At the end of April we started a BERIE pioneer trip to Greenland. Almost all participants have been with me in the past few years already in Norway or Iceland. So at the farewell in Reykjavik last year the idea arose that we could visit the 2017 but Greenland with the skis.
The trip to Greenland then went back over Iceland and continued with air Greenland into the lonely Kulusuk and the Ammassalikfjord up to Kuummiut.
As I approached the coast, I became aware of the isolation and remoteness of the area. Greenland is actually a continent in size and a ring of thick ice floats in the sea all around. Now at the end of winter there are still almost no ships crossing the North Sea, everything important comes by air freight.
A strange but cordial Icelander who lives here with an Inuit woman brings us with his snowmobile and his boat in a few hours across the fjord up to Kuummiut. There in a house in the Inuit village we will stay the next week and make the mountains unsafe with the skis.
The house is cosy and offers comfortable comfort for us – we are happy to accept the reduced life. We are the only strangers in the Inuitdorf and the children help us get water at the "service House" of the community.
Flowing water and flushing toilet? False Display! A kind of camping toilet replaces the usual toilet, it is regularly emptied by our companion. The children are curious about what we are doing here? Danja Stoller and Marco Bart build kickers with them and give lessons in snowboarding. Marc Menz takes passengers back to his wide freeride skis and makes a Dorfrunde with all... although it is cold and the clothes are completely soaked in the snow, the children do not get enough and sometimes stay at the same time for dinner with us. And everyone is "in love" with our young a Michèle until I have to send the mob home at some point late in the evening. Unfortunately, their parents are often drunk at home – since a few decades ago Western civilisation has fallen into these hunter-and Halbnomandenkultur invaders, many old traditions and people here suffer from "civilization diseases" such as alcoholism and Diabetes.
Pulled by snowmobiles, we continue up a side of the fjord and want to cross two passes. Also planned is a ski tour on a nameless summit connected with an endless downhill down to Tasilaq Fjord. From the fjord it is still a few hours with the skins up to a mountain hut at the Karalegletscher where we want to stay two nights. All starts fantastic and the surfing behind the snowmobile through this endless landscape is glorious! Due to a front, the snow down at the bottom of the valley has become very swampy and the snowmobiles stay with the equipment at some point and do not want to go any further. The routes are far here and we have no Pulkas to create the next 20 Kilimeter to the hut with muscular strength. Also out of consideration for our Inuitbegleiter, we opt for "retreat" home to the cozy Inuitdorf.
The possibilities for ski tours from the village or by boat along the fjord are great. We enjoy the comforts of being "at home" every evening and eating fine fresh fish – and every day we start to pick up new, never-before-experienced mountain tops to choose the best downhills. No derided slopes, not even a hint of an old downhill track far and wide. It's just everything for us! The ski mountains are of the finest and often protrude over 1000 meters above the fjord. And in particular I love to tap the ski tips at the end of the downhill on a lonely beach into the Arctic sea water.
On the trip over the fjord we get dinner directly from the sea, often we just keep the landing net in the icy water and the Inuitfreund shows us how to eat the fish even raw. "Catch fresh" gets a new meaning.
I am enthusiastic about this simple way of living and at the same time enjoy the luxury of a superb ski run – next year I will organize two appointments there.
On the return flight over Iceland, we still enjoy the soothing warmth of a geothermal hot in Reykjavik. The North has so much beautiful to offer...!
