're talking about
moving drums by hand
and pumping them and pumps
working in
sub zero temperatures,
it just nothing is easy.
And then I got this one mustache
hair that's frozen down,
and every time
I smile the wrong way,
it pulls right
on the one that hurts the most.
So I'm looking
forward to getting
in the trucks and getting
thawed out a little bit.
KURT: We started on a cadence
of drive
for two or three Days camp once.
Drive for two or three days,
camp once.
After a week of that, everybody,
you could see it was
taking its toll on everybody.
We were getting tired and
really, it almost felt zombieish
during the day.
DR. JON: I mean it was really
difficult to sleep even when...
Even when you were the guy
who was getting a break.
The trucks would bounce
and it was so bouncy that,
that it was difficult to sleep
even when it was
your time to sleep.
TURFI: Figured out we had
been driving for 75 hours,
constant driving.
Except for one stop
for about two or three
for about two or three hours
to sleep in the cars.
Other than that, we were
njust driving and changing seats,
just keeping on,
keep on driving.
You okay, Dr. Jon?
When you read any story
about Arctic survival and the...
The amount of abuse that the
human body can be subjected to
before it finally breaks down
and dies is incredible.
You know, we all
discussed it as a team.
Yeah, let's keep doing this.
Let's take a two and three hour
nap and call it.
And we're going to get
back up in the morning and
go another 700 miles.
SCOTT: There's a few things
that are of consideration
with remoteness,
and we're always thinking
about are we closer to these
points of inaccessibility
or poor accessibility.
The first thing that you lose
is access by helicopter.
But once you get outside
of the helicopter range,
then you have to have an
aircraft land
and that requires specific
conditions on the ground.
And then you can
actually get far enough away
where it's going to require an
aircraft to bring in fuel,
an aircraft to land
and refuel to get to you
than to get you
off of the ice sheet.
And the further north that you
get in Greenland,
the more likely
that is to occur.
You're deeper into the
expedition.
People are more fatigued.
Decision making has suffered.
The human body starts to
break down because of those
extremely long driving periods.
TURFI: We were still
heading north
and we were running into this
storm.
According to a path visibility,
we are quite close to maybe
about
2- 300 kilometers from Wulff
Land.
We get quite strong winds.
We were navigating only
using gps, which is a dangerous
thing to do when you're
approaching crevasse area.
There was what they
call white darkness.
It's white, you look out
the window and you see white,
but the visibility
is a matter of feet.
It was bad enough that
I told the guys on the radio,
if you get out of the truck
for any reason,
make sure that you maintain
contact with the truck.
Because if you get disoriented
and take two steps in the wrong
direction, it could be fatal.
There's no bearings whatsoever
what's going on around you.
You will be lost like that.
If you take a single step
in any direction,
it's a straight up guess.
GREG: As we made our final push
north to Wulff Land,
we were really
chasing the clock.
We... At any point,
we're gonna have to make our
decision to turn back.
The weather wasn't cooperating.
The time was slipping away.
We were at the point where we
didn't know if we were actually
gonna make any of
our goals because progress
had slowed down so much.
And I remember the radio
cracking to life
and Torfi saying,
there's an animal on the right.
And we had trouble seeing it.
And we kind of pulled up next to
it.
And as we get closer and
start to brush the snow off,
we realize that it was a musk ox
calf that had been separated
from its mother, likely in a
storm just like that,
or maybe even earlier in that
storm.
And it was frozen solid from the
cold.
And I remember all of us
being very aware of the fact
that we were quite fragile.
(WIND HOWLING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER ON RADIO)
SCOTT:
We had people on the team,
we could tell in their voice
that they were starting to get
concerned and worried.
And at that point, we have
a spring break, on the 6x6.
I was riding with
Greg at the time,
and Torfi hopped on the radio
and said,
hold on, something's wrong.
Dreky's got a
broken coil spring.
And I think all of us
immediately,
like, our hearts sank.
TORFI:
It's a broken spring.
For me, at least,
what I've learned is to always,
you know, no matter how bad the
situation is, you just, you
you know, you love
the circumstances.
You know, this is fantastic.
You know, it's so great
to be here with you guys, you
know,
in this fantastic place.
Just look at this nature, you
know,
always trying to, you know,
see some positive things,
you know, positive sides.
You've got a spring break!
(LAUGHS)
You know, being negative and,
that doesn't get you anywhere,
you know, have to be positive,
you know,
and enjoying what you're doing.
