Trip Reports

Greenland Mountaineer 5 - 21 August 2017 report

Written by Leader Ed Chard, September 2017

Is that a Polar Bear?

After travelling for over thirty years of my life, it's the first time I've heard that statement from a fellow traveller. Sure enough, on the first week of our trip to climb in South East Greenland, whilst speeding down a wide sea fjord, we got to see a large male Polar Bear. It was making its way, quite calmly, from one side of the fjord to the other: a swim of around eight hundred metres. We paused for around ten minutes before leaving him to swim on to hunt seals and not climbers. This wasn't a normal climbing expedition.

We were a group of twelve people, six male, six female, two guides and two rifles. The aim was to climb new areas of the Angmagssalik Mountains just inside the Arctic Circle. Transport to such a remote area of the world isn't straight forward; we flew to Iceland for an overnight stop before catching a stunning flight across the Northern Atlantic to Greenland. As we approached the Greenlandic coast we saw large areas of icebergs and sea ice. The town of Kulusuk is perched on a flat windswept area of tundra with a nose of land pointing out into a bay. A population of around 100 people live here year-round and survive by subsistence hunting and fishing. This time of year there is around twenty hours of daylight, so lots of time to get sorted for the trip ahead. Big husky dogs were everywhere, all securely tied up and ready for their next meal of Harp Seal. A weekly treat.

We had lots to do. Tents, stoves, food, fuel, ropes, rifles and pulks all needed to be prepared and packed. On this trip everyone had a role to play. We divided ourselves up and got into the job in hand. We were leaving early the following day by boat to our first camp on a nearby Island.

Daybreak (around 3am) saw light winds and patchy sun. We were ferried over to our first camp and set up for twelve days of wild camping in the Arctic. This was a chance to practice rope skills, climb some easy peaks and get used to each other. Folk got used to new skills of melting icebergs for water, protecting food stores from Arctic Foxes and getting to grips with crevasse rescue in small teams.

Our first peak was incredible. An hour's walk over mossy tundra and a gentle rocky slope got us to the glacier. Two hours of stunning scenery saw us to a rocky col and the last hour up a great sharp ridge to the top. The views were awesome (often overused word, but not in this case). Deep fjords and iceberg-filled channels were all around us and we were only at eight hundred meters above sea level. What a start.

The following day we moved camps by boat to another remote area beneath two huge glaciers with calving faces dropping into the sea. After the bear experience, did I mention that?, we made a beach-side camp before a glacier recce and planning session. With no porters, mules, yaks or helicopters, we took a day to establish a high camp up in the mountains. The question of 'Do you really need that?' came up several times but in my view, no camp is complete without an inflatable palm tree.

Dehydrated meals were the norm on this trip, by this point folk were beginning to trade. Muesli with raspberry was the highest currency with vegetarian shepherd's pie being a low achieving Kroner.

We ascended peaks in style from this new high camp every day, clicking off four in the process. We were hoping we would be this first to get to the summits in this area but on some occasions we were met by a small depressing cairn and on one peak an Italian note in a box from 1967. On several nights at this camp we were visited by an Arctic Fox who I found out liked cheese.

We moved for the last time, again by boat, for the last couple of days back on the original island but this time on the other side. We finished with a great technical peak followed and a beach-side fire on the final evening.

If you like stunning places, alpine style climbing, no showers for ten days and can carry a reasonably big rucksack; this could well be the trip for you. It was my first time in Greenland and I'll be going back. The mountains, the scenery, the sea and the wildlife are all amazing. The team weren't a bad lot either! Well done everyone, I'm now off to eat a wrap with cheese for lunch (an 'in joke' for any of the team that got this far. X)

Ed Chard, September 2017

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