KEEPING RHYTHM: SNOWKITING THE GREENLAND ICE CAP
The rotor blades reverberated with a familiar ‘whop-whopwhop’ as the helicopter touched down on the dull, grey, frozen surface. Polar guide Carl Alvey bundled out with his two clients as snow crystals filled the air, blasted into a frenzy by the downdraft. After hauling equipment from the belly of the aircraft, they crouched next to their sledges as it manoeuvred upward, away from their drop point near Narsaq, the most accessible southerly point of the Greenland Ice Cap.
The hulking sheet of ice smothers all but the fractured and mountainous coastline of the world’s largest island. Most of Greenland’s small population live along the western coastline, away from the barren interior which is largely the playground of curious adventurers. Less costly than the poles due to its greater accessibility, Carl believes, “Greenland offers incredible opportunities to those who wish to test themselves with a long-distance expedition.”.
Carl and his clients, Patrick, a surgeon
