Going Greenland

[Music] [Music] oh my [Music] gosh this is the best oh my God the light right now it's woo do you think that Ben's panels have been out long enough today for us to be able to move cuz if not we're definitely going to have to push it with the dingy Greenland has always captured my heart I'm Jessica Baker I'm a professional Mountain guide and skier and I've really been focusing recently on Arctic exploration and even in more recent years exploring Greenland so my goals for this trip are twofold one is I'd really like to revisit some of the areas I was in in 2019 to see what's been happening with the glaciers and I want to see if we can travel on a renewable energy boat that runs without any fossil [Music] fuels Jess and I had worked on a bunch of different kind of film projects in 2018 she actually invited me on one of her larger expeditions to spard the catch was that she was going to sail from Europe north up to spard and she wanted me to be on that team a lot of the water out here is quite literally Uncharted which is kind kind of exciting so um yeah The Adventure Starts I suppose second we push [Music] off [Music] I also got to meet Captain Ben and immediately just blown away by that man you know when I first met Captain Ben I was like oh wow it was Finding like my sole brother or something and's like a renaissance man artist Master sailor mechanic philosopher being a sailor means you have to be able to fix everything but yeah it's more being a handyman I'm a janitor after that 2018 trip I was like I'm I'm done I'm I'm good I'm never getting on that sailboat again you know and she called me like a couple months later and she's like so how about sailing in Greenland and I was like you got it I'm in we had 3 weeks essentially to explore and started working our way through some of the fewer systems literally like uncharted waters and just exploring the Zone when we got back from our trip all disconnected from everything we started reading that it was becoming the hottest year on record on the Greenland ice cap they recorded for the first time ever two consecutive days above freezing at 10,000 ft during the time that we were in the zone in 2019 we have the warmest year of uh since forever I'm 30 years old already now we can we can say back then when we were kids we used to have a lot of seis uh back then when we were kids this clure was that big and it's a bit scary that we could already say those things even though we're not that old we're back but this time the boat that we're on the canote has been modified and it's now a green boat it's running off of solar power and wind power 2 years ago we threw out the old diesel engine and went elure tiny for a 11 ton Expedition boat I dream in amps I live in amps I wake up in amps and I'm I'm All amped now I'm amped up this is our first season first trip in the Arctic with this setup I got here not knowing if the Arctic sun was going to charge actually we launched off the Cano last night and we are um kind of waking up in our first anchor spot we can't motor all the time that's the big difference and that's also part of our philosophy how do I adjust my whole like time plan or or like Hazard plan around that you know some of this is slit out but I can tell the crown kind of ends up there this is a really special cool art man this is cool maybe we'll just charge nothing and have to just sit in the same Anchorage and Jess is going to go crazy we'll [Music] see little dance party up [Music] here we're flossing at the top of the Run except it's kind of funny because you and I are too old to actually know how to do this oh we know there's no song in my soul well love I don't know I'm so tired feeling L all my friends are calling me like fo trying all my best to oh my God lately I've been told all this fire in myone go on my soul run this ship alone there's a bit of a breeze and then splice to US Sailing Against the Wind so out of my anyone needs to puke puke out here puke cuz it's filled with gas over here so gnarly man I think people have an an idea of sailing is just you know like cocktail in one hand and like warm breeze in your face when you sail you need wind what else this wind due to the ocean creates waves right the boat is in this like happy place in the waves in the wind which is the exact opposite of my happy place big wav D big wav big wav that's the thing when you want to work with skiers when you want to ski you have to be in the Arctic during a season which is not sailing season oh I'm leing the boat in like 2 seconds and a half oh 2 seconds and a half one of our Jerry cans to fuel the the dinghy it's brand new but it leaked this one I never take it off ready to go ski in we are vacuuming with a billage pump that doesn't work very well at 3:30 in the morning I think think there's some dinged some dinged humans they're some damaged humans they're they're going to be okay okay but I think right now they feel like they might die I think you might have I had a hard time all right a normal Expedition boat the captain takes the helm and says we're going there there there there there the cot you take the helm but actually it's the boat that says no we're going there no no we're not going there we're going there I feel like he decides because because he decides that's a yeah and it's way to travel you like don't know where you're going to end you try to try to make it but you have to be like really open when you sail in these untouched beautiful FS I mean even though it's harsh even though there's ice whatever you just feel free 24 hours a day Greenland is an absolutely stunning place it is ocean it is Mountain Mountain big mountains like 7,000 vertical feet out of the sea huge glaciers dropping down to the ocean I've been lucky enough to travel a lot for skiing in my career and this is the most breathtaking place I've ever skied you know around the time that we ski there in the spring you have light almost 24 hours a day and one of the most dramatic and beautiful places I've ever [Music] been now we're skipping over the zigs and the zags just going stra up this thing I wonder if it's amping on the canoe train now solar energy is there it's trying let's go amping get that charge let's go be nice if it broke GL I think it's going to happen I think this thing is just going to burn off and it's [Music] just I mean we won't be able to see but for now it's sort of [Music] soft [Music] and turns out a motor is kind of important we are not able to ski a lot of the things that we skied in 2019 because we couldn't get to them because we had to rely on Mother Nature right um it's snowing right now which we weren't entirely sure that was going to happen we knew it might be a little cloudy but like snows now which covers our