The leader of the expedition, Phil Gribbon, wrote an evocative account of the summer of 1975 which while not covering all aspects of the expedition (because the members operated in groups at different locations) perhaps best captures the mood and spirit of that summer. He describes travel there, camp life, climbing and canoeing. Anyone who wants to pick up an insight into the experiences of a Greenland Expedition might well benefit from reading Dr Gribbon's account.

For the benefit of clarity, I have divided this quite lengthy account into 8 sections, as follows:

1. Arrival - We play monopoly in Iceland, share a plane with an Irish party who are travelling to the same mountains as us, travel to Stordalens, persuade our Irish friends to climb elsewhere, and catch up with news from our advance party.

2. The Advance Camp at Sallies Kitchen - Early reconnaissance climbs, then backpacking up the Big Valley to establish an advance camp at Sallie's Kitchen, in a first attempt to access the Land of the Towers.

3. Lost Loch Camp: climbs from a high corrie - While one party heads for Hellhole Hollow, Phil leads a group north to Lost Loch Camp, from where Spirifer, The Anvil, Matterhorn C, and Ra Wallies are all climbed.

4. Lost Loch Camp: the ascent of Bolder - A 4 a.m. rise and we set off for a second ascent of Bolder, climbed 3 weeks earlier from the other side. It turns out to be a memorable 20 hour climb...

5. Regrouping - The groups regather at Basecamp to find our tent has been rammied, then we plan the final phase: a push to climb Agdlerussakasit from the south, a canoe and climbing party to the islands, and a search for viking ruins.

6. Pamiagdluk - Our little party paddles eastwards toward the islands. The flies become pestilential, we escape a collapsing ice floe, but the canoe trip is idyllic and we climb Frenchbird and the Twin Pillars of Pamiagdluk.

7. Tornarssuk, Christian IV's Island, Angnikitsoq - We get marooned on Tornarssuk by the ice, then get trapped among the ice floes, before returning to Stordalens to learn that Agdlerussakasit has been climbed.

8. Departure - The parties all return. The Ogre is magnificent, but the Tower of Pain lives up to its name. The viking explorers meet the Queen. We dance round a bonfire, lose gallantly at football against Greenland, fly home in an empty plane.

Click on any of these sections and let Phil's words carry you off to ground-level and mountain-top life in Greenland. A snapshot of the reality of expedition life in a Greenland summer!