March 2010

The direct translation of “polar bear” in Danish is “ice bear.” So, people are always referring to ice bears, which threw me off at first, but now I call them that too. In any case, the unseasonably warm (totally a relative term) winter, has caused many polar/ice bears to wander into cities in search of food.  There is one somewhere in the mountains around Nuuk, and this clip shows one wandering around a Southern City called Paamiut.

Each region has a quota of how many polar bears hunters can shoot each year (I think it’s around 3 for the Nuuk area, for example), but if a rogue comes so close to civilization as to be considered dangerous, it can be shot. I’ve heard two scenarios of what happens with the meat and fur. The first is that it gets donated to the Old Folks home and the second is “finders, keepers,” – whoever shoots it gets to keep it.  Not sure which is true…

At my hotel in East Greenland, there were a group of four Italians waiting to cross the ice-cap.  Many international adventure tourists seek out this challenge – crossing the ice cap takes about three weeks – you have to carry all supplies with you – and while it is possible to be rescued by helicopter in case of emergency – that only applies to medical emergencies. If the weather gets bad, there is no way a helicopter can rescue you.

The Italians had not planned to be stuck in Tasiilaq for three weeks, and therefore had nothing to occupy their time except for endless games of chess. They also had no normal clothes. So they moped around the hotel in long johns and fleeces.  At the very last minute, they had secured a sponsorship from Fila – but Fila hadn’t had time to send them any gear, so instead they just had patches of Fila’s logo haphazardly sewn over NorthFace or Patagonia logos, making it look like all their gear was fake, purchased at some stall in Bangkok.

I don’t know if they were ultimately able to leave- but I hope so – because the investment is steep. Everyone who wants to cross the ice cap needs to post a 300,000 DKK bond that will cover the helicopter in case of emergency, they also need special permits and all their gear.  These guys were going without a guide, but most groups will take an experienced guide.

Crossing the ice-cap is not something that Greenlanders have done traditionally, there is no wildlife out there, and so their hunting trips tend to go up and down the coast.   That means, its tough to find a Greenlandic guide to cross (slash: they, like most people, think its crazy to cross the ice cap) – but lots of international guides will do it.  These expeditions aren’t the greatest groups of tourists, as they don’t leave much money in the country – nevertheless, they add something to Greenland’s adventure brand.  As Robert Peroni says, they make good photo opps.

During my stay in East Greenland, I stayed at The Red House -

The Red House

Located at the top of a steep hill in Tasiilaq, surrounded by Greenlandic houses, it is operated by Robert Peroni. Originally from Italy, he has been living in Greenland for nearly 20 years.  The Red House is a sort of hub for adventure expeditions in the area and Robert is the go-to for all information about expeditions, weather etc.  He has an impressive adventure resume:  he has crossed the ice cap 12 times, been to the poles, he devised a self-heating one piece snowsuit – and once he was caught in a bad storm, crawled into a crevice and just hung out for a week before he could leave it again.  He works very closely with locals to ensure their involvement in tourism.

Robert and his friend Tobias, a hunter who also guides

Robert also invented this product called Peronin.  It’s an “high-tech food” which is bascially a calorie bomb with no fiber, which means you never have to go #2 -useful when crossing the ice cap, where temperatures reach -80C and your pee freezes before it hits the ground.  Once, he crossed the ice cap at the widest spot and survived only on Peronin, just to prove it was possible.

Seal hunting is a cornerstone of life in Greenland. It’s estimated that there are more than 7 million seals in Greenlandic waters. Although there is no official quota on seal hunting, experts say for the hunt to remain sustainable no more than 500,000 seals should be hunted each year. In Greenland, about 300,000 are hunted each year (about 10,000 in East Greenland) caught in nets or shot with rifles.  Many people (Greenpeace, etc) are trying to prevent the hunt. Four important things to consider:

1) Greenlanders have never hunted baby seals (besides being prohibited by law, it makes sense: they don’t have enough meat on them).

2) No part of the seal goes to waste – the meat is eaten, and the skin and fur are used for clothing.

3) Seals are not endangered.

4) Greenlanders have been hunting seal for thousands of years.

Bans on seal products have dramatically and tragically affected incomes of subsistence hunters in Greenland, who relied heavily on income generated by selling the skins.   They continue to hunt seals to eat, but have no where to sell the skins.

I’m not trying to start a debate for or against seal hunting – but rather just raising the issue that the traditions of Inuit hunters are threatened because of foreign activists who perhaps don’t understand the impact of their protesting.

Yesterday, I got back from a trip to East Greenland.  That part of the country is so different from Nuuk and the economy there is truly buoyed by tourism. East Greenland refers to the Eastern Coast, where about 3000 people live.  Even though it is geographically removed from Nuuk, it is part of the Nuuk municipality.  Watch this clip from East Greenland.  It’s part of a film called Piiteraq, made by Swiss filmmakers who I met in Tasiilaq.  The whole movie is about first descents on snowboards.

So, I have a series posts from the East, but I start with the Piteraq.

A Piteraq is a cold wind that originates on the ice cap and thunders down the East Coast of Greenland.  Wind speeds can reach 80 meters/ second (288km/s).

The Piteraq hit on Friday night, the day I was supposed to leave.  In the morning, the storm lights in town were lit.  And the strong winds started around midnight, they made the whole house shake and you couldn’t see one meter in front of you.

Needless, to say – my flight was cancelled and all we could do was watch the snowstorm and play cards – luckily the company was good (more to come on that).

According to the news, one mad died in the storm.  On February 6th, 1970, there as a terrible Piteraq in Tasillaq and 80% of the houses were destroyed. There were no deaths as families camped out in concrete basements.  However, once it was over, they didn’t know what to do with the kids of the village so they sent them to Denmark while the town was rebuilt.  This started an exchange program that continues today.  In fact, I was on the flight with the Danish kids going to stay in Tasiilaq for four weeks (quite a long time for 12 year olds), but I thought it was a nice tradition.

Exchange students boarding their heli