STEFAN GLOWACZ

100 days of pure adventure
Stefan Glowacz back from Greenland

On July 5, 2018, professional adventurer Stefan Glowacz (53) and his two teammates, photographer and Arctic expert Thomas Ulrich (51) from Interlaken and Stuttgart-based climber Philipp Hans (24), set off for Greenland. “Coast to Coast” is the title of the project, in which they attempted to combine various sporting disciplines (sailing, snowkiting, crossing the Greenland ice sheet and free climbing on a big wall) into an overall adventure.

Under the premise of leaving the smallest possible ecological footprint during the entire trip, the trio started at Lake Starnberg, the home of Stefan Glowacz. They headed to the west coast of Scotland in BMW i3 electric vehicles. After a three-day journey, the team met skipper Wolf Kloss (55), his 24-year-old son Dani Kloss and ship mechanic Jan Kiehne in the port of Mallaig before the complex adventure really got underway.

On the 14-metre steel yacht “Santa Maria”, which Wolf Kloss and Glowacz had already set off for Antarctica in 1999, they initially headed for the Westman Islands from 11 July 2018. After sometimes adverse weather and wind conditions, they finally reached the expedition’s second destination, Atta Sund on the west coast of Greenland, via Prinz Christian Sund after 27 days on board.

The 7-day portage of the 400-kilogram equipment onto the inland ice was exhausting before Glowacz, Ulrich and Hans set off on 13 August 2018 for the approximately 1,000-kilometre crossing of the ice sheet from west to east, while skipper Wolf Kloss set off on his “Santa Maria” to the east coast of Greenland, 1,200 nautical miles away. Ideally planned: The reunion of the two teams after around 35 days in Soresbysund. Although Glowacz and his colleagues had to contend with fierce storms and gruelling cold temperatures of up to minus 40 degrees, they were able to make good progress occasionally using snowkites in optimal conditions.
Meanwhile, not everything went smoothly on the “Santa Maria”. When Glowacz and his team finally reached Soresbysund at the beginning of September, skipper Wolf Kloss was still stuck in Tasiilaq, 700 nautical miles away, due to persistent autumn storms. In addition, crew member Jan Kiehnle had to seek medical treatment for an infection and finally had to disembark for good. When and whether skipper Kloss would even make it to Soresbysund was questionable. Waiting in the wilderness: due to the delay, Team Glowacz ran out of calculated food, which was already being strictly rationed.
Both teams finally met on September 17, safe and sound, but well behind schedule. The two-day attempt at the first ascent of a big wall had to be abandoned with a heavy heart due to persistent snowfall. Winter had long since arrived in East Greenland. On September 21, the “Santa Maria” therefore set off on the long overdue return journey via Iceland and the Faroe Islands back to Mallaig in Scotland, where the team arrived on October 6 and once again traveled towards Bavaria in the BMW i3.