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Ken has been gone the last three days in the field, and his two supervisors (both women) were kind enough to invite me on a skiing trip Sunday to neighboring Kobbefjord. So, Sunday morning I headed out with four Danes who live in Nuuk and an American scientist who is currently visiting ASIAQ. It was a nice group-- interesting academic types with great explanations of the landscape and natural processes we were hiking through, as well as a former school teacher who is now working for the Greenland schools administration, and also a fellow who works for the Greenland tourism agency. I looked forward to chatting with all of these people but unfortunately spent most of the day lagging at the end of the group, sweating, getting an incredible sunburn through the thick cloud cover (despite my SPF 30), and generally cursing the fact that Ken was not around to carry the things in my pack. (Our usual M.O. while touring--we like to load him down like a pack mule to even the playing field a bit.) Regardless, I wouldn't have missed this day for the world and it's the first time since moving here that I thought with conviction, "THIS is why we moved here."
Starting in Nuuk, we traveled by boat to neighboring Kobbefjord (about a 20 minute trip), anchored, and skinned up a nice, mellow drainage to a small peak named Aajuitsaq (855 m, ~2800 ft). About 14 km (8ish miles) round trip, give or take. Overall, it was a great trip with good skinning and a nice ski out, composed of mixed terrain that necessitated some pushing and skating, but enough pitch to get in a few turns here and there. A couple of our party were on cross country skis, I was on my old teles, and everyone else had nice mixed-condition dynafit skis, boots and bindings. If not for the extremely flat light on the ski out, I would have been in heaven-- the snow conditions were surprisingly good. Nice, dry snow. I'm not sure if this was just because we stuck to north-facing aspects on the trip out, but I was pleasantly surprised.
5 Comments
Margey
5/16/2011 02:35:02 am
Hey! It's Margey. I've been reading your blog and it is awesome :) Um, that flat light photo would also be my personal hell. Yikes!
Jesse Logan
5/16/2011 03:24:10 am
Way cool trip & spectacular photos! Suggest you might like the Karhu Guide ski with light plastic (or even leather) boot for trips like this. Great touring ski (particularly in spring conditions) and you can crank them on the down! Keep posts like this comming!
Katrina
5/16/2011 01:36:37 pm
I don't get the 'flat light' thing. Could you explain it in more detail?
Anna
5/16/2011 09:10:19 pm
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