July 2011
Tasilap Kua – Sermilik fjord – Tiniteqilaaq – Ammasalik island – Tasilaq
It would be my first wilderness trek ever. A trek along the silent Angmagsalik fjord with the great icecap in the backdrop. I traveled with a Dutch tour operator HT. Even though I first signed up for Svalbard we were, due to too few participants, to visit Greenland instead. As it would be my first time, I did not know what to expect of such a trek.
The trek turned out to hold everything I could wish for. The scale of nature is downright fascinating, the silence of the valleys, massive icecap, the numerous unnamed peaks and the still waters scattered with large icebergs made a lasting impression on me and inspired me to undertake many more treks in the future.
The trek consisted out of two stages of 9 and 4 days with the cozy village Tiniteqilaq in between. The trek starts in a broad valley with many small glaciers on both sides. After climbing over the saddle point we reached the Angmagsalik fjord itself. The days alongside this fjord are among the best of my life. I simply could not get enough of the majestic icebergs slowly making their way to the sea and the majestic glaciers on the other side of the fjord. After two days the route took us away from the fjord. We had to cross three more saddle points to reach Tiniteqilaq. A picturesque wooden village right next to the fjord. From here it is an easy 4 day hike through strange rocky moon lands to the district capital Tasilaq.
Season
This trek is usually done in June to Augustus. June and September might be possible as well, but for the rest of the year this land lies covered in deep snow.
Getting there and away
Kulusuk airport is the easiest way to reach the area. There are daily flight here from Reykjavik. From Kulusuk you can charter a boat to bring you to the starting point of the trek. From Tasilaq you can either charter a helicopter or boat back to Kulusuk.
Alternatives
The terrain more or less forces you to take this route. Unless you want to do some climbing there are not too many other possible routes to take.
Day 1
The vacation was off on a good start already. The sea ice and ice fields made our landing on the Kulusuk island an amazing experience. We pitched our tents between the airport and the village itself and all went our way to explore the island.
Kulusuk itself was, in proud Inuit tradition, quite a mess. But the colorful houses and the icebergs in the clear blue water made it very appealing. Gazing to the west I wondered what it would be like to hike on the other side of the bay.
The view westward.
In the evening we could eat and stay in the temporary bungalow of a few Americans who were doing popular research trying to find crashed world war II aircraft in the ice cap. They were nice and typically American people. In the evening we saw a few polar foxes, that later that nigh also tried to raid our tents. We had to shout them out of our tents a couple of times. Damn tundra rats.
Day 2
We were to be brought to the start of our trek by charter boat at around 9 am, but of course nobody actually showed up till noon. Our guide was a little pissed about this delay, but well we had all the time in the world. We did not go too fast, all the way our captain had to navigate through the icebergs. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the side fjord we we had to split up. The other were to make a food drop up the side fjord that we would collect on later on. Once they returned we continued up the main fjord. At around 3 pm we arrived at the end of the main fjord, where we were put ashore and our adventure could begin.
Our guide was keen to immediately start hiking for an hour or two. This way we could get used to carrying our heavy packs he reasoned. The gravel filled terrain was easy and we got quite a bit up valley before we started to pitch our tents.
Day 3
Today would be the first full day hiking. Our objective was to get as close to the saddle point further up valley as we could. As we continued the mountains got sharper and more impressive. We passed glacier after glacier and peak after peak. We now and then hiked through boulders and patches with wildflowers.
We called it a day rather early, we were in no hurry and our large group made the going rather slow. We camped next to a small lake. I noticed that the amount of food that we had brought was meant more for a 50 year old than a 20 year old guy. To make maters worse today’s food had been kept in the same back the the fuel bottle, causing me to barf and fart gasoline all night long.
Day 4
Not long after we started hiking we could start our climb to the saddle point. It was a modest climb up. Once on top we hiked over a few loose boulder passed a small lake. Once the descent started we had the first great view of the trek. The broad valley with the ice covered fjord in the backdrop really impressed me.
On the way down our guide lost his tent, meaning that I from that moment on had to share our two person tent with two others. Bad luck. We did go back to try and find his lost tent, but in this type of landscape you cannot find a camouflage colored tent back.
