Greenland Archives — yorkshirehayley.com

Greenland: Two Day Dog Sled Adventure

16 strong and fast dogs pull the sledge across the icy landscape for my 2 day expedition

My final adventure in Greenland was a 2 day dog sled expedition. There were 5 of us going and each of us had our own dog sled and musher. We got the bus to a hut to put on our sealskins. It was going to be cold sitting on a dog sled for 6 or 7 hours each day for 2 days, they recommended we hire them, so we all did. I hired boots too, but they weren’t sealskin boots and they kept my feet no warmer than my own boots. The others on the trip were 2 German couples.

Ready to go - all bundled up in my sealskins and I was still cold! — Ready to go – all bundled up in my sealskins and I was still cold!

We went to the area where all the dog sleds leave from and the other 4 went to their sleds and I had to wait for mine. My musher was about 15 minutes late, the staff phoned him and they said he was on his way and that he had strong dogs and would catch the others up.

When he arrived on his sledge, he looked to have a lot of dogs. I asked how many dogs there were because it was difficult to count them when they were moving. There were 16 dogs to pull the sledge. I put my camera in the zipped part of the front of my sealskin jacket, the rucksack went on the back of the sledge, I sat on reindeer hides, held onto the string that had everything secured in place on the sledge and we were off. I had been warned that I might have to get off the sledge and walk up hills, but I didn’t have to do that once. These dogs were strong and they were fast. We easily caught the others up. After about an hour we stopped for the dogs to have a rest and then we were off again.

My musher and his 16 strong and fast dogs and our racing sleigh

I’ve been dog sledding in Alaska in the summer through the forest and the Alaskan huskies were racing dogs. They ran in pairs in a straight line. The Greenland huskies seemed to be bred more for strength and they don’t run in a straight line, they fan out and bunch together in tighter spots rather than go in front of each other. Going downhill you do have to hang on, it’s like a rollercoaster ride, you go over bumps and the sledge jumps into the air. On steeper downhill sections we were told the dogs would be behind the sledge, but my musher didn’t drive his dogs like that, he always had them in front. He had a brake at the back and also put thick ropes over the runners on the front of the sledge to create some friction and slow us down because his dogs really did run down those hills!

I have to say, if you’re an animal lover and have a pampered pooch at home, dog sledding in Greenland is probably not for you. These mushers are hard on their dogs, they’re not pets, they are working animals relied on for survival, so the treatment of the dogs is definitely strict. I didn’t realise that the dogs would be treated so harshly. The mushers all have whips which are mainly used for steering the dogs, they whirl it around like a cowboy would a lasso to show the dogs which direction to run. However, the mushers aren’t above giving a dog a couple of cracks of the whip if they aren’t behaving. I suppose they can’t afford for the dogs to play up, the dogs need to know who’s in charge; the hunter’s survival could depend on it.

Lead dog and boss dog are alert while we wait for the other 4 sledges to catch up

My musher had a young dog that was about 9 months old that struggled to keep up with the others after a while particularly when the dogs were running downhill. I witnessed something on one downhill section and I assumed the reason the dogs generally run behind the sledge when they go downhill was to prevent this happening. We were going down one downhill section and the young dog went under the sledge. I screamed because I thought we’d crushed it to death. Thankfully there is a bit of a gap under the sledge so we didn’t kill the dog. The musher retrieved the dog and tossed it along with the others to carry on running, but it was struggling. I didn’t know if it was hurt, my impression was that the musher was going to make it keep running otherwise it wasn’t going to learn, at least I’m presuming that was the reason the musher gave it a couple of cracks with the whip when it started to fall behind again and decided it had had enough.

On the other hand, on the way back the musher told me he had to watch the struggling dog because he was young and when we were almost back at the end of the second day and this poor dog couldn’t keep up with the other dogs anymore, the musher pulled the young dog onto his lap and was stroking it. So it wasn’t all bad. He pointed out his best dog to me and also his boss dog which were two different dogs.

And of the 5 sledges, my musher definitely had the strongest and fastest dogs. I never had to get off the sledge, quite often the musher sat on the sledge while we were going uphill, even though on some sections I was thinking “we’ll never get up there”. And even if the other sledges started out ahead of us, we always overtook them and arrived first. Another musher tried to take the lead a couple of times, but then my dogs would have to slow down. On the way back, on 2 sections we were so fast and so far in front of the others, we had to wait quite a while for them to catch up which was when my musher told me about his dogs, he had 24 in total, he also hunted reindeer and was a halibut fisherman in the summer months.

Strange ice formations in the fairytale snowscape

On our first day, our second stop was at a hut at about one o’clock where we had a cup of tea and a bar of chocolate. The Germans asked if we would get lunch. I told them, I thought that was it! And I was right! And after that we entered the most impressive landscape on our journey. The scenery was beautiful, a wilderness of snow and mountains and no one else around. But when we went down the hill from the hut we were in fairytale land. It was like being on a sleigh in Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen going through all these ice sculptures, but these were all natural carvings, no people had been here to sculpt this ice.

We came back the same way and the scenery didn’t have the same impact of the first sighting, but I managed to get some photos on the way back. However, you really had to see it, photos simply didn’t do justice to this icy wonderland.

Pristine ice sculptures in the ice field

After that we headed through some really deep snow to the glacier. The dogs were working extremely hard to pull the sledge, sometimes the snow was right up to the top of their legs, but they ploughed on. They were incredibly strong dogs.

The mushers encouraged us to do a bit of a walk to view the glacier when we stopped close by, it was a steep and treacherous climb and unfortunately there were no snowshoes or poles for us to use and, more importantly, there was no José. If you can’t manage, the mushers just leave you, they don’t help. The German ladies helped me a bit, but after a while I’d had enough and decided I’d got far enough, I had a good enough view of the glacier and I didn’t think climbing any higher would improve the view.

Our luxury mountain log cabin complete with air conditioning and guard dogs

And then we got back on the sled for the final leg of our first day on the dog sled to our overnight accommodation. There were 2 huts in the distance at the top of a hill. I thought my dogs would never pull me up there, it was too steep, but they did. And we were first again. The blokes had a harder time, they were heavier and their dogs weren’t as strong, so they had to get out and walk up the hills quite a few times, including to the huts. The dogs were tied up and we were all shown our luxury suite.

