Michael Charavin >> Greenland 2012
Hi everyone,
I have come back from Greenland where I spent a part of the spring in order to guide 2 ski expeditions; self-sufficient traverse of Schweizerland and Liverpool Land ranges, including ski-mountaineering. It has been years since I went to these areas, but I had never really tried to kite in this sector of Greenland.
If the first vocation of these 2 expeditions was not the kite, I had, this time, decided to go there with my Manta 10m with the hope to kite from time to time.
The first expedition took place in the Ammassalik area, on the oriental coast of Greenland, left south-east of the Schweizerland range, on the Kaarali Glacier (hundreds of km in the North of the Ammassalik village) to be precise.
Schweizerland (which we can translate freely by “Switzerland” or the “Swiss Alps”) is a vast massif which is situated on the Arctic Circle. Peaking at 3360m on Mount Forel, these mountains with an outstanding alpine relief are crossed by huge glaciers that sometimes have french familiar names: glaciers of France, of Franche-Comté, of Paris, of “Pourquoi-Pas ?”… Testimony of the french explorer Paul-Emile Victor coming here a long time ago…
The glacier of the Kaarali is a part of a vast glacial system (also including the Knud Rasmussen and September 16 glaciers) and passes by at the foot of a multitude of summits bordering 2000 meters high…
During this 1st expedition, the period was characterized by a rather stable barometric situation, unfavourable to the presence of weather winds. The irregular breezes (when it was not the total absence of wind) were too scraggy to be exploitable… An only short slot appeared when we were on the upper part of Kaarali glacier, on the slopes of which the wind suddenly rushed during 2 hours with a maximal speed of 20 knots. This short session was especially remarkable by its high mountain surrounding, in which we rarely have the opportunity to kite: we were then at the junction of big glaciers, at the foot of magnificent walls…
The second expedition took place 800km more in the north, always on the oriental coast of Greenland, and allowed us to realize the complete ski crossing of the Liverpool Land range, at the north of Scoresbysund fjord.
Characterized by temperatures sharply colder than in the Schweizerland mountains (with a minimum of 30°C in mid-April), a real bear presence (numerous tracks, even inside the massif) and a route tacking between the glaciers and the coastal ice floe, even there, the weather report was stable and little convenient to the presence of winds. Unpacking my kite repeatedly in the hope to use thin breezes, in vain, I shall finally have had only 2 valid sessions; One in the north of Liverpool Land, an evening, when a frosty west wind, channelled by the steep hillsides of a fjord, had suddenly begun blowing.
In the morning of our last day of progress, the weather turned bad, a 25-30 knots north-east wind lifted the snow on the ground. Having patiently waited to have come down of a pass, I’ve just finished to unpack my kite to notice the weather conditions becoming brutally worse; under the wind of some coastal hills, gusts became dangerous, the kite latches were disturbing, visibility was useless. Irritated, I was obliged to fold up and to sprint, trying to catch up again my group before it arrives to Ittoqqotoormiit village. The wind decreasing in the afternoon, I again buckled my pack (taking a pair of ski skins - in case the wind would fall – and the rifle – in case I would meet a polar bear) and gone downwind. After a dozen km on the ice floe, I achieved the complete crossing of the Liverpool Land at the point of Kap Tobin. Then, kiting headwind in a weakening wind and a freezing fog (an ice layer covered the sail and the ski mask), I had to triple the distance to come back to the village…
Generally speaking, it would seem that these areas are relatively protected from the weather winds: plainly, winds are much less frequent here than they are in Iceland or in Norway. But obviously, when these winds blow, they can be strong, even of an extreme violence (it’s the case of the famous Pitterak in the Ammassalik area).
In the sector of Ittoqqotoormiit, the pressures are rather stable (often high) and the good weather is majority; such weather situation “kills” the winds. Breezes are present only in certain big valleys (Hurry Fjord for example); Elsewhere - like on the “small” Liverpool Land glacier tongues that flow towards the Greenland Sea - breezes are mostly scraggy and would require the use of big size kites (for an uncertain result)…
Well, on all the oriental coast of Greenland, there are some exceptions in “the rule of the stable pressures”: then, the bad weather can be accompanied with hideous “slaps”, and there, no doubt to set foot outside. Naturally, there are more intermediate bad weather situations, but they seem rather fleeting, and often a little bit strong…
If we cannot qualify the Greenland east coast as a major snowkite spot, nevertheless, to ride on the ice floe or on the big glaciers of the high coastal ranges is a fabulous experience…
Michael Charavin
|
