June 2009.
I have been to many places in the world and each one of them has a special characteristic that makes it unique. Greenland, Kalaalit Nunaat (the land of the people), has a very, very significant hallmark and that is... ice.
To give you an idea, the surface of Greenland is equivalent to Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium combined. Well, only an area of 410,000 km2 is ice-free, that is, the equivalent of the British Isles alone.
We flew over the Qoroq Glacier to land later at Nasarsuaq. All we could see was white, white and white and the tongues of the glacier.
The Nasarsuaq airport is tucked into a small canyon that flows into the end of the Tunugliarfik Fjord. Like the village, the airport is minimal. From here you can leave to any point in the southern area.
Our first stop is in Qassarssiuk, only 15 minutes by boat from the airport. In this small town we will have our base camp, the Polar Earth Hostel. Once installed, in the afternoon, we put the gear and start to assemble the diving, filming and photography equipment. Everything is ready for the underwater adventure that awaits us...
EQUIPMENT TEST IN QASSIARSSUK AND ATTEMPT IN TASIUSAQ
Today begins the exploration of new bottoms between Qassiarssuk and Narsaq. In this fjord we have to mark different dive sites so that later the company Tierras Polares can take their clients. Nobody has ever dived in this area... ever. Nobody knows what is at the bottom. We only know, by the probe, that the fjord descends from zero meters to almost 300 meters... Little else... Well, we know something else, we also know that the Qoroq glacier begins to "spit" thousands of icebergs, some of them up to almost 100 meters high.
The fjord where these "small" icebergs come out is only 4 miles away from us. It seems that this could be an impediment, but no, the truth is that it is another of our objectives, to dive next to the icebergs...
First of all and taking advantage of the fact that we have to relocate some dead people, we make a dive to "check" the equipment at the dock near the Hostel. We carry almost all the new equipment, including some heated vests that the Thypoon brand has given us. We jump into the water, check that it is not very cold, only 6º, and test the equipment. All perfect!!!! The Tecnomar dry suit and the Thypoon 200 rat go great, as well as the wing and the Apeks Tek 3 regulators. We took the opportunity to take some pictures and take some images. It is true that there is not much to see except some Saattuaq (crab) and many Eqqusaq (sea urchins).
In the afternoon we decide to undertake the adventure of the icebergs and we go to an area called Tasiusaq. This time we go by 4×4. Tasiusaq is a bay inside another large bay. In Inuit it means "like a lake".
Our first and big surprise when we get to the diving area is that everything is full of Icebergs. The body asks us to get in as soon as possible. The landscape is indescribable. As we get closer, specifically to the entrance area to the water, comes the second surprise, this is not good, the water is... green!!!. So we leave our baptism on the ice for the next day.
IPIUTAQ ISLANDS AND 1ST ICEBERG DIVING
We take the equipment and head for the Ipiutaq Strait. It is a beautiful area where there are 3 islands and several breakers. We choose one and, as no one has dived there before and in principle have no name, I baptize it as Carlossuak, which means "the great Carlos" in honor of my father.
As I am going to film I get in with 3mm gloves. We start the dive, we go down to 7m, we see some fish, starfish, we go down to 12m, we see sea urchins and... God, how cold!!!! I look at the computer and... it shows ONE DEGREE BELOW ZERO!!!! We are diving at -1º!!!!! . My hands, after 25 minutes say enough is enough. With signs I tell my partner... "Albert, we are going to the boat, I'm freezing!!!".
After drinking some tea and "recovering" my hands, we start to think that the best thing to do is to change scenery and dive with icebergs, besides, the fjord is "full" of them. We have to be extremely careful to do this kind of dives. Icebergs are huge masses of ice weighing thousands of tons and drifting in the fjord. Normally only 20% of the icebergs show up on the surface, the rest, what we are interested in, is submerged. The danger is in choosing an "unstable" iceberg, that is, if for any reason the iceberg "breaks", with only a slight part of it, the iceberg can destabilize and turn on itself. Imagine what this would mean if that mass reaches you at that moment.
Well, with everything and with that... we jump in. We select our iceberg and "INTO THE WATER". The feeling of being next to one of these "ice giants" is great. Although the visibility is not very good, we can see how its irregular white walls are lost in the deep dark. We go around it. We descend to 14 m. We look up to the surface and think... What a thing!
At the end of the dive, after no more than half an hour, we surface. Albert and I hugged each other and shouted for joy. What a good and different dive we have done!!!! That if, before returning to the pneumatic... we can't resist. We have to get on it!!!!. As its shape allows it, said and done, we are on an iceberg that sails free in the fjord. What can I tell you... this is the best!!!!
IPIUTAQ, QOROQ AND 2ND ICEBERG DIVING
Before going "iceberg hunting" we approached again to the island area to do another dive. This time we look for a sunken ship that collided with a small islet, baptized by Albert as Albertolik, in 1964. As in previous days the visibility is quite bad. With these conditions and after almost an hour of diving we decide to call it a day and head straight for Qoroq.