The Royal Suite with "the Great Outdoors" ensuite- at £120 per night Raffles has got some stiff competition — The Royal Suite with “the Great Outdoors” ensuite – at £120 per night Raffles has got some stiff competition

We’d been told it was basic, we’d seen photos at the tour operator’s office, but we were still all quite shocked just how stark and rustic it was. We didn’t have to share with the mushers, they had their own hut. There was a heater in the corner of our hut, but it was still freezing in there. There was a wooden table and a bench which would seat about 2 or 3 people. Useful for 5 of us! There was a large lower bed with mattresses and one upper bunk. As the Germans were in couples I said I’d go in the upper bunk because there was only room for one person in it. They said there was enough room for me if I wanted to sleep on the lower mattresses, but actually being up there on my own was the best deal, there was quite a lot of room, it was like being in a single bed.

It was so cold in the hut. We all took our sealskins off, but we were sitting around in our coats and the floor was wet from the snow on our boots, so we couldn’t take our boots off. The funniest moment of the evening was when Julia said she didn’t think she would need her house shoes that she’d packed and pulled a pair of slippers from her rucksack! She should have known that luxury suites like this provide you with slippers, you don’t have to bring your own.

I got the penthouse, the top bunk all to myself - the other four shared the lower bed — I got the penthouse, the top bunk all to myself – the other four shared the lower bed

The mushers kept coming into our hut at intervals to bring us food, bread and cheese and then chocolate and then tons of butter! And quite a lot of tinned goods.

4 hours after arriving we were still cold, the heater hadn’t adequately warmed our hut and the ice in the pan on the stove that was supposed to be melting to give us water was still solid chunks. The mushers had evidently kept the best fire for themselves because they had their hut window open and were in teeshirts! We were all pretty cold and miserable at this point and kept going out intermittently to see if we could see the Northern Lights. But they didn’t come out until well after midnight and by half past eleven we’d had enough and went to bed.

Inefficient fire for the first 5 hours, old fashioned kettle and plenty of wardrobe space for handing yr sealskins, what more could you ask for? — Inefficient fire for the first 5 hours, old fashioned kettle and plenty of wardrobe space for hanging your sealskins, what more could you ask for?

There was another door in the hut which we optimistically thought might be the toilet. It wasn’t. The ensuite facilities of our luxury cabin in the mountains were The Great Outdoors. Julia and I had been outside earlier to scope out the best place for the toilet, decided the side of the hut with no window was good, privacy and a bit of shelter and as with the ice camping on the ice sheet the weekend before, I drank very little during the day so the toilet would only be necessary once last thing at night and once in the morning before we left.

Yes, I definitely advocate living on batteries so you don’t have to drop your drawers in the snow at the side of a hut in -20 degrees. The German ladies were worse off than me, they needed to go during the day and had to try and get the sealskin dungarees off as well as everything else. It was obviously less of an issue for the blokes.

Arctic Princess ready to glide across a fairytale icescaepe on her magical sleigh. Maybe this Snow Queen would look better in white? — Arctic Princess ready to glide across a fairytale icescape on her magical sleigh. Maybe this Snow Queen would look better in white?

So after checking for the Northern Lights for the last time we went to bed and as I was up in the penthouse, once I climbed up there that was it for the night, I couldn’t be clambering all over the Germans on the mattress below me unless I desperately needed the loo. After being freezing for most of the evening, by bedtime our luxury cabin was really warm, the heater had finally done its job.

I ended up sleeping in just my thermals and half the night I was on top of the sleeping bag because it was so warm. There was loud snoring from someone so I plugged my iPod in and listened to my music all night, but I slept surprisingly well after initially looking at our Royal Suite in despair. We were all making jokes about when was the waiter going to come with the wine list and stuff because it did all seem so dire at first, but once it warmed up it was bearable. So, yes, I slept, mainly because it was very warm. Much warmer than the tent on the ice camp adventure and I also had a lot more space on the top bunk, it was just like sleeping in a single bed. A bed in a dormitory or a hospital, this was no luxury hotel, but it was nowhere near as uncomfortable as the tent. After initially having my doubts, our mountain lodge was much better than the tent, certainly for sleeping.

For a very brief moment another sledge is in front of ours

The next day we were awakened by one of the mushers bringing us some hot water at 7.30am. So we all rushed to get ready and we needn’t have bothered, the mushers were in no hurry. I pulled my sleeping bag down to try and put it into its holder and Julia said something to her husband and he got the sleeping bag and said he’d put it away for me. I said I was just about to do it, he didn’t have to do it for me, but he said when his wife told him to do something, he did it. Good lad! That’s what I like to hear. I had a muffin and cup of tea for breakfast and then we were ready for off.

We all had to walk down the hill from our luxury mountain lodge; that was the only time I had to walk instead of the dogs pulling me on the sledge. We came back the same way and once again, my sledge was fastest by a long way with my strong fast dogs.

Rapidly catching up with the dog sled ahead, the other dog teams just couldn't compete with my strong, fast dogs — Rapidly catching up with the dog sled ahead, the other dog teams just couldn’t compete with my strong, fast dogs

It does get very cold sitting on the sledge, it wasn’t as bad in the sunshine, but it was perishing in the shade and my feet were absolutely freezing, I couldn’t seem to get them warm and I had 4 pairs of socks on under my boots! I kept taking my gloves off to take photos and then put them on again in a hurry and worried because then I couldn’t feel my fingers for 10 minutes. The things we do to get photos… But the scenery was so special, no one else around, very tranquil.

It was something that was wonderful to do as a one off, but I wouldn’t want to be out on that ice sheet hunting and fishing with the dogs on a regular basis. What, I hear you say? You don’t want to rush back to the Royal Suite at the luxury mountain retreat?

I did enjoy it, but I did have a few issues with the dog sledding.

Firstly I was uncomfortable with the harsh treatment of the dogs, which the Germans also commented on. And the dogs were very smelly too, just as an aside.

Secondly it almost felt like we were imposing and the mushers didn’t really want to take tourists out with them. Running round a field for 2 hours in a dog sled, which is what most tourists do, is completely different to doing this 2 day trip. Can you argue that the mushers don’t have to take tourists if they don’t want to? And if it is such an imposition they shouldn’t be taking them anywhere?

We were told it was an authentic experience. I think the office staff were referring to our luxury mountain retreat when they said that.

Have the mushers been more or less forced into it because they can no longer survive with their traditional way of living? But things change everywhere over time. I did still feel like I was intruding, that the mushers didn’t really want to take tourists, they were just doing it for the money.

