Upernivik Island, West Greenland. Eight members of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, spent seven and a half weeks on the compact mountainous island of Upernivik at 71 °N in the Umanak region of west Greenland. The island had been visited previously but briefly by mountaineering parties: Scottish climbers associated with scientific expeditions to the neighbouring Ubekendt island had climbed the two highest peaks, Palup qâqá, 6893 feet, in 1939, and the White Tower, 6910 feet in 1950; in 1961 Tilman visited the island (A.A.J., 1962, 13:1, p. 36), and in 1965 a major Italian expedition, under Guido della. Torre, climbed 15 peaks (A.A.J., 1966, 15:1 p. 40.) The St. Andrews party was Dr. Phil Gribbon, leader, Alan North, Roger Nisbet, Alan Robertson, John Hall, Bill Band, David Meldrum and Wulf Tauber. We were based on a camp of much beauty at the mouth of a rushing river draining into Inukavsait inlet opposite to the pinnacled-gneiss ridges of Oîoqe peninsula. Supplies were carried inland to a long placid lake, then up moraines and steep snow to a col at 4900 feet, and finally across the high snowfields to a camp in the centre of the island. During the only spell of excellent weather 10 peaks were climbed in 10 days. In all 19 mountains were climbed, mainly on the narrow mountain chain above the lake and on the ridges running west from this chain, and they involved 1250-2500 feet of climbing above the snowfields. The quality of most of the gneiss rock ridges was very good, while the snow conditions varied but improved as the short season progressed. Some of the smaller peaks were of distinctive character, while the higher peaks were often high points on the long ridges of the island. The standard of the routes varied from Grade II-V, and the time taken varied from the half-hour race from snowfield to summit ridge on Excelsior, 6330 feet, by the fittest member of the party, to 27 hours for the continuous and sustained ascent and descent of the northeast ridge of the western tower of the Horns of Upernivik, c. 6700 feet, Grade IV-V. Two of the main peaks illustrate the conditions encountered—Stentor, 5690 feet, Grade III, a massive mountain overlooking the fjord, climbed in 19 hours by Nisbet, Band, Meldrum and me; its north ridge, reached by canoes, was followed until midnight when the party was forced into a long snow slope ending in steep ice under the main ridge: this ridge, with several unstable pinnacles led to the summit: the return was made down to a bivouac site in the heat of the day, and finally to Base Camp under a thin mist cover over the icy sea after a 40-hour trip. Excalibur, 5650 feet, Grade III-IV, the most prominent and shapely of all the rocky towers in the region, and clearly visible from Umanak settlement 45 miles away, was climbed in 12 hours by Tauber, North, Hall and Robertson by the 1650-foot fine quality rock of the northwest ridge, the easiest route on the peak. Expedition members also carried out scientific work on the electrical properties of snow and ice, on glacial recession, and on the altitudinal variations in the flora. Two canoes were used for sea voyages around Upernivik island and to Ubekendt island. The expedition travelled on June 24 to Denmark and then, after flying by jet from Copenhagen to Sondre Stromfjord, sailed to Umanak, where a charter boat transferred them to Base Camp: the return, made well after the end of the climbing season, was on September 5th.

Philip W. F. Gribbon, Irish Mountaineering Club