A barefoot greeting from Greenland

I saw your other thread in the hiking section first, but still wanted to say welcome aboard! Thats fantastic scenery and great pictures, my kind of place! When you say Mt Washington are you talking about New Hampshire? I've done a lot of hiking in the Whites, and also in the Adirondacks in my home state. Oh why did I move to Ohio!
Thanks Tristan:)
Apprecaite the welcome aboard too :)

It is indeed Mt. Washington in New Hampshire I am talking about.
the Whites is quite a gorgeous region, you have quite a few of those in the US actually, though trails tend to get a little over groomed for my taste.
A lot of very confusing trees and vegetation in that region, but once you get over the treeline it looks a lot more like home for me :)
You even have friendly bears, ours eat people.
Had to get used to all the people too, but I really had a wonderful stay there ;)

Never been to Ohio though and by the sound of it, it is not the top of my list ;)
 
@Phil, lol! and I'll take that under advisement. I doubt the wife would ever move though, but I've already given it serious thought if we split, and don't want to get into my personal details but thats a possibility.

@Arctic - yeah I know what you mean about the trails. Most all of them in the north east US are pretty heavily used. Going on popular weekends can get downright crowded. Most of my hiking has been on weekends, and usually the summits are always shared with a few people. The last trip I did (the one that I reported on in the hiking section) I did a couple of days midweek and had every summit to myself, only crossing paths with a few fellow hikers per day. It was so nice! (except Saturday the last day). So for solitude I'll be planning most of my trips mid week now!

The Whites I havent been in since I was in high school, but I'd like to go back sometime. We've done most of the president (I think all but would have to look it up) as well as the Franconia Range, and a couple other peaks.

You can keep your people eating bears up there though! :eek: Its bad enough I have to lug a big heavy bear resistant food canister now, even if its not me they are after.
 
@Phil, lol! and I'll take that under advisement. I doubt the wife would ever move though, but I've already given it serious thought if we split, and don't want to get into my personal details but thats a possibility.

@Arctic - yeah I know what you mean about the trails. Most all of them in the north east US are pretty heavily used. Going on popular weekends can get downright crowded. Most of my hiking has been on weekends, and usually the summits are always shared with a few people. The last trip I did (the one that I reported on in the hiking section) I did a couple of days midweek and had every summit to myself, only crossing paths with a few fellow hikers per day. It was so nice! (except Saturday the last day). So for solitude I'll be planning most of my trips mid week now!

The Whites I havent been in since I was in high school, but I'd like to go back sometime. We've done most of the president (I think all but would have to look it up) as well as the Franconia Range, and a couple other peaks.

You can keep your people eating bears up there though! :eek: Its bad enough I have to lug a big heavy bear resistant food canister now, even if its not me they are after.
Glad I am not the only one finding the hiking trails a little crowded in the US. It really makes sense to plan for midweek hikes, we should have thought of that :)

I think it is safer both for the bears and us people that they stay in the fairly desolate arctic regions :)
Luckily these cute white teddybears are not too common around most of the greenlandic west coast, we seem a bear around once a year and we only hike with riffles when hunting. In northern Greenland a 12 gauge shotgun with bear slugs is standard hiking equipment and it took some getting used to that you carried it not to hunt, but in case you would run into a 4-600 kilo always hungry white teddybear and while I have seen them up very close in nature on 3 occasions, it has luckily (knock on wood etc.) always been in "safe" situations.
 
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Hi All,
The very long and winded story about how I ended up barefoot running is not for this thread, but one morning i january I took off my five fingers and ran my 5K recovery run barefooted and it started my journey towards a full time barefoot (or minimalist shoed) running.
Barefoot running and Greenland is not the obvious match and being the only one of the kind in Nuuk, makes for a lot of attention, both good and bad. This forum of like-minded runners will likely open new doors.
Spend last winter running fivefingers through ice and snow, up and down nordic skiing tracks, jumping from ice flake to stone to ice flake, in temperatures down to -25C or so and all summer and fall running barefoot as much as possible.

It is a long journey just started and if I were to describe it in just three pictures it would be something like this:

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nsump13_wall_061.jpg


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I am now confident up to around half marathon distance in bare feet, but will hopefully run my first full marathon barefooted next year (but which one I do not know yet)
I travel extensively, with Utrecht and Copenhagen as regular stops and generally running barefoot where I go.
I am looking forward to learn from the experienced people in here and share my own advise where I can.

Cheers,
Thomas
Awesome:D
 
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Hi A-D/Thomas, I think I'd take up ice fishing rather than BF running for the winter. That crushed rock grit sounds very discouraging.

What beautiful country you have to run through and explore! I second the motion for a visit. Maybe we could all come and stay at your house next summer!
 
Hi A-D/Thomas, I think I'd take up ice fishing rather than BF running for the winter. That crushed rock grit sounds very discouraging.

What beautiful country you have to run through and explore! I second the motion for a visit. Maybe we could all come and stay at your house next summer!
Hi Joseph,
I have spend eight years exploring as much of this Island as possible and it continues to be an adventure :)
Icefishing is an option (but it is a cold sport too):
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The rock grit I could be without for sure, but will have to see how things pan out this year :)
Thanks again for commenting :)
 
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Holy smokes! What are they trying to catch with those drums of line?!! Are they fishing in salt water and that's the current pulling the line at that angle? Fascinating!

What a place!!! It's now bumped up several places on my list of destinations to visit before I go on my last run. Thank you!
 
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Holy smokes! What are they trying to catch with those drums of line?!! Are they fishing in salt water and that's the current pulling the line at that angle? Fascinating!

What a place!!! It's now bumped up several places on my list of destinations to visit before I go on my last run. Thank you!
Hi Joseph,
They are longlining for Halibut in the Ilulissat icefiord. I have a picture with fish somewhere...
Water depth is somewhere between 800-1000 meters, so needs a lot of line and the fish are not exactly small.
Typically you dogsled out, stay in tent for a few days fishing and dogsled the fish bag home.
Arctic Winter fishing the traditional way :)

I am working on setting how to set up a guided runners Journey to Greenland, but Greenland is not exactly a budget destination, logistics are a nightmare and winters are kind of fierce.
But I will post it here if I manage to get it all worked out :)
 
How long have you lived in the Arctic, Thomas? Do you ever truly get used to the freezing cold temps? What's the warmest temperature during the year...forgive my ignorance?
 
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I see you liked my post, Thomas, but do you have a moment to reply?
 
How long have you lived in the Arctic, Thomas? Do you ever truly get used to the freezing cold temps? What's the warmest temperature during the year...forgive my ignorance?
TJ,
I have lived in Nuuk for eight years now and had the pleasure of travelling almost the entire Island of Greenland from 80 degrees North to the tip.
I have found that I adapt very well to temperature changes and that I cope very well with the cold, dry Arctic climate and that the region fits my outdoor interests very well
Coldest day out was a full day hike in -46C, coldest in tent temperature was -32C. Most people adapt to cold rather well, but it takes time and training.
Summers though are very good, as a humid day means a 20% humidity, our 15-25C in summer feels nice and warm in the sun, but as soon a the sun goes away it get cold quickly.
Greenland makes for a very unusual life, as we are only 56.000 people Scattered on 180 cities, town, villages and settlements on an island that takes up 2.2 km2, where 85% has a permanent ice cover. The capital Nuuk (population 16.000) has a total of 100km of road if you lay them in a long straight line.
the fact that cities are not connected by roads, train or otherwise, adds to the unique nature of the country. If you want to Go from one city to another you can fly, sail or walk. and in many regions the most reliable way to get from A to B is during winter is dogsledding.
p496367719.jpg
 
Just did, just working with a very slow internet connection where I am right now :)
I can imagine. Thank you. You were probably preparing that post for me when I was being pushy. Sorry about that.

Those are some seriously cold temps. (I had to run them through the online conversion site I use to see them in Fahrenheit.) I don't think I could ever get used to it there. Pretty though.

I learned recently from one of our Colombian members that the decimal point you are using means comma as well.

How many days of summer or warmish weather do you all get?

Where were you born?

What kind of internet connection do you use?
 
I can imagine. Thank you. You were probably preparing that post for me when I was being pushy. Sorry about that.

Those are some seriously cold temps. (I had to run them through the online conversion site I use to see them in Fahrenheit.) I don't think I could ever get used to it there. Pretty though.

I learned recently from one of our Colombian members that the decimal point you are using means comma as well.

How many days of summer or warmish weather do you all get?

Where were you born?

What kind of internet connection do you use?

No worries :)

The slow internet is thanks to me being in a hotel and having drawn a room with poor reception. Internet connections are normally more than fast enough, but rather pricey.

Nuuk, where I live is a lot more manageable temperature wise, we have our periods of relatively cold temperatures (-25C/-13F range), but we are mostly around the -10C/14F to -20C/-4F range during winter. The very cold temperatures are from travels further north. I have given up on chill factors...
Seasons varies a lot with destination, but in general, But winter tends to be November-mid may, but snow in June is not unheard of. Spring is may to june, with summer in July and august. September and October is usually autumn, but this year we had a fair bit of snow already mid September.

Normally we have a short, but relatively good summer (insane amount of mosquitoes though), but this year we had maybe 10 good days, where a other years we have had a couple of very good months.
 
:coldfeet: That's a perfect smiley for you. Glad you are using it in your signature.
 
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What a place!!! It's now bumped up several places on my list of destinations to visit before I go on my last run. Thank you!

Thomas, my wife is familiar with a service called Air B&B, and used it to look at what's available for booking rooms in Greenland. Nuuk has some really nice flats available, and for some reason, especially so in January.