Greenland, again

[SIGSEGV]

I took a short trip back to Summit Station, Greenland this summer (previous photo thread here: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=247146). Since I have a young kid now, I spent less than two weeks on the ice, and no quarantining was required this time. Will be posting pictures in batches, starting with the flight to the coast of Greenland and my first evening there.

First I flew to Albany, then the next day the Air National Guard flew us in a skier to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, with a brief refueling stop at Goose Bay:

Our skier, with another skier taking off in the background at Goose Bay:



Our skier and a really cool Canadian plane at Goose Bay:



Knee to knee inside the skier:


Iceberg



Accidentally snapped a picture of Nuuk


Golden hour


In Kanger, watching another skier land:








A view of the fjord:



Next up, a day in Kangerlussuaq, including a hike to the top of this cliff, which has sweeping views. Then, to the ice!

[Architype]

Nice to see, and you visited my former home province to refuel. Is the orange water bomber an unusual thing to see? We're going to need more of them IMO. I noticed the Greenland landscape is really brown / grey looking. Does it get greener later in the year?

[mrnyc]

so cool, looking forward to more pix of a place we never see anything of.


what's it like now that trump bought the place? easier to get a burger and fries at least?

[Murphy de la Sucre]

Is "again" a country or

[SIGSEGV]

Continuing, in Kangerlussuaq. Some context: Kangerlussuaq is a small town, but is the main international airport for all of Greenland, as it has a long enough runway for big jets. There is an (almost?) daily round trip to Copenhagen, and most people transfer to small planes. and It was built as a US air force base, I believe during WWII. In addition to being Air Greenland's main hub. The 109th Air National Guard (that operates the skiers, now basically just for NSF) has a presence there, as does the Danish air force.The NSF also maintains some dorms, which is where I was staying, en route to Summit Station.

World's least fancy Canada Goose store?


interesting pedestrian experience


Usually there are just Air Greenland big jets at the Kangerlussuaq airport... Jet Time must be some charter thing?


This guy is going to take our checked-in bags to be palletized


On the road up to Black Ridge


Watson river dumping into the Fjord. Note that the channel on the right is artificial, as the bridge washed out at one point. There is a ship in the fjord (note that the Kangerlussuaq harbor is a ways down)


Enough barrels?


No better diesel


The ice edge in the distance


Kangerlussuaq from the top of Black Ridge


Our not-so-trusty steeds (the skiers are notoriously unreliable....)


Zoom in on the ice edge


For some reason, this French military jet landed at the airport. VIP visit?



Kangerlussuaq dump








The washed out old bridge


Zoom in on the ship


An assortment of antennas...







Cliff fall


Some snow holding on into June


A bird


Formerly a caribou (tuttu)


Another view of town


Pulled muskox (ummimak) sandwich, at the airport cafe


Next, we go to the ice on the skier .

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Murphy de la Sucre

Is "again" a country or

no... this is just my third trip to the Greenlandic ice sheet.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Architype

Nice to see, and you visited my former home province to refuel. Is the orange water bomber an unusual thing to see? We're going to need more of them IMO. I noticed the Greenland landscape is really brown / grey looking. Does it get greener later in the year?

It gets greener on my way back from the ice! (or maybe it seemed greener from me being on the ice... you'll decide when I get there!).

Not sure about how common the water bomber is, this is the first time I stopped in Goose Bay for refueling (depends on a number of factors whether or not we stop there). The annoying thing is I had heard that they give us ice cream if we stop in Goose Bay, but there was no ice cream this time!

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

so cool, looking forward to more pix of a place we never see anything of.


what's it like now that trump bought the place? easier to get a burger and fries at least?

Burgers and fries are available at multiple dining establishments! (as are muskox burgers and hot dogs...). The fancy restaurants apparently sell whale meat, but I didn't get a chance to get there, and I wouldn't have tried it anyway...

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Burgers and fries are available at multiple dining establishments! (as are muskox burgers and hot dogs...). The fancy restaurants apparently sell whale meat, but I didn't get a chance to get there, and I wouldn't have tried it anyway...

These are fascinating photos. Thank you for posting them.

How is muskox? The burger doesn't look too bad. I'd imagine there's not too many fresh fruit and vegetables in Greenland!

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

These are fascinating photos. Thank you for posting them.

How is muskox? The burger doesn't look too bad. I'd imagine there's not too many fresh fruit and vegetables in Greenland!

Musk ox is somewhat related to sheep and unsurprisingly it sort of tastes like lamb, though not as tasty.

[mrnyc]

at first glance the materiel/trash area reminds me of what mt everest looks like these days.

although with closer inspection its actually a heck of lot more orderly, which is of course is a good thing.

as for the rest —- magnificent desolation, as buzz aldrin said about the moon.

glad you can eat well — and really looking forward to the next set …!

