3. Greenland: Travelling in Dreams

With 2.166.086 km², Greenland is the biggest island in the world (apart from the island-continent Australia). Nevertheless, except a few stretches of the coast and the north fringe where the weather is so dry that snow cannot be produced to cover the naked rock, the rest of the island (84% of the total surface) is occupied by an immense layer of ice: the Inlandis. Only some Nunataks, summits of the peaks that get to overtake the ice level, break the whiteness of the environment.
No one lives in the interior of Greenland. Just the inuit hunters have ventured into the frozen plain through centuries, and this way they have learnt to measure distances in siniks: in dreams. The denomination refers to the number of nights that one passes during a trip, but in Greenland nights can be almost inexistent, or very long, depending on the time of the year – and with it covered journeys and distance. So, it’s useless trying to calculate the duration and length of a journey based in the siniks invested by other hunter. In the Inlandis, everyone has to chase his or her own dreams.

Who said green?

The feeling of unreality that envelopes Greenland starts by the irony of its name - that paradoxically means green land. The responsible was the Viking Erik Thorvaldsson, more famous as Erik the Red. Around 982, Erik came to the coasts of the immense island after being exiled from Iceland. The sailor was looking forward to, with that encouraging name, bringing more settlers to his new home. Nevertheless, those who were suggested by that early marketing operation found the swindle as soon as they got closer to the coast.

 

The supposed Grønland, even during those years when the local weather was warmer than today (cooling came at the end of the middle age), just had to offer rock, ice, months of darkness and an intense cold. Even nowadays, the total population of the island never comes up to 60.000 souls (most of them a mix of inuits and Europeans) and that considering that the total surface free of ice is bigger than Paraguay. It’s hardly surprising: during the long winter night of this land is frequent to reach the 50 degrees below zero, and agriculture is not profitable in this semi-frozen ground where trees cannot grow. Besides, the western shores of Greenland are crossed by a cold current, the Labrador Current, which explains the presence of icebergs in lower latitudes than in other parts of the north hemisphere; the huge pieces of ice which surrounds the island all year long difficult navigation – in fact one of them sank the Titanic. Apart from that, the ice layer of the Inlandis is so thick and its weight so massive that has sunk the earth on the bottom to down the sea level. In fact that humongous glacier mass makes of Greenland the second most important world’s water reserve after the Antarctic.Besides, the western shores of Greenland are crossed by a cold current, the Labrador Current, which explains the presence of icebergs in lower latitudes than in other parts of the north hemisphere; the huge pieces of ice which surrounds the island all year long difficult navigation – in fact one of them sank the Titanic. Apart from that, the ice layer of the Inlandis is so thick and its weight so massive that has sunk the earth on the bottom to down the sea level. In fact that humongous glacier mass makes of Greenland the second most important world’s water reserve after the Antarctic.
In the beginning of the nineties, American and European Scientifics took samples of ice of 3.200 meters, and their study was decisive to prove that the weather has suffered several sudden changes in the last 100.000 years, with consequences in a global level. In these years of concern for global warming, Greenland is an exceptional witness and a living lab where to find the keys of what we can expect, and what we must fear.

Spring’s Test

On the other hand, the expedition will start on April. On this month, winter is on his death throes and perpetual night gives a way to a diffuse light. The expedition members have chosen this date, two months before the regular season for the crossings in the area, for reasons of availability (both are still working as guides between trips), but over all to keep on training their bodies and to get used to the rigors that they will find in the next stage of the project: The Antarctic.