Kangerlussuaq Fjord

4 months ago

Polar explorer Quark Expeditions offered an eight-day visit to the Arctic Ocean between Greenland and Canada, called “West Greenland Ice Odyssey: Glaciers and Icebergs”. I headed from DC to Reykjavik on August 9, spent that day and then next day exploring – visiting, of course, Perlan, the Lebowski Bar, and the Lava Show. On Day 1 of Quark’s expedition, we departed Reykjavik on a charter flight run by Summit Air from Reykjavik to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. This is an amazing bit of logistics, spearheaded, I think, by Quark Expeditions. Flying over the Labrador and Norwegian Seas, and then from the east coast to the west coast of the southern tip of Greenland, Quark positioned our expedition where its newest (and built-for polar travel) ship, the “Ultramarine”, was waiting for us in the port of Kangerlussuaq (66o 57.3' N, 050o 56.6' W). We disembarked our charter flight in Kangerlussuaq and headed for a fleet of military-grade motorized rubber pontoon Zodiac boats, which were waiting to transport us from shore to the Ultramarine. Kangerlussuaq is a below-the-tourist-radar godsend. The airport is in the easternmost reaches of Kangerlussuaq Fjord, which also houses the Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility. The airport offers direct flights to and from Nuuk, Sisimiut, and (seasonally) Ilulissat and Copenhagen. Summit Air offers charter flights, like the flights from Reykjavik that Quark Expedition booked for the starting and ending points of our West Greenland expedition. Disembarking from Kangerlussuaq on the first day of our expedition, we saw humpback and minke whale, harp seal, snow bunting, Lapland longspur, common redpoll, northern wheatear, raven, Glacous and Iceland gull, black-legged kittiwake, northern fulmar, purple sandpiper, red-throated loon, and common eider. By evening, we were en route to the open waters of the Davis Strait, west of southern Greenland, on our way to Nipisat and Sisimiut.

a year ago

Beautiful fjord! You get amazing views even when you land in the airport, but you stand along the shore is something else.

a year ago

Beautiful fjord. The wildlife is also impressive.