WILDERING

INNERTIVIT RIDGE, EAST GREENLAND

Bad weather cuts short our long trek from Tasiilaq Fjord to Diilerilaaq via Sermilik Fjord. We return two years later, when, instead of downpours and piteraqs, we‘re blessed with mostly clear days and mild winds. Justus drops us where we previously left off and we strike out alone, just the two of us. Again we encounter no one, neither hunters nor trekkers. Again the vastness daunts us until, days out, we find our tundra legs.

Our crux is to navigate Innertivit‘s rock maze without getting lost. There‘s no obvious route up this engulfing, convoluted ridge. Yet as we scramble blindly we gain a panoramic view: Ikaasatsivak Strait, Amitsivartiva Fjord, Sermilik Fjord, Johan Pedersen Fjord, the Greenland ice cap, and even the distant north Atlantic.

But it‘s what spreads out right before us that steals our gaze: chromatic rock tiers, hanging boulder gardens and sky-pooling rainwater catchments. The nearby sidles up to the faraway.