INTERVIEW – To moove from one camp to another, the team experience the pleasant concept of portage. Imagine : going through dozen of kilometer of icy ground, moraines full of collapsing rocks, and jumping over bottomless cracks ... Hours of walking in the cold, and despite the hunger that makes every step more difficult. With, on the back, a bag of twenty kilos for the most frail, up more than forty of the strongest shoulders.
Since we arrived in the fjord Skillebugt we installed four camps, from sea level to the diffluence of Edward Bailey glacier. Between each camp, several return were required to carry scientific equipment and food. The longest portage led us to the diffluence Edward Bailey. Two issues: the camps 2 and 3, nine hours of walking and a whole philosophy.

Evrard Wendenbaum nous raconte :

Vous venez de traverser une des branches du glacier pendant de longues heures. Quel est l’état d’esprit de l’équipe ?
Evrard Wendenbaum. « Nous sommes arrivés sur la diffluence. C’était très beau, assez facile malgré les deux moraines à traverser et les trous d’eau qui parsèment le glacier; il faut rester attentif. Mais nos corps sont voûtés. C’est visiblement le portage final, le dernier qui a encore été accepté par l’équipe. Même s’il y aura des camps pour rentrer. Si j’avais demandé un portage plus en amont, c’aurait commencé à peser sur l’état d’esprit général. Ça s’est déjà ressenti, il y a eu quelques commentaires des uns et des autres, pour certains c’était même le portage de trop. »

Delicate passages make this even more difficult crossing ...
E.W. "Once we have a big bag, walking becomes really dangerous. It may skid, dropping a block of stone, dropping on someone else getting hurt. The moraines are unstable, so you have to try to move forward slowly. Some are comfortable, others less: these small passages that are ridiculous distances then take considerable time. "

A waste of time for shipping?
E.W. "These days transfers take time, for sure. Especially since they require rest behind. And it comes at the expense of science, images ... But basically, I do not consider porting as a waste of time because it is a shipping philosophy. At one point, we decided to put some ethics. We are an environmental organization and we have not come with our clogs: we do as we can to be in harmony with the environment. "

It is a difficult choice for shipping?
E.W. "It is not pleasant. I know it does pleasure to anyone, some will not be happy, they will wear for others and others less. But I think it's a great school is a time when we measure the generosity of someone, we give physical form and energy to another. "

And when you reach the end?
E.W. « On mesure la difficulté d’arriver sur les lieux : la perception est différente, décuplée. En douze jours, on a appris à s’intégrer dans ce paysage, à le comprendre, à l’apprécier. On a vu tous les angles, le moindre pic, la moindre montagne. On ressent cette expédition chacun à sa manière mais ensemble et tout le temps. On le savoure d’autant plus quand on arrive au bout. «