And in every person, actually,
you know, if you have the time
and space to do that, you know,
to bring, you know, the best
out of every person in the team.
Fantastic.
It's cold, it's windy.
We're having fun.
(WIND HOWLING)
KURT: Made the decision that we
can fix it right there
on the spot.
We've got the
spare part to do it,
but the weather's
getting worse and worse.
In fact,
it was the worst weather
we'd seen on the entire trip.
I remember Jon Solberg holding
the wood barriers and trying to-
to block the wind with his own
body to give these guys a chance
at getting that repaired.
And they did it in less time
than it would take a mechanic
in a warm garage in Salt Lake
City to do the same thing.
I mean, that's when you see,
that's when you see exceptional
people do exceptional things.
GREG:
These are incredible men.
And there is clearly no way
this expedition would have,
would have succeeded
without them
and several others like them.
It was sometime in this window
of
what to me felt like a barrage
of adversity,
uh, compounded by the fact that,
that I was feeling sick and
I was... I was not able to make
the level of contribution
I would have liked physically.
And that compounded my
frustration as well,
that I decided, that it would
be a good time to try
to connect with my wife, Heidi.
We're 135 kilometers from the
northern edge of the glacier,
and we're,
we're having a lot of trouble.
We've had an unbelievable
number of setbacks,
and these guys just keep going.
It's 8 degrees below zero,
and the wind is blowing so hard,
I can barely see the truck
that's 10ft in front of me.
And these guys are out,
fixing the axle
to support my expedition.
HEIDI: (ON PHONE)
Is everybody mentally okay?
Everybody wanted to quit?
No. That's the thing
that's so amazing.
That's why I'm so emotional.
It's because there's
no sign of quitting.
I told you a couple times before
I left that this would be
the biggest adventure I ever
did.
(SNIFFLES, SOBS)
And I underestimated it.
Just hearing her voice
brought me a lot of comfort.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
I will say that we
have today looks to be
our best weather condition.
Torfi can provide some
additional clarification,
but it looks like
the wind actually
doubles in speed tomorrow.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
KURT: The only thing we know at
this point is it's worse
than it was an hour ago,
which was worse than it was an
hour before.
It doesn't seem
to be letting up at all.
And we're making the
decision to push north.
And it was really
important for Greg.
We were all getting
a greater sense of that,
how important it was
for him to reach Wulff Land
and call the mission successful.
- SCOTT (ON RADIO):
- We do know
that this next weather window,
the wind kicks up and it is
scheduled out for several days.
So even moving a couple days
may not be enough.
Yeah, I agree.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
Greg hit me up right
immediately,
"what do you want to,
what do you think we should do?
You know, I'm asking everybody,
do you feel comfortable moving
forward in this weather?
Knowing what we
know now about the weather
and the time we have,
how do you feel about it?".
We decided that we would
drive until 6:00am and reassess.
Uh, even though the repair
was complete on Dreky,
once we started moving,
Dreky didn't move.
And so I got on the radio and
said, Dreky, are you with us?
And I could tell from the delay
in the response and the
tone of the response that
we didn't have complete
alignment
from the folks in Dreky.
SCOTT: I remember it took a
couple minutes and Greg was,
I don't think frustrated,
but like seemingly anxious like,
"what's taking them so long?
I want to know the answer."
You know, "Are they comfortable
moving forward?"
In our vehicle we were
having a real hard time coming
to a consensus, and nobody
wanted to disappoint Greg,
but we had had some serious
concerns about our safety.
GREG: (ON RADIO)
If any of you guys have any
concerns about this along the
way, I'd like to hear them.
You all, your voice is welcome.
At that moment, I was definitely
thinking we are probably pushing
beyond our capabilities here.
In my mind, we were not able to
drive off the glacier
if we didn't have a visibility.
It was just no way situation.
Any desire that I had to get
there and, you know,
take a picture at the farthest
northern piece of dirt
on the planet or do something
that nobody else had
ever done before
was severely shadowed
by my promise to my profession,
which is to not ever
put anybody in jeopardy.
I guess I was just shell shocked
by everything at this point.
What was a risk?
I mean, we'd done so many
things.
At this point, I was comfortable
pushing into the storm.
One of the things that can
happen on a trip like this,
when you pull together so many
competent individuals,
they have a lot of tolerance
for variability,
they have a lot of
tolerance for leadership.
