click here for MountainZone.com



Climbing Forum

SEE ALSO
Greenland '98
Denali '99
Ed Viesturs
Climbs 8K Peaks

Everest '99
Everest Archives






home
dispatches
photos
maps

Howlin' Winds
Sunday, June 6, 1999

Todd
Burleson
Hear Todd's Call from Greenland
Click for
[RealAudio]  [Windows Media]

(Requires FREE
RealPlayer or Windows Media)


It's Todd. We're in Greenland. We've been here about 25 to 30 hours. A couple hours after we arrived, the wind started picking up and it's been blowing like mad ever since so we've just got nothing but blowing snow outside.

We went skiing for a couple hours today, and it's just fighting in the wind. It slowed down for a little bit, but now it's picked up pretty heavy. Our altimeter has risen about 100 meters, so that's quite a bit. And the clouds are just flying by. It looks like the top of Everest right now. The wind's blowing by us.

Other than that, the mountain looks great. Yesterday we ran into a couple of Finns who were skiing around doing some climbs. Other than that, we are in isolation.

At the moment I am lying in my tent listening to the wind blow quite a bit. I don't know if you can hear it. I'll hold up the phone...[the sound of wind]...how's that for acoustics or background music?

Otherwise life is great. Al Hanna's doing well. We got him up moving on his skis and we're hoping that we're going to be able to get up to Gunnbjornsfjeld in the next 24 to 36 hours. I'm still getting adjusted to the 24 hours of sunlight because it doesn't ever seem to get dark here, but life is good. We've built a good camp. I've had to dig a toilet about six feet down deep into the snow to keep us out of the wind and same with the kitchen.

Life is good. We had salad. You know, just not quite the Greenland I saw last year. The winds are really, really howling and the snow's blowing hard. Hopefully, it will slow down here and we'll get up to some good climbing.

And talk to you soon. That's it for now. Talk to you soon. Take care. Bye Bye.

Alpine Ascents Guide Todd Burleson, MountainZone.com Correspondent


EXPEDITION DISPATCHES


[MountainZone.com Home] [Climbing Home] [Greenland '98]
[Climb Greenland With AAI]