Greenland: The Thule Explorer

• Intermediate kayaking with some medium-difficulty day hikes
• 12 nights wilderness camping in tents; 2 nights hotel In Qaanaaq, Greenland
• A total immersion in the landscape and culture of the High Arctic

Greenland’s northwestern corner, known as the Thule region or Avanersuaq -- ”The Place in the Farthest North” -- lies less than 800 miles from the North Pole. The last of the world’s traditional Inuit live here—the Inuhuit, ”The Great People.”  Incredibly isolated, the Inuhuit are the farthest-north human culture, long thinking that they and their West Greenlander cousins were the only people on the planet. It wasn’t until 1818 that the outside world entered in: Sir John Ross, a British explorer looking for the Northwest Passage to India, came upon a small group of Inuhuit on the Cape York Peninsula on the northeast coast of Baffin Bay. Very little was still known about the Inuhuit when Lieutenant Robert E. Peary made his first visit to Avanersuaq in 1891. For the next 18 years Peary and his orderly, Matthew Henson, would depend on these Inuhuit to support their Arctic explorations.

With few visitors coming into the region, this trip will be a fabulous learning experience as we see first-hand a society that has changed very little over the last centuries. The scenery is simply stunning, as island cliffs reflect in the often glassy waters, and enormous icebergs of all shapes and proportions float along the waterways. 

Five-sixths of Greenland, the world’s largest island, is buried beneath a mantle of ice as much as two miles thick—the polar icecap. Only along the coast lies a thin strip of ice-free land, a mountainous perimeter slashed by countless fjords. With an area of 840,000 square miles, Greenland is more than 50 times the size of the country that administers it, Denmark.

Northern Greenland is classified as a polar desert, with just 2.5 inches of annual precipitation. The sun remains high overhead during the brief Arctic summer, bathing the land in continuous 24-hour daylight. Temperatures can rise to 65°F while the sun circles around the sky. In places, the topography of the surrounding hillsides reflects this solar energy into the valleys below, thawing the permafrost enough to provide sufficient water for vegetation such as blueberries to flourish.

Join us this year on a most rare adventure as we return to the outstanding Thule District—the Arctic’s last stronghold of truly traditional people.

17 Days

2012 Dates
Jul. 17-Aug. 2
Jul. 31-Aug. 16

Trip Difficulty: Level 4

2012 Fees

$5,990 from Qaanaaq, Greenland*
Small Group Surcharge for Groups of 6-8: $500

Internal Flights
$3200
Copenhagen to Qaanaaq, Greenland

*Price does not include international airfare or mandatory trip insurance. Prices are given in US Dollars.