THE TRIP TO GREENLAND
TALE TEN (Part 1)
DOGSLEDDING OVER HILLS AND MOUNTAINS
This experience came in two phases. The former of these two was on 'day 3'
(the first FULL day in Greenland) and would be a half-day introduction to 'mushing'
and its perils - crossing hills from one frozen fjord to another. The second would
be a full-day longer- distance expedition to the other side of the island (Ammassalik)
across mountain passes.
So the first day's introductory torture (April 1996) was after we had finished
our self-service breakfast. I didn't know at that stage that it WOULD be torture.
I had a choice of footwear to use (being prepared for advice regarding recommended
footwear for the given conditions) - first of all there is my pair of walking-boots
having very good grip (proved last night on icy roads!) but not long enough for deep
snow. Secondly, there is my pair of 'wellingtons' which can cope with deeper snow
(I don't know about the 6-foot depths though!) but poor grip on icy surfaces
(also proved last night). I was advised to wear the 'long' Wellingtons "because we
will be going into deep snow".
I, thus, changed from my 'good-grippy-footwear' in favour of the advised
'long-wellies'. I knew that I would have to walk carefully on the icy patches
before we encountered the deep snow. Within a short distance of the hotel - all
went well - I had travelled in these Wellies yesterday afternoon (although
preferring the walking boots. I then needed to go around a 'passenger-and-goods'
van parked outside the hotel. It was parked in a snow-canyon leading to the abode,
- and the width of the canyon wasn't much greater than the width of the vehicle!!
Being as several people had been coming and going between the vehicle and the
canyon walls, the compacted snow was becoming quite icy, - and so greater than
normal precautions would be necessary. I knew that. The 'boots' knew that.
Isaac Newton knew that. But, unfortunately, the laws of gravity changed around me,
locally, provided a warped field and plummeted me down to the ground (the legs
sliding instantaneously forwards and under the vehicle). I rotated slightly backwards
and could grab nothing. Thus the base of my spine took a severe juddering impact
- leaving me, in mild shock, on my back on the icy surface. After a few seconds
to regain composure, I looked up and around me and saw a helpful guy from the hotel
offering a couple of hands for my assistance. (I knew him to be the person who had
driven the vehicle and parked it there!!)
After a few words of sympathy (from him) and reflection (from me) we then began
to discuss more-appropriate footwear. He then lead me into a small foyer, sat me down,
then measured me up for some PROPER footwear. These turned out to be boots having the
following properties:-
(i) Very good grip!
(ii) Quite long.
(iii)Internally padded for warmth.
They fitted perfectly, were very warm, and gave very good support to the ankles.
I got to love those boots. We could now start our demo-introductory-runs, -- so off
we went, using the 'culprit-van', to the fjord from which we would start. We made this
transfer in two trips.
I, thus, arrived at the frozen fjord behind the four others in our group. I
joined them on the snow-covered ice which had a surprisingly comfortable atmosphere
there. We saw groups of huskies, sleds and ropes - and the inevitable brown-coloured
ice around the dogs and elsewhere. We all wandered around the icy fjord (must be very
thick!) and investigated the scenery. The most unusual from our point of view were
the ships frozen-in awaiting the thaw in a few months time.
Thus photography occupied our pre-dog times. Personally, I snapped the imprisoned
boats and Inuit families enjoying the deep snow. There was much to see, totally
different to the World that we had previously known.
On rejoining the small group, we met our 'Mushers' and were introduced to them
- after we had seen that nice man, Yewlin Tay, doing a thoroughly un-British thing
of kicking- hell-out-of-the huskies. He really laid into them, his boots landing
effectively, hard, accurately and wildly, - each targeted animal's yelps indicating
that they weren't too pleased about his actions. How can such a nicely English-educated
Dane be so cruel? These things worried me at the start.
Later, it became apparent WHY he did that!! Each husky-team is composed of a
mixture of male and female dogs. The males will fight amongst themselves or
individually (remember that they are wild animals) to establish who is 'top dog'.
Similarly the females fight each other - but it is rare to find males fighting
females (wild animals know what to do with the opposite sex!). Once the top-dogs
have been established - the others know who to look up to and respect or obey.
That doesn't stop them challenging for that position!! Fights can be quite brutal,
severe injuries being common if one is not careful. Dogs are often muzzled to prevent
aggressive ones attacking so much. Similarly, one often sees dogs with one leg tied
up. That isn't normally an injured leg, it is just to SLOW DOWN an aggressive dog!!
Yewlin's interventions now made sense. He was establishing HIMSELF as the 'top-dog'
to command respect and obedience.
With that firmly behind us, we now sat on our sleds behind these wild animals.
[UK television programmes had already advised us not to stroke or fondle these beasts!]
