Trip to Ilulissat

We just got back from 10 days (11 really) at the 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).

You Know it is Cold When…

The moisture in your nose freezes with each breath you take in.

The snow is so cold and dry that it scrunches when you walk on it (sounds like walking on Styrofoam).

When you walk in from outside the moisture freezes onto your glasses.

The moisture from your breath freezes on your hair, hat, scarf, hood, glasses, eyelashes (can glue your eyelashes together).

The front door has ice on the inside

The indoor side of the double pane windows have ice at the bottom.

You open the door and fog rolls in across the floor and out into the sky from the top.

You check your friends for frostbite.

The moisture in your eyes starts to freeze.

A Day In The Life Of Aasiaat

I am walking on snow and ice covered pathways to the hardware store. Wooden walkways and stairs connect different levels. Many people are out walking. A woman carrying groceries, an old man pulling a sled with a seal on it, a mom pushing a sled with two kids bundled up in fur. Everyone is friendly and gives some form of greeting as I pass. I get a little lost and end-up on one of the side streets. I see many dogs tied down in the snow covered areas between houses. My attention is drawn to a group of dogs that are barking and whining with incessant anticipation. A man with a sled is going around to each one putting a harness on them. I watch for a few minutes fascinated by the process. Each dog can barely stand the wait, straining at its tether. A neighbor has invited our group ice fishing; it is windy on the ice today so we layer-up. We follow him to where land meets sea and he cautions us to watch our step. The ice moves slowly up and down with the tide, which makes the ice near the shore constantly break and re-freeze. Walking out on the frozen sea is a little surreal. The white expanse stretches out before me. The top of the ice is a little slushy because the salt is being forced out of the ice sheet as it freezes. After about half a mile our guide stops and draws a circle on the ice. One of my associated is handed a pole with a sharp metal end. Ten minutes later we have a one foot diameter hole in the ice. The process is repeated three more times fifty feet apart. On my turn it seems to take forever and I am defiantly not cold for the moment. The ice is about a foot thick and looking into the hole is foreboding; staring into the inky blackness below. Fairly quickly we have three very ugly fish. In the evening we have been invited to a kaffemik (our second). It is a gathering of friends and family in a host’s home. In the past, people would socialize around everyday work; seal skinning, clothes making, … Modern living has replaced those social interactions. So people have a kaffemik to socialize. Basically, the host waits on you hand and foot feeding you as much cake, candy, coffee, tea, and whale fat as you can eat.

Sunrise

Today was the first sunrise of this year (sunset was on November 28^th). Many people, especially kids, made their way to the top of the hill to greet the sun. The kids had made representations of the sun in school and brought them along.

Kalaallit Nunaat

Greetings from the great white top of the world! The trip here was a little lengthy and tiring. We needed to leave the Hamar base at 3:00 AM to drive to Oslo and catch our plane to Copenhagen. We were delayed leaving Oslo because they had to de-ice the planes. Then we were delayed landing because of air traffic. This meant that we were too late to catch our flight to Greenland and spent the next 24 hours in the Copenhagen airport. The night before I didn’t sleep at all because it didn’t seem worth it to go to sleep and then get back up at three. I was fairly destroyed by the time we finally got on the plane. Four and a half hours and four time zones later we touched down in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Getting off the plane I walk down the stairs to the tarmac; it is –18°F. I can feel the hairs in my nose freezing together as I breath in. The woman in front of me is carrying a small child wearing a seal fur snowsuit. After I am in the terminal I can feel the cold in my clothes still; it is a cold that truly penetrates. We wait in the small airport for 45 minutes for our next flight. We walk outside and wait in the arctic cold while people inside are finding a seat inside the small Dash-7 airplane. The front four rows of seats are missing and there is a pile of cargo strapped to the floor. The pilot announces that there is a hydraulic leak and that we will be slightly delayed while it is repaired. One of the flight crew brings a small basket of candy to offer the passengers. The cabin slowly gets colder as we wait. After 15 minutes the pilot announces that we are ready. One at a time, the four propellers burst to life and we are on our way. The air nozzles above our heads spew forth wonderful warm air. It is noon north of the Arctic Circle and there is a beautiful glow in the southern sky. The first sunrise at our destination will be in one week but as our little plane climbs higher into the sky we get our own sunrise. The sun streaming in the windows seems blinding and amazing. Looking out of the window reveals an ice and snow landscape. Pink sunlight skips across countless ice mountains below. As we travel farther and farther north the number of peaks illuminated dwindles until they are all the same. The flight attendant offers a round of drinks and cookies then more candy. She even makes her way forward of the cargo to serve the pilots.

I have been in Aasiaat almost a week. It is a small town, on a small island, off the west coast of Greenland. The people are friendly. English is their third language so communication can be challenging. Every day we get kids visiting us; many of them don’t really have another safe place to go. The sea is fairly frozen and there are no more ships until spring; any goods that are not already here need to be flown in. There are ice crystals on everything outside. Any place inside that has an air leak will have ice all around it. All the water and sewer pipes run above ground. They are insulated and electrically heated. It is amazing to think of people living here before electricity.

Exploring

I really like exploring. We went to go see an old lighthouse that is slowly being taken over by sand dunes. The door was bricked up but there was a door that led to another building that had collapsed under the weight of the encroaching sand. About a foot at the top of the door was clear and just big enough to slide in. The stairs inside were in good condition and afforded safe passage all the way to the top. The sun was setting and it was so beautiful to see from up there. So many photographic possibilities in the waining light.























































There are also many Nazi bunkers all over. Some are just part of the cityscape on the side of the road coexisting with other buildings of less sinister origin. Others are part of complex
networks on the coast. We went to one with over 60. Wartime trenches meandered to connect them. Ghostly reminders of a dark time in human history.

Traveling in Denmark

On the 26th we went up to the very north tip of Denmark where the North Sea and the Baltic Sea collide. This results in very dramatic waves and currents. In the summer there is lot of people on the sand beach there (mostly Germans who don't have a beach of their own to go to). We also went to see a church built in 1787 that has been abandon because of coastal erosion. Some of the graveyard around the church has already fallen into the sea. Sometime in the next 10 years the cliff face will reach the church. The father of the family I am staying with drives for a trucking company on Saturdays. I got to go with him to take a load of frozen fish to the German border. It only takes about 5 hours to drive the length of Denmark. The truck cab was really nice and comfortable. When we got to the truck depot we had a little time so we went to a store in Germany that caters to Danes selling certain goods that are much cheaper there.