In regions periodically subjected to falls of snow, major obstacles to the movement of men and vehicles are caused rather by the formation of drifts than by the uniform deposition of snow. Even in countries where snow-fall is not heavy, drifting can occasionally cause a breakdown of transport over a large area. Drifts form when snow-bearing winds meet obstacles which cause eddies in the wind stream and a local reduction in wind speed. The snow is deposited out of the wind stream into these regions of comparative calm, and the process continues for as long as an obstacle is effective in reducing wind speed.

The Greenland ice sheet, the area of which is some 1,870,000 sq.km., between three and four times that of France, has remained largely unknown until the present time. Between 1948 and 1951 extensive investigations were made by Expéditions Polaires Françaises (Missions Paul-Émile Victor), relying largely upon new methods of transport which had been developed, particularly in North America, during the Second World War. Perhaps the most important of these were the use of the amphibious tracked vehicle known as the Weasel (Light Cargo Carrier M29C, manufactured by the Studebaker Corporation) to transport men and equipment over the ice sheet, and of aircraft to drop supplies to the ground parties, so that their radius of action could be greatly increased. During the course of the expedition the Weasels covered a combined total distance of approximately 85,000 km., and from 1949 to 1951 a well-equipped scientific observation post, known as the “Station Centrale de Recherches” was maintained in the centre of the ice sheet in lat. 70° 55′ 3″ N., long. 40° 38′ 22″ W. These achievements were made possible by the use of aircraft to drop a total of some 230 tons of stores and equipment on the ice sheet.

Of the sixty-two sledge dogs helonging to the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, twenty-eight dogs came from Jakobshavn and Christianshåb in West Greenland, twelve from Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen and twenty two (including nine bitches) from the Falkland Islands Dependencies. The dogs from Spitsbergen had originated in Canada in 1945; those from the Falkland Islands Dependencies had been bred from dogs originally brought from Labrador in 1945 and 1946. The dogs from Spitsbergen were larger than the others, and several weighed considerably more than 50 kg. The dogs from West Greenland and the Falkland Islands Dependencies were smaller, averaging 40 to 50 kg. At the time when they were acquired by the expedition, the dogs from Spitsbergen and the Falkland Islands Dependencies were in much better condition than those from West Greenland.