30 June 2014 Greenland is Nature's Sketch Book ... by Victor (from Group Nanoq)

It is nature’s sketch book…

From the eroded valleys, the thundering rivers, the endless dunes, and the crystalline pools, Greenland seems to have served as the world’s test lab for all of the structures that allows us to call this planet, Earth.

The Greenland Ice Sheet unfolding from Point 660.

This was my immediate impression upon setting foot on Point 660, and it was definitely my established credo by the time I shifted sight on the endless expanse of white land. The ice seemed to play the role of an architect’s clay. The frozen hills resembled the sentinel sands of the Sahara. The streams and ice valleys struck an all too familiar cord with the mighty Colorado River cutting its way through the Grand Canyon. The immaculate blue of the pools and lakes seemed to be the very essence of the ocean that they would one day empty out into.

The "dunes" of ice seen at Point 660.

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The ice cap was more than beautiful. In truth, it gave certainty to a belief that has otherwise prove to be most uncertain; the world changes, and with it, beauty is lost to the creation of new beauty. While the impending melting of the Greenlandic Ice Cap seems to be unstoppable, there is a certain type of reassurance in knowing that the colossal amounts of ice that now inspire awe and provide understanding, were once not there, but instead, in their place, were different, and perhaps more impressive structures.

The "ice edge" of the mighty Greenland Ice Sheet.

The ice, that most fleeting of earthly materials, presented an adamant impression. It assured that the physical world in which we live in will always change in shape but never change in essence. Whether the winds and waters of this unique island decide to shape a tower of ice, a valley of ice, or a bridge of ice, I learned that our perceptions must always be ready, no matter what scenario, to climb that tower, jump that valley, or cross that bridge.

I entered the icecap believing in a terminal destiny but I came out seeing that the world’s perpetual evanescence was something to draw stability from. As an eighteen year old boy living in a planet with an uncertain future, this trip made all the difference.

The Nanoq Group was blog "reporter" for our first visit to Point 660.