Thus our three sleds were now ready for the 'off'. I had a sled to myself (plus
Yewlin as 'musher'), Ruby and Bobbie shared (plus musher) and a similar sharing was
assigned to the youngish couple from 'up North in the UK'. The starting grid was on
the Frozen Fjord which we had overlooked from our hotel rooms. At 'blast-off', the
engine noises increased (i.e. the dogs howled even louder and more excitedly) and we
accelerated across the flatness of the frozen fjord, heading inland to as far as the
fjord went. The unfrozen part of the fjord and the sea were in the opposite direction!!
I use the term 'flatness' in a relative sense. From a higher elevation, this
appears the flattest part of the Earth's scenery. Behind these (only slightly subsonic)
dogs, things did not appear, or feel, so flat. There were two reasons for this (at
least!).
The first was that a smoothly frozen sheet of ice, over such a wide area, does
not preserve its original state. Movements of ice and snow and water conspire to
produce cracking, sliding, overlaps - and any combination of these that you can think
of.
The second was that I was in transit with a damaged base-of-spine!! So even a
smooth ice surface wouldn't have been comfortable. Still, this is the reason for being
here, Roy, so just grin and enjoy it!!! Some areas of ice had about a 6-inch step to
the next patch. The front contour of the sled's runners easily mounted these
discontinuities, but their very presence at these high speeds caused quite a bit of
concern (to me) initially. It was a matter of raising one's backside off the sled's
floor (supporting one's weight by flat hands at the end of rigid vertical arms as
crutches.).
Some areas of the ice had flurries of drifted-snow across them (not deep, but
sufficient to provide a smoothing out of the ice's spurious roughness). On the fjord,
this hybrid surface provided, for me, the best ride.
Also on the frozen fjord, apart from the legendary Yewlin and myself and our
seven vociferous huskies were two other dog-teams with the other English (and Chinese
- when you count Ruby) adventurers. When one team is just behind you, but making
faster ground, their dogs sometimes pass at a fair distance - and sometimes they are
just nuzzling up against one's own sled. This is quite a high-speed nuzzle - with
tongues loosely hanging and panting. In some situations (quite frequently really)
some dogs will pass on the left whilst others are close on the right!! Only when
their musher utters words (either in Danish on Inuit) of discouragement (too dangerous
presumably for his long-range whip in this situation) did the close-encounter retrieve
itself from potentially serious tangling of ropes etc.. There was always the feeling
that one would like to stroke these attractive huskies - and show friendship. We could
be beside each other for appreciable distances - looking in each other's faces.
However, one has to remember that these are NOT household pets but mean, aggressive,
racing machines!!
There were quite good opportunities for photographing both dogs and/or scenery
with this relatively tranquil passage of time. I had been warned, in advance, that
the camera's batteries, unhappy under these colder conditions, could refuse to deliver
power for both shots and winding functions. Because of this warning, I had prevented
the batteries from getting cold - by the simple method of hanging it round my neck and
below the Parka. My body warmth (quite considerable) could then keep the camera ready
for instant action.
I used the term 'tranquil' in the previous paragraph. "Isn't ALL dog-sled riding
tranquil", you may well ask. "The hell, it is !! We are only on 'smooth' territory
yet!!" We all race to the end of the fjord where the only way is up. One dog-team beats
us to the start of the 'climb' - but we beat the other. Yewlin is having trouble with
our 'skiving' dogs. They are slacking too much. They even stopped when climbing the
hill!! He doesn't mind them slowing down a bit, but their 'stopping' warrants a
massive tirade of abuse. The verbal content may be Danish or Inuit (I can't tell!),
and may be directed to individual dogs (or bitches). He doesn't talk nicer to the
ladies!! Sometimes, he may get physical with individual well-aimed whips, or dismount
(if slow enough) to jerk, severely, individual leads or even give them kicks to let
them know who's boss.
Thus we climbed several-hundred feet in altitude, maybe a thousand -this sled is
not fitted with an altimeter!! Not all of it was done at high-speed. Some of it was
quite slow due to the dogs being 'lazy' (I quote Yewlin). I offered to walk over some
steeper stretches to make it easier for these lovely creatures. Yewlin explained that
such an action would only make the huskies even lazier!! I thus retained my seated
position while the dogs scrambled up the hillside, some more energetically than others
- whilst Yewlin swore at them in a Danish and Inuit mixture. On reaching the first
plateau, they were able to accelerate and get excited, the sight and sound of our
three sleds racing over this terrain will be a memory to live in my mind for ever.
I took a photographic shot or two for the record. These shots included not only the
in-motion view from my sled to the others, but a look-back to the frozen fjord and
Ammassalik behind us.
This phase of the journey was not unlike riding over the Malvern Hills back home.
