Yesterday, Jill Dennis (29) and Nathan Govart (28) left for Greenland. Brussels residents will complete a five-month triathlon on the ice with the help of a Polka Ski, a sea kayak, and do the so-called “Big Wall” climb. Along the way they will collect all kinds of scientific data.
Residents of Brussels are convinced that the world will be the first in the future with a triathlon on ice. They want to cross an ice sheet on a 600-kilometre ski trip in Pulka along the Arctic Circle, then they want to go down 1,000 km in a sea kayak along the east coast of Greenland, and finally they want to move a kilometer high on a new climbing route.
Adventurers, who will be on the road for five months, do this for sports and adventure, but they also have some science missions.
For example, they have to take measurements from the Royal Observatory to compare them with satellite data. The goal is to get a more accurate picture of the ice cap height models.
For the ULB, Brussels residents will take snow samples and for the University of Liège they will study the annual snow accumulation along the Arctic Circle.
Nanwick
Brussels residents called the Nanok Expedition, in reference to the word “nanoek” meaning the Inuit polar bear. But the expedition is not without danger. The ice caps are very cold and deserted and the coast is irregular.
Therefore, the two adventurers received support from specialists in each discipline and from polar explorers such as the now-deceased Belgian Dixie Dansercoer.
It seems that “Nanuk’s Journey is an ode to life, to adventure, to nature”. “And this is proof that on our planet – saturated with people and infrastructure – there are still places that are pure and wild to be explored, but above all they must be protected.”
