2023 Greenland Expedition - Days 12-13 Farewell to the Fjords

Why Greenland? Billions of geological years out your bedroom window. (And a polar bear sighting!)

We are spending our last two days on the Fram cruising back to Reykjavik. Not that we’ve been bored, but just in case, the crew offered a variety of workshops, lectures and activities to keep us entertained. 

The rock formations, especially in Northeast Greenland National Park, are as dramatic and ever-changing as the icebergs. The lounge on the seventh deck is filled with super-comfy chairs and floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s been a great place to sit with a book and watch the world slide by. 

We were attending a Q&A with the captain and some other officers yesterday when an announcement interrupted with news of polar bears on shore. The room emptied out faster than if they’d announced abandon ship. A mom and two cubs, and a distant male, could be seen on shore. Much excitement ensued. Those with foot-long camera lenses took hundreds of shots; those with good binoculars kindly shared. My point-and-shoot could at least confirm that they were, indeed, bears. 

My iPhone camera tried - and gives an idea as to how hard it was to even find the bears on shore. 

Polar bears usually have two cubs (sometimes 1, occasionally 3). Regardless of when the mother mated, the cubs are born in December-January. (The females, once mature, can become pregnant at any time, and have the ability to pause gestation so the cubs are born at the right time of year.) These cubs are 1 1/2 years old. Only about 1/3 of cubs survive their first year. Our resident marine biologist said that one of these is noticeably smaller than the other, so it’s not out of the woods yet. 

Polar bears are marine mammals, and depend upon sea ice to live. They can swim up to 8 miles/hour, twice as fast as they walk. They fast for summer months, and feed aggressively during the winter. They hunt seals from ice, climb on it to rest, and basically live on the ice in the winter. With decreasing sea ice, some bears have drowned or starved.  Some projections estimate that polar bears in the wild may be extinct in 30 years. When bred in captivity; the cubs only survive for a couple of years. The future does not look good for the species.  

On a more positive note, before the Q&A was interrupted the captain talked about Hurtigruten’s approach to expeditions instead of cruises. He only got permission to visit the National Park the day before we sailed, and he’d never been there before. (The Fram was last there in 2017.) Our sailing involved uncharted waters, so our trip used sonar and radar (ice radar and navigational radar) to plot our way. The data collected will contributed to mapping of the area. One reason it took so long to navigate the ice floes is that the blue ice can be hard as steel, and jagged spikes below the surface can open the hull of a ship like a can opener. The ice charts are updated only every three days, so they are always out of date; careful navigation is key. 

There was a dance party last night, with a little band made up of crew members. It was more fun than a polished performance on a big cruise ship, and everyone participated. The Fram crew has been together for a long while, and camaraderie is evident throughout the ship. 

Our last morning at sea. Back to civilization tomorrow. 

2023 Greenland Expedition - Day 11 Ella Ø and Farewell to the Fjords

Why Greenland ? Citizen Science Projects

The Fram conducted Citizen Science programs each day that we had landings. You could sign up for the program, and be assigned a shift in a zodiac to collect data that are pooled with that from other research programs. Greg is getting ready to drop a $17K piece of equipment to measure plankton density in the bay at Ella Ø. We also measured clarity of the water, and collected plankton samples for later analysis under a microscope. 

Ella Ø is a small island southeast of yesterday’s landing. It’s the site of a Danish military station operated by the Sirius Patrol. Formally known as the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, this elite naval unit is part of the Joint Arctic Command. It conducts long-range reconnaissance to ensure sovereignty in the North and East Greenland wilderness. (Such active patrolling was initially required by the League of Nations, in order for Greenland to remain Danish). During World War II, the Sirius Patrol discovered several secret German weather stations which had been set up along the east coast of Greenland to assist in U-boat navigation. Destruction of these stations was crucial to the Battle of the Atlantic and air/land fighting in the northwest European theater.

Sirius Patrols continue today. They are usually 2-man operations, using up to a dozen dogs and lasting several months in the icy wilderness. The psychological and physical demands are exceptional. The selection process is rigorous.

The barracks at Ella Ø are manned only during the summer. There is a small airstrip, and a larger base nearby (relatively, this being East Greenland) from which supplies can be drawn. 

Low blankets of clouds balanced between the sea and mountains. What a lovely place to wake up and go to work.

The barracks look like shipping containers. Off-duty pups get to enjoy a sunny patch of grass.

Our landing was adjacent to the military base, and our hike led about about a mile inland.

Ella Ø is our last landing in Northeast Greenland National Park, and our last landing in Greenland. The airport runway is to the left. The little specks are our fellow travelers making their way, reluctantly, back to the ship. This is quite a magical place. 

We overheard the navigator speaking this afternoon about our good fortune in making our way north to the National Park. We’d had to wait several hours during our cruise up the coast from Scoresbysund Fjord for the ice to break up. Apparently another ship tried to do this some time after us, and couldn’t get through. The captain is allowing 2 1/2 days to get back to Iceland, in case the ice is still dense. It should be a restful few days.  