And they allow for people with
experience and with the right
mindset to make decisions
throughout an expedition.
But what can happen is
once the options start
to come off the table,
once you really only
have one path left,
then people will start to
actively question and they have
every right to.
That's one of the things that
make a great team,
is for people having
the ability to speak up
and the mindset and the
desire to speak up when things
start to get dangerous.
DR. JON: I actually got out of
the truck and went back and,
Scott is the one that
I probably know best of all.
Jon, he looked at me and
he shared this story
about what happens
right up to the point
that an airplane runs
into the side of a mountain.
And he wasn't telling me the
story because he wanted to say
I don't want to go or
I don't feel comfortable going.
He wanted to make sure that Emil
and I were reminded of the fact
that those cascade of events, we
can be so focused on something
that we want to achieve in our
life that we can start to forget
about all of the
risks that come along the way.
We get those blinders on,
and we get so
focused on that goal
that we run right
into the side of the mountain.
I am the expedition leader.
The safety of,
every one of these team members
is my responsibility,
and I must get every one of them
back home to their families
safely.
SCOTT:
I knew that he was deliberating
between giving up on something
that he had tried so hard
to achieve and had given
so much towards us and
everyone else to try to
get to this goal.
I knew that he was potentially
faced with that reality that
we weren't gonna make it.
We weren't even gonna make
it to the end of the ice sheet.
And I have such respect for him
in that moment, because what he
did was he kind of gave that up.
He kind of said, "it's okay if
we don't make it to our goal as
long as we all make it home."
And that says a lot
about a leader right there.
I felt like my concerns were
heard, and we decided
as a group to push on.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
(GRUNTS)
That is a good old North Dakota
blizzard right there,
I'll tell you that much.
My inclination is that we,
we take it one objective at a
time.
Let's get to the edge of the
ice sheet and then reassess,
and then, we can decide if we
want to getto, the tou...
The terra firma.
I think that's probably
the best thing to do
at this point in time, because
I think everybody's going to be
excited about trying to get to
the edge of the ice sheet.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- Scott, I
couldn't agree with you more.
Thank you.
You four guys are just awesome.
Thank you.
GREG:
60 minutes later,
sunshine,
the bluest skies we'd seen in
days.
And the more time passes, the
more I can hear angels singing
in that moment in my memory.
SCOTT: We were the first boots
on the ground into this region.
Now, there's certainly been
people on
the north of Greenland,
but there had never been anybody
that we were aware of
that had traveled
to this particular glacier.
If you'd asked me on
the first day or two
if I thought we were going to
get all the way to the north tip
I said there's no way, I mean,
like,
we're going to be lucky to bail,
take a left to go to
Kangerlussuaq, you know.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- Yeah, I think
we're all pretty honored
to be here.
I had a pretty good idea
of what Wulff Land would be
like.
But to be standing there looking
at it and to see the magnitude
of it and the grandeur
and the remoteness,
the stillness
was overwhelming to me.
It was beyond anything
that I'd imagined.
We got to the top of this
extremely
steep slope and Emil said,
Greg, you must go down first
to make sure we can get back up.
SCOTT: We weren't going to
commit all three vehicles
to the bottom of this thing
if we
couldn't climb back up again.
Greg got down to the bottom
and he just started
cruising back up and
he didn't even spin a tire.
It was at,
at that moment that I knew we
were gonna meet our objective.
GREG: (ON RADIO)
There you go, guys.
Tires have now touched Wulff
Land.
We are on Wulff Land.
Seeing those brown rocks, those
brown mountains, 50, 80, 100
miles out into the distance
was so rewarding for me.
TORFI: So that's one of the most
remote places I've ever been.
It was very special
- to get to Wulff Land.
- That was a great moment.
It's hard to describe by,
you know,
you... you... you, uh, you looked
at the map so many times
and it's just a location on a
map and all of a sudden
you're standing there and,
it's out of this world kind of.
CLAY:
Welcome to Wulff Land!
It looks like the moon
with a glacier on it.
TORFI:
When we came down to Wulff Land,
we were kind of surprised
because there was
almost no snow at all.
Just...
So our plans to drive
further north, they just,
they were gone.
It was not possible
to drive any further.
EMIL: After evaluating this and
thinking about the ice melt
and what was time and
the risk and everything,
like that, we decided to
just to take a long, good rest
and then turn around.
I regret not being able
to keep driving north.
I would have loved to have
gotten all the way to the,
to the Arctic Ocean and found,
a place to break through the ice
and actually get the tires wet.
