TR: Greenland

14 May 08

This Trip Report is intentionally very long, few will read it all.  I want to document it for memory in the years to come.  You can navigate between pages using the menu on the right hand side.

On March 20 2008 I flew from Japan to join a group of snowboarders on a guided 12 day expedition style of backcountry touring in Greenland.  The term ‘backcountry’ is a little out of place since Greenland is pure backcountry.  We were based on the south east coast 10km from the town of Kulusuk and about 20km south of the Arctic Circle.  After using local Inuit hunters to take us across the frozen fjords and onto the glacier by dog sled, we remained in a tent base camp for the entire time, each day touring the surrounding peaks.

This was my first time in a polar region and certainly my first experience snowboarding polar snow and mountains.  Getting to Greenland and some truly remote and endless mountains is actually quite easy.  From Europe fly about 2 hours to Iceland and from there fly 1.5 hours to Greenland’s south east region where you can say good bye to anything you thought was normal, like trees, roads, shops and people.

Here is the video edited by Neil.

 

The location

Greenland is massive and the mountains are very close to the coast.  The centre of Greenland consists of a huge flat expanse of ice 3km thick.  There is nothing else there. The east coast is an incredibly remote place absolutely jam packed with mountains.  The absolute height is modest, usually below 2000m.  In our area, the peaks were all below 1500m.  This is of little consequence since they run directly down to sea level giving plenty of true top to bottom touring.  The mountain range on the west coast is relatively larger and more popular with heli-skiing operations.  The towns are larger and apparently a great deal of the traditional Inuit subsistence culture is all but gone.  The town of Kulusuk, our starting point, had a population of a few hundred Inuits living as hunters in a small village.  They had some petrol sleds, however the main form of transportation was by dog sled, which itself kept traditional hunting culture alive as the dogs needed to be fed and therefore seals needed to be killed

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We were just south of the Arctic Circle, above the town of Tasiilaq

Base camp was on the glacier in the middle of the shot.  All the fjords were frozen solid, no water at all.  This is the only topo map for the area.  I think it was 1:150,000, very large scale.

 

The Group

The expedition trip was arranged by Neil McNab from McNab Snowboarding  based in Chamonix.  I had used Neil’s guiding services a few years ago, the pinnacle being a successful ascent and snowboard descent of Mont Blanc above Chamonix, a 15 hour effort that redefined what it is that I liked to do in the mountains.  Neil had unknowingly helped me change my life, so I was happy to part with some cash and go back to see him again.  Besides being unusually skilled at sarcastic remark, Neil is genuinely gifted on the snow: a fully qualified ski instructor before he was 20 turned professional snowboarder turned UIAGM alpine guide in Chamonix. He guides mountaineering, ice climbing, ski and snowboard touring and rock climbing.   He was joined by Johnny Baird, another accomplished Chamonix UIAGM guide.  Earlier that winter Johnny had climbed the classic route on the Eiger Nord Wand.  That alone speaks for itself.  I wish I had the chance to spend more hands-on time with people of this skill level in Japan, but unfortunately Hakuba, despite its relatively big mountains, doesn’t attract this type of crowd yet.

Along with myself there were 4 other clients in the group.  Neil had been proposing the idea of a Greenland trip for a number of years and all of us had tracked the idea and I think pretty much pounced the moment it came to fruition.

This picture has been called the Greenland Boy Band.  Ben M and Neil are missing from the shot.  I am in orange.

 

I hadn’t used the services of a guide for a few very active seasons now and so found it a little unusual being back in a group-guided setting.  But this trip was notably different to other guiding experiences in that we all had much more independent ideas and freedom to ride the terrain and mountains as a more blended group.  Plus the educational benefit of being in the company of guides was hugely valuable.  Besides, we made a summit or two that I could never have done without help of vastly more experienced guides.  It was a good balance.

 

I would feel comfortable returning to Greenland (and may well do) with my wife and friends for a week of unguided touring much the same as we did.  But that comes only after having the door opened in a guided environment.