2023 Greenland Expedition - Day 10 Northeast Greenland National Park

Why Greenland? Waking up to icebergs as delicate as Murano glass.

We are deep into the fjord system in Northeast Greenland National Park. At nearly 74 degree N, we are about 1,100 miles from the North Pole. (Or the distance from Boston to Milwaukee)

This morning we took zodiac cruises along Waltershausen Glacier. This tidewater glacier flows from the Greenland ice sheet, and spreads nearly 6 miles across the Nordfjord. 

This black and blue iceberg was super cool. The black sections are coated in grit and silt picked up as the glacier flowed towards the sea. The giant cubes of blue ice are very old ice from which all air has been compressed. 

Kathy P and Greg

Kathy C and Charley

The glacier’s face appeared deceptively linear from a distance, but in actuality, zigzagged into the fjord. 

Later in the afternoon,, we landed at Blomsterbugten (Flower Bay). It’s an apt name in August, with lots of little wildflowers, grasses and evidence of grazing animals. 

Our ever-watchful guides scanning for polar bears. They ask us to keep our life jackets on while hiking, so that we could do a faster evacuation if needed. The bears are hungry this time of year; it’s been months of hibernation and prowling since they could last fish from the sea ice.  

We hiked up to a lake, with fine views and even a glimpse (and I do mean a glimpse) of a musk ox. I may have seen a soft dot on a distant ridge. Those with good binoculars were a little more convinced. If you find it in the photo below, leave me a comment please.

An old trappers’ hut from 1929 stood near our landing place. It had a window, door and old stove pipe, but could not have been too comfortable in the winter. One would have had to bring their own wood or other fuel for heat and cooking. There are no trees here.

I missed the announcement, but the Polar Plunge opportunity was today. A few hearty folks (I assume they were all Scandinavian) stripped down to bathing suits, waded into the bay and submerged themselves. I was impressed. (But not jealous.)

Everyone who goes ashore walks through a disinfection protocol as they return to the ship. Muck boots, pants and walking sticks are scrubbed to assure we don’t carry contaminants between landing sites. 

The rocks in these fjords are wonderful - colored and twisted. This is running on too long, though, so I’ll post more photos of them another day.

2023 Greenland Expedition - Day 9 Heading North

Why Greenland? In August, not for the Northern Lights!

There is an Aurora Forecast channel on our cabin tv. Almost all the time, it appears that we are in a good location to see the Northern Lights. 

So I checked the weather app to see what time we should wake up for a good viewing opportunity. 

The sun is not setting for at least another seven days. I guess we’re unlikely to see the Persied meteor shower peaking on August 12, either. (Although we’ll be further south then, so maybe….)

Last night we bid farewell to Scoresbysund and saw an approximation of a sunset late in the evening, You can see the problem with stargazing or the northern lights. 

There are a couple of storytellers among our multi-talented expedition team. Historian Niek, who since childhood has been obsessed with all things Viking, turned up last night in full Viking regalia (“not a dress”) to tell the story of how Thor lost his Hammer. 

We spent today cruising north along the coast of East Greenland, towards Northeast Greenland National Park. We were stymied by sea ice for several hours, but finally started moving forward mid-morning. We entered the borders of the park around 4 PM, and are now cruising into Kong Oscar Fjord . It’s been hazy all day, with low cloud cover, occasional drizzle and fairly low seas. A good, lazy day to sit with a coffee and a book, and watch the changing seascape. 

I went to lectures on sea birds and glaciers, and Greg added a workshop on knots. 

East Greenland National Park is the largest national park in the world, and the 10th largest protected area (the larger protected areas consist mostly of sea). It was established in 1974, and expanded to its present size (375,000 square miles) in 1988. Only 29 countries are larger (166 countries are smaller).

Red is Northeast Greenland National Park. Arrow denotes our position tonight. 

The mountains along the coast are different here, black and hulking. Or maybe it’s just the gray skies today.

The further we’ve come into Kong Oscar Fjord, the less sea ice we’ve seen. This may change as we approach a massive tidewater glacier tomorrow morning. 

Tomorrow we hope to have a zodiac cruise and later, a landing. We hope for favorable conditions. As I mentioned a few days ago, more people summit Mount Everest every year than visit this National Park. We are privileged to be here, whether we land or not. 

Notes on Greenland and glaciers - or Grim Facts from today’s lecture:

At its deepest levels, the Greenland ice sheet is between 115,000 and 130,000 years old, and over 1.9 miles thick. The newest levels are less than 11,700 years old. It’s an almost inconceivable amount of water. If the entire Greenland ice sheet melted, sea level worldwide would rise about 24 feet. Goodbye to Florida, Chesapeake bay communities, island communities around the world. 

Snow appears white due to light refracted and reflected from air bubbles caught in snowflakes. When snow accumulates for hundreds and thousands of years, it compresses under its own weight to ice. When all of the air has been squeezed out, the ice is blue. So pure ice is always blue. 

Two kinds of glaciers: mountain/alpine glaciers (ending in mountains), and tidewater glaciers (which end at waterfront). They move by gravity, driven by their weight. They impact the landscape by transporting sediments to land or water, deposit debris (erratic boulder fields), create moraines and glacial striation. 

