Ice Ridge Trail

Important note: Only do this walk if you have good strong neck muscles! You will be constantly looking back over your shoulder to look as an amazing vast Icesheet get increasingly bigger on the horizon!!

Jokes aside, this will happen a lot! So, fingers crossed you will be blessed with outstanding clear sunny weather that my adventure colleagues and I enjoyed during our 2-day hike of this super trail. Our team of adventurers included myself from England, Floor from the Netherlands, Evelyn from Germany (both of which I first met hiking in Georgia a few years back) and Anirudh from India who we gladly welcome to join our group using the Facebook Arctic Circle Trail group. (the main forum group for the official ACT website)

Fresh off the flight from Copenhagen the previous day, we didn’t hang about to get stuck into this hike and our first wild outdoor adventure of Greenland. The main purpose of our trip to Greenland and Kangerlussuaq was to walk the famous “Arctic Circle Trail”

A 9-day 165km wilderness hike between Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut. (A Trail Exposure feature of this amazing adventure can be found using this link - https://www.trailexposure.com/16/288/greenland-the-arctic-circle-trail -  There are lots of photos but still awaiting a blog to be written.)

If 165km isn’t enough, you can extend the Arctic Circle Trail by 2 days by adding a section of trail between Kangerlussuaq and Russell Glacier which is located at the edge of Greenland’s formidable ice sheet, you know that massive white ridiculous expanse of white you can see on all world maps!

This section of trail adds an additional 25km of hiking which runs directly pretty much in a direct line south westward on a ridge of hills back towards Kangerlussuaq. Of course, you can walk this trail with no intention of walking the Arctic Circle Trail, and it can also be hiked as a post ACT hike if you happen to walk In the Sisimiut to Kangerlussuaq direction. For ourselves, as soon as we heard about this trail it was a no brainer. It HAD to be integrated as part of our epic adventure across Greenland, and so thankful we did as it was most definitely one of my highlights of walking in Greenland.

The trail was also a great way to carry out a “test run” of our hiking kit prior to the upcoming 9 days of self-supported wildness trekking on the ACT. We affectively took all our gear for the hike minus our 9 days of food that was required for the ACT. We could test out our kit, backpack weights (although 8 days of food was still to add) tents etc to make sure we were all happy with our kit choices. A return to Kangerlussuaq meant a nice night back in a hostel bed before the ACT as well as a big buffet breakfast at the airport. This included grabbing any last supplies from the store before heading off into the wilderness, Sisimiut bound!

The most logical (and well advised) way to approach the Ice Ridge Trail is to pay for a 5 hour/day excursion which entails jumping in a 4WD vehicle and visiting the Icecap Point 660 and Russell Glacier.

See link for another trail feature which gives more detail and photos of this excursion/semi hike - https://www.trailexposure.com/18/292/greenland-point-660-icesheet-russell-glacier

It’s a great way to see and walk on the icecap for a few hours and learn about the history of the area. The tour finishes at Russell Glacier, another spectacular sight where the icecap fades into the river valley back towards Kangerlussuaq. From Russell Glacier you can say goodbye to the tour guide and your group and start the trail! It will be approximately 2.30/3pm before you can start walking from Russell Glacier due to the tour. However even at the end of August the sun does not set until 22.00hrs so you can still cover half of the trail on the first day, or just over a third as we did on the first day.

After witnessing some huge glacier breaks at Russell Glacier we finally commenced our 2-day adventure back to Kangerlussuaq. The day started cold and overcast but now mid afternoon the sky was clear and the sun shining! It was warm, actually incredibly warm even though the forecast stated around 15-16 degrees. I don’t know what it is about sun in the arctic regions but even lower summer temperatures still feel hot! (26^th August 2025 to be precise) The first part of the trail is to reach the road that links Kangerlussuaq and Point 660. (a road partly built by Volkswagon to test cars in winter conditions in the early 2000s) a kilometre or so of this road takes you onto the proper ridge section which is basically the full length of hills that run north of the road back to Kangerlussuaq.

