Arctic Journey: Ilulissat and Big Ice

On the morning of July 30th we were approaching Ilulissat. This town, population about 4600 and third largest in Greenland, is about 250 km or 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It is perhaps most famous for the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World heritage site. The glacier Sermeq Kujalleq, also known as the Jakobshavn Glacier, is one of the few outlets for the Greenland ice cap, and travels at 20 meters per day, although the rate varies from year to year. It pours a prodigious amount of ice into the fjord, producing 10% of all Greenland's icebergs, some of which are almost a kilometer tall.

Thus it should not be surprising that there were icebergs guarding the approaches to Ilulissat.

A zodiac was lowered, as much if not more for taking photographs than guiding the Explorer.

Hmm. Let's try this at a different exposure. So much ice can trick the camera.

Stopping for a photo, perhaps?

Our ship passed through unscathed and Ilulissat spread out ahead of us.

A cargo ship was bound for the big-ship dock in the harbor. Katy and Posy were impressed.

Our groups would go ashore by zodiac.

Several activities were offered, most of them more than once through the day; however, there wasn't enough time to do them all. The choices were an Icefjord cruise, a city and museum tour, the Sermermiut walk, an "airzafari" flying up the fjord as close to the glacier (extra cost), and a Greenlandic food tasting at the Hotel Arctic (only at 4:30). Joan and I did the Sermermiut walk, followed by Icefjord cruise and the food tasting.

Sermermiut
A bus drove us to the head of a wooden boardwalk that protects the area called Sermermiut. This valley was an important habitation site for more than 4000 years, hosting at various times the Saqqaq, Dorset, and Thule peoples.

The archaeology here has merited the status of a World Heritage Site (click on the photo to enlarge).

We were accompanied by a couple of local guides, and other guides were posted at important locations.

From this spot my camera could zoom out into the fjord and take an "ice picture." This was the most impressive ice we had seen since eastern Greenland.

As we walked further, we soon encountered this warning sign.

At the point I felt very much in the presence of, and not just observing, the immense icebergs of this fjord.

One of the guides had accompanied us to this place, and he had snacks and was willing to answer questions.

Unfortunately, the schedule was as tight as a python's coils, and Joan and I, not wishing to wait an extra hour, walked briskly to the starting point to catch the bus. We had a few minutes at the dock waiting for a zodiac to take us back to the Explorer and lunch. Near the dock were a few retired, and surprisingly small, whaling vessels.

And next to the dock, a similar sized ship.

IceFjord Cruise
After a quick lunch Joan and I bundled up for a long ice cruise. The small boats eased up to the side of the Explorer very much like the zodiacs, and the guests would step over.

Our boat was a smaller one but had a cabin you could warm up in, which not all did. The views were best outside; in fact, Joan rode on top of the cabin for most of the cruise.

The variety of the ice was astonishing. No two bergs were identical. Some are floating and some are so large that they ground on the terminal moraine at the mouth of the fjord, and remain stuck for months or even years. If you were next to this berg in person, you would feel its size in your bones. The possibility of a section splitting off at any time advises against too close an approach.

For floating specimens another threat is rollover, because the ice below the water melts faster than the part up in the air. Eventually the berg becomes top-heavy and rolls over, making large waves and shedding pieces, and the process repeats again and again until the berg is gone.

In summer the surface of the ice melts and refreezes, forming a glaze. Runoff channels are sculpted by the melt.

Some bergs carry pieces of Greenland with them, scoured out from lateral moraines of the main glacier.

Some of the "grounders" develop crevasses and splits. 

Partway through our meander among the ice giants the captain stopped the boat and gave us a talk, both about himself and about the glacier.

The captain is originally Danish but has lived in Ilulissat for many years (I forget how many). He went on vacation to Sri Lanka some years back and returned with a wife. We immediately told him, "It must have been a shock for her to come to Greenland," and he smiled and said, "We spend the summers in Greenland and the winters in Sri Lanka."

The Jakobshavn Glacier has been the focus of much study because of its dramatic retreat. The captain is showing us, on his map, a version of this diagram.

There is also a pair of dramatic Landsat photos from NASA inspecting the glacial front in 2001 and again in 2010 here.

On our way back to the Explorer we encountered this fishing boat. Notice all the gulls floating nearby?

Whenever the fishermen would throw fish guts out into the water, a frenzy erupted.

Greenlandic Buffet
We returned to the ship and changed for a Greenlandic buffet at the Hotel Arctic. Unlike the earlier buffet at Qaqortoq, there was no whale on offer, a request the Lindblad staff had made based on feedback from guests.

Some closeups ...

and an example of Inuit adaptation of European technology, a rifle hidden behind a white sheet, mounted so as slide along the ice while approaching, say, a seal.

This is the view from just outside the dining room.

On the right-hand side several sled dogs were chained, waiting out the summer. Here's a closeup of one.

The Hotel Arctic also offers five aluminum "igloos" at the end of a boardwalk.

A ship from the Netherlands was off to the side, away from the main harbor, far right in the above photo. Here's a closeup.

Two ladies were sent by the local tourist office to visit with us in Inuit dress.

A closeup of that beadwork.

Departure One, Departure Two
After the buffet it was time to rejoin the Explorer and sail from Ilulissat. 

Sort of. Our first passage into the ice outside the harbor was a photo-op; the National Geographic photographer Ralph Lee Hopkins flew around the ship in a chartered helicopter taking photos for future brochures, catalogs, etc. We passengers were actors, advised to wear our most colorful jackets and not to look or point at the helicopter, which would spoil the photo.

The helicopter made at least a dozen circuits of the Explorer. Ralph flew high,

Ralph flew low,

Ralph flew eye to eye,

and Ralph flew back to Ilulissat. The Explorer returned to pick him up, and then we left for real. The ice was, as always, fascinating.

On both our ice cruise and on this departure we saw blocks of ice breaking free of a berg and, with a rumble like an avalanche, plunging into the sea. It's hard to capture these on camera because they are over in just a few seconds. I do have this one snapshot of ice a few seconds after smacking the water, taken through the window of the bridge. It is by far not the largest calving that we saw, but you can see the wave front and foam kicked up by the impact of the airborne ice.

Tomorrow, Qilakitsoq, where the Greenland mummies were discovered.