To make it to the summit of the Mount Dundas 600 feet above the surface of North Star Bay near Thule Air Base, Greenland, Staff Sgt. John Comer uses a rope to climb the trail's steepest section. (Ben Murray / S&S)
To make it to the summit of the Mount Dundas 600 feet above the surface of North Star Bay near Thule Air Base, Greenland, Staff Sgt. John Comer uses a rope to climb the trail's steepest section. (Ben Murray / S&S)
Thule residents Capt. Florian DeCastro, left, and Alex Mitchell, a civilian contractor, walk across the doors of a defunct underground ground-to-air missile battery, known as "D Launch," which is a popular Thule trip. (Ben Murray / S&S)
The site, one of several batteries on the hills above the satellite tracking and early missile warning system center in northern Greenland, is a popular Thule trip on weekends. (Ben Murray / S&S)
Capt. Florian DeCastro, left, watches as co-worker Alex Mitchell hurls a stone off the edge of a cliff near a former air defense site called "D Launch" in Greenland. The site, one of several ground-to-air missile batteries on the hills above Thule Air Base, is a popular Thule trip on weekends. (Ben Murray / S&S)
Master Sgt. Mark Valerio looks up the steep route to the summit of Mount Dundas on an afternoon excursion from Thule Air Base, Greenland. Dundas, the flat-top monolith in the bay near the base, dominates the skyline around Thule and is a popular climb for local residents. (Ben Murray / S&S)
THULE AIR BASE, Greenland
The weekend here begins like it does in almost any town.
On Saturday morning, people wake up a little late, groggy from the night before at the bar, and flip on the TV, throw some cereal in a bowl.
They put on comfortable clothes and go over the list of chores and activities that will make up the next 48 hours, an inventory that, in almost any town, runs the gamut from mowing the lawn to going out for a night.
At Thule Air Base in far northern Greenland, however, there are no lawns to mow, no mall to shop at and no night to go out in this time of year. When the clock clicks over from Friday to Saturday at midnight, the sun is nearly as high over the base as it had been at noon.
To most eyes, it can appear that there’s little to do with two days of free time in a weather-battered glacial valley high above the Arctic Circle, treeless and cold.
But residents of Thule have a long list of diversions to keep them busy when the weekend rolls around, from organized clubs and skeet shooting, to occasional dogsled rides offered by nearby Greenlandic natives.
First and foremost among pastimes is “Thule Trippin’,” a general term used to describe field trips to points of interest.
One of the most popular is a climb of nearby Mount Dundas, a table-top mountain that rises out of North Star Bay with steep, shale flanks and a single, nearly vertical track leading to the summit.
Accessed at the very top by climbing a rope, the mountain is the site of a long-practiced Thule tradition to ferry a stone from the bottom to the top, where climbers write their name on it and add it to a pile several decades in the making.
Other activities include trips to the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, just a short drive from the base, where trippers can climb onto the rim of one of the planet’s biggest ice masses, or hike to ice caves and skiing slopes.
One area, called Vortec Mountain, consists of a massive ice wall, and is a popular place for sledding, said Tech. Sgt. Amanda Beatie, who has been on several Thule trips (sleds can be rented from the local arts and crafts center).
The valley also has a number of man-made attractions dating to the heyday of Thule in the 1960s, when the base was a heavily manned and protected radar base and staging area for strategic bombers halfway between Washington and Moscow.
“You can go up there and see the relic part of Thule history,” said Lt. Col. Mark Erickson, deputy commander of the 821st Air Base Group.
For some, it can be hard to leave the comfort of a warm dorm to walk on the edge of an ice sheet or stand in the cold and scan for seals amid gnashing icebergs. In almost any town back home, people would rather have a warm day and a ball game than a 40-knot wind and a distinct chance of frostbite on a walk to see a Greenlandic cemetery.
But many people here volunteered to come to Thule to do precisely that, and revel in the chance to see sights many people back home will never have the chance to witness, said one master sergeant after a trip up Mount Dundas.
“You can sit on your ass and watch golf, or you can come out here, do this, and then go home and watch golf,” he said.
