This is a page about a Trek Mountains expedition that is to come. The idea was born in April 2002, so we are merely in the early planning phase. The information you are about to read is the same information that we recently send out to the possible team members.

Why Jan Mayen? Lars and Malin both felt a bit bummed out about not going to Mombasa to the fall. We have talked a lot about other dreams and trips that we always have wanted to do. On the list are among others Denali, Mt Elbrus and probably yet another South America trip in December this year. The other day Lars suddenly told Malin about a dream of his to climb Beerenberg at Jan Mayen. We started to talk about this volcano because the Swedish Magazine “Ute Magasinet” recently had an article about a winter trip there.

Lars has always wanted to go to Jan Mayen and an hour after he told Malin about it she had a “trip plan” in her head. We thought it would be fun to try to do something in a group, an international group with both sailing and mountaineering people, both men and women.

Beerenberg is a beautiful volcano and it forms Nord-Jan, the north-end of Jan Mayen. Beerenberg is the main eye catcher of Jan Mayen and at first glance it seems to be quite easy to get to the top of the volcano. There is no technical climbing, it is only a trekking mountain. What make it hard is the very unpredictable weather and the mountain being hard to reach lying isolated out in North Sea.

Beerenberg is a stratovolcano and it is in fact the northern-most active volcano on Earth. The volcano is mostly covered by glaciers and it forms the north-end of Jan Mayen Island. The island is less than 700,000 years old. The southern part of the island is a mountainous ridge made of scoria craters, scoria mounds, and trachytic domes.

Beerenberg lies in a fairly unusual setting near the intersection of a transform fault and the Mohns mid-ocean ridge (the so called Jan Mayen Fracture Zone).

Beerenberg has erupted six times between 1732 and 1985. All of these eruptions were on flank vents and produced lava flows. The most recent eruptions were in 1970, 1973, and 1985.

The 1970 eruption began on September 18 and continued to January, 1971. Intense storms hid the onset of the eruption. A commercial pilot spotted the eruption cloud on September 20. The island was evacuated immediately, but having decided that the situation was not as dramatic as feared, key personnel and geologists were transported to the island later the same day. The rest of the personnel returned within short time. This was the only historic eruption witnessed in modern times at the area

The 1985 eruption began on January 6, 1985 and lasted only 35-40 hours. In that brief time about 7 million cubic meters of lava was erupted. Earthquakes, with magnitudes up to 5, occurred during the eruption.

These days the only activity is small earthquakes and steam, mostly on the northern side of Beerenberg. In the central crater there is vapor now and then.

The nature of Jan Mayen is very vulnerable. We have no intention to disturb the peace and beauty of the island. We are all nature lovers and we are not only interested to climb the volcano, but also through photography to capture the rare the fauna and flora at Jan Mayen. There is also a great interest in metrology and we are hoping to get permission to visit the metrology station and see the work they are doing.

Why we choose to go in summer time is mainly that the weather is very harsh in wintertime. It is cold as it is out there in summer time. Doing it during winter involves skiing, while summer it is mainly trekking. From May to July the snow is melting, so it makes it hard to hike at the lower altitudes. To go in late August seem as a better time.

After some days out sailing we will meet the hardest task; finding a good weather day to ascend the volcano. We will ascend and descend in one day. It’s about a 10 hour climb, up and down.

As we said it only involves trekking, though we are hiking on a glacier. The last part is rather steep and as any glacier there are possibilities to fall through. But we don’t need any hard core gear; ice axe, secure ropes and crampons. In the summertime the snow should be good walking on, if it is around the sub-zero temperature.

If the weather allows it we can get a gorgeous view from the peak. Some say that in really clear weather you can see Greenland. Well hopefully we will get a good look at the crater were smoke and steam raise, depending on if the volcano is sleeping heavily or it is merely slumbering. Anyhow, hopefully not totally awake….

There are not many expeditions that get permission to come here. One reason is that it is a military area, another is the vulnerable and the third is that in an emergency the only rescue you can count on is 600 KM away and they can only come if the weather allows it. Expeditions can not in any way rely on or disturb the Norwegian metrology personal at Jan Mayen.

To go to Jan Mayer you need a permit from the Norwegian military since Jan Mayen lies in a strategic area for military activity. We are hoping that this shouldn’t be a problem and hopefully it will help that Lars is an officer and have worked in the military for four years.

There is no easy way to go to Jan Mayen. There is a military plan that, if the weather allows it, flies out every other month. The best way is to go by boat from either Iceland or Norway, Iceland is closer, but going from Norway is closer for us to start from. There is no place on the island to dock the boat, but you can reach the shore in a raft. From Iceland we have heard it should take about 60 hours in a fishing boat!

Our plan is to sail there, if it is possible. So we need a boat and a small raft. To our knowledge there is one guiding company, “Thule Expeditions” that can take you there. Then they charter a boat for you from Iceland and there are guides and everything included. We think it is a greater challenge to do this on our own. Among the possible team members we are 3 person that have great experience from sailing; Peter, Anders and Buda.

As we said before, we want the group to be international and to include both sailing and mountaineering people. We also think it is so fun if we could be a mix of both guys and girls. We have asked people in both Canada, US, Sweden, Germany and Norway. How large the team finally can be/or will be, time will have to show.

So far these people, whom we have asked, have shown an interest in the expedition and are possible team members:

The budget is of course hard to calculate at this point. So we won’t get deep into this here. Hopefully we will be able to find some sponsors and we know that at least the mountaineer people have the gear that they will need. Transportation is the greatest cost for all of us.

This is a very special expedition due to its international character, but also since the team involves both men and women. Usually you only hear about either women expeditions or those only involving men.

We also think its fun to combine both the sailing and the climbing and exploring of Jan Mayen as two major parts of the adventure. Its two challenges in one journey. Challenges we have to cope with together as team, above nationalities, man or women.

To do an expedition like this, you always have one thing holding you back; money. Because it is unfortunately very expensive to do this sort of adventures.

When you are in an extreme climate you have to be able to rely on your gear and clothes. If something breaks or lacks the ability to keep you warm enough, the consequence could become fatal. To buy new gear and clothes, that can take extreme situations, is very expensive.

Since this expedition involves both sailing and mountaineering, it will require wide spectra of gear, for the team members. We are looking for sponsors to gear, clothes, photography material, trekking food and costs connected to the sailing.

Maybe you have a business that would like to be connected as a travel, sport or adventure company. Maybe you have some gear, clothes or food that you want to promote through us. Or perhaps you want us to test your product and afterwards present a review and possible suggestions to improvements. Either way don’t hesitate to contact Lars and Malin at Trek Mountains.

To know more about sponsorship, you can also visit Trek Mountains sponsor site.