Expedition to Greenland

Why would anyone want to go mountain climbing in Greenland? To get away from your desk. To do something extraordinary. And not only to do something for yourself, but also for the benefit of others. At the Expo Real 2013 fair, as a Bavarian folk orchestra oompahed away in the background, Andrzej Tokaj (Magnusson Law), Jacek Wachowicz (GTC), Piotr Szafarz (Dentons), Rafał Nowicki (Apollo-Rida) and Tomasz Trzósło (JLL), came up with the idea of a skiing trip to a place where no sensible person would dream of going to ski. “Our criteria for choosing the destination were very specific. It must be remote, it must be cold. There cannot be any snow ploughs within a radius of several hundred kilometres. The après ski must only involve music from an iPhone and well-rationed supplies from the duty free zone of one of the airports used to get there. And there must not be any ski lifts,” recollects Jacek Wachowicz. At the end of a long discussion, they all decided that it had to be Greenland. After many weeks of preparations – reading up on polar bears, frostbite, avalanches and other dangers – as well as entertaining such ideas as: perhaps we should go to Chamonix after all? – they eventually landed in Greenland in an Air Iceland Fokker on April 5th. More precisely, in a place called Kulusuk with a population of just 300 people. “It’s located in a bay that is accessible to supply ships for only around four months a year. The airport had a runway that many of us would not even like to drive our cars on, never mind land a plane on. In front of the terminal we were greeted by a number of local ‘taxi drivers’. A few were equipped with snow scooters, others had dog sledges,” recalls Tomasz Trzósło.
It might seem like nothing particularly taxing – mountains with a height of 700–800m above sea-level – but the start from more or less sea-level, the low temperatures and the granite slopes make these mountains are every bit as challenging as Alpine peaks. The first two or three hours of climbing involves a laborious trudge on skies wrapped in skins. The final stage of climbing the peak takes place with the skis strapped to your rucksack. And after all this – finally! – skiing on virgin snow.
The initial base camp was a hut in Kulusuk village. Just two days after their arrival in Greenland, when the weather stabilised, by sledge they managed to reach the Apusiaajik glacier, which was to be their base camp for excursions into the mountains for the next few days. All that remained of any modern conveniences ended there. From that point onwards, they only slept in their tents.
However, the view of the peaks rising sharply straight out of a frozen Atlantic dotted with icebergs compensated for the inconvenience of sleeping on a glacier, as did the culinary delights of the ‘Traveller’s Bistro’ – the expedition’s name for a tent that served as the mess, specialising in freeze-dried food prepared by adding boiling water made from the snow. As for the return journey, according to Piotr Szafarz: “We were only able to access the internet on the way back, in Reykjavik. We were so pleased to see the many comments and postings about our campaign to raise money for scholarships for spatial planning students. Thank you all for your support! We will keep you all informed about who benefits from the campaign and in what way. In the meantime, we can all return to our desks. But already we are thinking about... .” For future instalments of the adventures of these intrepid real estate professionals, watch this space.