Once down at the fjord we could not help but to stare at the ice. The silence of this massive fjord was overwhelming. The glacier terminating in the fjord north of us really caught my imagination.
Day 5
This day might very well be my favourite day on route. In the morning the fjord was covered with spooky low hanging. We followed the fjord south along the coast. Now and than climbing up to bypass some steeper sections along the coastline.
As it got later in the day the mist slowly disappeared. The weather was great the entire rest of the day. We could now see all over the ice covered fjord. to the large glaciers on the other side flowing from the great icecap.
When the tide got lower we could often hike along the beach makig the going easier. The icebergs that fell dry where damping in the afternoon sun.
On a small plateau overseeing the fjord we called it a day. We were on schedule and had all the time in the world, why not enjoying where we were.
Day 6
Ai, today the weather was looking a bit more grim. We hiked further down the fjord till we got to a broad valley heading east to the other side of the peninsula. The weather was definitely getting poorer. Rain had to be on it’s way.
After about two hours the valley split up. One way was heading slowly down to the other side of the peninsula to our food drop. The other way climbed slowly up to a boulder filled saddle point that we would need to cross in order to continue our trek. We decided that half of our group would set up camp while the other half would pick up the food. If we hurried we could be done before the rain would start to fall.
I of course signed up for the hiking party. I wanted to see as much of this area as I could. I was glad that I did. The hike along the meandering river with the view over some colourfull mountains in the mist was not something I had wanted to miss out on.
We made it back before the first rain of our holiday began to fell. It fell quite heavily, especially during the night.
Day 7
Ugh, nothing but gray. Couldn’t even make out the mountains right next to us. We tried waiting the weather out, but it kept on drizzling. There was no choice, we packed up and started ascending to the saddle with long faces.
Once on top we were all soaking wet. The meteo showed no sign of improving, we could barely see the people of our group walking in the back. We decided to camp just over the pass. The boulders on the pass itself seemed rather unstable.
It kept raining during the night and we even had some thunder. We had been wise to camp next to the pass instead of on it. We heard a lot of falling rocks all night long.
Day 8
The clouds had moved up, no sun, but at least we could see for a bit. The descend into the next valley was rather easy. In just 4 hours we made it to the fjord below.
Once on the valley floor we started to make our way towards the fjord terminating in the valley. Unlike the Angmagsalik fjord this fjord was completely free of ice.
The sun started to break through the clouds at some points. We made camp and immediately started to dry our stuff. We hung around the camp for the rest of the day enjoying the increasing view.
Day 9
The weather was definitely improving. It as still cloudy, but I could feel the sun on my skin every now and then. This morning we had to start the only actual long and relativity steep climb of the trek. We climbed up the valley side to a saddle point about 500 meters up. The climb was mostly over steep grass. Once on top we had lunch. We could already see a large lake in the large valley on the other side. We planned to camp somewhere on the lakeside.
With our final destination already in sight the group gradually broke up and walked towards the lake in smaller parties.
Day 10
Tiniteqilaq was within reach. If we made it a long day we could get there late in the afternoon. We followed the broad valley eastward in the direction of a very distinguishable steep mountain top that one of us jokingly called the Matterhorn of east Greenland.
Later in the day we started to climb up a via ridge on a steeper rocky hill rising up from the fjord. On the tip of this hill along the fjord lay our final destination. Once on top a thick mist rolled in. Our line of sight was limited to only 40 meters or so. We pressed on towards Tiniteqilaq, at least so we thought. When one of us lacked behind a little to tie his shoe, he noticed that we made an almost full circle around him while he was kneeling down. When we looked at our trace on the gps we saw that we had been walking completely randomly over the last 30 minutes or so. We were a bit embarrassed and started to walk on our gps.
The mist really slowed us down and we decided to make camp for the day. The going would be much faster if we continued in clear weather tomorrow. Plus we would probably get a nice view from the ridge.
Day 11
The weather started a little cloud but as we walked down toward Tiniteqilaq it made a 180 degree turn. Once we got down to the village the sky was blue and we could see the icecap on the other side of the Angmagsalik fjord again.
