Our third and final opportunity to explore a Greenlandic town was the morning we got out and about in Sisimiut. Sisimiut is roughly the same latitude as Kangerlussuaq, so we must have sailed past it our first night in Greenland. But it was dark then, so our first sighting of Sisimiut was the morning of July 22, 2024.

Greenland’s second-largest town, Sisimiut is located on the banks of the Amerloq fjord, just below the Arctic Circle. It lies just outside the Aasivissuit – Nipisat UNESCO World Heritage-listed cultural area. With a population of roughly 6,000 people and 1,000 sled dogs, it’s one of the fastest growing towns in Greenland. One reason? It’s a town with many education institutions. So a significant portion of the population is young people who’ve migrated from smaller settlements for more schooling. As for the sled dogs? Sisimiut is the southernmost town in West Greenland where sled dogs are allowed. And it’s one of the reasons Sisimiut is known as an adventure hub – dog sledding, hiking, skiing and snowmobiling are all popular here!

If this seems like it’s going to be TLDR, another option is to watch Mr GeoK’s Relive video recap.

Approach

We approached Sisimiut from the north. Two things made it clear that Sisimiut has a greater population than Uummannaq and Qeqertarsuaq: way more storage tanks and a LOT of low-rise apartment blocks.

Another difference? Sisimiut has a wharf. So instead of anchoring and using zodiacs to reach land, Ultramarine tied up at the wharf. That was an interesting process to watch. Fellow-Canadian passengers kept a close eye on the proceedings.

Tour

We were in the first group to disembark: the Mountain Bikers and Super Chargers group. Our 9 o’clock disembarkation time gave us about 3 hours in town before we had to be back on Ultramarine for lunch and to get ready for an afternoon mountain biking adventure.

We had another local guide, who led us on a walking tour through the town. This time our guide was a student from Denmark who was working in Greenland for a while. She led us through a residential part of town, behind the “new church,” past a school and finally to the Taste of Greenland experience.

Again, we noticed the above-ground utilities and appreciated the colorful buildings. Unique to Sisimiut were the inlet and a large pond.

We saw a few of the one thousand sled dogs in town. Most dogs live (at least the summer months) on the outskirts of Sisimiut, in Dog Town!

All of the cemeteries we saw in Greenland were well cared for.

A little further on, we passed by a school. Some of the students were outside demonstrating excellent technique at the BMX and skateboard skills park.

Throughout the town, we spotted a few public art installations, including wildlife-themed murals on the end walls of some new apartment blocks.

Our penultimate tour stop was outside the main grocery stores – one modern and one a traditional market where fishermen and hunters sell their harvests directly to customers.

Taste of Greenland

Our tour ended at a Taste of Greenland, a special pop-up tent where we had the opportunity to sample several traditional Greenlandic dishes: tikaagullik (dried minke whale), musk ox stew, shrimp, capelin, salted cod, seal and blubber. Mr. GeoK was not very adventurous; he snagged the shrimp off my plate! Out of respect for local traditions, I tried everything else. There were many new tastes and textures. I confess I was not able to finish the whole dried fish, nor the cod – they were too salty for me. I particularly enjoyed the musk ox stew. And while I appreciated the opportunity to try everything else, I did not line up for seconds.

Free Time

Once we’d had a Taste of Greenland, we were free to explore wherever we liked, so long as we were back on Ultramarine by noon. So we wandered the streets a little more.

Sisimiut Museum

We also visited the Sisimiut Museum, housed in old colonial buildings, several of which are from the 18th century. Greenland’s oldest church – Bethelkirken, or the Blue Church – is part of the museum complex. It dates back to the 1770s. Hunters from Sisimiut had a great whaling season in 1771, catching four large whales and filling 60 barrels with blubber. This was sufficiently valuable to pay for a church! The congregation ordered the church, which arrived as an assembly kit, along with a Danish carpenter. The church was opened and consecrated in 1775.

The museum complex includes a replica sod dwelling. We were privileged to see two authentic sod dwellings in Uummannaq, so did not spend much time in that exhibit.

Before entering the museum to view interior exhibits, we had to pull slip covers over our shoes!

Saqqaq People

The most extensive exhibition provided an overwhelm of information about the first inhabitants of the Sisimiut area, the Saqqaq people. The Saqqaq pre-dated the Thule, whom I wrote about in my post about the Qilakitsoq mummies.

The Saqqaq were a nomadic Paleo-Inuit people who migrated to North Greenland from Alaska and Siberia and spread out across Greenland’s west coast, where they lived from 2500 BC to 800 BC. DNA testing has shown that the Saqqaq people are not related to Greenland’s present-day inhabitants, who are the descendants of the later Thule people. It is unknown why the Saqqaq culture became extinct, but climate change and changes in hunting patterns and trading possibilities are possible factors.

The exhibition centres on the archaeological discoveries made in the excavation of the Saqqaq summer settlement on the island Nipisat, south of Sisimiut. It’s possible that the region around Sisimiut, including Nipisat, is the area of Greenland where the Saqqaq people survived the longest. The excavation at Nipisat shed fresh light on knowledge of the first people of West Greenland, and played a central role in the nomination of Aasivissuit-Nipisat as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Return to Ship

Our final stop before returning to ship was Sisimiut’s New Church, built in 1926 and expanded in 1984. The geocache we tried to find a geocache hidden on the north side of the church was missing. 🙁

We saw a couple of interesting things as we approached the wharf, including a bunch of carefully stacked shipping containers.

Also spotted? Aurora’s Sylvia Earle, sister ship to the Greg Mortimer, which transported us to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands / Malvinas in November/December 2023. We pinged our kayaking guides from that trip and one of them was aboard Sylvia Earle in Sisimiut! Hi, Liz!!

Sisimiut Fun Facts

• Sisimiut means “the people living in a place where there are fox dens” because so many fox dens used to be around the townsite.
• During colonial times, the town was named “Holsteinsborg,” or “Holsteins’ castle/fort” after the Danish Count Johan Ludvig Holstein.
• The town dates back 264 years, but archaeological finds show that the area has been inhabited for around 4,500 years.
• Royal Greenland (one of the world’s largest suppliers of North Atlantic seafood and the biggest fishing company in Greenland) named its newest trawler “Sisimiut.” Royal Greenland is government owned. Polar Sea, mentioned in my post about Qeqetarsuaq, is privately owned.
• Sisimiut is an outdoor adventure hub. It’s one of the end points for the multi-day, 160 km long Arctic Circle Trail that stretches all the way to Kangerlussuaq. This reputation is further cemented with the town hosting both the Arctic Hiking Festival (July) and the Arctic Circle Race (March) – two of the largest outdoor sporting events in Greenland each year.
• Vessels up to 135 meters in overall length and a draught of 7.5 meters or less can tie up at the wharf operated by Royal Arctic Havneservice.

SUMMARY

All told, we enjoyed just over 3 hours during our morning out and about in Sisimiut. During that time we walked 6 km with 120 meters elevation change. Highlights included those few minutes watching school children at play at the BMX/skateboard skills park and the Taste of Greenland. I’d be open to a return visit, to do a little hiking and maybe even try traditional kayaking in the quiet inner harbour.