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Seventeen
young people from the Explorer Scout and Scout Network sections
of West Lancashire Scout County will embark on an epic journey to
the Icy Mountains of Milne Land in East Greenland.
The
group, accompanied by 12 fully qualified Mountain Leaders, will
depart from Glasgow on Sunday 18th July, bound for Iceland. They
will proceed to Constablepynt from where they will continue their
journey in a ski-equipped Twin Otter aircraft, eventually landing
on the glacial systems in the centre of Milne Land, in the innermost
reaches of Scoresbysund.
From
a base camp near their landing site they will make many first ascents
of the peaks and spires in the area, as well as undertaking a scientific
programme of studies in Ecology, Glaciology and Human Physiology.
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The
Greenland hopefuls training weekend - learning to move equipment
over awkward terrain...
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...
and honing their navigation skills in terrible weather conditions!
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One
of the projects is to find and count the rare "dwarf willow",
which only grows 10-15cm high and about 60cm across. They also grow
in Scotland and one of the leadership team, Dave Ridout has recently
been trekking in the Scottish Highlands to tune his natural radar
to look for them in the wild.
Phil
Emmott from Blackpool, is fulfilling a dream... "At 16 I saw
a photo of a tent on a glacier in front of a mountain range. That
inspired me to go on my first 'Snow and Ice' trip. Six years later
this dream becomes a reality..."
Snow
& Ice is an annual trip to Scotland in February run by West
Lancashire Scout Council during which the Scouts learn how to survive
winter conditions - wiith support from fully trained mountain leaders
of course!
Sixteen
year old James is at Tarleton High School and the youngest member
of the trip. He is already an experienced mountaineer. He leads
multi-pitch climbs at severe grade and has impressive logbooks for
climbing, caving and scrambling. He is typically laid back, but
he is looking forward to this experience and would like "just
to go NOW". James was part of last year's expedition to Norway's
Artic region along with his Stuart.
You
can keep track of the Scouts progress via their expedition website
at www.landactivities.co.uk/greenland
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