This was highlighted all the more after spending the previous 2 days with PGI Greenland and the Spanish guides with their impeccable customer service, their obvious enjoyment of their work and their enthusiasm for the activities and the landscape, looking after their passengers and enjoying being with them and getting people to make the most of their excursions. It was a complete contrast to the dog sledding.

The mushers looked after us and made sure we didn’t die. I enjoyed the dog sledding; the scenery was amazing, you really got out into the wilderness and that feeling of solitude and isolation was something special. And the experience of staying in the nearest rival to Raffles is something I’ll always remember.

Greenland has the best postcards in the world - ever! — Greenland has the best postcards in the world – ever!

The enduring memory of Greenland of this undisputed Arctic Princess will be the tours I took with the Spanish guides, both the daytime snowmobiling and the snowshoe hiking, which were exhilarating and amazing, but more than either of those, going out with the whole PGI team that Saturday night on the snowmobile and enjoying the dazzling display of the Northern Lights together. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

My dog sledding expedition was booked with World of Greenland Ilulissat who are based in Ilulissat town centre.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

Greenland: Snowshoe Hike to View the Kangia

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.

Setting off with determination on my snowshoe hike

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.

Two lonely figures crossing the vast icy landscape

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.

Making a careful start on my first downhill slope

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.

Climbing to the highest part of the trail

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.

May I present - icebergs! — May I present – icebergs!

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.

Greenland: Exploring Ilulissat

Ilulissat is a little further up the coast to Kangerlussuaq where I’d just come from and rather than being inland, it’s on the coast, right on Disko Bay. The sea ice was breaking up while I was there and there were huge icebergs out in the bay. And when I say huge, these are staggering proportions, they are almost unbelievable. It’s impossible to describe how enormous they are, and in fact, the photos do nothing to give anyone an idea of the colossal size of these giant pieces of ice. You really do have to see them. From a distance they look massive, so the scale of them when you get up close is mindblowing.

In the town of Ilulissat with a huge iceberg in the bay behind me

I stayed in a guesthouse rather than a hotel in Ilulissat, I didn’t want a week in a hostel, the hotels were expensive, the guesthouse was a good compromise. There were 3 friendly Greenlandic dogs chained up outside. They had kennels, but the dogs didn’t bother going in them, they seemed quite happy to curl up and sleep outside in the snow instead.

When I arrived there was a clear view of the town and Disko Bay. 24 hours later it was snowing hard, there was no view out into the bay and it looked thoroughly unpleasant outside. But actually it was okay. It wasn’t particularly cold especially if you were wrapped up, it was just very low visibility and my cheapo $10 sunspecs I bought in the States a few years back came in very useful against the glare of the snow.

The snowstorm had grounded all the planes, so Pedro who was staying in the guesthouse was going to be lucky to get to Copenhagen today. He was from Brazil and had come from plus 40 degrees in Rio to minus 20 degrees in Greenland. He’d had to come a long way round to get here too, Rio to Paris, Paris to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq and Kangerlussuaq to Ilulissat! He was going back to Copenhagen and then on to the Faroe Islands! Wow! Quite a journey.

On a day like this it was recommended I check out the museum, apparently you could spend hours there. No, you couldn’t. For a start, it’s only open 4 hours a day and it has 5 small rooms of exhibits. However, it is interesting, detailing the ancient settlements found nearby, the history of the town and the explorers from Greenland who went on expeditions around the Arctic. I spent just over an hour there and then headed off to the art gallery as my entrance fee to the town museum also gave me entrance to the art gallery.

Snow goggles on display in the museum don't look like they be very effective against blizzard conditions — Snow goggles on display in the museum don’t look like they would be very effective against blizzard conditions

The art gallery was very impressive for a small town. There was one artist, Emanuel A Petersen, a Danish artist who spent time in Greenland whose paintings from the 1920s and 1930s were displayed on the ground floor. They were definitely my kind of paintings, snow scenes, icebergs, I love those kind of scenery paintings. And my favourite was one of the Northern Lights. Upstairs was a photography exhibition by an artist from Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, and some ivory carvings. It was only a small gallery, but it was a good way to pass the time when you have nothing else to do.

On a boat trip in Disko Bay to see icebergs up close

The next day I went on a boat trip. In Greenland in March the weather is unpredictable and you can have blizzards and snowstorms at any time, so when the weather is good you have to seize the opportunity to do something. The boat trip took place on a small fishing boat and there were about 18 of us on board. There was plenty of space to move round and find a good spot for taking photos. The icebergs were amazing and what made it very special was the halo sun that lit up the sky and made the icebergs really beautiful to look at. A halo sun is a rare phenomenon where bright, white rings appear around the sun when light travels through ice crystals found in upper level cirrus clouds. Everyone get that? Just look at the photo and you’ll see what I saw. It was beautiful and as for example icebergs, some were very blue and glassy, others were white and some had jagged pieces on them or huge cracks down them.

If boats venture far into the sea ice they could get stuck

There was still quite a bit of sea ice, we went into a really small area of it, but we weren’t on a nuclear powered Russian icebreaker like the one I went to the North Pole in, we were on a small fishing boat, so the captain didn’t venture too far into the ice and risk getting us stuck.

We were out in the fjord amongst the icebergs for about 3 hours, so we got our money’s worth. It did get a bit cold, but I was well wrapped up and it wasn’t particularly windy and the temperatures weren’t that low. It was only about -4 degrees Celsius which is positively balmy for Western Greenland in March. Seeing the icebergs with the halo sun overhead was a bit special and made for stunning photos. But again, it’s impossible to describe how big these icebergs are, you just can’t explain it, you really have to see them. But it was well worth taking the trip, it’s fantastic to see them so close up.

After the boat trip, I did a hike from the power station in town which took me out to the fjord where the boat had sailed earlier. You get a different view from the land and the sun was setting too, so the colours of the sky and the icebergs were beautiful. However, as it was getting later in the day, no one else was on the path by now and I ran out of trail markers and footprints and I couldn’t tell where the path went. I didn’t want to get lost or stranded in the snow or the dark, so I simply backtracked, following my own footprints to get back to the power station. It was very pleasant for walking in though, I was so warm I had to take off my hat and scarf!

The following afternoon I was supposed to be going on a walking trip, unfortunately it was cancelled because of a blizzard. Not a lot anyone can do when the weather is as bad as that, but it was forecast to be much better over the next 4 days so I was hopeful that the rest of my booked activities would go ahead.

