KENT NEWS: A group of adventurers were waiting anxiously to hear when the Icelandic volcanic ash had cleared enough to allow them to fly out to the Arctic to study the impact of climate change.
Science leader Rosey Grant, 27, a PhD student from Hawkhurst, said they were due to leave last Saturday for the archipelago of Svalbard, but the trip had to be put on hold and by Monday they were considering other routes to their destination.
The expedition, which will see them brave plunging temperatures of -25˚C, has been organised by the British Schools Exploring Society. Miss Grant will be one of two leaders of the science element of the two-month adventure heading up a group of 18 to 23-year-old undergraduate students.
"We will spend one month doing mountaineering and exploration work and the second doing a couple of science projects looking at geology and ornithology," she said.
"Climate change is the main motivation for the work, particularly this season it has been a really warm winter so it will be particularly interesting to see how that has had an effect on the island as a whole and the changes it’s made."
Miss Grant, who is soon to complete her PhD in atmospheric physics looking at the air flows of mountainous areas at Leeds University, faces a challenging two months of camping.
When the team arrives in Longyearbyen, which is the administrative centre of Svalbard and on the western coast of the largest island, Spitsbergen, they will be trained in polar bear defence, arctic living and safe travel while staying in the comfort of a guesthouse.
They will then travel to the first expedition base camp using ‘pulks’ (sledges) and skis. As the Arctic spring turns to summer they will experience 24 hours of daylight when temperatures will rise to 0˚C when the winter snow and ice will melt to reveal the tundra beneath.
"I’m really excited, but nervous as well; just pre-trip jitters," Miss Grant, who has been training for the trip by dragging a loaded sledge through Bedgebury Pinetum, said.
"It is the first time I’m doing something in the capacity of being responsible for other people. When I’ve been away before I’ve been away with my mates when you are responsible for each other or under the leadership of someone else."
As part of her training, Miss Grant has also been doing a lot of running and walking with backpacks to get her ready for the challenge.
She will be following in the footsteps of her father, who travelled to Norway with the same organisation in 1965.
"I’m coming to the end of my PhD and I wanted to do something a bit unusual," she added. "My father had a good time.
"He got sent an old VHS of it by a filmmaker he was travelling with, so he has a black and white tape of it.
"I wanted to do something a bit different and this was the perfect opportunity."
POSTED: 24/04/2010 13:00:00
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