At the edge of ice and the world

Words and photos:
Adriana Eyzaguirre

It was two years ago sitting in my mum’s kitchen table in Chile emailing people back in the UK about the possibility of putting together a stunning adventure. From there the idea of a trip to Greenland started to take shape. My immediate thought was we will need two groups back to back to make this work. I was given full given full marks for enthusiasm!

At the edge of ice and the world

The 18 months between that moment and the trip were a long and fruitful journey; from looking for participants to developing a suitable training program for Greenland. I thought the best place to start would be speaking to anyone and everyone who had been to Disko Bay or anywhere else in Greenland. We collected from fun and hair-raising anecdotes to digital maps with waypoints and campsites to help us plan our time in the land of icebergs.

Preparing for the trip

The highest priorities were to make sure our trip would be safe and enjoyable. We spent many months working on measures to provide a strong safety net and planned the training to get everyone ready for the adventure of a lifetime. This wasn’t just limited to kayak training but also packing, trimming and carrying loaded sea kayaks, making successful camps and feeding hungry kayakers for many days.

We did some long kayaking weekends in Anglesey, Dorset and Devon to get us in the spirit of things followed by a week long trip to the west coast of Scotland. This final week was a great test of our plan and the suitability of our personal kit. Anything that needed to be tested was put through the paces there.

During these trips, we learned to work as a group and got to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. After all, we were about to spend a serious amount of time relying on each other in the middle of nowhere in an environment that could prove to be hostile.

One of the biggest challenges for our trip was definitely meal preparation. We spent several months working on this, starting by measuring fuel requirements in Scotland, agreeing on a menu, which included spaghetti veg bolognese, a yummy dhal, pulled pork, bean stews, pancakes and cakes for rainy or cold days and then preparing the meals for shipping.

Due to the length of our trip, the limited space on the kayaks and the environment we were camping in, our best solution was drying and packing most meals prior to travel. Six weeks before the trip, we shipped five huge barrels to Ilulissat containing all sort of things designed to make our life a bit more comfortable in the wilderness.

Getting to Ilulissat

Our departure date arrived in a flash and the leadership team flew out ahead of the first group to ensure smooth sailing and to deal with any potential issues. We arrived at the charming little town of Ilulissat, which is next to Jackobshavn, the second largest glacier in the world. It looks like a small town at the edge of the world; rough around the edges, colourful and beautiful.

Ilulissat boasts of a population of 5,000 and many iconic places like their wooden church that was moved in 1929 after a giant iceberg destroyed the original 18th century building. There, we saw the Greenlandic skin-on-frame kayaks in the local kayak club and the shops selling jewellery made of caribou antlers and seal skin clothing.

The first day there I met Kempe, a Greenlandic kayaker and kayak builder who won my heart with his wit and taught me how to say, “Qajaq” properly. One evening I made dinner for him, he showed me all the movements needed to throw harpoons from a kayak and explained why the masik is the essential component that allows the hunter to use his full strength.

He told me tales of the hunt of walrus, belugas and seals. I learned that he had constructed the umiak boat that lives in front of the Ilulissat museum, originally skinned with walrus. One harsh winter, the locals, in need of skin to repair their own kayaks and coats, started taking bits of it, therefore later on the holed skin had to be replaced with coated canvas. It sounded like a different world listening to these stories of hunting and life in the ice. Talking to someone who had taken part in this way of life and actually used a kayak for hunting, was a very unique experience.

We were lucky to arrive in time for Greenland Day, which was celebrated at the church with traditional songs and bright beaded costumes. The icing on the cake was the fantastic demonstration of Greenland rolling by a husband and wife team using their skin-on-frames qajaqs. They were in the bay in front of the church for about 30 minutes, demonstrating several types of rolls wearing a tulik and no gloves in 1C water among the broken ice. It was a privilege to see them demonstrating their traditions so expertly in front of a happy crowd.

After our group arrived, we spent several hours packing and repacking on the launch day. Eventually, we were under way after lunch to make passage through the huge icebergs that grind and float in Ilulissat Bay. We were out exploring the area north of Ilulissat for many days. Rather than racing north, we aimed to paddle among the icebergs, watch the whales feed, enjoy the midnight sun and hike close to the ice cap.

Kayaking in Greenland

We were very conscious of the danger that kayaking near icebergs brings and this kept the group on their toes. Kayaking among the bergs requires a lot of concentration and care. They are a dangerous, beautiful and amazing work of nature – some are white, some green, some deep blue. They towered over our kayaks, sometimes leaning precariously, motivating us to paddle faster. Everyone in the group took hundreds of photos and when the whales appeared among the bergs, shouts of joy erupted from all of us.

We could hear the Minkes and Atlantic humpbacks before we could see them, their spout sounds filling the air even when they were far away. After coming up to breathe, they would dive curving their backs and exposing their huge tails in the air. Our attention was focused to see where they would appear next so we could capture that elusive moment on film.

In one of our camps, schools of whales would come several times a day to feed and snooze. There, we saw both adults and calves and huge males beating the surface of the sea with their powerful fins. At night, in the golden light of the midnight sun, we could hear their primeval screams which made it impossible to stay in our tents. The temptation to come out to see them was too strong and made us think of a primeval world.

There were periods during our trip when the weather was too cold or not suitable for kayaking. We made our way in the kayaks through some bouncy narrows and into a long fjord that ended close to the ice cap. The group was keen to get as close as possible to it, so we went hiking through soft tundra made of beautiful tiny flowers, bright moss and black lichens.

The monumental landscape is as beautiful as is this tiny carpet of life full of colour and intricate delicate shapes. That day we got to an excellent vantage point where we could appreciate the enormity of the ice cap, the moraine and the mountains with their vertical granite walls.

Along the way we saw several tiny settlements with summer houses and a small village with a traditional Greenlandic restaurant at where we stopped for dinner and beers. Owned by a couple who have two children and 18 sled dogs, the restaurant served us local delicacies including seal and halibut. Most families keep the dogs to move around in sleds when the sea freezes over. This mode of transport is slowly being replaced by modern motorised sleds that don’t require dogs, another sign of modernization in Greenland, which is unfortunately accompanied by the loss of traditional skills.

This year we are starting preparations for our third expedition, which will be led by Roger Chandler in 2020. Each year we do two expeditions – the spring and the summer trip. Paddlers participating will join us in Anglesey to work on developing a mindset, a group spirit and set the ambition for the expeditions

The trip is hard and the weather can be very variable, requiring expeditioners to pace themselves. It becomes important to focus on what is possible on the day rather than having set plans and routes, which are prone to being thwarted. Our experience has taught us that this adventure requires a relaxed and open approach to understand that the environment is all powerful.

In Greenland, the conditions dictate every decision: from where we go to what we eat and where we camp. Nature rules our daily journeys and dictates the number of tent days we will have. The joy of the trip is being there, to work as a team, gape at the ice, marvel at the whales and experience one long day that lasts for weeks. It is an incredible, jaw dropping experience for everyone that visits and an opportunity to make new friends from the groups and in Greenland.