Ilulissat, Greenland (let the icebergs begin!)

September 11, 2015

Ilulissat, Greenland (let the icebergs begin!)

On to Ilulissat, Greenland, which is very appropriately named as well. Ilulissat means iceberg in Greenlandic, and this town (which is 250 km north of the Arctic Circle) is home to the Ilulissat IceFjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Icefjord is home to the Sermeq Kujalleq Glacier, one of the most active and fastest moving in the world at 19 meters per day, and calving more than thirty-five square kilometers of ice annually. It was reported that days after we were there it calved an iceberg about the size of the island of Manhattan! And yes this glacier is retreating at an alarming rate, having retreated significantly in just the last ten years that Adventure Canada has been doing the "Into the Northwest Passage" tour.

This one glacier drains 7 percent of the Greenland ice cap and produces a significant number of the icebergs that end up in the north Atlantic Ocean. The iceberg that sank the Titanic likely came from here. Icebergs that start off on the western Greenland coast travel north up the western coast of Greenland until reaching Smith sound where they go west and back down on the Labrador current past Baffin Island, Labrador, and Newfoundland. It takes years perhaps decades for an iceberg to just get out of the Ilulisatt IceFjord, and then years to make the circuit, slowly melting as they go.

Brad had ponied up for the optional helicopter ride (this was his first helicopter ride, my second), where we flew up the 60 kilometer ice choked fjord to a landing right near the 14 kilometer long glacier face, and then back. It was a spectacular day for it, and it was a truly amazing experience.

Brad reported that between us we took 250 photos on this trip....

After the helicopter ride we did a zodiac cruise through the end of the iceberg filled fjord, amazing to get so close to such magnificent scenery. An amazing day in a gorgeous and magnificent location!

Adventure Canada's daily info:

Day 3 — Saturday August 22, 2015
Ilulissat
You will want to be on deck this morning as we sail into spectacular Disko Bay, the source of many of the icebergs that threaten the shipping lanes to the south. We plan to approach the Ilulissat Icefjord seaward by Zodiac to view the mass of calved ice as the bergs reach the sea. Located on the west coast of Greenland, 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord (40,240 hectares) is the sea mouth of Sermeq Kujalleq, one of the few glaciers through which the Greenland ice cap reaches the sea. Sermeq Kujalleq is one of the fastest (nineteen metres per day) and most active glaciers in the world. It annually calves over thirty-five cubic kilometres of ice— ten percent of the production of all Greenland calf ice and more than any other glacier outside Antarctica. In 2004, the Ilulissat Icefjord was admitted onto UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Ilulissat (or Jakobshavn) is a thriving town founded in 1741 by a trader called Jacob Severin Today, it has a population of 4,000 (and 6,000 sled dogs). Ilulissat is now the centre for shrimp fishing in the Disko Bay region. There will be time to explore the town, where the home of the much-loved polar explorer Knud Rasmussen is now a local museum. The town is located only two kilometres north of the famous Icefjord.

Inuktitut word of the day:
Piujuq— It’sgood
SUNRISE – 0433 SUNSET - 2046

"On every side of us are men who hunt perpetually for their personal Northwest Passage, too often sacrificing health, strength, and life itself to the search: and who shall say they are not happier in their vain but hopeful quest than wiser, duller folks who sit at home, venturing nothing and, with sour laughs, deriding the seekers for that fabled thoroughfare."
—Kenneth Roberts