Despite the blizzard I decided to venture back into the town, so I put on all my layers and headed outside. It was thoroughly unpleasant outside. The wind was so strong it was almost knocking me off my feet, which also meant snow was blowing everywhere. It was difficult to tell if it was snowing or if it was just the wind whipping up the snow that was already around. There were some steps at the back of the guesthouse which were a short cut into the town. I was planning to use them, but there was a huge snowdrift covering some of the steps. I decided it was a bit risky going down them so turned round to come back and go the long way round, when a young lad came bounding past me and ran down the steps. The snow came up to his waist and he just ran through it. Obviously he was used to it. I continued on my route through town and as the weather wasn’t improving, decided it was time to go back to the guesthouse and I was going to come up the steps and not walk the long way round. Going up isn’t as bad as coming down and I had a railing to hang onto. On the very last section where the snow had drifted, that’s when the wind decided to whip up again and blow snow into my face. I almost fell over, but I managed to stay upright.

Wooden flights of stairs around Ilulissat get buried in snowdrifts

I went back into the guesthouse and poured myself a glass of wine. I certainly had no intention of venturing outside again today in the blizzard. It does seem a bit of a waste when you’ve come all this way and you stay indoors, but when the wind is trying to knock you off your feet, you can’t see where you’re going because the snow is blowing into your face, snowdrifts make the paths impossible to make out and you feel like Scott of the Antarctic, if you have got the option of staying indoors, sometimes you just have to wait out the storm.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

I went on the boat trip amongst the icebergs with Ilulissat Tourist Nature

I stayed at Paa & Jannik Guesthouse in a room on one floor of the house with a bathroom, living room and kitchen shared by 3 rooms. The guesthouse is located conveniently within an easy 15 minute walking distance to the centre of Ilulissat.

I visited Ilulissat Art Museum which is located in the centre of the town.

Greenland: My First Day

First photo of me in Greenland above the frozen musk ox lake

I love the polar regions. And I’ve always had a soft spot for the Arctic. I completely fell in love with it on my very first trip overseas, in the Canadian Arctic in 1991. I’d dreamed about going to the Canadian Arctic from the age of 14 after seeing a photo of the Virginia Falls on the cover of an Explorers Guide to the Northwest Territories. I didn’t go to the Virginia Falls on that occasion, but I experienced the Arctic for the first time and I loved it. I’ve explored various Arctic destinations in the 25 years that followed and Greenland was the only part of the Arctic left for me. It’s become a bit of an up and coming destination in the last couple of years and now seemed as good a time as any to see this island of ice which should really be called Whiteland instead of Greenland because all you see when you fly over it is snow from the permanent ice sheet that covers most of the country.

View of. Remote town of Kangerlussuaq from above — View of the remote town of Kangerlussuaq from above

I prepared myself for my flight to Greenland by putting on my “extra warm” thermals I’d bought from Marks and Spencer, jeans and a jumper over the top and my parka from when I went on an Icebreaker ship to the North Pole. I also had my waterproof trousers in my rucksack, 3 pairs of gloves, 2 hats and 2 scarves. I got on the plane, I was really going to Greenland after years of dreaming about it and bearing in mind it was March and should be warming up a bit, the pilot announced it was -25 degrees in Kangerlussuaq. I’d booked my window seat as soon as I booked my flight, so I got a good view of the east coast as we started to fly over Greenland. I’ve seen Greenland from the air countless times on my many trips to Canada, but this was the first time I was going to be landing there.

Kangerlussuaq is how I imagine the eastern Canadian Arctic, Nunavut to look. No trees just a few houses and lots of exposed rock. From what I can remember from geology, the oldest rock in the world is found in Greenland, gneiss rock. But I faintly recall that’s just in Eastern Greenland. And there really is nothing in Kangerlussuaq. Air Greenland have chosen this town as their hub because of the air base there, but there’s very little here except the airport and a few houses spread out. The locals call Kangerlussuaq a city. I can tell you now, it is as far away from a city as you could possibly imagine.

As for the accommodation, well the Old Camp is a series of buildings and the one I was in was like the Halls of Residence I lived in when I was at university. A long corridor with about 16 rooms, a shared kitchen, dining room, living room and 4 bathrooms. The rooms were very basic. But I can’t say I expected anything else. It’s not that bad. But it’s not that good either. I had my own room. I had to put my own sheets and pillowcases on the bed. But for the extra cost of a room at the hotel and probably not vastly higher standards, I decided I could cope for 2 nights. The bonus was they gave me the room for 3 nights at no extra cost, so when I wasn’t sleeping the following night in my tent on the ice, at least I could leave my luggage in the room.

When I arrived at the airport I got onto a yellow school bus which took me to the camp. Then I got on another bus shortly afterwards to go on a musk ox safari.

There’s a mineral lake where the musk ox like to go and drink and even though it’s frozen in the winter, the musk ox forget and apparently go there every day to try and get a drink. But not today. Today, they’d remembered it was frozen. So all I saw on this musk ox safari was the Greenlandic equivalent of RAF Fylingdales when it still had the golf balls and a couple of distant reindeer. Wow!

The throbbing metropolis of Kangerlussuaq

We did go up to a viewpoint to see the town below us and the fjord, but it wasn’t exactly exciting. I got the “city bus” into town later in the afternoon to have a look around. There were 4 shops, only 2 of which were open, a post office and a supermarket. I bought another pair of gloves from the supermarket because they were waterproof and you can never have too many pairs of gloves. Your hands lose the feeling in them very quickly without gloves in these temperatures. I wasn’t sure how was going to take photos because I don’t do well with gloves on, but I couldn’t take them off or I’d lose fingers!

Polar Ber sculpture outside the Old Camp - and the closest I got to seeing any big animals in Greenland! — Polar bear sculpture outside the Old Camp – and the closest I got to seeing any big animals in Greenland!

What I concluded on my walk back to the Old Camp from town, because it didn’t look that far and I couldn’t be bothered to wait for the hourly bus back, that however daunting Camp Ice Cap might be, it was preferable to spending 2 days in Kangerlussuaq doing nothing. I was genuinely scared about being incredibly cold and anticipating getting no sleep whatsoever. I got none when I camped out on Antarctica. I’ll make sure I pack a fully charged iPod. Why did I decide camping out on the permanent ice sheet for the night was a good idea? But unless you’re booked on activities there was literally nothing to do in Kangerlussuaq.

