Greenland

[Paul Ward]

I visited Greenland in August '09 - thought it was time I went to the Arctic as well as the Antarctic!

Pictures here:
http://www.coolantarctica.com/galler...eenland_1.html

and on connected pages. Just pics so far, I'll add a commentary and notes as I get round to it.

[Alan]

Very nice. Very green. Except for the pictures of icebergs and such, it looks quite different from Antarctica - and also quite different from the pictures I've seen from friends at Summit Camp.

I'm reminded of a comment at last week's Sunday Science Lecture, which was about Nacreous clouds. The speaker was showing pictures of nacreous clouds, when one picture brought out an audible gasp from the audience. He looked around and said, "When I show these pictures off-continent, I tell my audience that when I'm in Antarctica this picture gets everyone's notice, because there are trees."

Looking forward to more.

[drummy]

Paul/Alan,

Paul - great photos! I visited Greenland many, many moons ago (1967) with Hugh Simpson and his family (Hugh was an MO at Hope Bay in the late 50s) but over t'other side from Kulusuk, Kangerlussuaq (Sondre Stromfjord) in West Greenland. Sadly, at age 17 I could not afford a camera! Hugh carried on his original FIDS medical research after he returned to the UK and used expeditions to various parts of the world, primarily polar, as the justification for his research. We walked and canoed from Kangerlussuaq to the edge of the ice-cap then did a 10 mile walk over the ice to a big nunataq which had last been visited by Rymill & Hampton on their crossing of the Greenland Ice-cap in 1932. As it was summer there were many melt streams on the ice which usually disappeared down vertical tubes in the ice which were most alarming to look into!

Alan - On our flight into Greenland from Copenhagen we could quite clearly see the geodesic dome of the US DEW (Distant Early Warning) radar station on the ice cap which was part of the cold war early warning radar chain. Summit Camp is, I believe, a couple of miles from the abandoned DEW station.

I still have my diary I kept on the six-week trip plus and an Inuit carving of a seal hunter's kayak which sits on the shelve above my computer. I also have scars courtesy of the dense clouds of mossies which found my Scottish blood very attractive! I also had the good luck to see a small group of Musk Oxen, thankfully across an intervening river.

It was a wonderful experience for a 17 year old and extremely influential in my decision to apply to BAS to go to the Antarctic 3 years later.

I hope you have a safe flight out, Alan, and a really great trip on your way home. Thanks for the photos you've posted on the forum. Will you be signing up again?

Cheers.

Drummy

[webpiter]

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and later Denmark) for more than a millennium. Greenland is, by area, the world's largest island.With a population of 56,615 (January 2011 estimate) it is the least densely populated dependency or country in the world.