03 · West Greenland · Greenland
The Nuussuaq Crossing
Sixteen days hauling pulks across the Nuussuaq peninsula from Saqqaq to Nuugaatsiaq — 118 kilometres, no resupply, and eleven days where the only people on the ice are the six of you.
- Duration
- 16 days
- Party
- 4 to 6
- Season
- Late April to early June
- From, per person
- €14,800
The route
- Ilulissat
- Saqqaq
- Qaarsut plateau
- The 1,100 col
- Nuugaatsiaq
- Uummannaq
One hundred and eighteen kilometres, a hundred and one of them on ice, hauling everything you will eat and everything that will keep you alive behind you in a plastic sled. There is no resupply, no road, and after Saqqaq no settlement until Nuugaatsiaq. This is the hardest thing we sell and the enquiry form for it is longer than the others on purpose.
The weight
A loaded pulk leaves Saqqaq at between 46 and 52 kilograms. That includes your share of fuel, which is nine litres a person, and food, which is 5,200 calories a day whether you want it or not. People routinely tell us they do not eat that much. On day nine they eat it.
We weigh every pulk in Ilulissat, in front of everyone, and things come out. The things that come out are almost always books, spare camera bodies and a third pair of trousers.
The plateau days
Five days across the top of Nuussuaq with nothing to look at. No feature, no horizon line you can trust, and on two of the five you will navigate on a bearing because you cannot see your own pulk tips. Parties expect these days to be the ordeal and they are, near-universally, the days people talk about afterwards.
There is a specific quiet at 1,050 metres on an icecap that we have not found anywhere else, and it is the actual product here. The col and the descent are technically harder. Nobody remembers them as clearly.
The rifle
There is a rifle in the party and one of the guides carries it, because on the coast sections that is the law and it is sensible. You will be shown how it is carried, where it is at night, and what the protocol is. You will not carry it and you will not fire it. We have never needed it and we take it every time.
Who it suits
Somebody who has hauled before and did not find out they hated it. If you have not hauled, do the February training weekend in Tromsø — two days dragging a tyre up Fløya, which sounds ridiculous and filters more people than the medical does.
Day by day
The shape of it
Days 1–2
Ilulissat
Arrive, sort food into sixteen daily bags, weigh every pulk. If a pulk is over 52kg something comes out of it, and it is usually something you brought.
Day 3
Saqqaq
Boat or helicopter transfer depending on the ice — this is the one flight we will book, because there is no alternative and it is not a shortcut to a summit.
Days 4–7
The approach
Four days climbing off the coast onto the plateau. This is the hardest hauling of the trip: 900 metres of gain with a loaded pulk and sastrugi that will not let you ski a straight line.
Days 8–12
The plateau
Five days across the top. Flat, white, cold, and the only navigation is compass and GPS. Most parties find these the best days of their lives and cannot explain why.
Days 13–14
The 1,100 col and the descent
Over the col and down the northern glacier, roped the whole way. Two crevasse fields, one of which moves year to year.
Day 15
Nuugaatsiaq
Off the ice, onto the shore, and a boat to Uummannaq if the fjord is open. If it is not, we wait. There is no other way and we have waited three days before.
Day 16
Uummannaq to Ilulissat
Flight south. We book the day after as a buffer and we have used it four times in nine departures.
Before you book, and what to bring
Before you book
What this route asks of you
- A previous multi-day pulk journey, or our Nuussuaq training weekend in Tromsø in the February before
- Crevasse rescue competence — the Ullstinden Ice Week or equivalent, assessed by us
- A medical from your own doctor on our form, dated within six months
- Rescue insurance covering Greenland, with a named evacuation provider
On the yard floor
Kit you supply, and we check
- Boots you have done at least forty days in, with a second liner
- A sleeping bag rated to −30°C comfort, down, and a full-length mat plus a foam one
- Vapour-barrier socks, which you will hate and will use every day
- Sunglasses with side shields, and a spare pair in a different pocket
- Two litres of thermos capacity per person
What the price covers
Included
What €14,800 buys
- Fifteen nights: two in Ilulissat, one in Saqqaq, eleven on the ice, one in Uummannaq
- Sindre Aune and a second IFMGA guide for the full sixteen days
- Pele Kristiansen on the coast at both ends, and his boat
- All group kit: tents, pulks, stoves, fuel, ropes, rifle and the training to be near it
- All food from day two, which is 5,200 calories a person a day and is not optional
- The Saqqaq transfer, by boat or by air, whichever the ice allows
- Iridium satellite comms and a daily position report to whoever you nominate
Not included
And, pointedly, what it does not
- Flights to Ilulissat
- Rescue insurance, required, and we read the policy document
- Your personal sleeping bag, mats, boots and clothing
- A resupply drop. There is none. That is what the sixteen days are.
- Any guarantee of the crossing. Two of nine departures have turned back.