"North-East Greenland" Top 5 Page for this destination Greenland Travelogue by Saagar

The North East Greenland is by far the world's largest national park. And maybe the one with the fewest animals and fewest visitors? The national park is administred by Danish and Greenlandic authorities, and monitored by Danish special troops, the Sirius Patrol, that once in a while inspect the coastline here by use of dogsleds and skis, or by foot and ship in late summer.

This part of Greenland is inaccessible for the "common tourist" apart from the odd view down from commercial overflights caused by jet streams that force traffic between North America and Europe this far north. That's how I got these photos.

The only other ways of getting here otherwise are by the occasional specialist cruise ship doing the Spitsbergen-Greenland-Jan Mayen-Iceland route, or by taking part in a scientific, climbing, hiking or kayaking expedition. The Scoresbysound area is accessible by flights from the Angmassalik area and Reykjavik, and there is some commerical tourism development out of Scoresbysound.
North of Scoresbysound there is little in terms of even temporary habitation. There are no Inuit or Danish settlements as such. Some rough air strips occasionally put down expeditions out of Iceland and Angmassalik.

Barren coasts

The vegetation consists of just low grasses and some flowering plants, lichens and moss.

It really is a barren land with vegetation enough only for musk oxen, polar hares and lemmings only, and the predators polar bear (hunting seals), the odd fox and polar wolfs. Marine life is abundant, with seals, whales and cold-water fish.

World's mightiest fjords

The NE Greenland fjord systems put all other fjords to shame. These fjords are deep, extensive and the absolute longest in the world, never mind what Norwegian, Alaskan, New Zealand, Chilean and Canadian tourist advertisements try to tell you about their fjords...

Glacier meets the sea

The glaciers that drain the ice cap cut through coastal mountains ranges up to some 3000 meters high. Here in the southern part of Christian X's Land the spectacular coastal ranges offer fantastic ice adventures, skiing and climbing.

Ice flow from the inland ice cap

Like slow rivers glacial flows drain off the surplus ice mass from the Greenland Inland Ice or "Ice cap".

Ice streams drain the ice cap

... but perhaps 10 times larger than the sibling in the Swiss Alps?

Meltwater lake on a glacier

Turqouise meltwater lakes form on top of the ice several places that lacks drainage. The meltwater lakes can be huge. If blocking glacial flows in narrow valleys they can eventually litterally lift glacier tongues and drain underneath the glacier in a catastrophic GLOF. But nobody there to witness the event...

Nunatak sticking up from the inland ice cap

Far up on the ice cap sharp-edged and pyramid-shaped mountain stick up. These are called nunataks in Inuit language. Since such peaks are windblown, steep and not covered by the ice, the odd plant and lichen may survive ice ages by clinging onto nunataks. This explains some of the vegetation patterns for example in Norwegian mountains, where pre-ice age plant communities survive.