Arctic Club Dinner 2016
The Annual Dinner for 2016 was held in Queens' College Cambridge on Saturday 10th December 2016 with Matthew Tinsley as President.
It was a most splendid occasion with 74 members and guests enjoying an excellent dinner and company with exciting presentations beforehand, followed by more splendid talks in the Scott Polar Research Institute on Sunday morning. Many thanks indeed to all the speakers, and to the staff at Queens' College and SPRI, especially from our Honorary Secretary, Penny Goodman.
The Programme of talks was:
James Lam, Jamie Gardiner, and William Hartz, 2016 Arctic Club Award winners, gave an exciting illustrated presentation on Spitsbergen Retraced - closely following the route of a 1923 Oxford University expedition. They repeated all the original mountain ascents and made their own first ascent. They discovered the remains of the 1923 ‘Carpet Camp’ near the Bear Bay Glacier and a cached hand-written note. It was fascinating to see 'now and then' landscape photographs. See some of their photographs and watch the Video.
David Hempleman-Adams (now Sir David) descibed his epic Polar Ocean Challenge, sailing both the North-East and North-West passages in a single summer. Many of you will have been following this historic voyage through both the NE and NW passages in one season, to highlight climate change in the Arctic region.
Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen described his passionate involvement with North-East Greenland, starting in the legendary Sirius Patrol. He founded NANOK to conserve the old Hunters' Huts in NE Greenland using volunteers on annual expeditions (two in 2016, now planning for 2017). Watch his slides: Hunters' huts in North-East Greenland. Read his book: North-East Greenland 1908-60 The Trapper Era.
Peter Wadhams described the dramatic and serious effects of Climate Change in the Arctic Regions, based on his extensive research. Watch the video: Peter Wadhams on A Farewell to Ice. Read his new book: A Farewell to Ice.
Rebecca Burley, Hannah Davies and Kirstie Murphy, students at Newcastle University, described their recent expedition to study Climate Change in Svalbard Glaciers. Data was collected on three land-terminating glaciers, Longyearbreen, Platabreen and Larsbreen, to observe the response of melt rates to air temperature, surface debris cover and wind. The calving front of the marine-terminating glacier Tunabreen was observed using time-lapse photography, in order to collect data on iceberg calving. Air and ocean temperaures were measured, to determine their relationship to calving events. Read their Report.
Watch their slide show: Newcastle Team Svalbard 2016.
John Thorogood described his Reconnaissance flight to Scoresby Sund to find a an ice-free lake for the Worksop College East Greenland Catalina Expedition in 2015. Watch the video: Greenland Catalina Recce of John's spectacular flight from Scotland, via Iceland, to NEGreenland. The first lake he checked was still frozen, but he located an ice-free lake for them to land on. They had a very successful expedition.
If you would like to attend future Dinners and have a significant interest and involvement in the Arctic, please email the Secretary: honsec@arcticclub.org.uk. You are also encouraged to apply for Membership of the Arctic Club.
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The 2015 Arctic Club Dinner was held at The Royal Scots Club, Abercromby Place, Edinburgh with Kathleen Cartwright as President.