While the ice-scape dominates Greenland, the rocks can be stunning as well. 
Churned up by the glaciers, 
left in the moraine, 
popping out of the sand, 
dotting the coastline, 
almost as if they are watching. 
Tag Archives: Greenland
Rockwell Kent in Greenland
Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), an enigmatic artist from New York, spent an extraordinary year painting on a remote island in Greenland in 1931-32 and went on to write a book about his experience, Salamina. 
We went to see the country; I, to paint. (266) 
Painting; painting incessantly. Pursuing beauty in bewilderment at its profusion, greedy to get in one short year the whole of what might thrill a man a lifetime. (315) 
Let all your dreams have been of warmth and tropical luxuriance; let what at last is given you be bare, bleak, cold, in every way unlike your thoughts of earthly paradise, your chameleon soul cries out, “By God, I love this barrenness!” (22) 
One may speculate – I often do – on what we need, what human beings need, to be contented. On whether books and ark, or work, or leisure, or fresh air, or so many pounds per week of potatoes, oatmeal, meat, or love; what do we need? It would be good to know. (161) 
The beauty of those Northern winter days is more remote and passionless, more nearly absolute, than any other beauty that I know. Blue sky, white world, and the golden light of the sun to rune the whiteness to the sun-illumined blue. (197) 
Silent Danger: Icebergs Calving
We hiked along the Ilulissat Ice Fjord Trail on our third day in Greenland. 
We wanted to go down to a bay but were warned away. 
I considered this perhaps an overstatement – after all there were no glaciers here and thus no real sense of danger as that captured in this well-known Greenland tsunami video – but we nonetheless heeded the posting and continued along the ridge. 
A small trail then led down to a secluded cove filled with fantastically delicate forms. We couldn’t resist that. 
I broke off a piece and tasted the frozen water – cold and clean, a tad salty – and then we climbed a small cliff.
We hadn’t even time to sit when the water suddenly surged – not a tsunami, but a swell of several feet – and crushed everything we had just photographed. (The end of which I caught on video.)
It remained silent throughout – except for the swirling water and ice – as the force that could have dragged us out into the cold washed back and forth and slowly abated. 
We sat and thought about that.
The WOR tourists of Greenland
The biggest problem with tourism in Greenland is the price. 
A return flight from Reykjavik is over $1300, day trips average around $250 per person and accommodations are in that same range.
Even the hostels are expensive ($60-75 per night) as are food and drink. The fallout is that the silence and beauty is only for those who can afford it, most of whom are white, old and rich, or WORs. 
While many of these people come across as adventurous and young at heart, there is a disheartening proprietorial sense, the 1% surveying the stunning ice-scapes as their exclusive right. 
All of which acts as a reminder for exactly why this planet is going to hell. 
Paul-Emile Victor’s Arctic Garbage
Although today’s tourists are well schooled on not leaving their trash behind, it certainly wasn’t the pattern of the past. 
Paul-Emile Victor led a number of scientific expeditions from the Eqi Glacier Polar Camp in 1947-51, during which he determined that Greenland was in fact composed of three separate islands, all hidden under the ice.
Over the years, he and his colleagues left behind many reminders of their presence, including oil drums… 
sled tracks… 
other detritus…
and of course the shed…
now filled with graffiti of who has been there since. 
Icebergs & Glaciers in Greenland
80% of Greenland is covered by snow and ice. 
It is a mass so big that, if it were to melt, the oceans worldwide would rise seven meters, drowning many coastlines, while Greenland would actually rise. 
Ilulissat is on the west coast where many glaciers and ice flows meet the ocean, including the Ilulissat Ice Fjord and Eqi Glacier, both of which are major tourist attractions due to the melting ice.
The Ilulissat Ice Fjord is densely packed with icebergs, moving gradually out to sea at a rate of 19 meters per day, producing 35 cubic kilometers of ice every year. 
It takes almost three hours to pass through the maze of ice by boat – a distance of 5 kilometers. 
The Eqi Glacier, which is retreating a rate of 15 meters per year, meets the ocean directly, with massive sheets and chunks of ice dramatically calving into the ocean several times every hour. 
It is a remarkable and sobering event to witness, the sound of which is reminiscent of approaching thunder or a massive door being slammed shut in an empty room.
Ilulissat, Greenland
Ilulissat, a town of 4500 people, is the hub for tourism in Greenland; it sits at 69 degrees north, 120 miles above the Arctic Circle.
The tourists come to see the icebergs which surround Ilusissat in the summer months. 
English isn’t commonly understood, although the youth appear to know a word or two. 
There is a stark aspect to the town – water piping strapped to exposed bedrock, sled dogs tied up everywhere and a dusty sports field at the center. 
However it’s the surrounding ice and the light that draw all of the attention.
Unplugged in Greenland
I was in the cold and bright of the far north over the past two weeks; instead of computer and ipod, I was consumed by constant daylight and the sound of ice collapsing into the sea.
Afternoon in Ilulissat, Greenland
It took time to accept that my electronic feed was gone and there was nothing else but the cold world all around.
Night in Ilulissat, Greenland
Greenland Reading: Gretel Ehrlich’s “This Cold Heaven”
Gretel Ehrlich’s This Cold Heaven provides a first-person account of life in the cold and dark of Greenland. 
She recounts the Early 20-Century explorations of Arctic ethnographer Knud Rasmussen as well as the painter Rockwell Kent’s year-long sojourn there in the 1930s, but most interesting of all are the details of her own travels, including her journey with hunters in the far north:
Ahead, the ice foot narrowed like a waist, then widened again. Snow turned to sun; we slid from winter into summer. 
A glittering lagoon of open water came into view, packed with seabirds, ice gulls, and eider ducks. We stopped an gaped. The pond was a living sapphire and the birds navigated through blue glint, bumping from one beveled iridescence to another. What were we seeing? (180)
Ehrlich does have a tendency to repeat herself and romanticize the harsh elements, but all is forgiven for her moments of insight and enduring adventurous spirit.
Knud Rasmussen
One of the greatest thrills in writing is the initial research. The setting for my upcoming novel will likely be in the high arctic. And so I have come across the life and words of Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933), who led six major expeditions over his lifetime, circumnavigating his native Greenland and crossing the Arctic. 
All true wisdom is only to be found far from dwellings of man, in the great solitudes; and it can only be attained by great suffering. Suffering and privation are the only things that can open the mind of man to that which is hidden from his fellows.