Sunday 30. July: They needed good weather today to negotiate the descent from Austfonna (the East Dome) and was rewarded. In a satellite message that broke up they told they turned and aimed for a moraine called Grotplogen. It turned out to be a good choice. They had to rope up but the crevasse field was pretty easy. Further down they encountered several melt streams and had to get their feet wet, but was after that it was just following the snow line next to the moraine all the way down. They camped on meadow land and are now down on Helvedesflya that they have to cross to reach the Vestfonne Icecap (West Dome) on the Gustav V Land.

Saturday 28. July: Again they started out in white-out, but as the sun gained height the horizon emerged and later the sun came out and revealed a plane and beautiful glacier. A bit like a mini Greenland according to Børge.
They did 23km and camped at 770m and are now at the highest point on Nordaustlandet. They a closing in on the edge of the Austfonna and will look for a possible way down tomorrow. Today they also crossed the tracks of a polar bear that that hurried north over the glacier some days ago (probably) in search of ice and seals on the other side.

Friday 27. July: This was ‘Cottonfield Part 2’… Again total whiteout and a steady drizzle. Still they continued climbing and by the end of the day the invisible terrain flattened out. They believe they have reached the top of the North Dome and they continue to be happy with conditions. Very stable ice with no crevasses make progress good as the snow continues to be wet but not too soft, the sink in only some 5cm.
The days result ended at 23km as they kept climbing.

Thursday 26. July: They continued up the ice in wet and foggy conditions. The snow was not bad and they climbed to 600 metres and camped at nice even ice having done some 21km on 9 hours.
It was good to get into the tent as it had been raining solidly the whole day and without seeing anything. But progress was good and the spirit up.

Børge is on his way over the ‘Nordaustalandet’. He left for Longyearbyen and Svalbard the 2oth July and after a hectic night boarded the ship Ulla Rinman. The ship belongs to Geir Åsebøstøl, and it is a big thanks to him they got underway so fast. On the ship they planned to use, there was a huge mess just before departure, but thanks to Geir it all worked out. He was going up in that direction anyway and was most helpful.
Joining Børge on this trip is Vincent Colliard who is French and was on-board when he circumnavigated the Polar Ocean and Anne Holmgren, who is a doctor.
On the trip up they sailed vest and east of Nordaustlandet and Børge was stunned to experience absolutely no ice whatsoever. It was not the calmest of trips, but they got the last bits and pieces organised. They arrived late on and landed in pretty good conditions. On shore they found bones and skeletons from whales and polar bears, so it was an exciting start.
The next morning (Wednesday) the walk started. It looked like a good place to start as they only had to carry their stuff about 1km before stepping onto the ice. There they had some melting and streams lower down they had to rope up for, but soon got onto good solid terrain with no or hardly any crevasses. They skied 13km and camped right west of Kapp Laura where they landed.