I was tired, so I thought I’d try to get an hour or two sleep and then get up to try and see the Northern Lights. Kangerlussuaq is famed for its cloudless skies so is a really good place in Greenland to catch the aurora. I had a wander outside and could see the start of it, decided that I needed to wrap up warmer, so I went back inside and put more clothes on and then headed back outside again. I watched the skies for a bit longer, the aurora which was a pale white light at that point wasn’t doing much and I wondered how much longer I should stay out in the freezing cold looking at the sky. The sky was promisingly clear so we might get a good show.

A green leaping tiger in the clear night sky? The wonder of the Northern Lights.

I ended up joining a trip where we drove out of town and found a perfect spot for the wind to hit us and once again make me wonder how the hell I was going to survive a night on the ice. Then we drove to a more sheltered spot and that’s when the lights started to dance. And when they start to dance they start to glow colours. Mostly green with flashes of pink and purple. It was pretty spectacular to see. The guide said he’d been there 4 months and gave it an 8 out of 10 for the show the lights put on tonight. They were still dancing when we drove back. I hoped that I might see the aurora again while in Greenland, maybe even the following night when I was out on the ice and finding it impossible to sleep… Anyway I can now die a happy woman and I have got to see the Northern Lights.

I got into the bed I made myself, there were two sheets in the wardrobe, presumably as there are 2 beds in the room, so I made the bed up with a bottom sheet and a top sheet, with hospital corners and everything to try and make it as comfortable as possible. Once again, I had no idea how I’d manage on the ice, I remember very little about my night on the ice in Antarctica apart from I didn’t close my eyes once and spent the majority of the night listening to a rock band called the Little Angels, probably because they’re from Scarborough and that’s exactly where I was wishing I was at that moment in time. But that was tomorrow. Tonight I had a real bed in a warm room in a proper building. And I’d survived my first day in Greenland.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I stayed at Old Camp in Kangerlussuaq.

I travelled to Kangerlussuaq with Air Greenland from Copenhagen.

Greenland: Camp Ice Cap

There were two questions on my mind about Camp Ice Cap and the likelihood of a positive answer to either was diminishing by the second. Would I be able to keep warm? Would I be able to keep upright? Would I be able to keep up was a question I didn’t even bother with, I already knew the answer to that was a resounding no, so no point worrying about it.

Camp Ice Cap was at Point 660 on the permanent ice sheet that covers most of Greenland and my feeling of nervousness intensified as we drove the 38km from Kangerlussuaq to get to the edge of the ice sheet.

Of the seven of us on the tour, on paper, I was the one with the most experience since I was the only one who had ever used crampons before, when I did a heli-hike on the Fox Glacier in New Zealand and I was also the only one who had ever camped out on the ice before when I slept in a tent on an Antarctic island. Oh how evidence can lie! Neither one of those things was remote preparation for what lay ahead.

On the way to the permanent ice sheet we stopped to look at the wreckage of a plane that had crashed and the plane wreck had just been left there. I knew flying in the Arctic was dangerous from my time flying in the Northwest Territories in Canada. The challenging weather could make for very hazardous flying conditions and add to that the fact that compasses are much less reliable because of the proximity to the magnetic pole means that pilots really need to know what they’re doing to be able to fly in the North. And here was a stark example of what happened if a pilot didn’t know what he was doing!

To start with we put crampons on, I put my rucksack on my back and there were also sledges with equipment that needed to be pulled to the campsite which was a 2 kilometre walk over the ice sheet and would take about half an hour. There were 5 sledges and 9 of us, so I avoided being one of the ones who had to pull a sledge. I knew I would only just be able to manage myself and my rucksack and anticipated that by the time we left camp the following day, everyone else would realise that too and wouldn’t even think about asking me to try and pull a sledge on the way back. And this was a correct assumption.

The hike to the camp wasn’t too bad, trekking over the snow covered ice sheet, although there was quite a lot of exposed ice visible and we had to walk across some of it. Apparently the ice sheet is 3.5km thick. So it goes down a long way. And has the potential to hold some very deep crevasses, which is why you can’t go wandering about on your own. If you hit a snow bridge that won’t take your weight you just sink into the snow and presumably suffocate. What a cheery thought. Or you might fall into a crevasse never to be seen again.

The vast Greenlandic permanent ice sheet stretching out ahead of us

The ice sheet was very uneven, lots of ups and downs, why did I imagine it was going to be flat? I suppose when you think of polar explorers you just have a vision of them pulling a sledge across a flat expanse of endless snow. And of course, the reality is nothing like that. When you do get to exposed ice it is extremely hard so you really have to stamp into it to get a grip with your crampons. Luckily there wasn’t too much of that on this hike.

I was lagging behind everyone else on the hike, despite the fact I didn’t have to drag a sledge. There were 2 guides, an old Inuit Greenlander called Adam who had been going on the ice for 35 years and Stefan who was Danish and had been in Greenland for a fortnight and was learning to be a guide. He was already a qualified mountaineer, he just needed to learn the terrain in this particular area. Adam was leading the way and Stefan was at the back with me. I wasn’t too far behind the others and then Stefan pointed out the camp. There was a large orange dome tent already up. That was basically the tent where we all congregated, sat round the gas burner and it was quite warm in there. We had a cup of tea and then it was time to put up the tents.

I don’t remember much about putting up tents from when I spent a night on the ice on Antarctica over 10 years ago. As far as I recall I didn’t actually do a great deal. This was going to be different, 4 tents to put up in absolutely freezing temperatures and we had to use ice screws to pitch the tents too. I had a tent to myself as I was the only single woman on the trip.

Putting up tents, from what I can tell, is not fun. Putting up tents in the snow and ice and freezing cold is even less fun.

We had to find a spot in this harsh environment of black ice hills to pitch our tents

The blokes did the heavy work, digging the snow out to reach the ice, putting the ice screws into the ice for a stable foundation for the tents and I helped with putting the poles into the tent and clipping them into place, more difficult than it sounds when it’s minus 20 degrees and you’re trying to use fiddly clips with enormous thick gloves on. I had 3 pairs of gloves and permanently wore 2 pairs, but in order to do the more fiddly work I had to take the thicker pair of gloves off and just work with the thin pair and then quickly replace the bigger gloves to warm up again. You can get cold and frostbite very quickly and you didn’t have to have your hands exposed for very long for them to feel absolutely freezing. Even with two pairs of thermal socks on and my new boots that are supposed to withstand temperatures of minus 32 degrees Celsius, my feet always felt cold.