solar panels and makes it harder to charge but we need like a lot more sun to power ourselves out of this place especially if we go deeper in especially if there's no wind and then if we don't have wind on our return like we literally could run out of power on my point I think we have to use that wind on the 15th to go from to go south 15's really early we don't want to be in minute sock on the 15th no um it's way too early so we'll have to discuss potential Logistics but maybe we have to move ourselves closer justess is great she likes to bust me around I don't like to get busted around so it's it's interesting it's a push pull it's a push pull what we need in the mountains is not always what we need for sailing and what we need for sailing is not always what we need for the mountains there was a spot in 2019 that we called we called kuar town and we wanted to go there really bad and we could see it but we had to sit down and weigh our options right yeah but I mean cool it's really not reasonable unless we're really sure we have wins to go back unfortunately so we need to maybe shift mhm shift the object we're low on power right and the wind is not in our favor at all and if we head out there there's a chance that we have to sit and we won't make it back and so Jess as a guide has to make a decision on something that's really unknown right I think was really frustrating for chess make bread makes it a little bit better the irony in today is we have sun which is great and we have wind problem is it's too windy to get short to ski but we're waiting for the wind to die so that we can go ski but then once the wind dies then we can't sail so travel with the wind or do we wait and see after the wi kind of an interesting t uh we decided that we're going to travel try and find a different place to ski so nearly every year we have a record of the highest temperature uh around Greenland when and elderly tell stories it's nearly not recognizable for us because it's changing so much there's a lot of snow coverage that we didn't have last time however it's very very obvious that the glaciers have changed a lot since we were last here we come in FS that have glaciers on the charts uh you sail on the glacier because the charts are not old they're like 30 years old 30 years ago the glacier was probably up to [Music] here the glacier looks dramatically different than it was in 2019 something like this is so special and so precious we need to take care of it if you want to yeah in a way if you want to do something for this Glacier you just better leave it alone and stay home there is no doubt that there is irony here we have taken really big flights airplane flights to get to Greenland we travel from America all the way over to Denmark and then all the way back to Greenland to even get in place place to catch our renewable energy boat so it's a it's a huge carbon footprint one of the reasons I feel worried about an interview right is because of the hypocrisy in it right but absolutely no one no one is perfect and I shouldn't fear hypocrisy to like try and do something or try and show how beautiful it is and that it's worth saving you and your boat are pretty special like you have already taken a huge step to like shift that direction like not having your diesel motor anymore is pretty impressive the fact that we're like charging right now off this even just like partial sun that's the coolest I mean uh I think we have to move to the next step which is not talking uh the next step is really action action is not staying home action is finding ways to keep on living our passion to keep on breathing this beauty can I take only two planes instead of three can I turn off the engine a while and row a bit little things like that yeah we need action we just we know now everybody's aware so [Music] completely converting your mode of transportation it's not easy to do that me Ben's an inspiration he's trying to live his life about a Reliance on fossil fuels and have a substantially smaller carbon [Music] footprint I'm not doing it just for myself I'd want people to to search new ways to [Music] travel know I mean it definitely makes me want to work harder way harder you [Music] know not being able to get exactly where you want to go on the day that you want to get there is that you are forced to be creative with what you have and ski something that we had never skied because we had an extra day there get off the boat you actually skin for a few miles and then you see it it's this massive line that looms above you and it almost seems unrealistic then it was time to boot and cramp on up and then we did that for hours hours up it's like the Greenland scale you're like how far up there is it you look at the map you're like I think it says it's almost 5,000 vertical feet to get up to the top of that as a skier that is like a dreamline it is you know something you you can only wish that you can get the right conditions and the right team and the right set of circumstances the right light the right weather to make something like that actually come [Music] together encapsulates Greenland so much [Music] well that was sketch kind of consolation that you your alone pass the skin and past the bones in an ordinary tone ask question take dance and take me out Take Me Home the trees leaves leave I want wo none of us are perfect and no one has this style like no one really has the answer and yet we are all part of the solution potentially you know we can make daily decisions that do have impact I feel like a monk when he prays for me this is like religious uh the Arctic the gles the ice this this energy just like feeds my [Applause] soul me heart in 2019 we made all the decisions with our diesel engine and in 2022 nature made the decisions and look at how incredible some of these lines were I mean that's the thing we're like traveling around on this like renewable energy boat and still crushing these massive lines in Greenland hopefully it'll Inspire some more people when they are like well that crazy guy is doing [Music] it and you you're something I need [Music] on I can't live [Music] without we live without you can't live without just live without me you can't live without me we can't live without me you can't live without me you can't live without me you can't live without

Channel: Mountain Hardwear

Views: 10,408

Keywords: mountain hardwear, outdoors, outdoor apparel, down jacket, climbing, mountaineering, skiing, winter camping, glacier, mixed route, snow travel, ice climbing, aid climbing, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, backcountry, 000 meter, peak, down, waterproof-breathable, tents, sleeping bags, backpacks

Id: zRR-vb64R20

Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2023