In July 2006 I gave in to curiosity and realized my ambition to visit West Greenland. I returned 6 times in the next 8 years! I knew that about 10% of the world’s freshwater was sitting on Greenland with the capacity to raise sea-level by several metres but I could relate to it no more than Antarctica at the bottom of the world! Back then you hardly ever heard of anything happening in Greenland…it was a silent, remote, unknown place to me, far to the north. I wanted to see something of it for myself, meet some of the people, see some Greenlandic towns and if possible, stand on that massive ice-sheet. I wanted to go somewhere out of the way, where budget airlines don’t fly tens of thousands of ‘everyone else’ each year!
My main plan was hiking out there in the region between Sisimiut on the west coast and Kangerlussuaq, about 100 miles east and just about 20 miles short of the edge of the ice-sheet. For me, if you want to really experience a landscape, you need to be out in it on foot, but more of that in Part II. This part is about three of Greenland’s towns that I’ve visited.
Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and there are daily Air Greenland flights from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq. Kangerlussuaq town hosts the main international hub airport with its own hotel and flights by smaller aircraft or helicopter disperse passengers from here to the other parts of the country.
If the weather is good, your first glimpse of the country is the stunning east coast with its pristine and rugged beauty.
Greenland’s spectacular pristine east coast…
After an hour or so of crossing the awesome and impressive ice-sheet, its western edge appears and the plane sweeps over Sondre Stomfjord to line up for Kangerlussuaq’s runway.
Flying in over the c.100 mile long Sondre Stromfjord. The ice-sheet in the background (looking eastwards) and Kangerlussuaq is at the head of this fjord.
Kangerlussuaq was established in 1941 as a US airbase but is now a town of about 530 people and its main business these days revolves around what is now a civilian airport. You do see C-130’s here though supporting international science projects!
Kangerlussuaq runway…(taken on departure!)
Kangerlussuaq airport buildings…over the years I’ve witnessed the expansion of the terminal buildings as the place has become more popular.
The town is on both sides of the runway and to the south, a bridge crosses a narrow ravine through which the melt-water in the Watson River gushes into what is the start of the c.100 mile-long Sondre Stromfjord.
An aerial view of Kangerlussuaq taken from a light aircraft. I was taken up to see what the pilot could offer in terms of aerial surveys and transects for wild goose research.
Running east out of town is what has been described as Greenland’s longest road! It’s a 20 mile long dirt track that will take you to the Russell Glacier about 14 miles out of town. You can go with various tour operators; you can hire a local taxi or bicycle or you can walk!
Relax at the Russell glacier, wait for collapses at the glacier face which you can watch from the hilltop or right down at the river. Before you, stretching eastwards, is about 500 miles of ice-sheet!
Note tiny humans for scale…!
I was camping by the Russell glacier one evening, having a cup of tea at my tent door…then an arctic fox cub walked by…! A typically unexpected wildlife encounter.
The arctic fox cub was unperturbed by my presence.
Another 6 miles or so up the dirt track road, you can easily set foot on the ice sheet, begin to grasp its awesome magnitude…and if you’re like me, experience that strong pull to go and see what’s over the horizon, and the next one…it gets me like summit fever every time!
View from the track near the end of the road.
This amount of ice is hard to comprehend and the ice-sheet is far from uniform, in other places it is like an ocean of frozen dunes!
A hundred miles or so west, on the coast, is Greenland’s second largest town – Sisimiut. It’s only about 25 minutes flying from Kangerlussuaq. In 2006 and 2007 I visited the Chinese restaurant here that cooked with Greenlandic ingredients…lovely spicy caribou for example. Sadly the northernmost Chinese restaurant I have ever visited is no longer here.
Looking down towards Sisimiut harbour. Sisimiut is north of the arctic-circle and it’s the west coast’s northernmost ice-free harbour in winter.
Sisimiut is a bustling town of about 5,000 inhabitants with supermarkets, hospital etc and plenty of history. West Greenland coastal cruises usually stop here.
Part of Sisimiut town with the distinctive peak of Kællingehætten in the background.
The old church (1775) on the left and the new one (1926) in the background…
Sisimiut marina. Roads finish at the edge of town and just about everyone lives on the coast, so boat ownership is high!
There’s good walking in this area of varying degrees of challenge and in Hotel Sisimiut in 2014 I met some Dutchmen who were being taken out on day-long fishing trips. The hotel is of a very good standard and has an excellent restaurant.
Another short flight north up the coast would bring you to Ilulissat. Famous for the Sermeq Kujalleq or Jakobshavn glacier and its World Heritage Site (…and occasional visiting dignitaries who come to highlight climate change impacts in the arctic.)
Ilulissat harbour.
