CLOCKWISE FROM TOP The T-bar at Solbakken ski area sits motionless after the last day of the season in Sisimiut. The surrounding backcountry terrain is easily accessible via numerous snowmobile highways. Qeqertarsuaq local Aqqalu drives the Pisten-bully for the municipality of Qeqertarsuaq. The equipment is used to groom Qeqertar-suaq DSP’s training grounds, but also to work on the lift installation project. Sisimiut Ski Club (SSP) members including Inuuna Ingemann-Lund (left in helmet) and Millie Chapman (right in helmet) gather at the base of Solbakken ski area after the last day of lift service. Krister Støvlbaek wrenches on the new ski lift near Qeqertarsuaq. The ski lift project has been ongoing for seven years due to equipment complications and remoteness. It is now near completion and projected to open in 2024. ATHLETES AND TOURISTS WHO TRAVEL TO GREENLAND AND FOREGO TIME IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES CAN EASILY, AND UNKNOWINGLY, MISS THE DEPTH OF THE COUNTRY’S BEAUTY. A flurry of Facebook messages and friend requests lands me the company of Ulloriaq Kruetzmann, the Vice President of Sisimiut SSP’s volunteer board. On a gray April afternoon, the threat of wet snow lingers in the air as Kruetzmann prepares coffee and a spread of narwhal maktak (buttery whale blubber attached to a chewy piece of outer skin), dried musk ox meat and fresh-baked bread in his home. Kruetzmann says traditional foods embody the free-dom of being Greenlandic. “Without our own traditions,” he tells me, “we don’t have our culture. We don’t have the same life quality.” With a deep voice, large frame and full beard, the 32-year-old dog musher is a gentle giant—exceedingly kind and deeply invested in developing young skiers, like his chil-dren. Roughly 260 skiers belong to Sisimiut SSP today, and according to Kruetzmann, 80 percent are youth. The most dedicated club members train five days a week between a small hill in town and the backcountry lift at Solbakken. Kruetzmann says that despite being a newer sport, skiing teaches today’s youth traditional Inuit values, like taking care of one another, learning about terrain and weather, and gaining familiarity with snow conditions. Friendly competi-tion between young skiers also helps them progress while fostering connections between these small communities. He says the ski club provided some of the best memories of his life: ski racing, sleeping in snow caves and, most importantly, making lifelong friends across West Greenland. I catch the last day of lift service at Solbakken with Kru-etzmann’s daughter Inuuna Ingemann-Lund and her close friend Millie Chapman. The girls, escorted to the ski area by their parents on snowmobiles, are competitive ski racers in the U-14 age division. After a few slushy laps, I ask if they ever ski off-piste, curious if they tire of the 350 feet of groomed snow at their disposal. They giggle at the question. They prefer high speed carving on groomers—this is their craft, and it never grows old. THE OPPORTUNITIES AFFORDED to the youth of Nuuk and Sisimiut by their seemingly modest ski lifts are hard to overstate—it’s widely acknowledged that outdoor recreation is a necessity for mental and physical health in remote Arctic communities. And though ski racing is not as popular nationally as it was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there are still communities with active ski clubs that train without lift service. One such community, Qeqertarsuaq, is currently engaged in a multi-year effort to install a lift for its com-munity of 800 residents. Sisimiut local Krister Støvlbaek lures me further north to learn about the ongoing efforts to install the ski lift in Qeqertarsuaq’s backcountry training grounds, a project he’s been hired to wrench on. At 69.2 degrees north, the small village on Disko Island is only accessible by boat or helicop-ter, and winter ice conditions make Disko Bay dangerous to navigate. Thanks to travel delays with Air Greenland, it takes me two and a half days to get from Sisimiut to Qeqer-tarsuaq, only 170 miles apart as the crow flies. “Welcome to travel in the Arctic,” a desk attendant tells me after my third flight cancellation. 080 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 17, Issue 3: Page 80
