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South Greenland - Day 20 : Nuuluk

In the morning the weather was pretty good. That was nice as the views were much better when it wasn't cloudy. First I climbed back to 700 meters, which went surprisingly well. The view towards the valley I came from was beautiful. As I had more than enough time I took a long break to take it all in. When I continued downhill I had one of the nicest views thus far. I saw the ice shelf, granite mountains, the fjord, Igaliku, and a nearby lake. To the left I saw Eriksfjord filled with icebergs.

greenlandic nature
Nuuluk
Igaliku

From there it was a 350 meters descent to the lake before starting the climb up Nuuluk. At first I just needed to walk up along a river to 500 meters of elevation. From a distance the mountain seemed way too steep and dangerous to climb. There was a suggested route on the map and I was sure I was roughly in the right area, but it was difficult to tell if I needed to climb up there or 200 meters to the left or right. After searching for 15 minutes I picked the place that seemed best. I filled my water bottle just in case there wouldn't be any water higher up the mountain and started climbing. Even using my hands I only barely managed to climb higher. By the time I reached a less steep area I knew I wouldn't have made the decision to start climbing if I had known it would be that steep. It took another hour of climbing to reach the top, but that part was much less dangerous. I ate lunch while enjoying the amazing view. Fortunately it wasn't very cloudy. 

Eriksfjord
Igaliku
Igaliku
Nuuluk

started the descend. The first part went quite smooth and I found my way back easily. The last 50 altimeters again were very steep and it took some time to find a (relatively) safe way down. At the bottom were some other people. I realized that apart from some boats and helicopters these were the first people I saw since leaving Qaqortoq 4 days ago. I hadn't missed seeing people at all. I had a chat with them to see if they had done some nice hiking in the area, but they were just on a day trip from Igaliku. They had also considered climbing Nuuluk and asked how difficult it was. I told them it was fine on top but the first part was dangerous and that I didn't recommend it. They were glad they hadn't tried. The first part hadn't been steeper than some of the other climbs I had done, and also not very long, but there were too many loose rocks.

 

The description about Nuuluk on the back of my map was again short and brief. It literally said 'walk to 300 meters of elevation, turn left and climb to the top of the mountain'. After I had left Nuuluk behind I walked downhill towards Igaliku. I camped about 2 km away from the village. Supposedly there were some more ruins there, as Erik the Red used to have his parliament in the same valley. In the evening, I made preparations to visit another nice viewpoint the following day. Despite the many days (weeks) of hiking I still felt relatively OK. I took a good look at all the photos I had taken thus far. Those were definitely among the most beautiful photos of any vacation I had ever seen. My flight wouldn't leave for another 5 days, so I hoped to add many more. 

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