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At last!!!! The helicopter set off from Constable Point this morning at 0900 as planned. It stopped at Mestersvig to drop off both Ben and the provisions before flying straight up to Kap Stosch to pick up the project.

Took off this morning at 0900 for Mestersvig. Wind has dropped completely but we now have fog settling in.

An ice shelf is a floating glacier. Most ice shelves are formed as extensions of one or several ice streams that drain glaciers and large ice sheets by transporting ice to the ocean.

Another fine morning in our Arctic paradise… High winds, more rain and low clouds – we were ready to go but increasingly poor weather has kept us grounded.

Wind at 35 knots and reasonable visibility at Constable Point this morning so we took off in the helicopter at 0900.

Most of the measurements done during the Petermann expedition on Oden give scientists either a pictures of the current situation or they enable them to look back into the past, often for several thousand years. But what about future developments, what is happening here when we are leaving?

The weather is against us. I am back at the “Hilton” in Constable Point with a few other scientists, who are likewise stuck because of the storm. Apparently there is a big low-pressure centre hovering over Iceland that is hitting the East Greenland coast with 60+ knot winds and heavy rain.

One of the few things that are usually true about a research plan is that it doesn’t work as expected, and if you're lucky it will lead into something completely different but equally (or even more) exciting.

I arbetsuppgifterna för de operativa meteorologerna/flygledarna ingår normalt inte att vara ”lastemann” för de helikoptertransporter som utförs till och från forskningsteamen som är på land. Men i måndags fick jag en möjlighet att åka med en av de helikoptrar som man annars ger prognoser till och har flygledning för på Oden, SE-JFK.

It has rained constantly for three days. We sat in camp and sorted through our fossils for shipping. Grzegorz ventured out in the rain to take some samples for laboratory analysis.

Efter en dryg vecka ombord börjar jag landa. De flesta ombord har gjort expeditioner förr, men för en skolfröken från Gimo är resan en omvälvande upplevelse som tar tid att smälta.

Nu har vi arbetat en vecka i fält på den halvö som kallas Hall Land. Våra första tvivel om lämpligheten med att forska på biologi i ett så här tillsynes sterilt landskap har bytts ut i förundran över hur många varelser som trots allt verkar klara av att leva i en så här tuff miljö.

Som vi skrivit om i flera bloggposter tidigare så befinner vi oss i en mycket karg och ödslig miljö norr om 81:a breddgraden på nordvästra Grönland. Vi tillbringar dagarna till fots och efter att ha vandrat till alla olika punkter som vi ska kartlägga och inventera, börjar det nu efter en veckas tid vara åtskilliga mil som vi har bakom oss.

After passing the sea ice clogged passage at the southern end of Nares Strait, the transit to Petermann Fjord went quite fast.

I dag är det söndag och även om varje dag är den samma på så vis att vi arbetar varje dag (och natt) så är ändå varje dag sin egen. Isen, bergen, molnen och ljuset. Allt förändras. På söndagar får vi dessutom efterrätt till middag vilket gör det hela lite extra bra.

Field work is primarily about research and our effort is to collect as much data as possible but we still need to spend time with everyday duties like cooking and doing the dishes. A special task that is associated with field work in the Arctic is polar bear safety.

After a two-hour flight along the coast through a rainstorm I touched down in the town of Scoresbysund at 01.00 in the morning. I did not know what would happen but I was met by a nurse in a two-seater quad bike and driven straight to the small hospital.

Dagarna går fort i fält. Det tar tid att fixa frukost, gå ner till älven för att diska, packa dagspackningen och ge sig av för att kartlägga ekosystemet som omger oss.

Today started well with a plan to head downstream along the Blue River to sample the Permian strata on the coast. We also wanted to see if we could access a large valley called Otocerasdal, which was our last target for the fossiliferous concretion-rich layers.

We left Thule Air Base about a week ago and after a lot of ice, fantastic views, company from a polar bear and around 40 seals, we finally reached the Petermann Glacier in the northwest of Greenland.