New Trips 2010
Greenland Travel Tips
Miscellaneous Expenses that you are responsible for include: Transportation to Baltimore. Meals in Kangerlussuaq On your own. Guide Tips and meal tips.
Reading List
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich
Greenland Mummies by Janet Buell
Greenland Journal by Rockwell Kent
Greenland Expedition by Lonnie Dupre
To the Arctic: An Introduction to the Far Northern World by Steven B. Young
Pre-trip Information
Please read the below information carefully; call us if you have further questions.
Travel and Accommodations
We have group rates for air travel to Greenland. Please call us to make arrangements for you. We have planned for double occupancy throughout; there is an additional charge for single occupancy in Uummannaq.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is required on all Greenland trips. It is approximately $350. We have included a brochure for travel insurance through a company that we have found to be excellent. When traveling in remote places such as Greenland, this insurance is a sound investment.
Travel Documents
A passport is all that is required for entry and travel in Greenland.
Health and Fitness
Our trip is one that any reasonably fit person can enjoy. If you have never paddled a kayak before, you should try it at a local outfitter or retailer. We will provide instruction appropriate to the skill levels represented in our group once we gather in Uummannaq. Each participant should be capable of paddling for approximately 6-8 hours each day with land breaks every hour or two. Please complete the enclosed personal medical form. There are no extra vaccinations suggested.
Weather
Uummannaq is located in the high arctic at 71 degrees north where weather can be cold, windy and wet at any time in the summer. However, this region of west Greenland has long been nicknamed the Greenlandic Riviera because of it's average 2000 hours of sun in summer. That anomalous weather for this latitude results from a prevailing high pressure area over the ice cap of Greenland and a warm water current branching from the Gulf Stream and meandering up the west coast of Greenland. In our experience over 5 seasons in Uummannaq we have had weather ranging from sunny, calm and warm days lasting 24 hours for a week or more to periods of cold, rainy weather lasting a day to three days. On the coldest days at the end of summer the temperatures can be below freezing in morning and snow is a possibility in the mountains. During prevailing warm periods when the sun never sets in June and July we have experienced temperatures exceeding 75 degrees. So if you join our trip in Uummannaq you have to be prepared for just about anything.
Bugs
Mosquitoes and No-See-Ums are the most common pests and you should be prepared for their presence, however they are normally much milder than the insect population in the BWCAW in June.
Of Note to Birders
We are sure to see amazing birdlife on our trip: snowbunting, wheatear, ptarmigan, red breasted merganser, fulmar, glaucous gulls, chestnut collared longspur, black guillemot, redpoll, common loon, greater cormorant. Mammals spotted have included: musk ox, caribou, arctic fox, arctic hare, fin whale.
Reading List
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich
Greenland Mummies by Janet Buell
Greenland Journal by Rockwell Kent
Greenland Expedition by Lonnie Dupre
To the Arctic: An Introduction to the Far Northern World by Steven B. Young
Pre-trip Information
Please read the below information carefully; call us if you have further questions.
Travel and Accommodations
We have group rates for air travel to Greenland. Please call us to make arrangements for you. We have planned for double occupancy throughout; there is an additional charge for single occupancy in Uummannaq.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is required on all Greenland trips. It is approximately $350. We have included a brochure for travel insurance through a company that we have found to be excellent. When traveling in remote places such as Greenland, this insurance is a sound investment.
Travel Documents
A passport is all that is required for entry and travel in Greenland.
Health and Fitness
Our trip is one that any reasonably fit person can enjoy. If you have never paddled a kayak before, you should try it at a local outfitter or retailer. We will provide instruction appropriate to the skill levels represented in our group once we gather in Uummannaq. Each participant should be capable of paddling for approximately 6-8 hours each day with land breaks every hour or two. Please complete the enclosed personal medical form. There are no extra vaccinations suggested.
Weather
Uummannaq is located in the high arctic at 71 degrees north where weather can be cold, windy and wet at any time in the summer. However, this region of west Greenland has long been nicknamed the Greenlandic Riviera because of it's average 2000 hours of sun in summer. That anomalous weather for this latitude results from a prevailing high pressure area over the ice cap of Greenland and a warm water current branching from the Gulf Stream and meandering up the west coast of Greenland. In our experience over 5 seasons in Uummannaq we have had weather ranging from sunny, calm and warm days lasting 24 hours for a week or more to periods of cold, rainy weather lasting a day to three days. On the coldest days at the end of summer the temperatures can be below freezing in morning and snow is a possibility in the mountains. During prevailing warm periods when the sun never sets in June and July we have experienced temperatures exceeding 75 degrees. So if you join our trip in Uummannaq you have to be prepared for just about anything.
Bugs
Mosquitoes and No-See-Ums are the most common pests and you should be prepared for their presence, however they are normally much milder than the insect population in the BWCAW in June.
Of Note to Birders
We are sure to see amazing birdlife on our trip: snowbunting, wheatear, ptarmigan, red breasted merganser, fulmar, glaucous gulls, chestnut collared longspur, black guillemot, redpoll, common loon, greater cormorant. Mammals spotted have included: musk ox, caribou, arctic fox, arctic hare, fin whale.
