In July and August 2003, 5 British women headed to East Greenland with a mission to ski into the Schweizerland mountains and look for new routes to climb. Rosie Goolden and Di Gilbert from Scotland joined Sue Savege, Catrin Thomas and Justine Curgenven from North Wales. The challenges started at Kulusuk airport when half our freight didn’t turn up, and continued on the approach when the weather was too warm. We decided not to risk skiing over hidden snow bridges pulling heavy sledges and we were tent bound for 3 days. When we finally arrived at base camp and calculated how long we’d need to ski out we realized we’d only have a week to climb. Despite this we managed to climb 7 new routes, including three 900metre ascents of a mountain opposite base camp which we called ‘the Coven’. We completed the ski out in record time with two 11 hour days pulling sledges over passes. There were a few scary moments as Catrin and Di forged the way down steep glaciers without being able to see where all the crevasses were. Before returning to civilization we enjoyed 2 days of comfort in the Tasilaq mountain hut, and helped to rescue a girl who had fallen down a steep snow gully.

Justine made a film of the expedition called ‘Climbing Greenland’ for the series ‘Total Adventure’. This was first shown on the National Geographic Channel around the world, and is still shown on various satellite channels at times.

Amongst other things, Rosie Goolden now runs climbing and mountaineering courses for women’. For more visit Chicks Unleashed.