Greenland trip day 8: another waiting day

Another day with a dodgy forecast: mixed rain and clouds, so no mountaineering for us. The morning does have a highlight: watching a big ice spire fall off the glacier into the ocean. The noise is remarkable and watching the two big pieces try and find their "comfortable" positions in the water (after surfacing like whales) is really cool.

The moss and lichen are just incredible

We get a late start and after breakfast head down the coast to stretch our legs and do some scouting for future climbing. It's a nice walk above the sea with a bit of ascent to a moraine on the next former glacier up. Plenty of plant life and things to see. The weather isn't terrible - no wind and only occasional sprinkles of rain - but the clouds are low so visibility of the mountains is pretty bad. When we head down to the shore we hit a nice beach with cool sand patterns and lots of stranded ice bergs (small ones). These have all kinds of interesting shapes and textures and keep us entertained for a while before moving on. Our "lunch" break is back up on a bit of ridge from which we see the other Pirhuk group (doing trekking) heading our way. After lunch we head back along a lower route. Aside from Andrea getting her boots wet (not super wet, she was smart and had put on her gaiters) at a river crossing, the trip back is uneventful. We hang out for the rest of the afternoon and then go to sleep after dinner (chili con carne this time... certainly a good freeze-dried choice).

It was another hard mental day; we all want to do some mountaineering and see the sun. Group morale is not super high, but the forecast for tomorrow looks ok and the three days after that look great. We'll see how things go. 

Watching the other Pirhuk group