I think we all just tried to
drink it in and absorb as much
as we could of that moment
before we had to turn around
and start making our way south.
CLAY: I mean, this expedition
inspired adventurers
from around the globe
to push beyond the
notions of what is possible.
Expedition 7 Greenland
Crossing team members.
Craig Miller-Expedition Leader,
USA.
Scott Brady, USA.
Clay Croft, USA.
Emil Grimson, Iceland.
Torfi Johannsson, Iceland.
Dr. Jon Solberg, USA.
Kurt Williams, USA.
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- Well, probably
just as hard for you guys
to pull out of
this place as it is for me.
After what we went through to
get here, I just don't want
to leave such a special place.
Especially after
having seen so little of it.
But we all need to get back home
to our families and all of our
other real world commitments.
So make sure to capture one
last image of that before we
turn and burn and encounter all
that great white hostility
on the way back to a hot shower.
Yeah, I'm ready for a shower and
a shave.
Yeah, me too.
Me too.
But that was worth,
that was worth every kilometer
to get to that place,
very beautiful.
Mh-hm.
There's always something hard
about leaving a place you love.
Seeing it in your
rear view mirror.
Especially knowing if
you'll never come back.
SCOTT: People oftentimes
don't consider
with expeditions or danger
surrounding expeditions is
it's just like scaling a
mountain.
You don't need to just
get to the top and succeed.
You need to get back down
safely to base camp
and back to your families.
GREG:
Wulff Land back,
it had a few challenges.
We had a broken CV joint on my
truck.
KURT:
Clay broke it.
We all knew Clay broke it.
Clay finally accepted
that he broke it.
The lunettes of both sleds had
to be completely reworked
and re welded.
We broke the hitch on the
trailer.
We broke the hitch on
one of the sleds as well,
the vehicle side.
I was in the army for seven
years.
I never saw a cast iron pintle
hitch wear through anything
and be stretched into an oval.
(LAUGHS)
KURT:
It's cracking.
Cut it, put it your log like in
between
The runners on the sleds,
they were starting to break off.
And of course the straps
and all these things on the,
on the sleds to keep
the bladders in place.
Then we had a leaf spring
on the trailer broke.
This one's,
I don't see how you're
gonna fix this.
(WHIRRING)
(CLANGING)
The water maker stopped running
so I had to take it in the car
inside and warm it up.
A minor issue with a fuel pump.
We are troubleshooting low fuel.
This thing's got enough.
Doesn't seem to be pumping.
Pump?
Yeah, yeah, please.
KURT: Go ahead and turn
that pump on, Greg.
(PUMP WHIRRING)
Got a lot better now.
KURT:
Yeah.
GREG: So yeah, I guess we did
have a lot of problems.
We had a mini parade
of terribles as we were
southbound.
(CHUCKLES)
We were on our way back from
Wulff Land
and all of a sudden this display
came across the sky like
nothing I had ever seen in my
life.
I had certainly
seen sundogs before
and I'd seen rainbows before
and I'd seen
concentric sun rings before.
But I had never seen all
of them together in one scene.
I was completely
awestruck by what I saw,
and it was so
significant in its scale,
I could not capture
it with the camera.
(WING WHOOSHING)
Well, we're down to the final
160km, 150km,
something like that.
And, we're in the process of
offloading all of the fuel from
the bladders into the trucks.
Anything that's left,
we can put in a couple drums,
but we want
the sleds to be able to go away.
Torfi right now is
installing spikes into the 6x6
to get ready for that slick ice.
And this could be pretty
adventurous as we get up,
up into here. Yeah.
But it's kind of a win because
it's the last time, allegedly,
that the fuel pumps
are going to get out.
It's been a big job of ours over
the last few weeks pumping fuel.
SCOTT: One of the most difficult
things for us to do
as the lead vehicle
was to get a route through
the glacier into Kangerlussuaq.
It was the most
challenging route finding
that I had ever done.
EMIL: Part of this section
was incredibly dangerous.
CLAY:
This is the most harsh,
the most, most harsh
condition for a vehicle
I have ever been in, period.
Even walking around here when
I step through the top soil,
top snow,
I hit ice under it
and it's super slick.
I've never seen
anything like this before.
I'm pretty nervous,
to tell you the truth.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
GREG:
We were seven smelly guys
that were 10 kilometers away
from a hot shower and pizza.
