High above Tasiilaq: Climbing Qaqqartivakajik on a rainy day

It was my first full weekend in Tasiilaq, and I wanted to get outside, into nature. Unfortunately, the amazing weather we’d had the last week had been and gone. Now, heavy threatening rain clouds were coming in above us. Still, I decided to chance it and hope for the best.

I had originally planned to hike through Naasuliardarpi (‘Blomsterdalen’, ‘the Flower Valley’), but decided to save that for a sunny day, and instead climb Mt. Qaqqartivakajik (‘Sømandsfjeldet’, ‘Seaman’s Mountain’), a mountain located right behind my apartment. The mountain has two summits, one at 630 meters above sea level and one at 730 meters. I hoped to conquer both.

I left my apartment at 1 PM, walked a few meters up the road and then started walked up the mountain. The wind was still and the rain had not come yet. I expected it to be a semi-easy climb as the mountain didn’t look too steep from below.

The first part of the hike was easy, although I quickly managed to get away from the “trail”. There isn’t really a marked trail as such, but a few stones are marked to show the way, although these would easily disappear below snow when that comes. I ended up just finding my own way up.

The views of Naasuliardarpi, Tasiilaq and the surrounding mountains were already astonishing.

And then came the steep part. It looked as though the summit was right there, just a few minutes away, but of course it’s never as close as it looks. I kept going up and up and up. It was only getting steeper, and at one point I had to crawl on all four and push myself up. It was a wonderful feeling when I finally saw the cairns at the first summit – I was finally on top at 3 PM, two hours after I’d left for the hike.

The peak that I’d come to was the low one at 630 meters above sea level. Rain started falling as soon as I got up there, typical. I walked around the summit for a bit and studied the other summit, which looked more like a different mountain altogether. I wanted to continue, but the rain was getting harder and the clouds darker. I had to be getting back down.

On the way down, I actually managed to follow the markings (in the shape of a smiley – somebody had fun while doing those!) and easily found my way back to Tasiilaq, although it was a bit of a challenge going down the steep part where every step I took created lots of small landslides. I got back to my apartment at 4.30 PM, 3,5 hours after I’d left. Not bad going!

But of course, I’m not done with Mt. Qaqqartivakajik just yet – I still plan on climbing the mountain on a sunny day, and then conquering both summits!