Aluu & tikilluarit to
The Greenland Dairies
My name is Charlotte Workman and I am part of the team at The Adventure Photographers.
Spring 2022 I was on assignment in a very remote region of eastern Greenland, partaking in an exploratory splitboard expedition. I was with two others - Tom & James. Both airline pilots, both fierce advocates for the environment.
Over 6 weeks we travelled self-supported on sea ice, through frozen river valleys and into the towering Stauning Alps where we hoped to climb never before summited peaks.
I was tasked with documenting the adventure and creating a film that tackles the conflicts of living, working and adventuring in our time of climate crisis.
It was the hardest job of my life.
These are my personal diaries from the trip.
*These entries may be edited ever so slightly from pen on page to suit the online medium (and to correct some awful spelling), but otherwise reflect my immediate personal experience of the expedition*
01 Let's Go | Flying from Iceland to one of the most remote airports in the world
A wisp of a cloud passes over a vivid white capped sea. We pass over higher still in our 16 seat Twin Otter plane.
Just 10 of us - that’s including the pilots - are heading north. The sloping mountains and glacial valleys of Iceland disappear into the shining south.
We’re heading to Nerlerit Inaat - AKA Constable Point. It’s a tiny airport, one of the smallest in the world, and the live-in staff await our arrival. I can't believe it's actually happening; I calm my nerves by breathing deep.
Tom taps me on the shoulder
“Did you bring a compass?”
The navigation leader of the expedition looks hopeful at me.
His face falls at my response. I did not.
Tom is a make-things-work kind of guy. Always there for the adventure full of stoke and goofy jokes, but details don't often worry him too much.
The nerves are back.
Heat radiates from the floor of the plane. I'm thinking we should probably appreciate it but soon it's too much. We have to take our ski and snowboard boots off. I silently hope it won't bother the 5 other passengers... I guess any odours will be nothing compared to what they will be in 6 weeks.
Our journey through Iceland was brief, but it served as a wonderful taster of the characteristically desolate landscape and the darkly humoured Icelandic hospitality.
Iceland's Akureyri airport don't require passports
This morning started with a buffet breakfast and a bad revelation. We were well over the luggage allowance of the small plane. This happened to be all of my camera equipment, solar chargers and batteries.
When we got to the small airport on the north coast, however, the stress melted away with an Icelandic shrug. The check-in desk man waved our extra 38kg of luggage on board, no dramas. Another logistical oversight I was imagining would ruin our exped before even beginning. Elated, we gifted the man miniature bottles of vodka and gin as a thank you (James and Tom seem to have endless supply of these. Must be a pilot thing?)
As we sipped coffee in the small canteen, the check-in man brought us gifts of dried fish jerky
“Chew it for a long time” he advised.
Dry and rough on the outset, time invested releases a deeper flavour and appreciation.
Once the pilots on the table next to us finish their relaxed lunch, our little gaggle of passengers - 2 tourists, 3 nurses, Tom, James & me - step outside and board the tiny plane. We sit next to - and on - our luggage. The props start their hypnotic rhythm and the engine ramps up, we buckle in.
The pilot looks over his shoulder, he gives us a thumbs up. We're on the plane, all our stuff in tow, thumbs up,
let's go
Next time...
We touch down in the remote outpost of Constable Point and the GELCO logistics base. It's all metal sheds and partially buried shipping containers. We spend a week prepping our gear and wait out our first arctic storm.
"For a brief moment I face the full fury of the storm as it screams from the night ... If I can't find the entrance to the weather haven, there's no chance of finding my tent again. I would be lost to the storm"