Small tent, big fjord.
by John Huston
The New Land 2013 Expedition is under way. At 12:15 p.m. today our chartered De Havilland twin otter deposited us at the northern end of Goose Fjord.
This gorgeous cliff-lined fjord was home to Otto Sverdrup and the Fram from the fall of 1900 until August of 1902.
It is really cool to look across the ice and imagine the scene 112 years ago. Sverdrup and his team made a lot of navigational and topographical rock cairns here. We may have found one or two this afternoon when we walked the eastern slope above our camp.
Goose Fjord is lined with 1200-foot cliffs and is about 1 ¼ miles wide where we are camped. Right now the wind is humming through from the north at 15-20 knots. That wind made the expedition start a bit chilly, but now we are all warm and happy in the tent with our bellies full of buttery noodle and meat soup.
It’s a huge relief to have the seemingly endless preparation phase over with. We are pumped up to start skiing tomorrow and it appears that our dogs are even more so.
OK, thanks for listening everybody. It feels fantastic to be underway. Over and out.