Helicoptering Over Greenland

Early the next morning, our crew woke up for our typical Greenlandic breakfast of soft-boiled/scrambled eggs, bacon, greasy sausage, grapefruit, and an assortment of cereals. We ate in a hurry because we had an appointment to be at the airport early so we could get in as much time collecting samples with a helicopter as possible. The area around Narsarsuaq is vast and in order to get what we wanted in the time we had, we couldn't waste it on foot. We had three hours of rotor-time to work with, measured by the length of time from take-off to touch-down.

The weather was not perfect for us, and we were going to have to run our flight-plan by the pilot to see if what we wanted to do matched what his abilities and the weather would allow us. Our helicopter is only navigable by sight - so if the pilot can see where he wants to go, we can go there. The clouds were low in the morning, so we were not sure what exactly we would be able to do, but our pilot did not seem worried at all.

Our mode of transportation for the day. To the CHOPPER!!

Discussing our travel plans with the pilot.

If you've never been in a helicopter before, you need to ride in one as soon as you can! It's not to be missed, and even though you feel a bit more exposed than you are in an airplane, I never felt unsafe at all. Our pilot was incredibly professional and would not fly us anywhere he did not feel comfortable going. We headed up the fjord, passing one of the only "forests" in Greenland - it's actually a little research facility, but a forest nonetheless.

One of the only "forests" in Greenland

We got off to a good start, collecting a few samples in quick succession. But while we were just starting to gain elevation in one of the glacial valleys, snow started to fall, and not the fluffy kind. It was a pellet-type of snow that kind of bounced off of our jackets. We decided that while the clouds were low we would collect a few bedrock and boulder samples and hiked up a hill to pick some good specimens. The snow kept coming down harder, and we weren't sure if the pilot would be able to get us up to higher elevations to get more samples. Wouldn't you know, though, that by the time we got back to the helicopter, the snow stopped.
The pilot then, in about two minutes, took us from near sea-level to an elevation of over 1,000 meters (I think - it was very high up!).

It was awesome how the helicopter could just set down on any flat, tiny piece of rock. Our pilot was so smooth in setting it down, though a few times he had to try a few different spots because we were on weak snow or one of the skids was on top of a boulder or something of that nature. Inevitably, his piloting prowess shone through and we collected numerous samples from all different elevations.

Collecting samples

One of the numerous waterfalls we flew over

The past week, it seems everyone in Narsarsuaq helped to build this bridge over the river. The center section was put in place a while ago, but the waters flowed over their banks and you couldn't get to the bridge, so they added extensions to it. We were the first people to actually use it. They did a good job and none of us fell in the river!

Taking notes in the snow

And then we were on top of the mountains!

The mountain peaks rising above a frozen lake and the ice sheet in the background with some giant nunataks sticking up through the ice sheet.

Getting rock samples from high up in the mountains

After getting rock samples from the mountains, we flew up the valley for a few more sediment samples. Our ultimate destination were some streams directly coming out from glaciers coming off the ice sheet. To get there, we flew over a HUGE frozen lake that is just begging to catastrophically break and flood down into the valley. But then we got to the first glacier - much different that the ice sheet we saw up in Kangerlussuaq. Here the ice was incredibly thick and just kind of ended in a steep bulge. It was a little tricky finding sand-sized sediment here as the energy of the stream flowing out from the glacier this close to it is usually very high and the smaller sized sands are easily carried away. But we got what we came for and the pilot took us over to another tongue of the ice sheet. It's amazing how different each glacier we saw was completely different. This one was very steep, but it didn't bulge; rather, it came down in a sharp slope and ended abruptly. After bagging our sample here, we started flying to another glacier a good distance away. The pilot remarked how flat and huge the outwash terraces were and that they would be a pilot's dream to land on. He also liked that nature makes the perfect runway and that a contractor couldn't make a flatter surface.

Bulging glacier front

Me in front of the glacier

The river is cutting a canyon through the flat outwash terraces

Sampling in front of the steep-front glacier

As we took off for the next glacier, we flew over one of the most absolutely beautiful landscapes I have ever seen! During the melting season, the water from these two glaciers fills a valley, but is blocked at one end and a lake is formed. Large chunks of the glaciers calve off and float away into the lake. Later on the in the season, the lake will drain and the large icebergs will eventually be left behind to sit on the valley floor. We flew over this in the non-melt season, so the bergs were just sitting there! It was something none of us had ever seen before - even in photographs from textbooks! The other amazing thing about this landscape, which textbook photos allude to, is the color of the ice. You see in photos the bright blue, cerulean color of the ice and if you're like me, you think, "The ice can't be that blue." But in fact it is! Again, this is one of those times that photos just don't do reality justice!

The "Dead Ice" valley

The big iceberg here is like 60 feet tall!

 

 

 

Deep blue coloring of the ice down in the fissures

Flying back over a glacier, the ice reaches a steep  drop in the rock beneath it and kind of cascades down

More deep-blue meltwater pools

Even though we had plenty of rotor-time left, our pilot was reaching the end of his shift and we had to get back to the airport. But we did stop and collect a few more samples - some very near to the mouth of another glacier some down a glacial valley right between humongous mountain peaks and some right near one of the most active calving-glaciers in southern Greenland.

Our next glacial destination. This one looks like it just spreads out over the landscape like a giant pancake!

The glacial margin. Here it is very thin and gently slopes up.

Flying over a gorge carved into the rock

This valley was tucked right between some HUGE mountains!

And a fjord filled with icebergs!

We asked to see how much it would cost to keep the airport open a few more hours, and after hearing it would set us back $8,000 we decided to call it a day. But then we heard that someone else was paying to keep the airport open for other reasons, so we quickly refueled the copter and took off for another few hours to get a few remaining samples from high, unhikable, places. We didn't end up lucking out with the samples, but I got some great photos of the Narsarsuaq area from it!

Ice bergs on the way back to the airport

One last sampling site for the day

View of the surrounding fjords and mountains

More icy fjords

The calving margin of this glacier and the vast number of icebergs choking the fjord

Once we got back to the airport, even though we were flying around all day, we were exhausted!! We had used our helo-time very well and got to see so much of southern Greenland that other people only dream of seeing. And to have seen it all by air in a helicopter, continuously lifting off and setting down on the ground, hovering in mid-air - it could not have been any cooler or beautiful. The next few days were going to have a lot to live up to. And they would, in their own special way!