A Greenlander and her dogs 6

March 20. I met some of my friends on my way to the huts near The  Dead Glacier/ Sermeq Avannarleq.  Mads Peter and Peter are almost passing me and their friend, Bo behind them.

At the Devil's Hill. I found out that my female dog was in heat, not good. The dogs were not  focused so much on the  dogsledding.  I want a photo from Mads Peter who took a picture from the top with them from the top, me in the middle and Bo at the first step of the hill.

Bo has passed me. It's his gun for hunting birds(grouse) sticking up. The inland ice in the horizon.

Peter is holding the sled while Mads peter is putting his dog on the travel chain. They are spending the night. Maybe next year I will try to spend the night while dogsledding. The Dead Glacier in the background.

Bo and his dogs. He is making the travel chain for the dogs ready.

My dogs. They are not used to be tied up like that and having a long break. The new hut at the place called Aattartoq. Behind the hut is the track from the other hut I went to last time at this place. The track to the fishing spots. This fjord goes out to the Icefjord.

So beautiful place. So incredible quiet. So far from everything.

Mads Peter's dogs in the travel chain. The white with the black head is one of my puppies I gave to Mads Peter. He named him Romeo. The Glacier in the background.

My dogs. A very happy and proud Milo in front.

The Icefjord on my way back. I ran into a dogsled race. Luckily not at a dangerous place. And near the city I went though the goal line with a lot of people - a little funny :)

A Greenlander and her dogs 5

April 11.  Going to the huts near the Dead Glacier/Sermeq Avannarleq. Here you can meet another sled in high speed,  very exciting.

In the distance you can see The Devil's hill

In the horizon you can see the inland ice/the ice cap and that it's higher than were me and the dogs are.

The Icefjord to the side. No icebergs at all which is very weird.

Right before I order the dogs to go behind the sled before we go down towards the ice. You can see the tracks of others who have made their dogs go behind the sled.  I will  make them go behind the sled 3 times on our way down to the ice. You can see some of the glacier to the left.

I have the dogs behind the sled here.

The Dead Glacier in the distance

Almost down on the sea ice

On the see ice. Another sled further ahead. We are going op to the right behind him.

One of the huts. See ice again right ahead. The track to the fishermen's fishing spots on the ice. So cool that they go out on the dangerous ice and often spent the night, and drive the route back with a heavy load of fish.  

Proud and happy me and dogs

On our way back

From the top of Akinnaq north. The city in the distance. A lot of sea ice still. The sea ice is not strong enough to use and prevent us from getting ships with food and other things we need. Beautiful sunset at 8 pm. Always a special feeling to be at that place, the dogs behind the sled, seeing the city, hoping you will get down in one piece, hoping not to meet another sled in dangerous places. 

Down on safe ground. 5 hours of travelling. Happy dogs still with energy. Happy and proud me.

A greenlander and her dogs 4

From the day when I went out in very foggy weather. Hundreds of schoolchildren and  their teachers were out walking  on the dogsledtrack. My dogs were a little overwhelmed by the many people, but did okay. Most children and teachers smiled, some waved, some were a little nervous.

March 28. Going same route as the foggy day, to the view to 'the dead glacier'/Den Døde Bræ/Sermeq Avannarleq. Here in front of  'the devils hill' .

The Icefjord. Ice on the water, no icebergs.

The dogs are still not happy to take a break. Here they lay with their leader in front, then the males and in the back the female. Looks funny.

Bonding. Eating snow. ice in the face.

The view from our break. 'The dead glacier' to the left. It has stopped producing ice, therefore the name. It 's in a  fjord to the Icefjord. Good ice on the water.

A dogsled we passed on our way back is near the place where we had our break. Maybe he is going on the ice for fishing.

The Devils hill. The dogs are behind the sled and I'm pushing and sliding with the sled. Sometimes I try to get speed on by getting the weight of my feets in different ways, sometimes I have to break when it's very steep or slippery. 

March 30. We went over small Akinnaq/ Akinnaq Kujalleq. Here stopping before the dogs goes beind the sled down the hill.

Some places a narrow and you have to be careful not to hit rocks or hillsides. You can see some of the icefjord.

Ice on the water, open water, icebergs, the big glacier. 

Pink gloves to the lady dogsled driver :D

Milo, the leader in the middle, is very happy and proud - me too  :)

Me making ready to go dogsledding with my little sister who is on easter holiday from Nuuk, the capital in Greenland, where she have lived for 1½ year. She has lived in Denmark since 1989 and have never tried a real dogsled trip. And I'm not used to having a passenger. Very exciting. (My sister's photo)

Close to 'the view'. Some places the track is going steep to the side, and on our way back we will have the dogs behind the sled to prevent the sled to slide or fall. (My sister's photo)

'The View'. Me on the sled. The dogs are a little too much all over the place. (My sister's photo)

Me and my sister laughed a lot of this picture. First of the way her big pants, she borrowed , are sitting and then of the dog Pedro who is looking so mean (he's so sweet) in the bottom of the picture and taking all attention of the picture and the beautiful view. A stripe of sunlight in the middle of the ice on the Icefjord. Inland ice on the top of the mountains on the other side. The big glacier to the left. No icebergs in the Icefjord which is so strange, and open water too.

'The view'. The fjord to 'the dead glacier' going to the left, on the ice just before the big cracks in the ice, there's dogsleds driving to the fishermens fishing places. The Icfjord is going further in where you hardly can see the glacier because of all the white.  

