There have been a lot of requests for a blog post about my plans for this year so here goes! This year I'm going to Greenland. It will be a solo hike and packraft trip. I'll get to the packraft bit later (I didn't know what it was either until a little while ago), but first let's talk about the location.
On the 2nd of July I will be free from cubical life once again. I will take a train to Amsterdam, proceed to fly to Copenhagen and spend the night there and on the next morning fly to one of the larger towns in Greenland named Narsarsuaq which is in the southern part of Greenland. The plan is to head south and go towards pretty much the most southern point of Greenland. The route will mainly be based on a route from a Belgium guy named Willem who has done the same trip (see his blog here). The difference being my route will probably be a bit longer and there will be more high altitude climbing in the second part of the trip.
Here's an overview of the path (credits go to Willem, I simply edited his posted route), the red and blue lines are from Willem's trip, the orange parts are my additions. I will probably change it a little bit more in the future, and these are definitely only guidelines. The weather plays a big factor in these regions so I might not have the time to do all of it.
There is a small town in the middle named Tasiassuq. I will send a food drop there beforehand, 13 days worth of food. This place will be considered the half way point. I will start off this trip with 14 days worth of food. The total hiking days will be 25/26 ish. So there are 2 extra days worth of food I will carry just to be save.
The blue lines are parts that will be packrafted. Now this is something new for me entirely. Packrafting is basically the "light weight" option to carry your own inflatable raft with you for crossing fjords/streams and rivers. I have never done this, but on a trip in the Alps last year I met someone who did a lot of it and the way he was talking about it, it sounded really awesome. So after I found this route I was sure of it. The only issue is that packrafts are not cheap, the one I want to buy will set me back 1000 euro's easily (included all the gear), and the worst part is it will add about 4 kilo's to my pack weight which is already going to be very high because of the 14 days of food I have to carry. But nonetheless I want to try it anyway.
I still have some things I need to do. The biggest of which being finding the correct way to send food to half way point (source online tell me it's difficult with customs and all this weird food), and buying and testing a packraft, which I will be doing next week. Other then that I already have most of the gear I need, I will be uploading a gear list when I have the time to make one, but I am aiming for a base weight of around 11 kg's (including packraft stuff, not including food/fuel/water).
There is a little bit of risk involved in this trip. It's going to be tough terrain and I will have to make sure I don't get lost since it's a very desolate place and there are no trails. The maps are not very good, some of them are from the Soviet military from 40 years ago. Also there are mosquito's everywhere. But I think the most difficult part about the trip will be that there are no other people in between towns...none at all. Being without human contact will be very difficult for me I think, but I am also very curious to see how it will affect me. I don't know why I do these things...
After 25 days I will arrive in Nanortalik and get to fly in a helicopter (secretly this is like 50% of the reason I'm doing this whole trip) back to the starting point and I'll have a day to relax before heading back home.
On the 2nd of July I will be free from cubical life once again. I will take a train to Amsterdam, proceed to fly to Copenhagen and spend the night there and on the next morning fly to one of the larger towns in Greenland named Narsarsuaq which is in the southern part of Greenland. The plan is to head south and go towards pretty much the most southern point of Greenland. The route will mainly be based on a route from a Belgium guy named Willem who has done the same trip (see his blog here). The difference being my route will probably be a bit longer and there will be more high altitude climbing in the second part of the trip.
There is a small town in the middle named Tasiassuq. I will send a food drop there beforehand, 13 days worth of food. This place will be considered the half way point. I will start off this trip with 14 days worth of food. The total hiking days will be 25/26 ish. So there are 2 extra days worth of food I will carry just to be save.
The blue lines are parts that will be packrafted. Now this is something new for me entirely. Packrafting is basically the "light weight" option to carry your own inflatable raft with you for crossing fjords/streams and rivers. I have never done this, but on a trip in the Alps last year I met someone who did a lot of it and the way he was talking about it, it sounded really awesome. So after I found this route I was sure of it. The only issue is that packrafts are not cheap, the one I want to buy will set me back 1000 euro's easily (included all the gear), and the worst part is it will add about 4 kilo's to my pack weight which is already going to be very high because of the 14 days of food I have to carry. But nonetheless I want to try it anyway.
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| I'm finally able to afford the good stuff! 26 meals for 26 days. |
There is a little bit of risk involved in this trip. It's going to be tough terrain and I will have to make sure I don't get lost since it's a very desolate place and there are no trails. The maps are not very good, some of them are from the Soviet military from 40 years ago. Also there are mosquito's everywhere. But I think the most difficult part about the trip will be that there are no other people in between towns...none at all. Being without human contact will be very difficult for me I think, but I am also very curious to see how it will affect me. I don't know why I do these things...
After 25 days I will arrive in Nanortalik and get to fly in a helicopter (secretly this is like 50% of the reason I'm doing this whole trip) back to the starting point and I'll have a day to relax before heading back home.
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