Glaciers have grown and retreated for eons. The concern today is the unprecedented speed at which they are shrinking. Worldwide, they are decreasing in both thickness and length. This table represents the status of 1400 glaciers. For every four that are increasing in size, 1096 are decreasing. The other 300 empty pink circles? They represent glaciers that have disappeared altogether.

Jakobshavn Glacier in West Greenland drains 6.5% of the Greenland ice sheet and produces 10% of Greenland’s icebergs. It has retreated more in the last ten years than in the previous 100. 

In Glacier National Park in Montana, there were 150 glaciers in 1850. Today there are only 25 which are considered big or active enough to be classified as a glacier. Several studies predict that by 2030, the glaciers which gave the park its name will be all gone. 

2023 Greenland Expedition - Day 8 Ittoqqortoormiit

Why Greenland?  Tiny colorful towns and puppies.

No big iceberg photos today. For those of you who are tired of them, you are welcome. 

There are only two permanent settlements on East Greenland. We visited the more northerly today. Ittoqqortoormiit is a tumble of crayola colored corrugated houses scattered along a low hill. 

The village was established in 1924 by Ejnar Mikkelsen and 80 Inuit settlers. Denmark encouraged the settlement, wanting to expand their colonial toehold in Greenland. For the Inuit, the new location offered improved hunting and living conditions, and the settlement thrived. Archeological ruins confirm that there had been a decent population of Inuit here in the past. 

(Brief digression on Greenland history: Norway and Denmark bickered over claim to East Greenland after Norway regained full independence in 1905, as it had been a Norwegian possession prior to 1815. Greenland was officially made part of Denmark in 1953, and granted home rule by Denmark in 1979.)

Ittoqqortoormiit is one of the most remote settlements in the world, separated by ice from the rest of the world for nine months every year. There were 345 residents in 2020. Today there is excitement and anticipation in town, as the first cargo ship of the year arrived yesterday. A second ship will arrive in a few months, and that’s it for 2023. The arrival of a cargo ship is a big deal. The inventory in the sole store can be replenished, a new ATV or house kit may arrive, and supplies and fuel are set in for the winter.

Twice a day, at 11 AM and 11 PM, a weather balloon is launched from a hill north of town. The balloon is used to forecast European weather patterns. Nils suggested that anyone interested should arrive several minutes early to watch them fill and then launch the balloon. Greg and I dutifully landed early and hiked up to the launching site, a broad deck on the back of a building  We heard someone enter the building from the other side. A few minutes later, a big door opened, a guy burst out with the fully inflated balloon and practically shoved it up and away from him. I started laughing. There was such a complete absence of ceremony, and no warning whatsoever. If I hadn’t happened to have my camera in hand, or glanced away for a second, I would have missed it. (We later found out that the passengers who landed after us were told there would be no weather balloon launch today, so not to bother with the long walk up.). The balloon ascended rapidly to begin it’s journey across the Atlantic. It’s made of a type of quick-degrading plastic, and will dissolve in a year or two. 

There were other interesting things to see on the hill, though. A forty year old dish antenna and a smaller, newer one brings communications into town. (We had cellular service as soon as our ship docked.), and a large orb contained hardware and a satellite antenna providing the town with Internet service. Greg and I climbed up to peer into the dome, and the operator invited us in to look around. (You can see the dome in the cargo ship photo above, mid-picture, 1/3 from the left side)

We walked back down into the town, and crossed to the other side of a melting stream, where most of the community was located.

Teams of working (sled) dogs were chained on each side of the stream. They’d been quite excited when we first landed, but now were chilling after being fed their morning allotment of seal meat. We’d been cautioned not to approach, much less touch, any of these dogs. They are not pets. 

Six dogs lolling

Nils, one of expedition guides, grew up here. He spent today taking the 8 boat groups on walking tours around his village. We saw the water treatment plant, a generator plant (with solar as well as diesel power), a community meeting hall. There are schools for both K-12, and for adult and older students who want to take classes in English or other academic subjects. There are playgrounds, two cemeteries, a church, a sports hall, a little TI office, and of course the community store. 

Photos weren’t permitted in the store, but it reminded me of an updated general store from prairie times: fresh, frozen, canned and dry produce, shoes, toys, guns, fabric, clothing, chain saws, a bakery counter, frozen meats and treats. It was a cross between a grocery, dry goods store, and hardware store. Shelves were being restocked with goods from the cargo ship. Little kids walked around town with bags of chips and other long-awaited treats. 

Greg and I climbed a long hill to search for the only geocache in East Greenland (he found it!). I went a little further to look over the hill and saw an astroturf playing field, complete with grandstand. 

We knew enough not to approach the working dogs chained along the river, but this trio of inquisitive puppies was hard to resist. They clearly hadn’t yet been read the rule book on How To Be An Antisocial Sled Dog. They headed directly to Greg (of course) who completely ignored them, and then turned to the few others of us walking by. 

(That is not my hand.)

Our transport back to the ship. 

Tonight, after 4 days here, we leave Scoresbysund Fjord and head north.