This was going to be good to do as an experience, but why anyone would choose to do this more than once was a mystery to me. My tent was the last one to go up and two of my fellow adventurers Matt and John helped me put it up, along with Stefan, the guide. Two inflatable sleeping mats, a sleeping bag and an inner fleece cocoon got thrown into the tent for later and then we went back to the main pod for our evening meal.

The Greenlandic permanent ice sheet is up to 3.5km thick

I had already decided I was not eating the dehydrated food that was being provided. I think they just give people that as an authentic experience so you can feel like a polar explorer, but it was entirely unnecessary to eat it. They had bread, butter, cheese, dried fruit, chocolate and I had my stock of fruit and nut bars in case I got really stuck. They even had Earl Grey tea, so I didn’t need to use my own supply of teabags. So everyone else gamely gave the dehydrated food a go and I had cheese on toast! And we got to know each other a bit as we sat chatting in the tent. There was a Danish father and daughter, Matt who lived in Plymouth and had come to Greenland for a long weekend to do Camp Ice Sheet. John was from Dublin, but lived in London and had also come to Greenland for a long weekend and there was an American mother and daughter. We all chatted for quite a while in the lovely warm tent with the gas burner and then it was time to go and sleep in the tent. Prior to that I decided I had to brave the toilet.

There was a tall green tent a little distance away which contained the toilet. The most difficult thing for me was trying to find which side of this tent the zip was on so I could actually get inside. Not easy in the dark with just a torch from Tesco to help you. They had got this portable toilet with a large plastic bag inside it to collect everything, which would then have to be transported out at the end of the camping expedition. It was hardly Raffles, but it could have been worse.

I do think this adds weight to my argument that we should be able to live on batteries as this would eliminate the necessity for transporting portable toilets to the middle of nowhere. But since that isn’t an option at this moment in time, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

So next thing was inflating these two sleeping mattresses in my tent. In my opinion as well as having remote control tents which pop up all ready to sleep in at the touch of a button so we didn’t have to assemble them in sub-zero temperatures, the mattresses should have been self-inflating. I was still struggling to figure out how to inflate them when Stefan came to check on me and I told him I couldn’t inflate the mattresses. It was simply a case of blowing them up yourself, which I suspected was the case, but you had to just twist the tops and blow into them, rather than completely unscrewing the tops, which was what had been baffling me. Stefan blew them up for me, made sure I knew what to do with the sleeping bags, one big sleeping bag and an inner cocoon made of fleece to go inside that and then I had to attempt to get into them, not as easy as it sounds in a freezing cold, dark, tiny tent with just my Tesco torch giving me a bit of light. The boots, waterproofs and jeans came off, I took off my jumper to use as a pillow, got my iPod ready to rock me to sleep and managed to get into the sleeping bag.

Mountaineers use this brand of tent when they climb Everest – they must be absolutely freezing too!

The air mattresses weren’t really big enough. You needed a double one to be able to sleep comfortably. You had to line them up in a straight line on top of each other and get the sleeping bags directly on top of them to keep off the frozen ground. And it wasn’t easy to manoeuvre. I wasn’t laying in a straight line and my feet even in two pairs of thermal socks got a bit cold because they were always resting against the side of the tent. You could feel the cold even with 2 pairs of socks on and through 2 sleeping bags when the temperature is minus 25 degrees Celsius. But I found it impossible to line up the mattresses and sleeping bags so that my feet didn’t touch the side of the tent.

I didn’t expect to sleep at all, so the fact that I did get some sleep was a bonus. By 5am I was awake, breakfast was 7.30 in the main tent, I stayed in my sleeping bag to keep warm and then braved the toilet at 6am for the final time on the trip. My tent was closest to the toilet so I could hear if anyone else came past to use it, so I knew I’d gone before anyone else had. I got dressed and went for breakfast. We had breakfast and then it was time for our morning hike over the ice sheet.

Preparing to hike on the Greenlandic permanent ice sheet

Permanent ice sheet. Now I know the word ice is in the name, but even so, I didn’t expect it to be exposed ice that was like glass and virtually impossible to walk on, I expected it to be covered in a fairly deep layer of snow to cushion things a bit. The reality was there was a light dusting of snow from the overnight flurries and drifts, but basically, you were walking on black ice. Black ice, in England, on flat pavements is lethal. So now imagine black ice on a series of inclines and declines. You have crampons on. They did very little help to me. The ice is so solid they don’t seem to stick in very well. You had poles, but the ice is solid and the poles won’t stick into the ice, therefore they give you no stability and are worse than useless. To say I was absolutely terrified was an understatement.

I remember when I was at the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand and did the adventure caving which was very hard going physically. I couldn’t keep up with the other four who were on the tour, but there were two guides and one was always with me. I remember asking Haydn, one of the guides, if I was the slowest person they’d had on the tour and he said, not by a long way, in fact, they assessed the people at the start of the tour and if they were deemed incapable of completing the adventure caving they were escorted out by a third guide before the point of no return. Haydn said they did have to say to some people, “you can’t come, you’re too useless” and the third guide would lead them out of the cave. It wouldn’t surprise me with the Kiwis if they were blunt enough to actually say to people, “you can’t come, you’re too useless”.

Intrepid polar explorer equipped with poles and crampons setting out to conquer the Arctic wasteland

This is what I was anticipating could happen on this hike across the black ice hills of the permanent ice sheet. I’d found the hike to the camp challenging enough, but it was manageable. However, this was different. Within 5 minutes of walking on this black ice with its inclines and declines, even if the Greenlandic Inuit was too polite to tell me I couldn’t come, I was too useless, I was honest enough to say it to myself. If I carried on I’d break my leg or my neck. Possibly with a little more practice and preparation and perseverance I might have managed the hike, and I felt like a complete wimp, as was often the case, for backing out, but was trying to prove I was a hero worth the risk of getting helicoptered out on a stretcher? And to make me feel slightly better, John was almost as useless as me, he got about 10 steps further and then also refused to continue. So Stefan escorted us back to camp.

Me and John took a few photos and then while John was given an ice axe to chop some ice to melt for hot water, I had to take down my tent. I was thinking as I went inside to pack my sleeping bag that it was Sunday and it would normally be dance class.

