It took most of the day to come up with a solution on how to transport our load under the soft snow conditions that were created by very high temperatures over the last four days. Already after 400m off the groomed area at EGRIP, the first tractor train stalled. We reshuffled our sleds in many different configurations – to no avail. We had to leave two sleds behind to be picked up on a second trip. This way, the traverse made 25 km in 2.5 hours, and one Pistenbully then had to go back and pick up the final two sleds. On Sunday, this was repeated as the snow still was not coorporating. We made 50 km; but one PB had to make a 50 km trip and back to pick up the remaining sleds. Night temperatures have dropped, however, so we hope for better snow conditions tomorrow. It only requires three people to drive the tractors , so the other nine team members now spend most of their day in a rumbling dome, travelling at 10 km/h. In the morning, and the evening there is activity.

What we over the weekend:

1. Begin travel towards GRIP site.
2. Re-arrange sled trains several times.
3. To get moving, we parked two heavy sleds on the way and picked them up later.
4. Traveled 25 km Saturday and 50 km on Sunday. 270 km remain to GRIP.

Weather over weekend: Fog in the morning, later clear and fog in the evening. Temp. -18 to -4 C, 6 kt from SW, Cold nights return, and we hope this gives us a harder snow surface.

FL EGRIP, J.P. Steffensen