Disco island loop
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 53.26 mi
- Elevation gain
- 7,418 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 8,235 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,434 ft
- TrailRank
- 20
- Min elevation
- -34 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 6 days 3 hours 43 minutes
- Coordinates
- 13185
- Uploaded
- August 3, 2013
- Recorded
- July 2013
near Qeqertarsuaq, Qaasuitsup (Grenlandia)
Viewed 4035 times, downloaded 75 times
Itinerary description
backpacking with my girlfriend ... quite dificult knee-deep stream crossings (7x)
6 days
6 days
Comments (24)
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Thanks a lot for this record!
i'm planning a trip on Disko Island and plan to do this loop, found on a Lonely Planet old guide and your report is the only one I found!.
Can you describe the four parts of this hike? The most beautiful places, difficulties . ..
I guess there is almost no path?
Any information will be welcome!
Marie
Hello, I did the first part of the track, quite far into the first valley. I found it pretty tough hiking, as only in the very beginning there is a path, then you have to scramble over rocks all the time. And a number of not too easy river crossings as mentioned before. I found I advanced very slowly only. Also, in the village they had very much advised against doing the whole loop, as they said the Southern part is very difficult and dangerous, with the river crossings there. Pretty wild thing, I didn't meet a soul the whole time. Cheers, Sonja
Hello Sonja!
Happy to have info about this hike, thanks. What you call the first valley is the western valley? (the hike is described in a clockwise direction) Do you know if eastern valley is easier to hike?
When I look at google earth, the first part from Qeqertarsuaq to the begining of the western valley seems difficult, do you confirm? Is it easier when you hike the western valley from south to north?
Did you hike other places in Disko Island? Up to the glacier for example?
Thanks++
Marie
Ah, sorry I didn't realize it was clockwise. No, I hiked into the Eastern valley, I don't know anything about the rest, only that local guides told me it would be very difficult to come back on the Southern part (doing it anti-clockwise). The Eastern valley was doable, but as I said quite slow-going. I hiked up some way on the Western side of the Eastern valley, but not all the way to the glacier (I saw it from pretty close-up, though). That was also doable, but again, without path and slow. What I liked best was that I saw Northern lights in the beginning of September. :-)
What you really shouldn't miss, though, is the area from the village more to the East (i.e. along the shore, not going into the Eastern valley, just a few kilometers from the village). It's a super-pretty, fairy-tale landscape and you can see whales sometimes there by the shore. It's great to camp there.
I was there in 2016.
OK, your informations are very precious for me, thanks again!
I hope we will be as lucky as you (will be there at the end of august)
Marie
Have a good time there! Cheers, Sonja
Thanks Sonja!
Hello Marie,
We also plan to do the Loop Trail, End of August, we will arrive at Disko island at August 26th with the ferry.
When will you be there?
We planned to be 4 persons, going around clockwise and planned to have 6 days.
BR Merlin
Hello Merlin,
We (2 pax) will be on the same boat but will sail back to Ilulissat earlier on August 30 : so we have still not decided which hike we will do...It will also depends on weather forecast.
6 days seems perfect for this hike!
See you in 1 month!
Marie
Hello Merlin,
Did you finally hike this loop?
We made another loop as I explained you on the boat (I have published the GPS record)
I think it was quite difficult, specially the days with the wind?
Marie
Hi Marie,
Great to see you made it to Disco Island and did a hike! I just checked your loop. Wow, you did quite a lot in 4 days. How was it? How did you know that loop would work, I mean how did you know there were no rivers that could not be crossed or other obstacles? And how did you cross the mountain on the second day, did you have to go on glacier? I suppose you didn't have any paths to follow? Was it very hard-going over the rocks? I found the valley (the one that you came back) quite slow-going.Not really difficult, but just a lot of rocks to scramble over and a few rivers that took me a while to cross. How many of you were there? And did you see any Northern Lights finally?
Cheers,
Sonja
Hi Sonja, we were 2 and after our hike from Qassiarsuq to Narsaq we did a few days before, were used to have no path...
The weather was perfect, no mosquitoes, the rivers were low and most of the marshes were dry (end of summer)
The map shows a path to hike the pass between the 2 valleys (in fact no path but it is not difficult, because as long as you stay a little more in altitud there is less moss, but still rocks, and long!)
Earlier in summer, with mosquitoes, water everywhere and bad weather, it should be a hell! So we were lucky!
I will made a detailed trip report with pictures in a few days...
Thanks for your feedback, Marie! I think I actually went up a bit in the direction of that pass when I came back from the valley (I had walked in on the left, Western side, of the valley, for about 3/4 of the valley and then out on the Eastern side). So did you enjoy that hike? I found the experience of remoteness quite spectacular, but the landscape/flora/fauna in the valley not sooo impressive. Of course the shape of the table mountains was special.
And how was the Qassiarsuq to Narsaq hike?
You are right the landscape does'nt change very fast (specially when slow hiking in deep mosses and rocks) but it is very exotic for us (wild rivers, basalt gorges, glaciers everywhere, autumn colors, icebergs) and the feeling of remoteness makes it special. We didn't see anybody, only birds.
Did you see the blue hut? We slept in the last night when it becomes to be windy.
The Qassiarsuq to Narsaq hike is more difficult with steep mountains and also no path except sheep path for the first days. The weather was sometimes cloudy and overcast but the landscape is quite spectacular as you walk along the fjord often high in the mountain.
The Qassiarsuq to Narsaq hike sounds quite interesting, too. I 'only' did the Arctic Circle Trail at the time, besides the disco island one. There is a path more or less all the time and you always meet some people (but not masses of people), so it's maybe not as wild, but I still loved it. It was very beautiful. Ah, I would like to go back to Greenland. I was in Iceland this summer which I also very much enjoyed. But it was much colder than Greenland...
Hello Sonja and Co,
Here is our trip report (in French sorry)
https://sites.google.com/site/groenland20191/home
Marie
Merci beaucoup, Marie. Je vais le lire dès que j'ai un peu de temps.
Tu es francophone !
Alors bonne lecture !
Merci! Bon, c'est pas ma langue maternelle, mais comme j'ai vécu quelques années en Belgique je sais lire en Français.:-)
et même écrire, et sans faute! Quelle est ta langue maternelle alors?
Merci, Marie! C'est l'Allemand...
Et toi, tu es Française et vis en France?
oui à je vis à Nancy, j'ai appris l'Allemand il y a trrès longtemps
Very interesting loop. Did you carry a rifle and would a packraft be helpful for the river crossings?
Sorry benhil for the late response, I didn't see your message.
No no riffle, and no river big enough in late summer for a packraft.