Day 2

I woke up at 5am and snoozed through to 8am as the storm blew strongly all morning, it was a good thing we dug into camp as soon as we arrived the previous day.   We went for a quick tour in the wind and in a gully that we hoped would be gathering some softer windblown snow.  After that it was time to bolster the tent defenses as the storm was expected to worsen.  Went to bed at 830pm.

The terrain

It’s not possible to talk about ‘the mountains in Greenland’ generically as there are so many of them over a huge area and all so different.  I can only talk about the mountains we saw and rode.  We were actually on an island in a fjord-riddled part of the coast (like most of Greenland’s massive coastline).  However, all the fjords were frozen and so the island wasn’t really an island.  It was more like a collection of peaks and glaciers surrounded by perfectly flat ice and snow.  There were several islands of mountains in our area, all joined as one by the frozen fjords.  On a few occasions we rode from the land onto the frozen water.  The actual ocean coastline was quite close and all peaks offered a view out across the frozen sea.  The ocean flow ice had been broken by wind and currents, but was still very dense and thick and interspersed with huge icebergs that from ground level looked like navel battle groups heading for shore.  No one can be prepared for how different this place is.  You will most likely never have seen anything even slightly like it.

The peaks surrounding our glacier basecamp were suitable sized for our trip: summits up to 900m higher than our base camp at about 100m.  It sounds very small, but too big and considerable effort would have been required to reach the summit and day after day of that effort can detract from the enjoyment of such a trip.  The glacier was barely evident under heavy snow.  At the edge of the fjords you sometimes saw some seracs and broken crevassed ground, but mostly the rest was smooth and hidden by snow.  The distances between peaks was quite large with gentle glacier terrain between each one.  The peaks were a mixture of all snow and all rock and ice.  The snow was variable, but almost always very hard, harder than anything I have ever felt.  Due to constant cold the density of the snow reached near sandstone proportions (no wonder the Inuit made igloos).  This rock hard snow was in many places unfortunately sculptured into huge sastrugi by the wind, so riding was at times pretty tiring, although it was usually possible to pick a smooth path through the rock-like ridges of snow.  Some areas offered relatively smooth but quite hard packed snow which in gentle terrain was fun and fast to ride, very grippy and soft on the surface.  We also dealt with a fairly large amount of ice-crusted snow.  The crust was seldom breakable (a good thing) and was always smooth and so very predictable.  So if the light was not flat the ice was actually quite easy to ride, and in my opinion more comfortable than the sastrugi riddled soft snow.  It also allowed good steep terrain to be ridden with confidence.  I would like much more smooth ice like this in Japan as it makes going up and down usually predictable and easy (beyond the physical effort).

Day 3

March 25^th and winter in Greenland had not yet finished.  The snow was rock hard and the storm became stronger.  Despite the large snow drifts outside, I didn’t actually see a snow flake, just ice crystals.  I woke at 5am again and remained in bed until a late breakfast.  It was whiteout conditions.

Digging the snowdrift off our tent wall.

I read, Ben chats.

Later in the afternoon the wind dropped and visibility improved so we toured across the glacier to a ridge with a short but ok bowl containing almost 30cm of powder.  Unfortunately the late afternoon 4pm light was very flat and riding not much fun.  Bed for me at 8pm.

Gear

We all used pretty standard glacier ski touring kit for our day trips.  Thanks to British Airways I had to borrow a pair of strap-on flat ice walking spiked cleats to use as crampons.  This wasn’t too bad most of the time, although I had no spikes under my heel nor forefoot and certainly no front points.  So I usually came up last to benefit from the kicked steps of the team members that preceded me.  I also relied more on taking my time each step and setting up for an ice axe self-belay should I slip on a switch back.  Having said all that, it wasn’t that much of a big deal once I adjusted myself mentally to having almost no crampons.  And at times when there was exposure Neil would short rope me just in case.

Neil chose to ski rather than snowboard this trip, along with Johnny who only skis.  The other snowboarders were using snowshoes and I was using my splitboard (more comment on that below).

Sleeping bag rating s ranged from –40C to –18C.  I had packed (and have never seen again) my –18 down bag along with my down 0C bag as an outer to add warmth.  Ben used only a –18 and was slightly cool on the colder nights.  My loan bag was a new synthetic model from Mountain Hardware that actually did a really good job.  I wasn’t able to borrow a bivvy bag, and so the bag outer got wet every morning and froze solid every night.  I was also sleeping on one thermarest with a hole in it along with a rollout closed cell mat.  Despite the deflated thermarest I was ok.  The synthetic bag was rated to –26C and quite roomy inside, usually making me cold as there is more space for my small body to warm.  But this bag was spacious and quite warm.

Everything else was standard winter camping kit.  I had packed (and never seen again) a new down jacket for this trip having not bothered owning a quality one in Hakuba where they really aren’t needed.   My borrowed jacket was too big, but worked fine for sitting around the mess tent.  Everyone else also seemed quite comfortable and no one complained at all.  I was pleased with the experience of getting by with what I had.  There is often no need to be overloaded with kit just because it suits the scene.

Day 4

Woke at 7am, the wind had eased during the night.  After breakfast we toured up a gully and climbed the snow face of a peak we named Mt Fanibawz.  It was pretty much smooth medium hard icy snow all the way to the top.  I didn’t have proper crampons so the lack of front points slowed me down a bit.  The descent was pretty good fun, smooth and consistent allowing for a constant rhythm, unlike the very hard and bumpy sastrugi.  At its steepest we enjoyed about 40 degrees after a pretty easy effort.

Approaching the summit ridge

On the summit, myself, Ben M, Al and Dave

The environment

There is a current heading south along Greenland’s east coast that brings with it a lot of pack ice and icebergs from the north pole region.  This is partly why the eastern coast line has remained so incredibly empty as boats had a lot of difficulty accessing the coast.  It stretches for 2600km and has almost no developed areas at all besides some very small and old villages.  There is a population of 3000 people, mostly living in the one town in the south east.  There was a lot more sea this winter than in previous years and many of the fjords exposed to the ocean were frozen solid for the first time in a while.  In fact, the winters snowfall was the best in a long time.  Local Inuit have been noticing declining sea and fjord ice for two decades, but this year was an improvement.

In late winter, Greenland was nothing but ice, snow and rock.  Besides sled dogs, I saw one dead seal shot by a hunter and one crow and that was it.  Iceland is not much south of where we were and 800km east, yet it enjoys a much warmer and very different climate.  This is due to the Gulf Stream supplying relatively warm water up around far northern Europe (but don’t for a moment think that Iceland has a normal environment).

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