portengaround: Narsarsuaq

The next morning came quickly and we repacked our bags to commercial-airline regulation-weight and caught a ride over to the breakfast cafeteria and airport terminal where we boarded our little Air Greenland Dash-7. We were going south to the settlement of Narsarsuaq, stopping for a layover in Nuuk, the capitol of Greenland. Along the way I was able to snap tons of photos of glaciers, the ice sheet, mountains, and fjords.

Our little Air Greenland plane

Glaciers emptying out into a valley

Nuuk International Airport

Snow covered mountains of southwest Greenland

Nunatak poking through the ice sheet

Beautiful medial moraine and lateral fracture zones

Huge alluvial fan deposit near Narsarsuaq

The town of Narsarsuaq. Population: 100?

Narsarsuaq Airport!

Narsarsuaq is a sleepy little town of about 100 people, yet it has Greenland's second busiest commercial airport. The man sitting next to me on the plane pointed and said, "There's Narsarsuaq," as we approached. I saw the runway and tried to look at what he was pointing to. There were a few buildings next to the runway and I looked at him. He laughed and said, "Yes. That is it!" The town is a tiny, tiny little place on a flat strip of land on the edge of a huge fjord. Upon stepping out of the plane, I couldn't help but look up at the beautiful mountains surrounding me! Other than the ice sheet, this was the Greenland I was expecting to see: huge snow-capped mountains, calm blue fjords, colorful buildings, and a cool breeze. It was mid-afternoon, and after checking into our hotel and making arrangements for the next day's work, we schlepped it up to the middle of another vast outwash plain to collect one more sample.

All of the Greenlandic Ministers (political) were having a conference in the nearby town of Igaliku so the bus took them to the harbor, leaving us with all of our luggage. Luckily, there were no emergencies, so the ambulance drove our luggage over to the hotel for us!

Narsarsuaq Hotel

Little house on the outskirts of town with a small ice-fall up in the mountains

Outwash plain upstream from Narsarsuaq

The clouds danced around the mountains on the walk and while there was not much wildlife in this area, there were other things to see, including some really pretty, but small, bright pink flowers. And on a little mountian right in the town are some of the only actual trees in Greenland. Seedlings from Siberia, the Rockies, Alaska, and the Alps were planted here in the 1970-90s as part of an Arctic Arboretum. And just up the fjord there is an actual forest - though it is also planted for research purposes! And all over this part of Greenland are dozens of Viking establishments and ruins, including the very first Christian church built in North America, Erik the Red's original settlement, and the home of the first Episcopal Bishop. (More on all of those in the next few posts!)

After dinner (musk ox burger!), I took my own little hike up to the top of the little mountain in the arboretum to get some exercise and some good views of the surrounding landscape. It was beautiful and I got my first glimpse of the ice sheet down here in southern Greenland!