Kangerlussuaq

Would Kangerlussuaq exist if it wasn't for the US military, probably not. Kanger is a small town built around an airport at the end of a Fjord of the same name. While Inuit hunters would definitely come through here in the past, the airfield was built in 1941 by the Americans. Greenland itself is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Perhaps due to the continued use of the airfield by the US Air National Guard, the airport is the one of the best-equipped in Greenland. Everyday the "big plane" (a commercial airliner that comes in from Copenhagen) lands and the local town comes alive with all of the shops opening for the tourists. Most passengers then go straight to smaller twin prop planes and are flown to other places in Greenland.

Two small planes waiting for the big plane to arrive

For my first full day in Kanger I went on a couple of hikes with members of the drilling team, a National Science Foundation rep (they provide our funding), and a reporter from the New Yorker. They are all heading up to Summit today, so they wanted to see as many sights as they could.

First we headed to Tasersuatsiaq (a lake near the town that has been renamed Lake Ferguson). The Lake is above the high tide level of the Fjord and the water comes from glacial runoff, so it is used as a source of fresh water for the town. It was an easy hike to a very picturesque lake where we saw an arctic fox.

The Qinnguata Kuussua river flowing under the Kangerlussuaq bridge into the Fjord. The water comes from meltwater outflows from Russell Glacier and Leverett Glacier flowing from the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The Kangerlussaq Fjord

An old radar station

Lake Tasersuatsiaq (Ferguson)

Me and the Fjord (the tide is almost all the way out)

Lunch came from a local shop (Kang Mini Marked) where Danish style hotdogs can be bought (cored out mini baguettes with a sausage in the middle), before we hiked up to Tacan (so called because it housed a Tactical Air Navigation system). This is an old radar post and current weather station (the weather station appeared to be Danish), and it is where we got our first look at the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The mini marked

Driller James (with the British Arctic Survey) admiring a wall cut through by a glacier

A Danish weather station

The radar station at the summit of Tacan

Look closely and you can see the edge of a glacier behind me

The glacier

Dinner was at the airport cafe (chicken tika masala), and the rest of the team prepared for their flight to Summit.