Expedition Expedition | People | More Pictures | Maps April 13, 2005 by Andreas Muenchow Previous | Next Still Here When asked about the dangers of this expedition last week, I answered that "...The two most dangerous aspects will be the wind and the wind..." This proved very true today when four of our five tents were blown away in gale-force winds as they were being set up off Greenland. There is very little that seven people subject to 70+ knot winds (35 m/s) can do except to protect themselves from the elements. One tent is standing and that's where everyone out in the field camp will be tonight. The last Helen and I heard in a phone call about three hours ago was that everyone is safe and well and warm. Nevertheless, a Twin Otter is on stand-by to help should an emergency occur. A forecast for the area provided by Roger Samelson at Oregon State predicts that the winds are slowing down fast during the night. The picture below shows a section of the wind speed with height above the surface to 2 km (~6000 feet) and ~100 km (~60 miles) across from Ellesmere Island to Greenland. The contours are wind speed in m/s with a jet centered both near the Greenland coast (60 km) and over Greenland (90 km) about 400 m above sealevel. About 400 miles to the south in Resolute Bay, there was very little wind, sunny and pretty warm at about -10 F. Not knowing what was taking place off Greenland, Helen and I walked from the airport, near where we are staying, to the town of Resolute. It was a brisk 2 hour walk along the road, across tundrea, over an ice-covered bay, into town. It is almost impossible to notice the transition from snow-covered tundra to snow-covered sea ice were it not for tiny cracks in the ice. Small tidal currents and sea level oscillations cause these cracks, it's something I learnt only 2 days ago: Arriving in town, we found a sign post telling us direction and distances to locations such as the North Pole (1086 miles), and Frederiction in southern Canada (1300 miles):