After a fairly uneventful journey to Kangerlusuaq, Greenland, we spent two days packing and preparing gear and food. Reducing packaging, reinforcing and adding extra calories. Sometimes, I think my life is like the movie 'Groundhog's Day' and I'm doomed to repeat one thing over and over. However, as repetitive as these tasks may be, this journey is new for me: a 25 day crossing of the Greenland Ice Cap.

I am guiding three clients - although their experience far surpasses the term. I'll give and intro to each later but for now know that there are four of us traveling together: Diogo, Dean, Kat and I.

We were dropped off at the base of a glacier and were able to follow some old tracks up. We made good progress while regularly marveling at the waves of sun cupped glacial ice that poked through the snow. It was warm and sunny so much in fact that I spent part of the afternoon in just a Helly Hansen base layer T-shirt!

We set up camp and had a relaxing dinner. In the morning the wind picked up as we packed up. When I had first gotten out of the tent visibility was decent. Now it was much worse. Regardless we donned our harnesses and started pulling. Within an hour, I couldn't see. Despite the gusting wind, the temperature was above freezing so the blowing snow melted to our clothes forming a wet slushy veneer over everything. We needed to get the tents up fast or we would be soaked to the bone.

The next 24 hours were some of the hardest I've ever spent on an expedition. The wind was blowing at a steady 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph (100 kph). Spindrift snaked through the vestibule then melted, soaking us inside. The snow walls we built did little to deflect the gale force winds and the blowing snow threatened to bury us alive. For most of the afternoon until one a.m. we alternated shoveling shifts digging out our tents. We stacked up the sleds on top of one wall and by the next shift, the sleds were buried and the snow wall was nearly five feet high. By two, the wind abated enough for a little sleep but at seven am, the front vestibules of both MSR tents were collapsed from the weight of snow.

We dug for an hour, ate breakfast and tried to dry out clothes, then suited up for the trail and spent the next two hours digging everything out.

There's more of course, but needless to say, we 'escaped' had a decent travel day and are closing in on the ice cap proper. It's windy again (but significantly less than last night) and we're in the tents. Diogo cooked me some nice melted snow which I added to my freeze-dried food, like I have on nearly every other polar expedition for nearly 20 years.