The first problem was getting onto the ice. From there, the team still had to drive three heavily loaded Toyota Hilux trucks more than 3,000 miles through whiteouts, crevasses, mechanical failures and temperatures that fell to 40 below.
That is what makes Expedition: Greenland different from the usual travel film. It does not begin with a road map, a chain of fuel stations or a rescue plan built around a nearby town. It begins with seven people, three Arctic Trucks-prepared pickups and an attempt to traverse the long axis of the Greenland Ice Sheet by vehicle for the first time.
The expedition happened in spring 2018. The finished 89-minute documentary, directed and written by XOVERLAND co-founder Clay Croft, finally reached theaters and digital platforms in 2025. The delay does not dull the story. If anything, the film feels like a record from a kind of overlanding most people will never experience: no established route, no ordinary support infrastructure and no margin for a weak team.
Seven people, seven jobs that mattered
The film works because the team is not presented as a collection of interchangeable adventurers.
- Greg Miller — expedition leader and the force behind Expeditions 7, the project that had already taken Land Cruisers across all seven continents.
- Scott Brady — lead driver, photographer and logistics specialist from Overland Journal and Expedition Portal.
- Emil Grímsson — Arctic Trucks co-founder and lead logistics driver, bringing decades of polar-vehicle experience.
- Torfi Birkir Jóhannsson — lead mechanic and driver, responsible for keeping heavily modified trucks alive where a routine breakdown could become a survival problem.
- Kurt Williams — driver and fuel-and-camp logistics lead from Cruiser Outfitters.
- Dr. Jon Solberg — emergency physician and driver, with wilderness and mountain-medicine experience that mattered around crevasses and remote recovery work.
- Clay Croft — driver and the expedition’s filmmaker. Croft shot the journey with one primary camera and a drone, then directed and wrote the documentary.
That division of responsibility is one of the film’s most useful lessons. Extreme travel does not reward seven versions of the same skill. It rewards a team that can navigate, repair, refuel, document, assess injuries and challenge a bad decision before it becomes worse.
The route: Isortoq to Wulff Land, then west to Kangerlussuaq
The convoy began near the Isortoq reindeer station on Greenland’s southeastern side. Before the long traverse could begin, the trucks had to find a safe way from sea ice onto the glacier and then climb onto the inland ice sheet.
From there, the plan depended on staged fuel drops along the eastern side of Greenland. The team drove north to Wulff Land, reaching the northern edge of the ice cap at roughly 81 degrees north. Then it turned south, retraced the route to the fuel caches, passed Summit Station, and exited the ice near Kangerlussuaq on the western side. The expedition continued along the Arctic Circle Trail toward the coastal town of Sisimiut.
Expeditions 7 records the full journey at 5,169 kilometers — about 3,212 miles — over 20 days. The documentary’s marketing uses the more conservative phrase “over 1,400 miles of frozen terrain,” which describes the core ice-sheet journey rather than every mile logged by the expedition. Either way, this was not a straight-line dash. The convoy had to go north, return to its staged fuel and then work west toward an exit.
Three Toyota Hilux trucks built for polar travel
The team used three Toyota Hilux pickups prepared by Arctic Trucks. Their oversized low-pressure tires were not there for appearance. Spreading the vehicle’s weight across a larger footprint helped the trucks move over snow that would stop a conventional 4×4.
The trucks also carried people, survival equipment and fuel while pulling fuel bladders on sleds. That load made range planning inseparable from route planning. Missing a cache was not the same as passing a closed gas station and trying the next exit.
The film is careful not to turn the trucks into invincible machines. Mechanical failures, a fire, damaged equipment and unstable ice repeatedly force the team to stop and rethink the plan. Specialized equipment expands what is possible; it does not remove risk.
The ice keeps changing the rules
The expedition’s published record describes conditions ranging from clear skies and 27-degree weather at sea level to whiteouts and minus-40 temperatures near Summit Station. Visibility could collapse. Crevasses could hide beneath snow. Even the transition from sea ice to the continental ice sheet demanded reconnaissance.
One vehicle broke through thin river ice early in the journey. Later, the team had to inspect and work around exposed crevasses, sometimes in crampons. Those scenes give the film its tension because the danger is not manufactured. A vehicle problem on a Texas trail may cost an afternoon. A vehicle problem on the Greenland Ice Sheet can threaten the people trying to repair it.
Croft’s camera also captures the quieter strain: fatigue, disagreement, uncertainty and the need to trust someone else’s judgment when the horizon offers no obvious answer. That is where Expedition: Greenland becomes more than a truck film.
What weekend overlanders can take from it
No one watching this needs a 44-inch-tire Hilux for the next trip. The transferable lessons are simpler:
- Build a team around different capabilities. Driving skill alone is not a recovery, medical or logistics plan.
- Treat fuel as part of the route. Range changes with terrain, load, weather and detours.
- Expect the first plan to fail. The real plan is the process for making the next sound decision.
- Specialized gear still needs skilled operators. Equipment buys options, not immunity.
- Document what matters. The film is compelling because it shows the uncertainty and work, not only the victory photo.
That is relevant whether the next trip crosses an ice sheet or simply pushes farther into West Texas than cell service and easy recovery allow.
Watch the official trailer
Where to watch Expedition: Greenland
U.S. availability checked November 2, 2026:
- Free with ads: Tubi and Plex.
- Included with a subscription: Amazon Prime Video.
- Rent or buy: Apple TV and Google Play; Amazon Video and Fandango at Home also list rental or purchase options.
Streaming catalogs and prices can change by location, so check the linked service before planning a watch night.
If this film sends you looking for more stories about people pushing vehicles beyond the mapped road, browse our classic overlanding books guide. That guide includes affiliate links; TX:GX may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no added cost to you.