Route finding on the ridge is relatively simple for experienced hikers. Red “half sun” painted cairns and stones guide you. However, in lower visibility a map/gpx device is still advised as these markers are not always at noticeable distance between each. It was one of the first markers we saw that we had a great encounter with a very curious male Reindeer that kept coming closer, curious of our presence. Some nice shots by the red marker and off he went when the proximity got too much for him!

Once elevated onto the ridge the views are sublime! The expansive and vast lake of Aavitsup Tasia (translated long lake) on your right side stretches into the distance, as does the ridge itself. With a topography map in hand (well advised getting the Kangerlussuaq 1:100,000 scale map) you can easily spot all the lakes and contours of the ridge that highlights the path you will take. The vastness of this landscape is impressive, wild and untouched. It’s a genuine privilege to be able to walk through such a glorious landscape. Even more impressive are the views back towards the Icecap and Russell Glacier. The further you walk west, the more the icecap reveals itself, until you can see its full curvature sitting above all the mountains. The late afternoon/early evening shadows started defining the bright white ice, now with shadows and orange tints forming.

We chose a spot roughly 8km from Russell Glacier, located near 2 lakes on our left side just slightly down from the ridge. A good place for water although both lakes had signs of small life in the water, so I recommend a water filter device is used. (most of us had the Katadyn BeFree filters) Our first wild camp in Greenland and what a beautiful evening to sit outside with our freeze-dried meals enjoying the golden evening light. The benefit of mild temperature and zero mosquitos (late summer) was much appreciated as well.

With a clear night looming I decided to set an alarm for just after midnight to see what the night sky might bring. Obviously due to the first day being so epic, of course the northern lights would be out! Not super intensive as the night sky never really got fully dark, but still awesome! The dancing of the greens and purples could still be defined with the naked eye. What a first full day in Greenland!

Day 2 started with clear skies and lovely sunrise views across the horizon and across the Akuliarusiarsuup Kuua river, with is multiple fingers of streams winding across the valley. This valley being the source of melt water from Russell Glacier.

So began another day of beautiful sunshine which relented all day. It’s an exposed route and again like the previous day, it was very warm and the 17km and approx. 500m of ascent meant for pretty tough going. I can imagine the going would be even tougher during bad/wet weather. We were fortunate in having generally nice firm paths for the duration, something I could not say we enjoyed during the Arctic Circle Trail! The trail keeps on its Southwest direction following the ridgeline which again is easy to plot in the distance. Soon enough you see the distant buildings and airport of Kangerlussuaq. Also good views of the mountain, Sugar Loaf standing at 352m. Another hiking destination activity from the town.

Our 6 hours day 2 ridge hiking involved many stops, many snacks, many photos of the amazing landscape (and silly group shots and videos) and of course lots of laughs. I was excited at my first sighting of the white Arctic Hare whos fur weirdly stays white all year round. It was at a distance, and luckily I got a few closer encounters in the following weeks hiking the ACT.

After 14km of tough hill walking, it was time to descend down to Kangerlussuaq. The timing was right, the day had been warm and the group was feeling pretty tired as conversation had turned to what food and drink we were craving back in town! The descent follows a muddy ATV track which connects with the main road back to the airport.

Back at the airport the first priority was visiting the ice cream shop, Ishuset for a post hike reward cheese toastie and a delightful full fat can of coke!. Then straight to the airport cafe (main restaurant in town) for musk and beetroot burgers! (I can  recommend the beetroot burgers, very good!) 

Early evening we found ourselves back at Kangerlussuaq hostel (another few km walk from the airport) ready to recharge and do final preparations for the Arctic Circle Trail. Our 2 days hiking the Ice Ridge Trail were superb. We could not have asked for a better start to our Greenland adventure. The weather was just perfect. Its a must walk if you have time during a visit to Kangerlussuaq.

I was also really impressed with the hostel. Email communication was quick and easy during the early days of planning. The hostel itself is spacious with  large open spaces to get kit sorted etc. With good clean dormitories and excellent showers. Link to the hostel – https://kangv.dk/en/

Now It was time for the big one. The Arctic Circle Trail!

Any questions on this trail feel free to message

GPX available on request!