Saturday morning and it was back to PGI Greenland for my snowshoe hike after my snowmobiling the previous day. I’d asked at the office how many people were doing the hike and was told it was just me, but again PGI Greenland ran the tour just for me. They obviously don’t want to disappoint anyone by cancelling.
This time Jose, originally from Granada in Andalucia, was my guide, and Marta from the office was going to come with us too.
Jose said the clothes I was wearing were fine for the hike, but he’d bring me some mittens because my hands might get cold. He had me try the snowshoes on indoors so he could get them to the right size, you click into them like ski boot click into skis. Thankfully this was nothing like skiing, I’ll write a post about my attempts at skiing, so you can all discover how good I was at that! You might have guessed, athletic ability is not my strong point! But at least I have a go.
Jose said we were walking the yellow trail which I’d now tried, and failed, twice. After doing the hike with Jose, I realised I’d never have managed it without snowshoes, poles and a guide. Me and Jennifer, who was staying in the same guesthouse as me, had been way off course the day before. It was actually really difficult to follow the markers, they kept disappearing from view. It’s only because Jose knew where the trail went that he could find the markers and the cairns.
I was told the trail was popular and there were loads of people always hiking it. We didn’t see one person and there were fresh snowdrifts from the night before so we didn’t see any footprints on most of the trail either. So you really needed to know where you were going to find the trail markers with all the deep snow half burying the trail posts and covering all footprints left the day before.
Jose had to cut a path up the steps to even start the trail since the steps were knee deep in snow and you couldn’t actually see where the steps were. When we got to the top of the steps Jose put my snowshoes on for me, gave me 2 poles and he and Marta had one pole each and hiking snowboots, but no snowshoes. Jose said after 20 minutes I’d forget I’d got the snowshoes on. He showed me how to turn around in them and to be careful and then led the way.
I was quite slow, but Jose said we weren’t in a hurry and I was certain I was far from the slowest person they’d had on the snowshoe hike. Marta only walked a short way, then said she was cold and went back, which left me and Jose to complete the trail. My dance teacher always says the first rule of dancing is look after your lady and keep her safe. That is definitely what Jose did when he took me on the snowshoe hike. I was nervous going downhill, like I always am, and he showed me how to go down with the snowshoes which also have metal spikes on the front to give extra grip.
We got part way down and Jose told me to look back and see what I’d already done and how well I’d managed, he was constantly giving me encouragement and congratulating me on the part of the trail I’d covered. I told him my balance was poor and he told me I couldn’t have done the hike with poor balance, I’d done really well in the snowshoes. We had stops to admire the view and take photos and every time I wanted a photo I had to take my mittens off because I couldn’t operate the camera with them on. When I’d finished, Jose would put my mittens back on for me! Would you call that spoilt and pampered? It’s certainly looking after your lady.
He tightened my snowshoes for me twice, kept an eye on me all the time, when we did the steep uphill section which was hardgoing, I asked him if we could rest for a minute because I was out of breath. When we got to the top he showed me again how far I’d climbed and how well I’d done, especially as I’d never worn snowshoes before. He made it really enjoyable because he was happy, enjoying the walk, enjoying chatting to me and I was enjoying the walk and the chat, and him looking after me and constantly encouraging me gave me a lot of confidence over the difficult sections.
I was so confident at the end of the hike that when Jose gave me the choice of us taking the easy route or ploughing through the deep snowdrifts and having a bit of fun, I chose to plough through the deep snowdrifts which was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the hike as much as I’d enjoyed the snowmobiling the day before and the reason I was happy and buzzing after both tours was because of the marvellous guides. I felt like I was getting a really personal tour, especially since on the snowshoe hike we didn’t see another soul on the trail.
Jose told me I should visit Andalucia where he was from, I told him I worked as a tour guide and knew good and bad guides when I saw them and congratulated him on being a top class guide. Jose said they had an agreement with the University of Greenland to train locals to be hiking and snowmobiling guides. They have local knowledge, but they could use help from other guides to show them how to be good mountain guides. I hope the locals learn from these guides and maintain the standard, although it will be a very tough act to follow.
I can’t say with certainty I’d have managed the black ice hills on the permanent ice sheet if Jose had been my guide, but it’s definitely much more likely I’d have managed it if Jose or Joaquin had been guiding Camp Ice Cap. The Greenlandic guide on the ice camp had been guiding on the ice sheet for 35 years. He knew how to read the ice, knew exactly where he was, which parts of the sheet were snow bridges and which were solid ice, but as a guide, a 30 second demonstration of how to walk over black ice using crampons and poles and then taking off at the speed of light expecting everyone else to follow is not sufficient for the athletically inept such as myself.
I’ve already said with proper instruction, practise and perseverance I could have probably done the walk. So if I’d had a PGI guide demonstrating and explaining properly, looking after their ladies and keeping them safe and with their encouragement and praise of your achievements which create confidence and happiness, who knows, maybe I could have done the ice hike. You’ve got to adapt your speed to your customers, not go at your normal pace and expect everyone else to keep up. Surely if you go at your normal pace when you’ve been doing it for 35 years, most other people will struggle to keep up.
Anyway, the snowshoe hike was all so personal and made me feel very special, that’s what good customer service is, the PGI Greenland staff were all so wonderful and did a marvellous job. PGI Greenland made my visit to Greenland special and are my top recommendation for a holiday in this beautiful country.
They were doing summer kayaking tours in Ilulissat and said I should come back for that. Because I knew Jose and Joaquin would look after me even though I’ve never been kayaking before and would be patient and encouraging, I was tempted. Sadly I didn’t make it back there in the summer. There’s always other years.
I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.
My guided snowshoe hike was with PGI Greenland a seasonal adventure activities tour operator based in Ilulissat with offices in the town centre.
I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.
Read more about my adventures in Greenland.
Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile
Camp Ice Cap
My First Day in Greenland
Exploring Ilulissat
Two Day Dog Sled Adventure
