Kangerlussuaq / Søndre Strømfjord

I made it to Greenland (Grønland) today, exactly on time at 3:30pm. Seven hours after take off from the Air National Guard Base in Schenectady, New York, we landed at the Kangerlussuaq Airport. We don't have the world's greatest internet connection here, so I'm going to keep it short. 

The plane ride was one of the most comfortable trips I've ever been on. The ANG men are so professional, but so relaxed about flying. After watching an informational video we loaded onto C 130s and took our seats in cargo-strap netted seats. It's pretty much kind of like a hammock, but your butt does get a little sore. That's okay, though, because you can get up and walk around what little space there is. The bathrooms are a little rudimentary. Essentially, you go up to the front of the seating area where there is a little metal receptacle surrounded by a thin curtain. You pull the curtain, open the receptacle, and do what you have to do. But if you really have to go to the bathroom, or if you are a woman and can't use the urinal, there is a sit-down toilet in the back of the plane, between the large cargo crates.

Our field group and our transportation to Greenland

One of the two seating bays

My first view of Greenland!! (If you don't count the gorgeous views I had coming back from Germany earlier this year)

West Greenland coastal mountain range. Look at all that snow and ice!!!

One of the fjords we flew over

And while I'm gawking at the amazing scenery, this is what other people are doing. Greenland? No Biggie.

Most of the people on our flight are scientists of different sorts. There are your geologists (me), the biologists studying caribou migrations, chemists and technicians studying atmospheric concentrations of various gases, stream ecologists studying..well...stream ecology, and others. There are commercial flights up to Greenland, but they are all routed through Copenhagen and this is just easier.

The views on the ride in were stunning. Kangerlussuaq is not far from the western Ice Sheet margin, but it's a good 150 km from the ocean at the end of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord (or Søndre Strømfjord, the Danish for Big Fjord - I think). The town has about 500 people living here and most of them work at the airport (Greenland's largest) or in the food industry serving the tourists who come here to see wildlife and the amazing natural scenery. There is a little Kangerlussuaq Museum here that I hope to visit to get a better idea of the history of the town.

Well, it's now 11:30pm and the sun is just about to "set" so I'm going to don my eyeshades and go to bed. For your viewing pleasure, here are a few more photos of my first real glaciers I have ever seen! (I don't think what's left of the Teton Glacier really counts in Grand Teton National Park because it's too small...)

Beautiful braided streams carrying glacial outwash into this fjord

Can anyone say, "Lateral Moraines?" Holy crap, they're gorgeous!

Kangerlussuaq Airport (SFJ)

Paul, my advisor, getting his passport stamped

And our Kanger home-away-from-home. The KISS building!