This site promises a lot since it is one of the fjords with more icebergs.
In the inflatable, we are already voting for the excitement of diving again with icebergs. The entrance to Qoroq is full of them and it would have been nice to have dived there but again the water plays a trick on us... it is green again!!!! We go a little deeper until almost to the glacier front and... worse!!!! The day is good but the water is not. Disappointed for not being able to dive in the cradle of the icebergs we decide to return to the Hostel.
Almost arriving, on our left, we spot a flat iceberg that looks very good. It seems stable, not very high but very wide. It also has "little beaches" as we say so we are almost sure that we can get on top of it again.
We jump and start the dive. The visibility up to 5 meters is regular but we can see some of the vertical ice walls. Albert goes first and I follow him. At 14 meters we enter a very green area. I tell Albert that we should turn around because we can no longer see anything and I take up the guide again, ascending a few meters. In this area we find many ice bumps. Some of them are very thin and are about to break. I venture to hit some of them and they do indeed break.
Nothing happens... they are small enough so that the iceberg does not destabilize. What is amazing is how these small blocks of ice, about 15 to 20 kilos, quickly rise to the surface.
We continue the dive and we get into an area of the iceberg in the shape of a V. It looks like a small valley in the middle of the iceberg. It is amazing! This iceberg that seemed to be flat and uniform on the surface turns out to have thousands of strange and funny shapes in its submerged zone.
We have been diving for almost 40 minutes and we think that our lips and cheeks would be very grateful to come up to the surface. We make a safety stop on a kind of ledge where we can contemplate the effect of the sun's rays entering the water. I assure you that there are no words to describe these images. Once on the surface, we went into the iceberg platform and managed again to get on our knees on top of it, which good!!!! Another iceberg conquered!!!!
TASSIUSAQ, DIVING AMONG THE ICEBERGS
Wind!!!! With these waves we have no chance of being able to navigate, let alone dive safely near the icebergs in Erik's fjord, so we change the fjord for Tassiusaq bay.
The road leading to this enclosed bay has a beautiful view. In this land of Vikings and Inuits we can see lakes of all sizes, hills, green meadows, rivers and snow-capped mountains. What we do not like so much is the wind that does not stop blowing behind us.
Once we reach the last hill we can see the bay and it seems that the wind we have is favorable. It is surface wind and does not raise wave, in addition we have in one of the banks enough ice to make a dive in conditions. Finally we arrive, we get out of the car and... good visibility!!!! Into the water we go.
We gear up, get in and look for a halfway acceptable exit to the open sea among the many small icebergs that have been stranded on the left shore of the bay. Not finding it we decide to go down and look for it underwater. We descend 3 or 4 meters and look for the exit among the icebergs. There is too much ice but we seem to find it, there is a kind of tunnel between two icebergs.
There is no end in sight but there is no other option. We head towards the tunnel entrance and... a brutal noise dreams above our heads. "CRAAAACK." The ice sounds like it's going to crumble!!!!. We quickly backtrack and move away from the tunnel. Nothing seems to have happened, it was just a brutal crunching of the ice.
Albert and I look at each other, confirm with our heads and now very cautiously and very quickly we try again and get back into the tunnel. After a few seconds we come out on the other side without being crushed by the ice. We have a visibility of about 5 or 6 meters. We start flapping carefully admiring the fascinating "blue-white" landscape left by the icebergs. For the moment we go with the ice on our left. We approach, we move away, we touch it and we hallucinate again with the various strange formations that the ice takes underwater.
After 20 minutes we decide to enter between the icebergs and contemplate another type of landscape, now, type labyrinth. There are no words. Imagine a room with dozens of huge columns that go from the ceiling to the floor. That is what we are seeing but all white and blue, all full of ice and in some places ... with very little space to pass. It reminds me of the planet Krypton in the Superman movie.
Obsessed with the scenery we don't pay attention to our computer. Nothing happens either because there is not much depth and it is impossible to get into deco and run out of air but just to check how things are going I look at the computer and... what do my eyes see...? We are diving at record temperature... TWO DEGREES BELOW ZERO!!!. I can assure you that between the fascination of seeing this frozen landscape and the equipment we are carrying, we haven't even noticed.
After taking many photos and video we decided to turn around and go back to the beach. Now it's time to find a hole to get back to dry land and get out of this icy "tangle". We search, we see that all the ice is compressed but in a short time we find a wide entrance which allows us to get out without problems. We flap a little on the surface dodging the occasional small iceberg and we get out near the 4×4. We can only say... spectacular, really spectacular!!!!
The objective of the trip is fulfilled. We have discovered new diving areas, we have dived next to drifting icebergs, we have climbed on them, we have dived under them and between them and I have filmed and photographed this wonderful country which leaves me hundreds of good moments, some of them, as always, full of adrenaline but... what would life be without adventure and risk? As I always say, a trip is over but there is less time left for the next one.