We set up our tents right next to the village. It was only 10 am, so we had the entire day to leisure around the village. I was happy we had some time here to take in the scenery. The silent ice bergs and the cute and colorful houses made a lasting impression.
The later half of the afternoon I spent with two small girls at the campfire, burning everything I did not plan to take with me on the other half of the trip. Once that was done they did some horse riding on my back.
Meanwhile our guide had bought some new supplies. We would be promoting ourselves from outdoor food to actual canned food. Way heavier but way better as well. We only needed food for another 4 days, Tasilaq was not that far out from here.
Day 12
A fisherman took us across the fjord. A minor effort, it was barely 200 meters.The weather had stabilized and it felt like we were in for a couple of sunny days with blue skies.
According to the itinerary we should have traversed a large snowfield leading up to our campsite a few hours uphill. Our guide however was somewhat precocious about anything to do with snow, or in fact anything at all.. So he decided to trek around taking us around over rock. I was a bit disappointed. It was my first ever trek and I felt a bit like missing out. The snow cap on the other side of the Sermilik fjord had been taunting me for days and I had hoped to at least hike over some snow.
My disappointment did not last long. The red moon landscape around was stunning in the bright sun and once we made camp we had a great view across the snowfield
Day 13
It would be our last day in the wild. A short one as in the evening we were to climb the Vegas Fjeld. The highest peak on the island that should hold commanding views over the whole island and the ice cap in the distance. I was absolutely fixated on making the climb, but our guide kept searching for reasons to back out. He clearly was in no way looking forward to making the climb and kept coming up with petty excuses. At some point he even started to deliberately slow down the phase so that we would not make it to the base of the mountain in time. The people wanting to climb started to really get a bit pissed.
Once we were nearing the camping spot our guide all of a sudden speeded up. Once we caught up at the campsite it turned out to be his last move. Nobody has followed the increas in phase. Hence we must be too tired to climb. It was clear BS and the people who wanted to make the climb were through with it. At last he gave in. A compromise was struck. We would climb a lower mountain near our campsite. Well better then nothing!
With the fight about the question whether or not to climb a mountain behind us I could start enjoying the picturesque lake next to which we camped. We set up camp and started cooking.
After dinner we started our climb. We made it to the base of the mountain in just 20 minutes. From there another eager climber and me started to break loose from the rest of the group. We already heard the rest of the group about just climbing to the shoulder instead of the top and we were not willing to further compromise. The other guy was an older man who worked as a chemistry professor and had some alpine experience. I trusted that he would know his way.
We climbed fiercly with no stops. Some parts were over snow, but most went over semi steep rock. The last meters to the top felt great. The sun was setting making the surrounding mountains glister ever redder then they already were. To my delight we had an amazing view of both the see ice towards the east and the immense ice cap to our south. If we looked closely we could already see Tasilaq in the distance. The end of our trek was in sight.
We took 15 minutes to enjoy the view. After this time we tore ourselves from the view and made our way back down again. We met up with the rest of the group who had already started their descend. A good thing that we had broken loose from them, they were not at all motivated to make it to the top.
Back in the camp lying in my tent I was thinking back of the trek. Now I had already seen Tasilaq it felt like it was already over and I started reflecting. I was deeply grateful that I, on my young age, had been able to make this amazing journey deep into the arctic wilderness. My dreams to see drifting icebergs and glaciers flowing directly into the sea had come true.
Day 14
We packed up and started walking to Tasilaq. We hiked very slow, enjoying the last steps of our trek. After two hours we got to the bay. From here we followed the beach till our final destination Tasilaq. It was low tide, so the walking was easy. We got to enjoy walking among the large ice cubes for the last time. Even though we had seen sublimating starndag icebergs a lot over the last few days, it remained a magical sight.
We set up camp a few hundred meters out of town near the graveyard. To celebrate our successful trek we went out to dinner. It had been a while since I had eaten a multi pan meal so it goes without saying that I enjoyed it very much. I even got to try some whale meat. I was conflicted a bit about the ethics. But when I thought of the tiny amount of people living in this vast wilderness it felt like it was sustainable.
The next day we took the helicopter back to Kullusuk from where we flew back to Reykjavik the next day.
Last frontiers on foot 