From Meghan Kelly, our California Regional Coordinator & member of the Shifting Ice crew…
Shifting Ice and Changing Tides is a human and wind powered, female led, ski and sail expedition to the west coast of Greenland. The expedition will serve as a platform for raising awareness about climate change and environmental issues as well as for inspiring and promoting female participation in snow sport adventures. The Shifting Ice crew consists of Meghan Kelly, Natalie Segal, McKenna Peterson, and Pip and Martha Hunt. Meghan, Nat, McKenna and Pip have all been active in SheJumps for years. Meghan is a Pacific Coast Regional Coordinator. While Nat, McKenna, and Pip have led and helped with many SheJumps events.
This expedition came to fruition in 2013 after Nat, McKenna, and Meghan participated in the inaugural SheJumps’ Alpine Finishing School.
As a group, we not only wanted to test our new skills, but we wanted to do something that would inspire others, especially young females, to form a connection with the outdoors while igniting a passion for the environment. We set our sights on Iceland and Greenland and called up Pip to convince her and her mother to join!
The trip will be quite the adventure. We leave March 25th for Iceland and after sailing and skiing a few days there to make sure we’re a worthy crew, we’ll set off on a 4 day sail across the Denmark Strait and around the southern tip of Greenland. Sailing up the West Coast, we’ll look for ski descents pinpointed via maps and Google earth and sail as close as possible to scout the lines. Then we’ll depart the boat, hiking to the top to mountains and skiing first descents back down to the ocean.
The project is more than just sailing and skiing for all of us. We want to learn about the regions changing climate and melting ice sheet. We want to interact with locals and formulate our own story. We want to document these stories and share them with as many people as possible when we return. And finally, we’re not only collecting subjective data, we’re collecting real data for conservation studies in the area through our partnership with Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. But, you’ll have to visit our website to learn more about that!
Without SheJumps Alpine Finishing School and the constant reminder that achieving big dreams requires a jump or a leap of faith, this trip may not be happening! SheJumps will be posting updates about our trip along the way, including what went into planning the trip and how we obtained grants from the Climate Reality Project and Polartec. So if you have any specific questions, post them as comments or send me an email at meghan@shejumps.org. With less than a month and a half before departure, we still have some fundraising to do and so we are running an IndieGoGo campaign through March 10th. Contributions can be made there and will go a long way to fund this journey.
Thanks and we can’t wait to share the final story of Shifting Ice and Changing Tides!
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Meghan Kelly, Lake Tahoe, NV, Age 34 is a scientist, engineer, college instructor and big mountain telemark skier. Martha Hunt, Whitefish, MT, Age 51 is a ski guide and instructor, master yachtsman, and chef. Pip Hunt, Jackson, WY, Age 26 is Martha’s daughter, a big mountain skier, coach, and a freelance writer. McKenna Peterson, Salt Lake City, UT, Age 26 is a big mountain skier, professional fisherman, and student. Natalie Segal, Melbourne, Australia, Age 25 is a big mountain skier, coach, artist, and writer. Andy Bardon, Jackson, WY, Age 31 is a professional photographer who has covered assignments for National Geographic, Men’s Journal, and Outside Magazine, among others.