North America, Greenland, Sermiligaq Fjord, East Greenland

Publication Year: 1973.

Sermiligaq Fjord, East Greenland. On August 10 we arrived by fishing boat at Angmagssalik. Ice prevented our trying to reach our first objective, Sermilik Fjord. We set out for Depot Fjord out ice blocked the way there too. Consequently we headed for our third objective, Sermiligaq Fjord. At midnight on August 12 we landed, soaked by rain, on the western shore some five miles south of the tongue of the Knut Rasmussen Glacier. Our climbing activities started on August 14 in somewhat better weather. We reached in all 28 summits, all but four virgin and between 2750 and 4380 feet. Most of them lay between the northern rim of the Apuserajik Glacier and the Apusiajik Glacier; two about two miles east of the tongue of the Knut Rasmussen. The climbs varied in difficulty. We climbed couloirs and ice slopes of 65°; we ascended granite towers of UIAA Grade IV and V. On August 18 Base Camp was nearly destroyed by wind. From then on we had to go on short rations. On the 23rd it dawned snowing and we began the return trip. Our group was composed of ten climbers: Montserrat Delmau, María Carmen Oliver, Montserrat Jou, Antonio Bahi, Enrique Bonastre, Ricardo Cots, Juan Lleonard, Juan Frontera and me as leader; and eight who made ethnologic studies or photographed: Ana María Brunet, Conchita Devant, Margarita Noet, Mercedes Solagrán, Montserrat Vives, Francisco Arola, Pedro Valverde and Dr. Amando Redondo as leader.

JosÉ MarÍa Montfort, Centro Excursionista de Bages, Spain