The town is a quite a busy place but the ice-fjord is the unmissable feature and only a short walk out of town.
With a calving front over 3 miles long, the glacier produces 10% of Greenland’s icebergs and calves enough ice each year to keep the USA in freshwater for the same period!
The most gigantic bergs ground at the mouth of the fjord on moraine and can be here a long time before eventually breaking up and drifting out to sea. Note ship for scale!
The ice-fjord produces scenes of breathtaking beauty but sadly reminds me that the glacier front has retreated a long way at increasing rates and recent science tells us that Greenland is losing at least 260 gigatonnes of ice each year, and it’s accelerating!
Visiting these Greenlandic towns has been a wonderful experience for me but to ‘know’ Greenland better and take home something deeper and more personal, most of my time is spent out in its Western wilderness in my tent…but that’s Part II!
Thank you so much! I’ve been curious since flying over it on a clear summer day on a trans-Atlantic flight, and the more so since reading an Icelandic mystery set in part in Greenland. The realization that even to Icelanders, it remains, relatively, terra incognita made it seem even more fascinating.
A fascinating view of a rarely visited place! Thanks so much for sharing your love of Greenland with all of us.
I’ve a few questions about basic tourist infrastructure. While I suspect you spend most of your time in the backcountry, what level of services are available in these towns? I’m specifically wondering about sleeping accomodations, food options (you mentioned that Chinese restaurant, which sounds intriguing), and relative prices. In my experiences, remote places like this are quite expensive to visit because everything needs to be shipped there. Does this impression hold true for Greenland?
Thank you ! I’ve been wanting to go to Greenland for years and now I know I have to make it happen someday! I can’t wait to see part II.
Excellent article and pictures! The arctic regions are on my wish list and this has certainly inspired me
Thanks. Indeed, there’s a lot of people movement between Denmark and Greenland. There are flights from Iceland though I’ve never used them. I’ve never been conscious of much of an Icelandic presence at all in the West, wouldn’t know about the East coast.
With thousands of photos to choose from, this article gives only the briefest of impressions.
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Thanks. Nice photos. In 30 years, I have never met anyone else that has been there. I have been to deserts in the Middle East and Africa and to jungles in the south but Greenland is really the most remote place I have ever been. Would love to go back. Tom
Excellent article and pictures! The arctic regions are on my wish list and this has certainly inspired me
Dr Fumblefinger: Happy to answer questions. Kangerlussuaq is fairly basic by comparison to what we’re used to though I love the town and feel at home there now! It’s a converted US airbase basically! (Can’t browse to my photos from Insert/Edit Image button above?) Accommodation: airport hotel (good standard), campsite (very basic), private accommodation hire options exist though I’ve not used them in this town – as I’m also part of a wild goose research team, I can stay at the science support unit’s accommodation! Shops: basic, one good/one smaller supermarket. Food: the hotel has a general restaurant (and bar) anyone can use and does a cracking musk-ox burger as well as fast-food snacks like hot dogs. After a month of trail food, a musk-ox burger and fries is like food of the Gods! A burger (with salad and fries) and a beer will set you back about £13, spaghetti bolognese and a coffee about £11. Mugs of tea about £1 (the currency used of course is the Danish Krone. 1DKK = £0.10 or US$0.15). There’s another restaurant and a bar on the other side of town, there’s also a pizza take-away near the post office. One year, I heard a guy at the airport hotel reception asking whether there was a chemist/Dr in town as he’d run out of insulin! Nearest one was at Sisimiut (100 miles away) so that shows you’re right to be prepared for a bit of a frontier town scenario by not assuming you can get all your usual stuff there!
Sisimiut has better choice of supermarkets and is a bigger long-established (Greenlandic) town – it even has a musical instruments shop and buses frequent its roads even though you can walk from one end of town to the other in about 20 mins. Hotel Sisimiut is of a good standard with a high quality restaurant where an evening meal might set you back about £35 or so. There’s a hostel and various other private hire arrangements too. I stayed in a privately rented apartment back in 2006 but generally, I don’t spend long in town as I’m eager to get out into the back country. Generally, lots of choice of drop-in restaurants like we might be used to don’t exist. There’s a small burger joint in town and a smaller take-away cafe down by the harbour. Ilulissat is similar to Sisimiut. Hotel prices are typically around £120 – £130/night though you can get deals. E.g. I stayed one night in a shared hiker’s room for about £40 one year. Typically return flights Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq are about £600 – £700.
Travel Rob: If after Part II you ever hatch plans to go, happy to pass on any tips I’ve picked up over the years.
Tom: Agonised over which photos to use. So many more I would have liked to share but the articles would have become very long! I would like to go elsewhere (I have places in mind) but maybe after Part II, you’ll understand why I keep going back to Greenland.