We just got back from 10 days (11 really) at th
e home of the icebergs. Ilulissat is the Greenlandic name for iceberg and the town next to the most 
active glacier in the northern hemisphere. The icebergs are up to 50 meters high and as wide as a city block. The glacier that produces these giants is 7 km wide and advances at 40 meters per day in the summer. That turns out to be 35 cubic km each year. Because of the glacier this is a tourist town. The ice calves off into Disco Bay and floats out to the mouth of the bay where there is an underwater moraine. The very large icebergs become beached at this point as the water is only 200-300 meters deep. After a time they melt sufficiently to enter the open sea. Our first day we go on a hike to a high hill that overlooks the bay. The scenery is breathtaking. Colossal chunks of cyan colored ice gilding by at imperceptible speed.
On another day we are taken by snow scooter out to a remote cabin owned by the church we are staying at. After an hour and a half of traveling across frozen lakes, sea ice and snow we arrive at the cabin by a frozen bay. It is –12 F outside and inside the cabin. There is a kerosene fired heater that we light to start the thaw. The snow scooters leave to return tomorrow at “about the same time.” I set out with an ice-breaking pole for the nearby frozen river. I break off and bring back big chunks of ice for our water needs. The sun sets and a very bright full moon rises. One of our team has been gone for three hours so I set out with one other to find him. We find his tracks and spend the next two hours following them across the rugged moon-lit landscape. We spot his form crossing a frozen lake far below on his way back to the cabin. The night sky is incredible and as we walk back it is clear just how small we are in the wilds of Greenland. The next day the wind is strong and it is snowing. Back at the church there is a debate about weather they can make it out to the cabin. Visibility across the frozen bodies of water in such conditions is almost nil. Fortunately for us they decide to venture out to rescue us. We didn’t have enough kerosene for another day (not to mention food).
Some sort of trouble with our return flight caused us to stay another day. The airline put us up in a four star hotel that overlooks the ice fjord. It was so wonderful and surreal. I have been sharing a room since July and to have a beautiful hotel room all to myself was so strange. The food was amazing. We all reveled in the luxury of the hotel. Our hosts form church came by and had finally gotten a boat to take us out in the fjord to get up close to the icebergs. So nice. I went in the second group and it was right at sunset. So beautiful. The blue icebergs with the arctic sunset in a clear sky was so awesome. It was cold too. The small drops of sea water that splashed over the bow of the boat instantly froze on whatever they landed on. When I got back I had the best shower I have had in… a long time. Heated floor in the bathroom and shower. The shower had a huge rain making showerhead. I found that incredible too. None of the buildings in the town have pipes running to them. So a truck has to bring the water to a storage tank in each building. They must have a huge tank. We all dressed up for dinner and gazed out the windows at the last bits of sun disappearing beyond the icebergs. We enjoyed the fireplace and marveled at its existence (there are no trees here and firewood would need to be imported from a tree bearing country).