All we needed to do
was get off the ice.
Five years from now,
you won't look back to the night
we just drove right off the
glacier in the Kangerlussuaq
and it was no problem,
it was easy.
You'll remember the time
you had to work for it,
maybe all night, maybe tomorrow.
Not a lot of work.
Just takes time and patience.
DR. JON:
Yeah, time and patience. Yeah.
I kind of didn't know
what to expect.
I had, had all these impressions
of me about crevasses
and giant crevasse fields
and thinking,
I'm gonna see them,
you're gonna see these giant
deep wedges into the ground.
And we really didn't
see any of those.
And it wasn't because they
weren't there,
as we later found out.
It was just because they were
snow blown and covered over.
(TRUCKS WHIRRING)
GREG:
It was getting dark.
I was in second position.
Scott and Emil
were in the first truck,
and we were making our way
through the crevasse field
we knew was there.
I saw my trailer just
kind of list to the left side
GREG: (ON RADIO)
Hey guys, we got a problem.
And in my mind that crevasse
was just going to open up
and swallow the whole truck
and trailer into it.
Instinctively just
gave a little gas,
it broke the outer bead
and the tire got kind
of mangled up under the wheel.
(TRUCK WHIRRING)
TURFI: We're not getting
anywhere near that.
And in the process is that
popped down and Greg's truck
lurched a little bit.
It peeled the tire off the bead.
So now we gotta
put a tire back on the bead.
KURT:
This looks alright.
KURT: We've also found that the
truck frame has a crack in it.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
CLAY: Yes, sir.
KURT:
Kind of in a pinch.
All right.
EMIL:
Stop, stop, stop.
I went E7 forcing the crevice.
That's where everybody sees
this is actual.
And that made
the whole team quite careful.
You know, that...
That crevasse is like
two house stories tall.
It's gotta be 30 or 40ft
deep and just a big V shape
all the way to the bottom
of nothing but blue ice.
I've never seen
anything like that before.
Clay and I were standing in
the back with our crampons on
thinking oh my gosh, if somebody
goes in we're really gonna have
to figure out how to get them
out.
CLAY: Oh, it's right there.
It's running this way.
- DR. JON: It's pretty narrow.
- CLAY: I'm standing on it.
It's not big enough
to swallow a truck.
That was pretty scary.
CLAY: Greg is literally standing
on the crevasse right now.
EMIL: It was incredible to watch
these guys
sitting on top of a crevasse,
repairing the vehicle.
(CRACKLING)
CLAY:
Scott and Emil have gone on to
explore some more routes.
It was our role, me and Scott
to try to find the route.
It was not an optimal situation
because we did not
have a second car to tie us,
to tie it to.
So if we would go down into a
crevasse we would have no one to
to hold us back from falling,
free falling in.
So we had to be very careful.
GREG:
Scott and Emil, do you copy?
SCOTT: (ON RADIO)
Yeah, go ahead.
GREG: Listen, I'm just watching
Jon in front of Torfi here,
he's 20ft in front of the truck
and found multiple crevasses.
I'm thinking that
what we should do is abort
and let's just reassess
the whole thing in the morning.
We could pitch camp.
Jon just about fell
into a crevasse right there.
That was the dumbest
thing I've ever done.
I mean that we didn't have
any business being out there.
I mean I think it was pretty
obvious that
at that pace
we were not ever going to get
where we needed to go.
We decided to stop and get some
rest.
That was a good.
We needed that.
We were all exhausted for sure.
This is our world.
It's... it's kind of a
big problem right now.
It's proving to be very
difficult to navigate.
Huge chunks of the glaciers are
turning into clear water pools
and it's resulting in these
high points and low points,
and there's crevasses
everywhere in between.
EMIL:
There was no room for error.
(GREG LAUGHS)
GREG:
Can you believe this?
(LAUGHS)
I remember the moment
that Emil said,
"Those are tracks."
The first indication of a route
that we had found
since we started
trying to get off the glacier.
So if we found ski tracks,
there was a good chance
we could find
one of the easier routes
off of the glacier.
It didn't mean that it
was easy for the vehicles.
It was very challenging.
But at least we had
a general direction to go.
It was, a small miracle
that we saw those tracks.
But it changed everything.
EMIL: (ON RADIO)
Oh, come on back guys.
We got another one here.
Careful, Kurt.
