Living in Ilulissat means you live with ice. That's not surprising when you live right beside one of the most productive glaciars in the world. The Glaciar Sermeq Kujalleq produces 10% of all the calved glacial ice in Greenland and is the most productive glaciar in the world outside of Antarctica. Sermeq Kujalleq has been studied for over 250 years and has helped us understand climate change and glaciology.Of course all of that ice effects our day on the Fram in several ways. It obviously poses navigational hazards. When navigating through heavy ice we must reduce our speed. The direct route no longer exists and we must weave our way in, around and through the ice. Heavy ice can cause delays in our scheduled landings and then have a ripple effect making us late for the next landing.
But we wouldn't want a trip to Greenland without ice. It is one of the main things we have come to see. Brash ice. Growlers. Ice floes. Icebergs. Glaciars. For us it is other worldly. Beautiful. For a Greenlander it is a backdrop to every day life.
