Oxford West Greenland

Although neither had any previous sailing experience, Codrington & Hill planned to emulate Bill Tilman and commence their expedition by sailing to Greenland. They therefore arranged to meet the owners of the 11.5 metre fibreglass ‘Cosmic Dancer V’ in Canada. After a brief introduction to the basics of off-shore sailing, they embarked on a hectic 4-week passage across a gale ridden Labrador Sea en route for Greenland. The less said about that the better, but eventually they met up with the rest of the team in Aasiaat. The object of the expedition was to explore the potential for new routes and first ascents of big walls around Ummannaq Fjord. In this they were successful, achieving five major big wall routes, including two on the huge Horn of Upernivik and three on previously unknown cliffs rising more than 800m out of the sea.