Tundra Hike: Eqip Sermia

Eqip Sermia — or Eqi Glacier in English — is a tidewater glacier. Meaning that it terminates in the ocean.

This particular glacier is nicknamed the calving glacier for its active discharge of ice from its terminus, which is just over 3 miles wide. We caught glimpses of the action, alerted to the calving by the rifle-shot cracks and the thunderous, cannon-like booms. More often than not, however, the ice falling into the water from the terminus was hidden from our eyes by the moraine ridge.

When we visited Eqip Sermia in 2013, we arrived late in the afternoon and lay at anchor overnight. This gave us an opportunity for a zodiac cruise along the terminus of the glacier on the first afternoon and a hike up to the glacier the next morning. It was a beautiful blue-sky day on that occasion. Today, all we had was thick overcast.

(The story of our 2013 hike — in words and images — is at this link: http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2014/01/hiking-to….)

We’d been briefed that we could not hike up to the glacier today due to how much it has receded over the past 10 years. In fact, it was no longer possible to even hike up to the moraine ridge overlooking the glacier as we had back in 2013. The plan, therefore, was to land on a beach on the far side of the flood plain. Those who wanted to could then embark on a 4-mile in-out hike to get to the other side of the flood plain. Others could go on a meandering hike at their own pace.

Distance-wise, the hike would have been doable. But Mui and I decided to “play” around on the side of the flood plain where a lake had formed between the landing beach and a rushing creek of glacial meltwater. Take our time and enjoy the tundra was the plan. And that’s what we did, making our way as far as the rushing creek that those who wanted to hike further had to cross via boulders and make shift bridges the expedition team had “built” with pieces of flat wood to bridge the gaps.

We took our time and “smelled the tundra,” so to speak, checking out the colorful flowers, the birds, and the nooks and crannies that afforded some interesting photo ops.

On the way back, we joined Laurie and Emily, two of the expedition team members … and friends from our 2013 Greenland Expedition. It was a great opportunity to catch up. We were so engrossed in doing so that we all missed the turn in the path down to the beach. Ooops. No matter … it just meant that we got that many more steps of exercise into our day.Baca lagi