[arkitekte]

These are super cool. Thanks for sharing (and for linking your last thread).

[xzmattzx]

Great pictures so far!

I was going to ask if there are windows to look out of from the plane, but you answered that, to a degree at least. What is the window situation like? Did you take pictures from one while you were walking around? Are there some window seats? Did you have to ask to take a couple pictures?

Nice to see Nuuk!

Are people required to wear facemasks on these military flights or something?

It looks unusually brown to me as well. I figured the grass would've woken up by then.

When was the sunset?

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Great pictures so far!

Thanks!

I was going to ask if there are windows to look out of from the plane, but you answered that, to a degree at least. What is the window situation like? Did you take pictures from one while you were walking around? Are there some window seats? Did you have to ask to take a couple pictures?

There are a few windows on the LC-130. Sometimes I got a seat in front of one (but the window is behind, behind netting for the seats, awkard to photograph out of), but usually I walked to the back to use the windows on the rear doors (which... are a bit scary, because they do open in flight for parachuting out, so I was nervous about accidentally hitting a lever... I'm sure it's not THAT easy but...). We were allowed to walk around or even sleep on cargo as long as we weren't taking off or landing.

Nice to see Nuuk!

yeah, I was photographing that mountainan and later I noticed there was a city below it!

Are people required to wear facemasks on these military flights or something?

Here are the current travel guidelines for Summit Station: https://battellearcticgateway.org/si...0Protocols.pdf

There was a COVID-19 outbreak at Summit earlier this year, including the station manager, who had to quarantine and was temporarily replaced by one of the cargo people. It's a remote place with limited medical care available, and the camp can't really function if everybody is sick.

The guard sure as hell wasn't wearing masks (they didn't in 2021 either... when I had to quarantine in Albany for a week and in Kangerlussuaq for another week).

It looks unusually brown to me as well. I figured the grass would've woken up by then.

It takes a bit longer (and also for the mosquitos... )

When was the sunset?

no sunset between June 3 and July 10 in Kangerlussuaq. I've technically seen the sunset there in mid-July 2021, but it was still light out all night...

[SIGSEGV]

Getting back on the skier. They keep 3 at all times so they can do SAR if one crashes (given that they're so unreliable... more on that later).


That strange French jet was still there the next morning (in front of the Danish Arctic Command).


Superglacial lakes near the coast


We landed in super stormy conditions. Surprised we landed but I looked it up later and the crosswinds were barely below their threshold of 15 kt (since the wind direction was close enough to the skiway).
Hard to tell from this selfie, but the propellers stay on. Some dude with a rope helps prevent you from getting Raiders of the lost Ark'd when getting off the plane.



snow machine training (this year... they actually had us ride it like they do at Pole... in 2021 they just explained the choke).



a lost bird looking pretty before it freezes to death...


The bird is in this picture too, but good look finding it at the size rendered here. This is the Big House, which has galley, dining area, some couches, a shower, a toilet (that is to be used only for #1, as it ventilates into the galley) and the station manager's office. On top is the sat equipment. If you saw my thread from 2021, you'll see it was raised a lot in the interim.


We (mostly I!) deployed a cell network here in 2021 to talk to our detectors, which are located kilometers away from station. I wonder if it's the world's most remote LTE network. It's pretty fun to put in one of our sim cards and have internet in the middle of the ice...


The bamboo forest, used to measure snow accumulation.


One of our detector stations in the distance, over a km away.


More later!

[Doady]

Those are photos from the glacier? Lots of thing in these photos I've never seen before. You definitely do interesting work.

Dump is a depressing reminder of our impact on the land. A blight even on the desolate landscape. The fjords are quite beautiful though.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Doady

Those are photos from the glacier? Lots of thing in these photos I've never seen before. You definitely do interesting work.

Dump is a depressing reminder of our impact on the land. A blight even on the desolate landscape. The fjords are quite beautiful though.

Glacier is perhaps underselling it. Summit station is located around 20 km (and a few dozen m below) the apex of the Greenland ice sheet. It's at an elevation of just over 3 km, and there is about 3 km of ice below. It was founded in 1989 for the drilling of an ice core and has since become a year-round NSF research station.

[mrnyc]

the bamboo forest — great moniker for the flags.

what sights!

dare i ask about where you go #2?

please say an outhouse, not out on the open ice.

[SIGSEGV]

^ don't worry there are 5 outhouses around station

[Doady]

Ugh, one kind of dump is enough. Let's talk about the other one.

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Glacier is perhaps underselling it. Summit station is located around 20 km (and a few dozen m below) the apex of the Greenland ice sheet. It's at an elevation of just over 3 km, and there is about 3 km of ice below. It was founded in 1989 for the drilling of an ice core and has since become a year-round NSF research station.

I didn't realize it is so high and deep. I guess it highlights its importance in climate change.