I’ve never said no to attempting any moves in dance class, any lifts or drops even if they look daunting. I haven’t tried the one where I get tipped upside down and flipped because it hasn’t been demonstrated in a class I’ve attended yet, but I would have happily practised that with my dance partner for an hour and a half over hiking over those glass ice hills. It really was the most difficult thing I’ve ever been faced with, I can manage caving and if I’ve got ropes to hang on to like in the ice cave in Iceland, then I can also manage. If this hike had been with the aid of ropes, I could have managed it, but with unstable poles and unstable legs, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

I was pleased I’d been to the North Pole in a boat, because that crazy dream I’ve had a few times about maybe one day skiing to the North Pole has evaporated. Certainly if it’s anything like what I was faced with on the ice sheet it would be impossible. But if it was over snow, I might be able to do it. And I suppose if you had skis it would be snow and not ice. I’d also thought about trying ice climbing in Greenland. Maybe not such a good idea, although I might manage it with ropes. The thing is, if I had to get to the climbing point over terrain like the ice sheet without ropes, it would be a non-starter.

So after a few attempts at folding I managed to stuff the cocoon into its bag. Then I started on the bigger sleeping bag. I spent about 15 minutes puffing and panting trying to get the sleeping bag into its bag before I realised that I was trying to stuff the sleeping bag into the bag for the air mattress which was why it was impossible to get it all in. Those of you who go camping on a regular basis can stop laughing now. So I started again, with the right bag this time and managed to stuff it inside. I deflated the air mattresses and then Stefan came along and rolled them up and put them in the bag and then it was time to take down tent. I took down the tent on my own with Stefan’s assistance and that was my tent down and I could go into the big tent, in the warm to have a cup of tea. Then the others got back, we had something to eat, dismantled the other tents, put everything in sledges and headed back to the vehicle that would take us back to Kangerlussuaq.

Step onto a snow bridge and you could fall straight into a crevasse like this

Another long hike, but as everyone had realised I was completely useless, there was no suggestion of me dragging one of the sledges because it was my turn. I could only just manage myself and my rucksack. There was quite a bit of up and down on the route back, but it was all snow, very little ice, there was just one section that I struggled on a bit, when that happens I just freeze and can’t move. I have no idea which leg to move or where to put it. Eventually I realise I have to move, my brain kicks into gear and I work something out because I know I can’t stand there all day. I’m really not cut out for the life of adventure am I?

I have a constant debate about pushing myself to do things that are challenging. Is it better to book them and try and do them and then fail to do the entire thing if they turn out to be a bit beyond my capabilities, but congratulate myself for what I have achieved? Or should I know better, realise it is going to be too difficult for me and not attempt it in the first place? I was talking to a British couple in the Old Camp later who were probably about my age. The woman said she definitely would not have managed the hike. She’d been on an afternoon trip on the ice sheet where they just walk on the snowy part, so she’d seen the black ice hills and said she wouldn’t have walked on those under any circumstances. She seemed to think that the hike to the camp, putting up tents in the freezing cold and camping out overnight was enough of an achievement in itself and it would be a shame to push myself beyond my capabilities and be airlifted out, especially when I had another week in Greenland with plenty more things to look forward to. So let’s go with that.

The thing is when it comes to skydiving, bungy jumping and that kind of thing, it doesn’t bother me. I know if I do something like that in a country with proper safety laws, regular checks on equipment and fully trained staff, it’s going to be an exciting adrenaline rush, but I won’t be in any danger.

Anyway, we were transported back to Kangerlussuaq by tundra truck, one of those big trucks that are high off the ground and have big windows. For the second day running, the heating wasn’t working and it was colder in the tundra truck than outside. We had to wait for the tundra truck to turn up after hiking from the ice camp, then we had to wait for the less adventurous tourists to do their small walk on the ice sheet, then we had to wait while they all had two cups of hot chocolate or coffee before heading back to Kangerlussuaq in an unheated truck. It wasn’t pleasant, all of us who’d been out on the ice all night were completely fed up, but at last we were back at the Old Camp accommodation which was as welcome a sight as the luxury Das Cataratas Hotel at the Iguacu Falls, despite looking like a room in a university Halls of Residence. I made myself a cup of tea, had a shower and then treated myself to the small bottle of white wine I’d got on the plane from Copenhagen. The wine was a celebration, to congratulate myself on making it back alive and in one piece.

Whatever I say about the camping on the ice sheet, it was worth doing, I trekked on the Greenlandic permanent ice sheet, maybe not as far as some of the others, but further than most people will ever do and I slept out on the ice sheet in a tent on my own. I also enjoyed the company; we did have fun chatting to each other around the gas burner in the tent. It’s one of those things you can look back on and be pleased you did. Some experiences were awful at the time, but you look back on them and are pleased you did them. Generally this wasn’t completely ghastly at the time, a lot of it was enjoyable and I even managed to get a bit of sleep when I was in the tent. It wouldn’t be for everyone, but I had a great experience.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I booked Camp Ice Cap 660 with World of Greenland.

I stayed at Old Camp in Kangerlussuaq before and after Camp Ice Cap.

I travelled to Kangerlussuaq with Air Greenland from Copenhagen.

Greenland: Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile

Aurora Borealis in clear night sky near Ilulissat

I’d only tried snowmobiling once before, in Canada back in the 90s, so when I went snowmobiling in Greenland, it was like starting from the beginning again.

I turned up at PGI Greenland to check in for my first excursion with them, 3 hours of snowmobiling. Joaquin would be guiding me today and I first had to get kitted out. Joaquin found it very amusing how bundled up with layers I was with 4 layers on the bottom half and 4 layers on the top half, or 5 if you count the fact I’ve got a double layered coat, fleece underneath and waterproof on top which detach into 2 separate coats. It was Greenland in March and around -20 degrees, of course I was going to be well wrapped up. He recommended for snowmobiling, that I wear their padded dungarees and a padded coat and only keep 2 layers on underneath. The dungarees and jacket were so enormous I looked like the Abominable Snowman! He gave me padded mittens to wear and a balaclava to go under my crash helmet. It was like I was going to be doing Formula One racing! Not Formula One racing as it turned out. Moto GP!

There was one other person on the snowmobiling tour, so it was just the 3 of us and Joaquin said I had a choice. We had 3 snowmobiles. So we could either take 3 and drive one each, but he warned me it would be around an hour driving each way. Or we could take 2 and I could ride with him. I asked him if driving the snowmobile was difficult and he said it wasn’t, but you had to move with the snowmobile, shift in your seat and lean into corners or if you were going sideways along a hillside you had to lean to balance things out. So I wasn’t going to be Nigel Mansell, I was going to be Valentino Rossi! Anyway I decided I was going to drive. That’s what I’d come here intending to do, the opportunity was here for me to drive and if there’d been more people on the tour I wouldn’t have had that option, so I went for it! I have to say, even though it was with some trepidation I started out driving the snowmobile, I absolutely loved it. I was completely buzzing when I came back.

