Today I am turning 40. Now when I got this out of the way, update:

The first day of the crossing began at Point 660, stepping onto the ice in crampons and moving north toward the lower icefall. From there, we started the ascent through the frozen terrain before turning east, deeper into the Greenland ice sheet.

The day was all about route finding: weaving between glacial structures, looking for the easiest and least technical line, and avoiding seracs and crevasses as much as possible. It was slow, careful work, but the scenery was absolutely breathtaking – blue ice, snow bridges, frozen waves, and the last dark line of land still visible behind us.

It was also a good opportunity to test the systems for real. A few crampon issues, some pulk setup tweaks, and small adjustments along the way – exactly what the first day is for. After working through those, I feel good and ready for the long haul.

CRAIG research is running smoothly!

We made about double the progress we expected, which is a great start. For now, we are waiting in our tents for the weather to improve before continuing.

To the west, we can still see a faint green horizon. As we move farther in, that will slowly disappear – and soon we will be surrounded only by white.