Category Archives: 2017:Greenland & Iceland

Back to Ilulissat – Flying the Icefjord

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Today was THE DAY … the day, why I had booked this trip … hoping it would turn out better this time – with access to Ilulissat and as such the opportunity to see the icefjord.

Things worked out this time, the bay was (relatively) free of ice, Hanseatic easily maneuvered to its anchor point just in front of town; tender ships were used to get us a ashore.

I had booked the helicopter flight to get a glimpse of the ice fjord from slightly higher up – and also to see the ice flowing in from the ice cap and the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier.

I was in the first group to go … a bus was picking us up from the port, bringing us to the airport. Here – after a short safety briefing – we boarded the helicopter (a Bell 212) and were on our way for a 20 minute flight out to the ice fjord with views of the icecap, then across the fjord and out towards the bay – and back to the airport.

While the views during the flight were amazing, it was fairly impossible to put things into perspective. There are no reference points here, so it all felt very abstract, without a real sense of size … one has to know, that we were looking at five to seven kilometers from one bank of the fjord to the other.

We made our way to the mouth into the bay. It is here, that an underwater threshold blocks the ice from freely flowing into the bay. Pressure needs to build up before  icebergs are released into the bay. The threshold was clearly visible from the helicopter – as a clear line separating the fjord from the bay. After a quick circle flying over some icebergs and the ship we made it back to Ilulissat’s airport.

Søndre Strømfjord

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The weather forecast had predicted a stormy night. The captain therefore had decided to not continue into the Davis Strait – but to stay at a sheltered location in the fjord. This turned out to be the right decision, as a force 12+ storm was sweeping over us during the night.

The storm was slowly abating, however conditions were still not good enough, for us to continue into the Davis Strait – we therefore made the way back to Kangerlussuaq, where some provisions were still waiting for us (the loading had to be discontinued yesterday due to the water becoming to rough).

Meanwhile the expedition team had put together plans for a first landing in the fjord (about an hour south of Kangerlussuaq). The landing itself was fairly unspectacular, but nevertheless a nice opportunity to get off the ship, to get reacquainted with the zodiacs and into nature for a nice afternoon tundra stroll.

Back to Kangerlussuaq

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My last trip to Greenland had been two years ago – my motivation back then had been to see the ice fjord near Ilulissat with my own eyes. It did not work out back then – the fjord had produced too many icebergs, that then had disintegrated – essentially resulting in the Disko Bay being full of ice and essentially not navigable.

So – it had to be another time, another trip and another adventure, which now – two years later – was about to start.

This time the flight to Kangerlussuaq did start from Düsseldorf – once again a charter flight, this time operated by Titan Airways, a British charter airline. We made it to Kangerlussuaq an hour behind schedule.

On arrival buses were waiting for us for a quick ride around the back country of Kangerlussuaq – and to get the first feel of Greenland and a glimpse of the icecap. The tour turned out a shorter version of the tour from two years back (probably due to the delayed flight).

We finally made it back through town and then to the little port, where tender boats were waiting for us to get us to the cruise ship – MS Hanseatic.