Basingstoke ObserverBASINGSTOKE adventurer James Ketchell has completed his crossing of the Greenland icecap, walking unaided for a total of 400 miles.
James and his fellow explorers made it to the helicopter extraction point on the East coast of the Greenland icecap called The Grill Hut on Thursday 1June after a mammoth 21 hour final push of skiing. Then, because of bad weather, they had to wait nearly 48 hours for a helicopter to pick them up and airlift them to Iceland. They had run out of food too by this point.
James is now back in Basingstoke and has frostbite on one hand; on three fingers. James regularly had to dig out of his tent at 4am when he awoke to in excess of a metre of snowfall before they could even get going.
Speaking after his latest adventure, James shared: “I am home after an incredible 30 days skiing across Greenland, it was a tough trip for many reasons, but it was also very rewarding to complete. I was fortunate to have a wonderful team of people to share the experience with which certainly made the trip for me. It was however incredibly unfortunate to lose our main man, Mikeal Stranberg on the first day due to a fall on ice and subsequently suffering with concussion, but the main thing is he is now fine and Greenland is not going anywhere. Mikael Matterson took over as our number one man, leading from the front and did an incredible job, I was also undertaking the trip with my friend Peter Wilson and I couldn’t have asked for a better tent buddy!”
Always keen to motivate others and encourage children to be anything they want to be, James made phone calls to schools in Basingstoke and across the UK during his 30 day challenge and spoke to over 6000 children. School pupils all round the world including those in lockdown in Shanghai were also tracking his progress and listening to his updates every day. Students in Wellington College, China said: “We have followed him avidly and it has made a massive difference to us and good to have something to distract us from the lockdown.”
James has raised nearly £8000 for his chosen charity Kindled Spirit.
