There is no doubt about it – Greenland is a land of ice. It is so inhospitable that there are no roads between major cities (which have a few thousand inhabitants each, at most), no plants other than muddy grass on land and the whole island is covered in complete darkness for over a month every year. So why on Earth is it called GREENland? Well, when the Nords first arrived there in the 10th century, it was apparently somewhat green. A legend has it that the Vikings named it Greenland in order to attract more settlers. Whatever the reason, this autonomous Danish territory has one of the most misleading names in the world!
While Greenland is technically a part of Europe, it is one hell of a journey to get there. Starting off in Abu Dhabi, I flew to London Heathrow, where I had a connecting flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. Arriving there late in the evening, I had to spend a night in the city in order to fly out to Ilulissat, Greenland’s third largest city located on the West coast, from Reykjavik’s domestic airport the next morning. In total, the journey took over 26 hours! But once I was there, it was all worth it. Ilulissat with its three thousand people feels more like a charming fishermen’s village than a major city. It is home to the world’s fastest moving glacier and thanks to its melting, giant icebergs and smaller chunks of ice float all around the bay, creating a surreal image – so serene yet alluding the harshness of the local climate. In stark contrast with the tranquil colors of the ice and the Nordic sea are the many colorful houses. Not one of them is plain white and no two of them are the same shade of color. It is said that the bright colors of human shelters help the locals find their home in times of heavy snowfall. There is one single road in the city, connecting the airport with the port and the heart of the village, no more than three kilometers in length. A short walk out of the main street offers views not only of the breathtaking fjord but also of countless sled dogs, or huskies. At the peak of Nordic summer when I was there, they looked far less gracious than on the photos where they effortlessly pull the sledges across the snow-covered plains. In summer, they are chained, their fur unkempt for the mud they lay in and darn lonely as people are told not to approach the “wild” creatures. They blend in perfectly with the wet, muddy terrain.
The main reason of my visit to Ilulissat was to assist in field research. Because Jakobshavn glacier (known as Sermeq Kujalleq in Greenlandic) is the world’s fastest moving glacier, scientists are studying various aspects of climate change, such as sea level and temperature rise or ice melting, they also collect measurements in the Ilulissat area. I joined a team of scientists who build climate models aboard R.V. Porsild, a 49-foot ship intended for research use only, to sail from Ilulissat to Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island. Our main goal was to gather salinity, temperature, depth, and turbidity data at different pre-determined points around Disko Bay to aid in an ongoing study of glacial ice and sea interaction. Since our vessel was too small to provide shelter for a team of nine researchers and students and three crew members, we spent the nights at the Arctic Station in Qeqertarsuaq. The Arctic Station belongs to the University of Copenhagen and it accommodates researchers of diverse backgrounds, including botanists, zoologists, geologists, geophysicists, and physical geographers, but only up to 26 at any given time. The small size of the Station makes it even more incredible that over 4,500 km away from my tiny country of Slovenia, it was there that I ran into another Slovenian! She was a member of a botany team who came to Disko Island to do field work. Working in the wet areas of the island, she told me all about how nerve-wrecking mosquitoes in this part of the world can be!
As my stay in Greenland was approaching the end, the organizers of the research expedition had another surprise for the students in their pocket. They took us to Ilulissat’s airport, where we took off. Except this time not in a plane but in a real helicopter! We flew over the city of Ilulissat and then east towards the mouth of the Jakobshavn glacier. There, we landed to take a look at a proper weather station set there several years prior by the same research team. This station is recording climate information year-round and these data are then used in climate modeling. We could hear the ice cracking and see smaller chunks of ice break off the main body. But other than the squeaking sounds of ice, there was complete silence. We stared in awe at the vast mass of ice glittering in the sun as far as the eye could see. On our return journey, we passed some particularly deep ice cracks, where the trapped water was of the most astonishing shades of bright blue I have ever seen. It was a mixture of azure and turquois, a combination only possible because of sunlight’s reflection off the surrounding ice. While posing for some photos as helicopter co-captains, our ride came to an end all too soon.
Greenland is humongous – only 29 countries in the world are bigger – and so is my gratitude to have had the opportunity to experience this remote corner of the world. Let the apparent genuine simplicity of the “Land of Great Length”, as the national anthem calls it, inspire many to search for its hidden intricacy!
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