The ice melts under the dog sled

The weather is cold.

The Danish Meteorological Institute DMI reports a record warm January - especially in North Greenland. Qaanaaq measured an average temperature of minus 11.3 degrees, which is 10.4 degrees warmer than normal in the period 1999-2020. Around the settlements of Nuussuaq and Kullorsuaq, the average temperature was minus 4.8 degrees - or 14.7 degrees warmer than normal for the dark month. Upernavik experienced an average temperature of minus 4.5 degrees, where according to statistics the thermometer should show minus 16.7 degrees.

The “tropical” January with a lack of snow and sea ice has major consequences for the fishing and hunting industry, but also for the sled drivers who are training for the national dog sled race championship Avannaata Qimussersua in Qasigiannguit in just a month.

In the meantime, we can look forward to two fresh stamps, created by multi-artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen, which complete a series of six stamps on regional differences in dog sledding: In 2024 West Greenland. In 2025 East Greenland. In 2026 North Greenland.

The regional differences are primarily due to the terrain, and in Qaanaaq the dog sled is designed to run on sea ice.

Nuka K. Godtfredsen was in Qaanaaq in 2021 with a film crew to make a documentary about the 5th Thule Expedition, and he tried driving Knud Rasmussen's preferred mode of transport.

– The dog sleds in Qaanaaq are limousine sleds. They are real beasts that require good arm strength to steer, Nuka K. Godtfredsen tells Sermitsiaq.

Down south in the Upernavik district, the dog sled, which is the motif on the two stamps, is smaller and lighter than in Qaanaaq. It is designed to drive in difficult terrain on land and sea ice, and at the same time is easy to lift, turn and push over rocks.

Greenland in the year 2121

Nuka K. Godtfredsen, born in 1970 in Narsaq, has designed a total of 15 stamps with the series about dog sleds.

– What else are you working on?

– I only need seven of 58 pages in my science fiction comic book »Nordpol 2121«, which is scheduled to be published this summer by the publisher Fahrenheit, says Nuka K. Godtfredsen.

The year 2121 is also the 400th anniversary of Hans Egede's arrival, where Greenland, with its enormous ice sheet, has become a water tank for the entire polluted and thirsty world. Among the future images is also an electric car on the way from Narsaq over an impressive bridge to Qaqortoq.

Sermitsiaq would like to remind readers that Nuka K. Godtfredsen's popular breakthrough came on our own back page, where from 1997 to 2001 he created the beloved comic strips featuring the anti-hero Andala.

Nuka K. Godtfredsen achieved his breakthrough far beyond the country's borders with the comics about Greenland's past, which he drew at the National Museum in Copenhagen, surrounded by archaeological objects.