(CLICKING)
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
Maybe... maybe we can put a
little tension on the edge.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(TRUCK WHIRS)
- SCOTT (ON RADIO):
- There is,
it's a very narrow ice shelf.
It looks like you could drive on
it, but it's too narrow.
And then it,
it cascades down into
like a slot like you find in
Moab.
(TRUCK WHIRS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
KURT:
Nice.
GREG:
Yeah.
Back's already on the slope,
so you're down.
Good work man, crazy.
(WIND HOWLS)
I am standing on dirt.
Check it out.
How cool is that?
We just met our guide
that's going to help us
do what's called the Arctic
Circle Trail to get into, uh,
our final landing spot.
Our guide said,
welcome to western Greenland.
We've been all over.
We've been on
southern and northern,
pretty much on the eastern
and now definitely
on the western.
That'll be a tough one to beat.
(TRUCK WHIRRING)
- GREG (ON RADIO):
- Yea, I just
wanted you to be aware
that we are effectively there
so that you can let the guys
know.
CLAY:
We made it.
Team feels like a million bucks.
You can just see everybody
like this huge sense of relief
and joy and kind of like this
calm amongst the whole group.
It was... it was It feels so good
to be like on a road
and within a few hours of
just some basic creature
comforts.
CLAY:
Like an indoor toilet.
Yeah. Like an indoor toilet
would be really key right now.
(CLAY LAUGHS)
EMIL: Okay. Not to freak you
guys out or anything,
but those crevasses on the left,
I have no idea how many
of those we drove over today,
but I think they
could swallow trucks whole.
(WIND WHOOSHING)
EMIL:
It's quite exciting and it's,
uh, you forget all your
tiredness and you're just kinda,
"Yeah." (CHUCKLES)
What we've recognized
from this project, Expedition 7
in it's entirety,
is that vehicle based
expedition travel is a
meaningful way
to explore the world,
and it provides an accessibility
that some people may never have.
I think the biggest
thing that I learned
from my Greenland experience
was the importance of
surrounding yourself
with great people.
All of us were together for 21
days,
and five of us were together
for almost a month.
And in all of that time,
in all of those intense
circumstances,
there was never a
single crossword spoken.
That just doesn't happen.
That is evidence of the quality
of individuals that were on this
trip and the respect they had
for one another and their
commitment to the greater goal.
And if you have those kind of
resources at your disposal,
you can accomplish just about
anything you set your mind to.
KURT:
If I learned anything,
it was to be
more like those guys,
because every one
of them had attributes
that I can only aspire to be.
I mean, it only speaks
to the people that were there.
Those six guys
I spent time with,
I have amazing
respect for all of them.
What I learned on this
expedition,
it's just no matter how
big the challenge is,
it's just a question of,
the right preparation
and the right team.
And wondering what's over
the next hill or the desire
to learn something new.
Sometimes comes a point
in people's life where
it just feels like
they've lost the lust for life
or the desire to explore.
And I think people start
aging much more quickly when
they reach that point.
The lessons, the relationships,
the memories, um,
none of those things
materialize unless you get out
and have an experience.
You will have many people
coming back from an expedition,
like they say, "never again".
But you will have them in a few
months later, they say,
"when can I go again?".
It... we want to check the box.
We want to achieve the goal.
We want to make it
across the ice sheet.
All of us do
in some version in our life.
But if we don't,
at the end of it,
have a team of people
or a family member
or a loved one that
we get to experience that with,
then what's the point?
It may not make a lot of sense
to you or to someone else,
but if you're passionate about
it, you got to go do it.
You just got to.
Because don't ask yourself
what the world needs.
Ask yourself what
makes you come alive?
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.
And I would encourage anyone
to take that on and see
how that will change your life,
because it certainly
has changed mine.
INTERVIEWER 1:
All right, that's a wrap.
Good job, Kurt.
You're the man.
MAN 1: It's that they see that
we're just, there not...
INTERVIEWER 1:
We're done, Greg. Thanks.
Yeah.
INTERVIEWER 1:
Scotty, you're good.
Yeah, it's great.
INTERVIEWER 1:
Good job, Scott.
MAN 2:
Need the hug?
No.
INTERVIEWER 1:
Awesome, Jon. Thank you.
Yep. Thank you, guys.
INTERVIEWER 1:
Torfi, you're done.
(CLAPS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
INTERVIEWER 1:
All right.
Thanks, Emil.
Okay.
INTERVIEWER 1:
On to the next one.
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Expedition: Greenland (2025)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters