UKC

I'm going to be doing the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland in August next year. My old Lonely Planet guide shows a high route variation which looks to me to be more interesting than the regular route. But I can't find out much about it online. Does anyone have any experience of it?

Thanks

OK, it seems like people just don't do this any more. They want the use of the huts on the main trail. A shame, because you could climb Mt. Pingu on the way if you did the high route. This is about 1300m and ice free and must offer great views.

Well if anyone is interested in joining me to do this, get in touch. You can take the ferry from Sisimiut at the end to go up to Disko Bay.

In reply to Arbu:

I'm considering doing the trail next summer, the high route variation sounds interesting. Do you have any info at all bout it? I'm keen to explore a bit away from the main trail...

In reply to Arbu:

Did the standard route a couple of years ago, where the trail is pretty well worn. Wasn't aware of an "official" high route at the time, but it certainly looked like one could be strung together with ease at some points, just following ridges etc alongside the main path. I think you'd be largely navving your own way along through the heather/willow/birch rather than following any trail.

In reply to Dave Flanagan:

Here's a scan of the Lonely Planet map https://imgur.com/a/QG1oy . You can see that the high route crosses the main route in the middle. I don't see any point in taking the western part of the high route over the western part of the main route as it's not actually very high, although you could find your own high route as gav is suggesting, a little south of the main route.

For the eastern part of the high route, which interests me more, you can see this goes very close to Pingu. There's also another mountain, Taseeqqap Saqaa a bit to the northwest of Pingu which you could go for too. It doesn't look like either mountain would require crampons/ice axe in summer. I have a 1:100,000 map which shows that neither mountain is too steep, except Taseeqqap on the north side. I'm sure there would be no trail to follow on the high route and you would be wading through the low scrub much of the time, which would slow you down.

I have a flight booked to Kangerlussuaq on 13th August. Let me know if you want to discuss things further.