Until the year 1930, it was believed that the highest point in Greenland was Mount Forel, located in the Schweizerland range southeast of the island. The mountain and the range were named by the Swiss explorer Alfred de Quervain in 1912.
That year, Quervain’s expedition crossed the Greenland ice cap from Godhavn in the west, heading towards the Sermilik fjord in the east, and along the way discovered a large mountain range which he named Schweizerland (Swiss Land) in honor of his country.
For many years, Mount Forel, standing at 3,383 meters, was considered the highest peak within the Arctic Circle.
However, in 1930, the British Arctic Air Route Expedition led by explorer Gino Watkins was organized. Their objective was to improve the mapping of poorly studied sections of the Greenlandic coast and gather climatic data during the polar winter.
The expedition was a success, including the feat of one of its members, Augustine Courtauld, who remained as a solo observer at an altitude of 2,600 meters atop the ice cap for five months during the winter. Watkins and other expedition members relieved him on May 5, 1931, just as he was running out of food and fuel.
Among the achievements was the discovery of a new mountain range. During one of the expedition’s reconnaissance flights, Watkins spotted a series of mountains extending over 350 kilometers northeast of the Schweizerland range.
Watkins named it the “New Mountains”, but today we know it as the Watkins Range in his honor. It is located in the King Christian IX Land, approximately 60 kilometers inland from the Blosseville Coast.
The entire range consists of nunataks surrounded by huge active glaciers, which are currently in alarming retreat. Nunataks (from the Inuit “nunattak”, meaning “solitary peak”) are mountain peaks surrounded by a glacier or ice field but are not covered in snow themselves.
One of these nunataks in the Watkins Range turned out to have an altitude of 3,694 meters, about 311 meters higher than Mount Forel. It is now known as Mount Gunnbjørn (Gunnbjørn Fjeld in Danish), named in memory of Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, the Viking who was the first European to reach Greenland and, if we consider Greenland as part of the American continent, also to reach America in the late 9th or early 10th century.
Barely five years later, on August 16, 1935, Mount Gunnbjørn was first climbed by a team led by the same Augustine Courtauld who had spent five months alone as an observer during the British Arctic Air Route Expedition.
Mount Gunnbjørn is thus the highest mountain in Greenland, but at the same time, it is also the highest peak in the Kingdom of Denmark, to which the territory belongs, and also the highest peak within the Arctic Circle.
Due to its remote uninhabited location on the east coast of Greenland, reaching it is complicated, and those who wish to visit must rely on dog sleds, helicopters, or snow-capable airplanes for landing. That is why the peak has been climbed only a few times. The second ascent took place in 1971, and the third in 1987.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on April 2, 2024. Puedes leer la versión en español en El Gunnbjørn, un nunatak, es la cumbre más alta del Círculo Polar Ártico, de Groenlandia y de Dinamarca
Sources
André Roch, The Swiss Expedition to Greenland, 1938 | Gunnbjørn Mountain (Britannica) | Hvitserk (Universitetet i Bergen) | Wikipedia
- Share on:
Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Why Would All Lightsabers on Earth Be Blue? Can We Really Freeze People in Carbonite? The Science Behind Star Wars
Since its premiere in 1977, Star Wars has captivated generations with its mix of adventure, philosophy, and futuristic technology. But how much of what we see on screen could be…
Huge Invisible Molecular Cloud Discovered Near Earth
In a discovery that challenges conventional astronomical observation techniques, a team of researchers led by Rutgers University–New Brunswick has identified a colossal molecular hydrogen cloud, one of the largest structures…
Diotima of Mantinea, the Priestess Who Taught Socrates the Philosophy of Love
In his dialogues, Plato mentions an enigmatic figure who stands out both for her wisdom and her gender: a woman named Diotima of Mantinea. She was a priestess who instructed…
Scientists Solve the Mystery of Bolivia’s “Zombie” Volcano Uturuncu, Geologically Dead but Showing Signs of Activity
An international team of scientists from China, the United Kingdom, and the United States has managed to decipher the internal processes of the Uturuncu volcano in Bolivia, known as the…
The Strange Iron Keys from the Roman Era Found in the Judean Desert
In the 1960s, archaeologist Yigael Yadin discovered in the Cave of Letters, in the Judean Desert, a treasure trove of objects belonging to Jewish refugees fleeing the Bar-Kokhba revolt against…
The Megalithic Sepulcher of Küsterberg, a Large 5500-year-old Monument in Germany, Restored
In the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the lush forest of Haldensleben, lies the largest concentration of megalithic tombs in Central Europe. Among them, the Küsterberg Megalithic Sepulcher, an imposing…
Cleopatra the Alchemist, One of the Four Women Whom Hermetic Tradition Claims Found the Philosopher’s Stone
The Philosopher’s Stone is not just the object of desire for Voldemort, who longs to regain his full powers in the first Harry Potter novel. There was a time when its pursuit was the…
Identity of the Occupants of the Tomb of Persephone in Vergina Revealed: They Are Not Philip II and His Wife
An international team of scientists has unveiled new findings about the enigmatic Tomb I, known as the Tomb of Persephone, located in the Great Tumulus of Vergina, Greece. This monument,…
The Papyrus Containing the Only Word Personally Written by Cleopatra Granted Tax Favors to an Influential Roman
In the display cases of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin lies a fragile piece of papyrus that speaks not of turbulent romances or epic battles, but of something more mundane…
The Exceptionally Well-Preserved Remains of a 5,000-Year-Old Woman from Caral’s Elite Found in Peru
A team of archaeologists discovered the burial of a high-ranking woman at the Áspero archaeological site, an ancient fishing town of the Caral civilization (3000–1800 BCE), located in the province…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
