Sunday 17th May

Another early start as we need to get kit sorted and buy supplies for the two nights we will spend in the fjord. We board the boat at 10am, start the journey into the fjord and are immediately surrounded by spectacular scenery. Reaching the head of the fjord it is obvious that the main glacier has receded significantly since 1997 expedition to this area (see 1997 and 2009 photos below). Standing by the shore surrounded by these mountains we can’t help but be reminded of our humility and how tiny we are in such a grand landscape.

Once the boat drops us off we waste no time it getting out to explore the area on the east side of the fjord. Tim wants to look at the lake formed at the bottom of Sermitsiaq glacier and we are surprised to find it is actually a salt water lake connected by just a short channel to the main fjord. Several pro-glacial streams flow across the smoothed rock carrying high suspended sediment loads which enter the lake forming brown sediment plumes which show up against the blue water. We clamber up the smooth rocks to the glacier snout to examine the seracs and crevasses at close quarters, then continue up to the south side of the valley and scramble onto the lateral moraine to descend back to our camp at the fjord. Tim is overflowing with ideas for science projects his group could do in this area but the cravasses and difficult access means this is not a good site for the mountaineering phase of the expedition so tomorrow we will go and look at the next valley which is the planned route to the ice.