The British Arctic Air Route Expedition (BAARE) was a privately-funded expedition to the east coast and interior of the island of Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. The expedition, led by Gino Watkins

Gino Watkins

Henry George "Gino" Watkins FRGS was a British Arctic explorer.Born in London, he was educated at Lancing College and acquired a love of mountaineering and the outdoors from his father through holidays in the Alps, the Tyrol and the English Lake District...

, aimed to draw improved maps and charts of poorly-understood sections of Greenland's coastline, and to gather climate data from the coast and interior icecap

Icecap

Icecap my refer to* Ice cap, a geographical feature* Icecap , a blog skeptical of global warming* Raleigh IceCaps, a defunct ECHL Hockey Team...

 during the north polar winter

Winter

Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...

. The expedition served in Greenland in 1930-1931.

Base hut

The expedition travelled to Greenland aboard the Quest

Quest (ship)

The Quest, a low-powered, schooner-rigged steamship that sailed from 1917 until sinking in 1962, is best known as the polar exploration vessel of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition of 1921-1922. It was aboard this vessel that Sir Ernest Shackleton died on 5 January 1922 while the vessel was in...

, a historic sealing vessel previously used by Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...

 in 1921-1922. Upon their arrival in Greenland, the expedition set up their land-based headquarters: the base hut, a winter camp located on a fjord coastline 30 miles (48.3 km) west of Tasiilaq

Tasiilaq

Tasiilaq is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,930 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Greenland...

, then known as Angmagssalik. Here most of the members of the expedition's shore party overwintered, made contact with local Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

, and sent out light expeditions to chart and survey adjoining areas of coastline.

Icecap Station

Meteorological

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

 data was gathered at both the base camp and a satellite base, Icecap Station, a purpose-built post atop the Greenland ice cap, 8600 feet (2,621.3 m) above sea level and 112 miles (180.2 km) west of the expedition's base camp. An expedition member, Augustine Courtauld

Augustine Courtauld

Augustine Courtauld , often called August Courtauld, was a yachtsman and British Arctic explorer, best known for serving as the solo meteorologist of a winter observation post, Icecap Station, located in the interior of Greenland in 1930-1931...

, volunteered to serve as a solo observer for a five-month tour of duty here during the height of the 1930-1931 winter. Watkins and other expedition members relieved him on May 5, 1931, just as Courtauld's food and fuel were running out. Courtauld's observations included some of the first extended data sets ever gathered from the Greenland icecap interior during a polar winter.

Expedition conclusion and honors

The members of the expedition, including Watkins and Courtauld, returned to Denmark and then to England, receiving significant acclaim in both nations. Key members of the expedition were awarded the Polar Medal

Polar Medal

The Polar Medal is a medal awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It was instituted in 1857 as the Arctic Medal and renamed the Polar Medal in 1904.-History:...

 by King George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

, the first given for Arctic service in 60 years.