After months of what we called “As Greenland Turns,” Pete was finally granted entry into Greenland to run his postponed expedition to East Greenland. East Greenland boasts the LARGEST NATIONAL PARK ON EARTH and Pete had 2 weeks of Heli-skiing and adventuring planned and ready to go. All of our ski trips in Greenland are on the SW coast so this was our first time running a trip to the East. E Greenland is much much more remote and has very little in terms of villages, infrastructure and people compared to the West and South. For example, when you fly to West Greenland from Copenhagen, you fly FOUR HOURS to arrive there. To fly to East Greenland, you then fly THREE HOURS back! Incredible.
The expedition was based out of an abandoned fishing village on a fjord that is approximately 20 miles long. The fjord was still frozen and the polar bears were busy hunting seals from the air holes that the seals must keep open all winter long until the ice melts. All guides and guests went through a rifle training session and were required to sleep with a firearm, loud horn and flares next to their beds in the event of a polar bear raid! Yikes!
Did we mention there was skiing?! Yes, endless long runs of every sort imaginable. Along with zero other humans. Occasionally there would be a herd of musk ox and in order to protect their young, make a circle around them. Check out the shot of the baby musk ox in the slide show to the left that decided he didn’t need any parental protection and charged the helicopter on his own. Tough guy!
Drop Pete a line if you would like to hear tales from East Greenland