Duplo's blog

Hi All,

And welcome to part IV of my Greenlandic summer adventure. This time taking you from Ilulissat to The Eqi Glacier, a very active glacier around 100 kilometers north of Ilulissat.
Now the way up graced us with stunning ice flakes and in general this part of the trip gave us a light that photography wise was to die for.
However nothing compared to the sight that graced us when we finally got the glacier into view
The Eqi Glacier:

In Greenland you a generally faced with 3 kinds of glaciers, well two actually, but with a twist.
Dryland glaciers are as the name implies glaciers without direct access to the fiords (the Russel glacier in Kangerlussuaq, which you will see later on, is an example)
Floating Glaciers, is glaciers having their outlet into a fiord, but were the glacier it self does not reach the bottom of the fiord (the ilulissat glacier producing the massive icebergs is a floating glacier)
And finally glaciers like the Eqi glacier, that has its outlet into a fiord but where the glacier rests on the bottom of the fiord. Now, as these glaciers rests on the fiordbed it also means that it will not produce icebergs that are as big as the ones comming from the Ilulissat glacier, upside is that you are able to get much closer to it.
Along the glacier wall:

The Eqi glacier is approx 4.5 kilometers wide, with a glacier wall anywhere from 30-100 meters tall, rising to approx 600 meters where it reaches the indland ice and with a fiord depth of anywhere from 50-150 meters. Fair to say, while a relatively small glacier, it still is a majestic sight.
Ice incomming:

Now the glaciers in this area is extremely active due to the high preassure from the inland ice.
The eqi glacier calved 5 times during the good hour we were nearby and at all times we were able to hear the thunderlike sounds of the glacier moving towards the fiord.
Now what perhaps made the most impact on me personally was watching these small flakes (about the size of a 1 large family house) break free from the top of the glacier wall and fall into the fiord, resulting in a roar of like thounder, sending a spray of water and ice more than 20 meters into the air and a wave rolling towards us of a very decent size.
A spray of ice and water:

Something I will personally never forget, but something that as you can see from the photos posted above looks rather dull in a photo, simply because one have no way to relate to the actual size of the thing.
Now from here we continued towards "Port Viktor" and "Camp Eqi"
Camp Eqi:

The camp was originally one of two camps set up before reaching the inland ice itself by French born Poul-Emil Viktor.
Poul Emil Viktor played a major role in the early indland ice explorations and it was his trails that we were to follow to the indland ice itself the next day.
The hut in the lower left corner of the photo, is actually the hut build and used by Poul-Emil Viktor in the 1920ies.
Currently 11 luxury huts (no running water or electricity though) have been built behind it and they now acts as a tour destination on their own and the first stop when hiking to the indland ice.
As we would not set of towards the indland Ice before the day after, we hooked up with HF and set off on a short hike to wards a viewpoint into a silt river area and towards the Eqi glacier.
Wathcing the glacier:

The sun kept creeping towards the horizon and as we still had a lot to prepare before setting off towards the Inland Ice the next day, we decided to head home.
After all RM had promised that she would have dinner ready when we got back and there is nothing like a good dinner when one has spend the entire day watching glaciers and hiking
How insignificant we human beings are:

On the way home the landscape really gave view to how insignificant we all are when comapared to the grandness of mother nature.
The dinner, which by the way was above excellent, was followed by coffee and happy conversations about what to expect the following two days, how to pack and prepare for the trip along with ordinary small talk and hiking stories.
When sunset came it was time to head for the huts to pack and get a good nights sleep, one last thing I did though, was to shoot another of my favourite shots from this trip.
Glacier at dusk:


Next up is "Part V - Hiking the Inland Ice", but probably not before Monday, as I am inflight between London and Salt Lake City (via Chicago) most of the day tomorrow.
Thank you for reading and do take care you all

Thomas