 

Day 0: Arrival day

We landed in Greenland and meet our local contact, Matt from Greenland Expedition Specialists.  This seems to be a great little guiding and logistical support operation helping people like us explore a small part of Greenland.  All our tents, food, emergency communication and transportation to the glacier was arranged by Matt. He did a very good job, keep them in mind if you are thinking about some real adventure.

In the evening we stayed in the very comfortable and quite modern Kulusuk Hotel which looked out across the frozen fjords and into the mountains.

The hotel, ready to go with the dogs.

The small subsistence Inuit hunting village of Kulusuk.  He our base camp was in the distance and we climbed and rode the visible peaks.

 

Dont fly BA, and never give up on luck.

Never fly British Airways, the risk of baggage loss is far too high.  They stuffed up almost everything on my disastrous flight to the UK, where I would transfer to Iceland.  But the cherry on the British Airways disaster cake was losing both my bags.  Bound for Iceland, I left Heathrow (a disgrace to yet a fitting airport for the crumbling city of London) without any baggage.  I had two nights buffer in Reykjavik to deal with contingencies just like this.  On the last night my snowboard bag arrived, which meant I had most of my touring kit, minus crampons, climbing harness, snowboard boots, beacon, suitable gloves and gortex shell pants and no camera.  I didn’t have ANY of my winter camping kit, which was all in my duffel bag.  I maintain a collapsible base camp in the mountains around my town of Hakuba in Japan over winter and camped there several times.  Winter camping became quite normal to me, I knew and liked my gear and used it often. Without it I was left to borrow gear from Matt in Greenland and others in the group so and make do.  But we knew that he would be unable to provide me with missing snowboarding equipment, and the most important item was boots.  I didn’t have any and the flight for Greenland left in 2 hours.  So we went shopping.

Alan joined me and for 20 minutes we waited for the doors to Rjejaviks only snow shop to open at 10am.  Its more of a street fashion store than anything else.  The moment they opened we ran and explained the situation, I needed shell pants and boots asap.  I found my boot size on the rack in an ok make and model, they would do ok.  But the shop owner couldn’t find the store room key to get the second boot for me.  It turned out that one of his employees went home with it the previous day.  So that was that.  No snowboard boots, and our time was up.  We went back to the airport and boarded the flight.  My only hope now was that the bag would be found and forwarded to Greenland by Iceland Air.  They were more than happy to do it, but said if British Airways are involved then I have very poor prospects.  Everyone is saying it:  never fly British Airways.

I was focusing on the next possible hope:  staying a few extra days near the landing strip in Greenland and wait for my lost bag to arrive, then join the team out on the glacier.  When a flight goes to Greenland, nearly everyone gives off a feeling of excited anticipation.  You are really going somewhere for a reason.  I was wishing that freak bad weather would force us to turn back to Iceland and keep us there for a day.  What I got was an in-flight electrical problem that forced our bumpy little propeller plane to turn back!  Some people looked worried, I was clapping and yelling!  The window had re-opened.  Back on the ground at Reykjavik Airport I managed to convince the security guys to let me out and return to the snowboard shop.  This time we had on uncertain period of time, but were warned to expect departure in an hour after the minor fault was fixed.  Back to the shop, ran in, the storeroom had been opened, bought the boots and a pair of outer shells, back to the airport and onto the flight with very little to spare.  I was back in business, despite the fact that the only sensible and slightly suitable (ie, not baggy arsed fashion) shell pants that fit me where a girl's pair with a broken front zip.  Who cares.  I spent the entire trip wearing a small pair of girls pants and an open zipper.  The boots were ok, not great for split-boarding and not offering much structural support (I really don’t like the inner liners of 32 snowboard boots).  They are comfortable, but not made for long days of hiking, especially without for custom moulded footbeds.  Thanks British Airways.

45 days later and the bag has still not been found and BA really don’t care at all. This caused more hassles for me on my return to Japan, as I tour in the backcountry nearly everyday and need this gear.  Hopefully the insurance claim will fill the void again.

Never fly British Airways.

 

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