Here I am with the dogs behind the sled just before going down Akinnaq north. My sister hurried and took a picture before getting on the sled. (My sister's photo)

Two upcoming events

Jo Vergunst will be giving a talk about his anthropological fieldwork and the Collecting | Recollecting exhibition. It will be hosted by the University Museums.
Tuesday April 17, 7.30pm, New King's 10, University of Aberdeen

Mark Eischeid will also be giving a talk about his contribution to the exhibition in the context of his own work, hosted by King's Museum.
Thursday April 26, 1pm, King's Museum, University of Aberdeen.

A greenlander and her dogs 3

This is Mia writing. My first try in a blog ever. I hope you can understand my english. Ask away if you have any questions.

February 29. Me as a passenger on another's sled in -28 degrees celcius. The open water in the ice on the icefiord, is steaming and creating moist in the air. See next picture.

 The icefiord. Only few icebergs and a lot of ice. The steam goes up to about 100 meters high.

From the left: Louie, Pedro, Lillepigen, Milo and "little" Hannibal. Lillepigen wants to be close to big Pedro (instead) of Milo as she should. When you almost only see the back of the  dogs you can't see that they are all iced up in the face, as you can see on Louie.

March 9. Moments on a dogsledtrack. We go left when passing another sled, an unwritten rule. 

March 21. I had trained the dogs on the flat ground for a while, and felt ready to go up over one of two hills, Akinnaq north, dogsledtracks where it's necessary to have the dogs behind the sled several times because it's steep and narrow, for your own and for other's sake. I tell the dogs to sop and go behind the sled, and then I push the sled and glide with the sled downhill. Very important for fishermen with a lot of fish, or sleds with a lot of equipment for longer trips, or sleds with more people like tourist tours. Because of there's almost no ice on the sea anymore, the possibilities for dogsledding ave narrowed down a lot.
The dogs have a lot of evergy and the weather is beautiful. Akinnaq north right ahead.

Going up a steep hill, where the dogs have to be behind the sled on the way back. The leashes are very much tangled, the males are still fighting for the role as top dog, so some don't want to run beside another dog, and some trying to find their places, and all the males wants to run beside the female dog, and I try to make them not to move so much around. The dogs are eager to go faster than the sled in front of us, and I break the sled, because I don't know if they can stay in front of them. Sometimes they use all their strength to pass the others and can't keep the speed, or loose their nerves, or the dogs on the other sled go faster when we pass them. There is way more dogs on the sled in front of us, but we go pass them and keep a good distance. They are going way longer than us and might have been out the route the day before. I'm proud though.

The dogs are not fond of taking a break, they just want to run and run. But I get them to lay down, untangel the leashes and get myself a cup of coffee. They should be tired, longer trip, steep hills, good speed, but they still wants to go on. Lillepigen in the back still wants to be close to the big male, Pedro with the black harness. They are looking at other dogsleds passing

Milo, the top dog have always been lying down away from the others. 

                                            The sled we passed and a tourist sled passing.

Big white world. A third sled, the last one is also a tourist sled. Good to go more than one sled if something unexpected should happen.

February 29. Me as a passenger on another's sled in -28 degrees celcius. The open water in the ice on the icefiord, is steaming and creating moist in the air. See next picture.

Ice fog. Beautiful nature.

Beautiful sparkling ice fog. Dogtrack and snowmobile tracks.

We also pass a sled on the way back. A young fisherman.

Going into another ice fog before going down the big hill.

Down on the flat ground. The dogs still have energy. And I'm so happy it went well and because we made it!

March 23. Another day taking the other hill, Akinnaq south. Here we already have past the first most dangerous hill and down on a lake, and going up again right ahead. 

The dogs like to pull and I use to say that they are very good dogs and they get proud and wants to dog even better. The are very strong.

In the distance you can se open water in the icefiord in front of Ilulissat's big glacier. Before the global warming there was never open water at this time a year and usually filled with icebergs.

A hut just before we stop for a break. You can see some sea ice and then some open water in front of the glacier.

Had some trouble again to make the dogs take a break, but succeeded. Nice weather. And me happy saying ' I did it!'. I have alway been afraid of this route, but I have won over the fear and it's a great and exciting route.

Going back. A lot of water have frozen on both sides of where we are going up.

March 26. Another day. The dogs needed to go for a long tour, so I went over Akinnaq north and further in to a place where you can se the dead glacier, a glacier which has stopped producing ice, in a side fiord to the icefiord. But it was very foggy. I bit scary not to see much where you were going, also exciting. For some days it have been warmer and the day before and the day before that the temperature have been above 0 celcius and have meltet snow. Rocks have appeared and the track was now frozen and quite slippery, made it more dangerous, and also made the the sled go much faster. Made it in record time. No view though

March 27. The first sledtour for the 7th dog, Aaju, in a shorter (skavle) to the right. I brought my dog-team-partner for safety. I share the dogs and ekvipment with him. It's expensive to have dogs and takes a lot of time, so it's nice to be 2 to take care of them. He haven't had time to go dogsledding because he recently became a dad, so it was his first trip this season too. None of the other dogs like Aaju and he don't like any of the other dogs. He ran happily in the start of the tour, then the others jumped him, we stopped it, then he ran most of the tour beside the sled, at the end we succeeded to get him up in front of the sled again, so good so far.