Walk the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland with a Cicerone guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates
• Reviews

The 165km Arctic Circle Trail, the subject of this book, runs from Greenland’s Kangerlussuaq international airport to the west coast at Simisiut, a route usually travelled by air as there are no roads. About 300 people walk it per year. Part of the value of the book is its introduction, giving logistics for a country which is not easy to access and suggesting when to avoid the mosquitoes.

The walk follows small rivers and crosses a lake landscape reminiscent of Harris. On the third day it follows Amitsorsuaq, a 20km lake. On this there are some aluminium canoes with paddles and buoyancy aids. Some of the canoes are in poor shape and may not even float but they may be taken and used free of charge without needing permission as
long as somebody has come the other way and left one.

The walk is split into nine days between huts which are small and basic, in one case an extended caravan. The biggest and best is the Canoe Centre near the west end of Amitsorsuaq. The book describes it but does not tell us why it is there in this remote position, who runs it and what it does. The walk ends at Greenland’s second largest town, Sisimiut, with a population of 5,500. ‘It is worth enquiring about kayak competitions at the harbour, where experienced paddlers demonstrate their skills with impossibly thin and light craft.

Canoeist magazine, December 2010

Paddy Dillon’s pages include practical guidance on maps, and the extent to which local purchasing of fuel can be relied upon at the starting point, as well as background information.

If you hanker after unfrequented routes then the author’s enthusiasm for this wild area should start you planning.

Austrian Alpine Club newsletter, Spring 2011

'The guide offers all the information experienced backpackers will need to walk this waymarked route and is illustrated with detailed Harvey map extracts and colour photographs. It is a very comprehensive introduction to this classic wilderness walking route and the longest popular trail in Greenland.'

Strider, April 2011