Snowmobiling along trail to see Ilulissat ice fjord

I got my basic instruction on how to drive a snowmobile, the throttle was a lever on the right hand handlebar, the brake was like a bike brake on the left hand side. And there was a red emergency stop button… Joaquin showed me how to shift my weight when we were cornering and then we were off to have a practice.

We went to a snowfield to practise cornering, I was okay at it, but I had to get used to standing up completely to shift my weight and really lean over when we were going round corners. We tried one more time and then we were off! Joaquin said he would keep looking back to make sure I was okay and he’d slow down or stop and wait for me as necessary, that I was not to try and catch him because he’d just go faster. He also said the dog sleds had priority so we had to pull over for them, wait if there wasn’t room to overtake and only overtake when there was plenty of space. With all that in mind, we set off.

Looking like The Abominable Snowman, bundled up for the Greenland Winter - I could hardly move to walk! — Looking like The Abominable Snowman, bundled up for the Greenland Winter – I could hardly move to walk!

It is physically quite demanding with all the moving and leaning you have to do, plus I was quite tense to start with. I’m no natural athlete and I’m not very big either, handling a snowmobile was quite hard work, it was a heavy machine. It was less physical when I relaxed a bit more, but still reasonably difficult. I just had to follow what Joaquin did and lean the same way he did when he did. He warned me when I went uphill just to keep going, not to stop or I’d be stuck. So I made sure I accelerated up the hills even though there were some tight turns, quick leans and I was bouncing around like in the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard on some of those fast corners! As there had been a blizzard the day before, there was a lot of fresh snow on the ground, Joaquin also took us on the more difficult trail. So he said I’d done really well driving for an hour on the difficult trail in harder conditions than usual.

We did see quite a few dog sled teams while we were out, I bet the people on them thought we were right hooligans, tearing past on noisy machines, disturbing the tranquility! But I was having such an adrenaline rush. There was one really steep downhill section with seriously deep snow that Joaquin wouldn’t let me drive down. He drove his snowmobile down, walked back uphill, told me to walk down the hill and it was so steep I actually slid most of the way which was great fun. Joaquin drove my snowmobile down for me, just as well, I don’t think I could have got down that section without getting stuck.

View of Ilulissat Ice Fjord

We had a stop at a viewpoint to view the ice fjord, so we did a short hike to it. Joaquin helped me over the difficult bits, he was very good at watching me to make sure I was okay and helping me if I was struggling. The huge padded dungarees and enormous jacket, both of which were far too big for me hampered me quite a lot, which added to the difficulty with the slippery, uphill climb. When we finally got to a good spot to view the ice fjord Joaquin produced a flask of tea. I’d had this fantastic snowmobile drive and was now looking at this beautiful view over to the ice fjord drinking tea to keep myself warm. How much more perfect could it get?

We came back on a different trail so I didn’t have to negotiate that very deep snow, this time uphill! I know it is possible to do very steep climbs in snowmobiles from seeing the race up the mountain in Jackson Hole 4 years ago, but there was no way I could handle a snowmobile like the lads in that race could! I think that section of the trail would have been difficult for me to manage going either up or down, I’d probably have overturned the snowmobile.

The drive back was immensely enjoyable even though I was cautious on downhill sections. Joaquin kept holding both his arms out to illustrate that he was neither accelerating or braking, but I felt more comfortable braking a little bit to slow the snowmobile down. However, I was more used to the snowmobile now and how to move and balance so I was better at driving it. I was definitely on a high when I came back and ended up driving quite well after my apprehensive start in difficult conditions on a challenging trail. Something I found with my excursions with PGI Greenland, the guides were really encouraging and gave a lot of praise and compliments to make you more confident and make sure you were enjoying the experience. Without doubt, that was the best thing I’d done in Greenland so far. And it was to get even better the following night.

Ready to head back on an alternative snowmobiling trail

The undisputed high spot of the two days of tours with PGI Greenland was the snowmobiling night tour to see the Northern Lights. I was the only one booked on the tour, so they decided they were basically going to have a staff outing and take me with them! Four of the staff, both guides and office staff went out on a hunt to see the Northern Lights with me. The snowmobiles were out ready when we got to the garage, once again I was kitted up like the Abominable Snowman. Joaquin said the small snowmobile was for me to drive, the same one I’d driven the day before. Now he knew I could drive one, they’d just got one out for me ready. There would be a snowmobile in front, I’d be in the middle and the other snowmobile would be at the back.

The Northern Lights were already visible and a beautiful green was illuminating the sky at the location of the snowmobile garage. And then we set off driving. The aurora was glowing in the sky the whole time I was driving the snowmobile. I was trying to watch the sky while I was concentrating on the trail, it was easy at first, I could keep glancing at the sky because the trail was straight and flat. I can’t describe how beautiful it was driving a snowmobile across the snowfields watching the green glow of the Northern Lights in the sky. And no one else in town does night time snowmobile tours, so no one else was out, just 5 of us on 3 snowmobiles. It was pretty special.

After the straight, flat section there was a long uphill section and I had to give my full concentration to driving the trail and forget about looking at the sky for a while. But then when we got to the spot to watch the aurora, we turned off the engines, had tea and biscuits, took photos and enjoyed the dazzling display of dancing lights in the night sky. We were all so excited to see them and they were amazing. It was a magical night, a combination of a personal tour and an office outing, I was very fortunate. We watched the aurora dancing for a while, mostly green with pink and purple flashes like I’d seen before and also a shooting star that flew across the sky at one point.

Joaquin asked if I wanted to drive back and I said that actually I’d just ride back because I was tired and I didn’t feel like concentrating on the trail. There was a lot of going downhill on the way back and I took downhill sections slowly and I’d probably be worse in the dark. I’d driven there in the dark, I’d had 2 hours driving the snowmobile during the day on Friday too. So Joaquin took my snowmobile and I rode back with Jose. It was all so personal and made me feel very special, that’s what good customer service is, they were all so wonderful and did a marvellous job. I raved about them to everyone I met, they have made my visit to Greenland special and driving out on snowmobiles to see the Northern Lights will be my enduring memory of my trip to Greenland.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

My snowmobiling tours were with PGI Greenland, a seasonal adventure activities tour operator based in Ilulissat with offices in the town centre.