Hiking to the Inlandsis

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Approaching the ice sheet

Kangerlussuaq is more an airport than a village, and the main entry point to Greenland. Before taking his plane from Kangerlussuaq, Carlos joined me for a warm up hike, 25 km East all the way up to the ice sheet and back.

We left in the afternoon and walked late in the midnight sun, on the ridges of the hills, slowly approaching the ice cap. We spent the night next to the Russel Glacier, and went down to admire it the next morning.

It is hard to tell how little one can feel in front of such a massive amount of ice. Every ten minutes or so, the glacier grumbles as entires slices of the wall fall and the torrent running at its feet gets loaded with huge chunk of ice.

We went back via the sand track in a hot summer day, attacked by hordes of mosquitoes, and arrived exhausted at the airport, 25 hours and 50 km later.