Duplo's blog

Hi All,

And welcome to what is perhaps the first real Duploworld update in quite a long time, the reason for my absense is very personal and I do not think this is the place to share it in any detail, nor do I think I am quite ready for it anyway
Knowing that I am slowly recovering from it and that I am slowly getting my energy back to actually blog again and share my beautiful surroundings and adventures with you will have to do for now

Greenlandic Sled dog

Well as some may recall I did write a fair bit about the dogs themselves during my summer adventure series, but to recap a few things about this rather unique breed of dogs.
They are working dogs and they are the only breed of dogs allowed above the arctic circle in Greenland.
This alone may seem odd at first, but there is a reason for it, for many of the drivers these dogs are a way of life and their life may well depend on the these dogs and have been bred almost to perfection for countless generations. Beside bringing a regular pet dog close to these dogs may very well end up by the pet dog ending up as food for the sled dogs. In fact one a warned that these dogs are wild animals when visiting dog territory. They are usually not dangerous to Grown adults though, but there are incidents with children being attacked or killed every year.
Just as you regularly see stories mainly in danish medias about maltreatment of these dogs.
Now I am not claiming that no maltreatment takes place and I admit that at first glance the treatment of the dogs seems both extremely rough and unusual.
resting in the sun

But during my two days with a number of drivers and their dogs, I also came to reexperience the extremely close relationship between dogs and drivers, how much the dogs seems to love what they do and even got to try my hand at assisting a driver in getting dogs and sled ready for a ride and getting the dogs bag to their respective yards after the drive.
Getting these dogs in and out of their harnesses requires both strength, practise and a bit of guts.
Man meets sled dog

Now the temperature these two days were in the -20C to -30C range and anything from windy, foggy, snowy to a couple of rare hours of sun, and as you will see from the clothing that calls for quite extreme clothing, not to mention that it put my fingers and the camera gear through quite a test too.
Luckily the people arranging these trips knows that turists will need to borrow clothing and has a plenty supply of seal fur clothing to put over what people usually think is clothing enough, which it never is
Crossing the lake

Now these dogs are fast, very fast, each sled has 10-20 dogs in front of the sled and you do know the terrain here, it is not exactly as flat as in the photo above and the ride i not exactly smooth, but extremely fun. I was there to shoot, thus had the additional challenge of often hanging off to the side of the sled inches over the snow and rocks racing by us or even trying to stand up on the sped at full speed to get some shots, but even without it that additional challenge the ride is quite a thrill as you are basically sidding on a wooden sled 15cm off the ground at very high speed
going Down hill

The rides up often measn running along the sled, but downhill is another story entirely.
Here the driver is behind the sled standing on a chain padded belt to creat friction while the dogs are behind the sled to act as breakes and still we were going down hill real feast, fast enough to send the sled flying at times and if asked politely the drivers can give you a really thrilling ride
Overlooking Nalluarsuk

Now why do trip lik this one might ask, well the photo above, which is from a viewpoint over the Nalluarsuk fiord, is one.
Nalluarsuk is a side fiord to the famous Ilulissat Ice fiord and an impressive view indeed, but most of all it is a chance to experience the traditional Greenlandic way to travel, the Greenlandic Sled dogs doing what they love and were born to do and above all it is good fun

Now I have uploaded a whole lot more from the trip in my Greenlandic Winter Photos Gallery, I really do think they are worth a look I have even added a few additional winter photos, just to make sure that I had something interesting to show you all:)

Thanks for reading and do take care

Thomas

Hi All

And welcome to a Duloworld update on winter and connectivity issues.

To start off it was great getting back to Greenland after having spend New Years in Denmark.
However I had a nasty suprise waiting for me

A little over two weeks without internet connection... a litttle over two weeks!
THus I have not been able to check back here for a while, but now I should be back online, on a permanent basis
why life is good

ohh yeah sometimes it does not take much to enjoy life, what you see above are central elements of why I truly love winter
Snow falling, my snowboard a pair of gloves and a hot cup of coffee

Aside from the usual photography - and yes more updates will follow soon - my snowboard will be getting a lot of attention this winter
Afterall the slopes are just across the road from work

Ohh well, just wanted to let you all know that I am alive, well and back online again.

Update to follow soon

Do take care you all

Thomas

Saturday in Duploworld:

After a good day with a loong walk, a splendid lunch with a good friend and the realisation that temperatures close to -20F is not really that bad.

I grabbed my camera, a termo with hot coffee and set out to one of my favourite snowfields.

My back against the wind, a sip of hot coffe and watching this amazing display travelling towards the horizon:
Arctic Winter Sunset


Great way to spend a saturday evening; just me, a snowfield and the setting sun:)

Thomas

Or "Merry Christmas and happy New Year" as we say in English:D

Hi All,

And well come to a long delayed and hopefully awaited Duploworld update:)

Well this time a year is always busy, busy and busy. To make it all worse the darn server:monkey:s made my attempt to read up a darn nightmare:(

But anyway i am back and with lots of news, snowboarding season has started for real and the slopes are now open and that is with 100% real powdery winter snow, no snow canons needed up here these days:happy:
Had a wonderful day out there last weekend and tomorrow and Christmas day will be spend snowboarding all day.
If the blizzard raging right now ease off that is.

Christmas in Greenland is white, white and white:happy:

Now what else to say?
Come january I will return to Copenhagen again for a little while along with a dash off to NYC to do some more training, all good:happy:

Received an early Christmas gift from work too, a real nice one even... What do you say?

A Christmas iPod:D

It is photo #65 in the "Holga 120" project, which has received another update, still a few days behind, but I am still shooting for it every day:)

Another HUGE suprise has shown itself on the horison, but I am not saying anything until it arrives, but it is HUGE and I cannot wait:happy:

Well that is it for now, I will try to catch up with my now equally huge wathlist:(
A merry Christmas and a happy New Year from Greenland to all of you:)

And for my dear family in particular:
"It is going to be darn rough going through Christmas without you all, I miss you a lot and will carry you with me in my heart during Christmas"

Do take care you all and thanks for looking:)
Thomas

Hi All,

Yep a new Duploworld update and again to tell you that tomorrow morning I will be travelling from tomorrow morning. Destination is somewhat less wild and exciting, I will be heading back to Copenhagen for about a week.
This will also mean that the five photos just uploaded will mean the end to my "Greenlandic Autumn Photos 2007" Album.
And anyway it does not look much like autumn any more.
Because Friday evening a powerful Fohn wind sweep across Nuuk. Towards Sunday evening the temperature dropped again and the Føhn wind turned into a blizzard.
During Monday night the snow eased off just enough, for everyone to start clearing the streets and for me to jump out and shoot a few photos, winds though were still strong enough to almost blow me off my feets:eyes:
After the Storm:

Night time Stairway:

later that night it began snowing again and Tuesday afternoon the view from my balcony looked like this:
Autumn Whiteout:

Well later the snow eased off and just outside my door I saw this:
Doorways:

Now you may ask why are I am already closing down the Autumn Album? Well when I return we will have reached December and thus also reached winter and anyway, this does not look much like autumn to me anymore:D
Autumn?

Now it is just a regular storm, making it close to full week without sunlight and strong winds. Today is not too bad really, only around 31 m/s or 110 km/h.

So take care you all and thanks for looking:)
I will be back to read up soon.

Thomas