An expedition to South West Dronning Louise Land

The expedition

Between 12th May and 5th June 2007 three members of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation - Russ Hore, Tim Radford and Gerywn Lloyd - travelled to a previously unexplored region of Dronning Louise Land (DLL) in arctic Greenland between approximately 75°48' - 77°20'N and 26°26' - 22°57'W. Our research indicated this area had only had three previously reported expeditions, with the Southern area being unvisited. In addition to exploring unclimbed peaks we also searched for meteorites as this area has been identified as a possible good site.

In 1953 the British North Greenland Expedition undertook a 2-year study, based in the North of DLL, to survey the area as far South as Budolfi Isstrom. They noticed an area South of here that they did not visit which they named Fairytale Peaks (centred on 76°03'N 24°37'W), so called because any information they had about the area was a Fairytale. One aim of the expedition was to explore this area.

We hoped to be dropped by aircraft in the South West and explore the area to the East of the proposed landing zone. From satellite photos, a large area of mountains can be seen bordering the Southern reaches of Dronning Louise Land. There are numerous other unclimbed peaks in the area immediately to the North of the proposed landing zone. Unfortunately it was not possible to land exactly where we hoped due to crevasses so instead we were dropped off at another unexplored region approximately 30km to the west.

From a scientific point of view there is an interest in this area of Greenland as a possible entrapment region for meteorites which fall on the icecap and flow down to be stranded in moraines. The research has found that in other Arctic regions, meteorites tend to be stranded above 1500m. A paper by Ralph Harvey (Meteoritics & Planetary Science Vol 36. No. 9 June 2001) concluded that the area West of DLL which is above 1750m is an ideal candidate for entrapment. The expedition intended to investigate the West side of DLL as far North as time will allow.

News

Fundraising

The overall cost of the expedition is in the region of £24,000. In the first instance we are underwriting this ourselves but we have been fortunate to gain a number of grants for which we are very, very grateful.

Our sincere thanks go to The Sports Council for Wales, The Mount Everest Foundation and the Gino Watkins Fund.

Articles

An article about Gerwyn's role in the trip has been published on the North Wales Police web site, duplicated on News Wales; and another in the North Wales Daily Post.

Expedition members

The expedition consists of three people:

Russ Hore

Gerwyn Lloyd

Tim Radford

Logistics

Logistics will be handled by Tangent Expeditions who will also taking an unrelated expedition to a region further north.