This area includes the most impressive mountain ranges in Greenland. The Lemon Mountain range is to the north of Kangerdlugssuaq. This is a vast mountain range with compact alpine peaks. There are endless opportunities for mountaineering with many unclimbed peaks up to 2.600 meters. Many peaks offer excellent mixed climbing with up to 1000m vertical height gain from basecamp to summits. This range includes the Cathedral peak made famous by Chris Bonington and Robin Knox-Johnston when they sailed there on Robin´s yacht Suhaili in 1991 to climb. Further west are the Kangerdlugssuaq mountains which is a huge and extensive region of alpine granite and gneiss peaks up to 2.600m. This is probably the single largest region of unclimbed summits in Greenland and is ideal for easy ski touring exploration. To the north and east are the Watkins mountains with Gunnbjorns Fjeld (3.693m) the highest mountain in the Arctic. Actually this range contains all 10 highest mountains in the Arctic. This is the ultimate Greenland destination for ski-mountaineering on big peaks with up to 1.500m vertical height from basecamp to summits.

 
We worked our way into Suhaili bugt at Kraemer island. This anchorage was surveyed by sir Robin's crew in 1991 and was used to keep Suhaili while the climbing expedition were in the mountains. We anchored with one line ashore and spent a quiet night at this very safe anchorage. To the Greenland people, Kangerdlugssuaq apparently has always been regarded as an especially rich hunting ground - a kind of Shangri-La, that can be reached only with difficulty but where life can be expected to be good. Recent endeavours to colonize Kangerdlugssuaq date from 1966 when a number of families from Ammassalik (Tasiilaq) settled there. They had a very good season (35 polarbears, 62 narwhales and about 2100 seals) and returned most years afterwards. We kayaked over to the old abandoned settlement and checked out the ruins.

Our original plan was to work our way south along the coast. According to the latest ice charts there was a large tongue of ice off Kong Christian IX land so we decided to do the trip to the Ammassalik area in one stretch. We headed out of Kangerdlugssuaq fjord and set course south. Around 67degN we hit the pack ice and had to take a de-tour 60 miles off the coast to get around it. After about a day and a half of sailing we arrived in Sermiligaq fjord. This was our seventh day out.

We anchored close to the head of this great fjord. The group headed out on the dinghy towards the Knud Rasmussen glacier. They brought their ice axes with them and had an oportunity to walk a bit on the glacier. After spending a peaceful night at this anchorage we headed off into the Ikateq sound. Half way into the sound are ruins of an abandoned American air-base from second world war. People went ashore and hiked among the rusty oil barrels and almost 30 different trucks and other vehicles rusting away. We then sailed further through the sound and the group was dropped off at the entrance to Tuno fjord. There they took off kayaking through the narrow pass into Torssukatak fjord and to the village of Kummiut. AURORA sailed through Ikasak sound and we met with the kayakers again at the wharf in this little settlement.

One night was spent tied up at Kummiut and then we sailed down Angmagssalik fjord to the village of Kulusuk. Our Irish guests were dropped off in Kulusuk where they would spent one night on the local hotel and then fly back to Reykjavik the next day. AURORA's crew weighed anchor that night and set course around Kap Dan towards Iceland. Shortly we were in a good SW breeze and set all sails. We then had a perfect sail the whole way back to Isafjordur with speed at times exceeding 10 knots. We arrived back in Isafjordur after almost two weeks of great exploration. There is no question in our mind that east Greenland is one of the world's most awesome wildernesses. More than 2600 km of coastline with less than 3500 people. We will therefore definetely be offering this kind of trip again for 2009.

Follow this link to check our position.

Thank you all for your great company last month.

We embarked from Isafjordur on the 13th of June and sailed for three days to Jan Mayen. We arrived in perfect weather and the group put up camp on the beach. The day after they continued up to 1300 metres and put up basecamp there for the next few days. Since the crew of Aurora were not guiding this trip, we decided to moved her to Båtvika off the Jan Mayen station (Olonkin City) and meet the eighteen inhabitants on the island. Their main job is to maintain a Loran C station and do meteorological observations. Three guys from the station were planning to go to the top and I decided to go with them the next day. Departure at 01:00 in the morning. There was a "bar night" at the station and somebody handed me a guitar...I went to bed half an hour before departure!

The weather was perfect, dead calm and clear sky. The climb went well and we were at the top in the afternoon. The group in basecamp walked the whole crater rim which had never been done before. I had my skis with me and had a really good run down the mountain. We returned to the station around eight in the evening. There was a little celebration at the station and we had champagne and pizza in the little swimmig pool.

Two days later we sailed back to Dalvik in North Iceland in great wind and picked up another group and headed out again the day after. This time, we landed on the northern side of the island and put up camp at the old meteorological station. In the group were six Norwegians, two Germans and two radio amateurs from the UK and Poland. The radio guys planned to transmit from Jan Mayen over the next days while the rest climbed Beerenberg and did some easy hiking in  the lower mountains. The plan was to climb the mountain from the old met station when weather allowed. Again we were blessed with very nice weather and climbed the mountain during the night and stood on top early in the morning. It was a tired bunch that returned to camp at ten in the morning

We took a rest day the day after and then spent two days exploring the mountains and valleys on the northern part of the island and its rich history of whaling, research and remains from the second world war. Then it was time to set sail again and we returned to Isafjordur early Saturday morning the 6th just in time for a few beers at the bar...!

Thanks to all of you who came on those two trips and also thanks to all at the Jan Mayen station for their support. We´ve already planned two trips next year in June and the first one is fully booked.

Until early July we´ll be in scarce email contact but we can be reach on Aurora´s sattelite phone ( 0087 1763 699 855 ). Our email will be checked on regular basis and we´ll try to anwer your questions the best we can.

Play safe and have fun!

Check the Arctic photo album for more photos.

When they return around 12th June, we get ready to sail again from Iceland to Jan Mayen doing two skiing expeditions with Norwegian groups.

We went  this week to Adalvik Bay in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve to get few eggs. The ride was a very small 3  person boat that our friend, Gummi bought on eBay...! Pretty fast and good boat. We climbed from the shore up to a 20m high rock and found eggs lying everywhere.

Here are some photos.