That has to be imagined, only, as our delightful hills are barred from forms of
transport!! Sledding and snow-mobiling over Greenlandic hills are NOT forbidden, as
there are no roads anyway. It is their 'way-of-life' and their 'living'. All hunting
and travel has to be done this way. There are no great hoards of tourists wrecking
their amenities (yet) and they strictly limit travellers like ourselves to groups of
between 5 and 15 people!! [That's per week!!!] The plateau was quite extensive and
provided some quite high-speed sections.
It felt 'great' with our dogs at full speed on the level territory, Ruby and
Bobbie on a parallel course about 200 yards to the right [see above photo]- and the other
couple out to the left. On this plateau, we did stop for a rest [plus photos] once - before
continuing on this terrificly exciting journey. This was my first ever journey by
dog-sled! Let there be many more!!
The descent from this plateau was quite gentle, - no big jumps, - and done at
high- speed. Very exciting. Occasionally, the route that our 'mushers' took, would
have high-speed bends in it. Sometimes we would be quite close to other crews, -
sometimes well separated. There would always be another crew visible (well, nearly
always) because of the 'rescue' needs in the event of problems.
These high-speed descents, with bends in them, needed a certain amount of
bravery and skill if one was to stay on-board. Yewlin and I managed at all times to
keep the correct balance, 'degree-of-lean' (in the absence of banking!) and drifting
(like sideways-motoring) to follow the huskies.
Eventually, the terrain levelled out in a delightful setting - being absolutely
level further on. The very good reason for this is that we had arrived at the next
frozen fjord along the coast of Ammassalik Island.
Even further on, we met the sea-ward limit of the frozen fjord, and this presented
us with another opportunity to sight-see and have a walk around. Furthermore, unknown
to us, Yewlin had brought some flasks of hot drinks which he proceeded to serve to
each of us. What a nice man!! Fortunately, it was ALL drinking-chocolate for this
11 a.m (Greenlandic Time) stop. This lack of choice wasn't regretted!! It was
marvellous to have our late-morning 'break' in this Arctic wilderness with a chat
and a delicious hot drink. Standing, chatting and supping the beverage on this frozen
fjord will be another memory to remain in my mind and emotions for ever.
Photos taken at the time showed that only Bobbie was wearing a hat, - it was
really pleasant weatherwise (as well as the company present!). View-wise, it was
stupendous, especially looking back up the frozen fjord in the direction from whence
we had come, with low bands of cloud decorating the snow-clad hills. That particular
view was a really 'magic' one - and produced one of our most memorable holiday-photos.
Down at the limit of the frozen part of the fjord, we encountered one of the two
plants that grows in Greenland, - namely sea-weed!! The other is a bush of berries (I
don't recall which one) but we never saw one of these.
After more chats and photos and the handing-back of the cups (really flask-tops!)
it was with reluctance that we had to depart from this idyllic spot, board our sleds
and make our ways back to Ammassalik. The route would be similar to the one we arrived
by. First, we raced along the fjord until the huskies were forced to slow down for the
first ascent. Each dog-team took a slightly different route, - occasionally getting
glimpses of each other.
Climbing onto the ridges and plateaux on this return run - made without a stop,
there was much excitement as we were 'getting used to' the techniques of mushing and
fast descents. We were not fearing the descents any more - but relished the high-speed
downhill turns - sometimes taken with a considerable 'drift'. That was done, for
example, when the dogs tightened the corners and we did our best to follow them
without running them down. The musher, on many occasions, took up his alternative
position at the rear where he could apply stronger, more centralised, braking
actions. When not there he would return to his more comfortable seat at the front
of the sledge (but only having an asymmetric braking capability).
Our idea was to return to our base on the hills to the south of our own frozen
fjord in time for lunch before an afternoon of skidooing. That afternoon has been
covered in Tale Nine. We came off the hills and took to the fjord reasonably close
to the point where we left it for our first ascent. Thus the journey became relatively
smooth again, with just the discontinuities between the portions of cracked fjord-ice.
Sometimes they were snow-covered and hidden but softer than the exposed large cracks.
Fortunately, the profile of the runners and the suspension on the sled absorbs a fair
degree of the jolting.
So, we raced back to our starting points - or somewhere near them - and separated
from our mushers and met our travelling companions again. My Yewlin was gathering the
huskies together, calming them down and doing others tasks at the edge of the fjord
as Ruby, Bobbie and our two other companions made our way up the hills to the
Angmassalik Hotel and compared feelings and thoughts on the morning's activities. It
was a damned good way to start dog-sledding. Tomorrow's expedition is now being
anticipated with enthusiasm (despite my damaged base of spine!).
Time now to tuck into a good scandinavian lunch and have a rest before this
afternoon's snowmobiling.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0
See link for Tale 10 (Part 2)