Highland woman completes Greenland ice-cap expedition

A Highland woman is one of six members of a team who have just completed a journey on skis across the vast Arctic desert of Greenland’s ice-cap – a week ahead of schedule.

Karen Darke, who lives in Grantown on Spey, is paralysed from the chest down from a rock climbing accident.

The team have been celebrating the end of the journey by going out for pizza in Kangerlussuag on the west coast of Greenland.

The expedition called ‘By Hands and Feet across Greenland’ began on May 7th. The team have spent thirty days crossing the 600km journey, after two years of planning and preparation.

Karen has become the first paralysed woman to ski across the Greenland ice-cap. As well as help from the team, she used a specially built sit-ski and used her arms and ski poles to cover the distance, to help her tackle Greenland's Arctic wilderness.

Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) Careers Scotland has been following their progress online. There are also updates and 'blogs' by the other team members, including Anna McCormack from Cannock, Staffordshire, who described the tough challenges that they faced.

Anna’s mother, Patricia McCormack, has been in contact with Anna throughout the expedition. She has been very busy organising the team’s flights home.

On Wednesday 7th they will fly to Reykjavik and will stay in a youth hostel before flying home to be reunited with their families in Finland and Norway as well as the UK.

Careers Scotland staff have been working with P7s and S2 pupils from four schools in Strathspey, communicating with the team in Greenland, through website blogs and forum. They have been looking at the transition to secondary school as well as the personal challenges posed by embarking on their standard grades.

On her return, Karen will give a short presentation to the pupils about the expedition, explaining how the team dealt with travelling and living on Greenland’s ice-cap. This process will help the pupils reflect on how they have overcome their own challenges and what they have learned about themselves.

Link to expedition pages on the HIE site

Link to the expedition blogs and updates

(The above Google Earth satellite-map image was provided by Boele Ruurd Kulpers of the Norwegian Polar Institute - a friend of the expedition team.)

Note: PC users with Google Earth can download the KMZ data to see how the team has progressed.