<aside> <img src="/icons/mountains_blue.svg" alt="/icons/mountains_blue.svg" width="40px" /> To explore the mountains on the East coast of Greenland, we led a month-long expedition from Iceland this summer.
Driven by a quest for freedom and autonomy, we sought to free ourselves from logistical dependencies and geographical constraints, while limiting our impact as much as possible. To achieve this, we chose to be light and adaptable, mixing mountaineering and navigation, using a sport catamaran as a vehicle and eliminating all the unnecessary.
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At the beginning of summer, we transformed a second-hand sports catamaran, designed to race a few hundred metres from the coast, into a vehicle capable of sailing on the high seas as well as in the fjords and of transporting our equipment. Based in Arzal, in the Morbihan region of France, we have implemented solutions already used by other sailors... and have invented others, always as simple as possible! At sea as in the mountains, we rely on low-tech and reliable systems, which we know how to repair if necessary.
The first step was to reach Greenland, by sea. We left Reykjavik on August 3rd and sailed along the Icelandic coast for three days before setting off on a 200 nautical mile crossing to the fjords on the east coast. After two days on the high seas, we landed at 69 degrees latitude, nearly two hundred kilometres from the only village in the region.
For a fortnight, we set out to find glaciers, peaks, ridges and rocky routes to imagine routes, design itineraries, meet obstacles and overcome them. During our three to four days raids, we left our catamaran safely on beaches with our food supplies, and used it to travel between and within fjords.
At the end of August, we sailed for another three days on the high seas to Iceland and back home, to the rhythm of the whales that escorted us for more than half the crossing!
