Fastest horizontal coast-to-coast crossing of Greenland
- Who
- Andrew Gerber, George Wells, Patrick Woodhead, Tom Avery
- What
- 9,19,40 day(s):hour(s):minute(s)
- Where
- Greenland
- When
- 17 May 2015
The fastest horizontal coast-to-coast crossing of Greenland was the wind-assisted 67°N Greenland Challenge that lasted 9 days 19 hours 40 minutes by British polar explorers Tom Avery (team leader), Patrick Woodhead, George Wells and Andrew Gerber on 7–17 May 2015. The four-man team, named after the line of latitude of their route, covered the straight-line distance of 610 km (379 miles) from Greenland’s eastern coast off Isortoq to the western coast off Kangerlussuaq, leaving at 12:50 p.m. GMT on 7 May and arriving at their destination at 8:30 a.m. GMT on 17 May. The team pulled their own sledges and received no external aid or emergency assistance, manhauling when kiting was not possible.
The actual distance kited (as opposed to the 610 km straight-line route) was 681.2 km or 423.3 miles. Often described as “The Third Pole”, Greenland is the world’s largest island and became the birthplace of the Heroic Age of polar exploration when the legendary Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen made the first crossing of Greenland in 1888. The previous speed record of 17 days 21 hours 30 minutes was set in 2008 by Matt Spenceley (UK) and Patrick Peters (Luxembourg), also east to west, but from Nagtivit to Eqip Sermia, also using snow kites and skis.