| Summary: | September 5, 1980 the concordian Page 7 Eight skiers cross Greenland, set record Sandl Brady, toft, from Golden Valley, Minn., and Paul Erlckaon, expedition leader from Moorhead, share a sip of water during a rest break. Th#y are sitting on a putk, or sled, with th* sled's sail behind them. This past summer the ,1980 Minnesota Ski Expedition Across Greenland, a group composed mainly of Concor-dia graduates, set a world's record for crossing Greenland's treacherous polar icecap on cross country skis. • The trek began Sunday, June 22, as the eight skiers climbed onto the icecap from sea level in only five days, assisted by six' people from their nine member base camp. The group was led by Paul Erickson, Concordia's director of student activities. Erickson's wife, Marilyn, coordinator of the base camp, made frequent contact with Concord i a officials throughout the extensive journey, informing them of the group's progress. Relaying a call from the skiers to Concordia on July 7, Marilyn Erickson said that the trekkers were reaching the halfway point of their 400.mile journey. During that radio contact the base camp was told that a last minute idea of Paul Erickson's helped increase the distance the skiers could travel in one day. Erickson had read about an expedition that crossed a glacier using a parachute as a sail, so he ob-tained a parachute from the Air Force before the expedi-tion left Iceland. The skiers at-tached the four supply sleds together and used the har-nassed wind as a source of propulsion for the sleds. As the group traveled on-ward they experienced rugged terrain and icy lakes and rivers, hampering efforts by the group. Marilyn Erickson, in a phone call on July 21, said, "The ter-rain is much, much worse than they expected. There are lots of small lakes and. rivers that are forming all over the sum-mer melt." Erickson also reported that their supply sleds were break-ing up from the constant stress and strain on the fiberglass from the ice. The icspie PHOTOGRnPHV portraiture ^233-6197 921 Center Ave. Mhd. snow was so poor that the skiers were walking after at-taching their skis to the sled bottoms to keep them from falling apart. As the travelers neared their final destination their progress was further impeded. Marilyn Erickson, after flying over the group on July 20, said, "From the air it looks really hard. The last five miles are going to be terribly hard." "They can't use the sails (on supply sleds) anymore because as they get closer to the coast, the icecap is broken up by fissures and crevasses and the ice itself is sort of pushed up, making little snowbanks all over, but they're very hard. They have to go up and down over those, plus the streams that are formed." Then, on July 25, the historic journey ended as Paul Erickson and base camp member Rick Olsen walked into Sondre Stromf-jord, a town on Greenland's west coast. Erickson relayed to Concordia how the extensive journey came to a record-breaking climax. "We got off the ice at about 9:30 last night (Greenland time,' July 24). We had done about seven miles yesterday. We walked two miles from the edge of the ice to base camp. 1 spent three hours there and ate supper. Then Rick and I walked 24 miles through the night. We left at about midnight, and went down to the ocean, where Marilyn is. Because all I thought about for 35 days was when I could see Marilyn and Erik again, I didn't want to sleep. Con-sequently I've discovered, because I did that, I think we set the world record by a day." There is some confusion, however, over whether all days or just the days the group spent on the icecap are counted, but either way, the Minnesotans have set a record, completing the journey in 36 or 38 days. The moment that the skiers and base people saw each other through binoculars is vivid in Erickson's memory. "On the last evening, we were a little north of a kind of peninsula into the ice, but we couldn't see it because of the large hummocks (ice jams). We stopped for lunch. Then we went up (onto a hum- Put Some Sunshine in Someone's Life. Volunteer Services Office upstairs above R 0, boxes Phone 299-4167 mock) and scouted. We looked to our left and were just shocked that the land was so close! We had the base camp watching for us with binoculars. We gave them a radio check and told them that we were really close to land and that we were going to stand up on a hill. They saw us in the binoculars so they fired three shots with a rifle. The whole group just cheered because we knew then we were there. From there we took about four hours to get in." The reunion of the group of skiiers and base camp members was equally memorable. "One of the first things we did was had a kind of group hug," Erickson said. "We had a group prayer then, thanking God that we had a safe and successful journey. And you know it was just the highpoint of the whole trip to have come together like that." > LOST OUR LEASE Co-op Ed D is moving * to Academy 120 (Just down the hall from the old s location) There's Never Been a Restaurant Like It! Mexican Good Food; Good Spirits and Good Times are Waiting For You! IN FARGO Enjoy the Famous Chi-Chi's Chimichangas & Frosty Margaritas Seating for 400 Happy People Hours Mon-Tlmrs ll.im-llpni . Fii-Sal Ikini-Midnijjln Sundays llnni-9pm Adjacent To' West Acres Shopping Cnlr. 12nd Street And 15th Avc. Major Cred11 Cnicls Honored
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