After what had been an amazing few days in Ilulissat, it was time to leave the warmth and comfort of our apartment and head off on an adventure like no other.

Igloo Lodge is located 15km into the backcountry surrounding Ilulissat. 15km might not sound far, but when traversing the rugged and unforgiving Greenlandic landscapes, this distance is considerable. As there are no roads outside of towns and settlements in Greenland, the only way to access Igloo Lodge is via dogsled, snowmobile or snowcat – our journey involved the latter.

90 minutes in a ‘heated’ snowcat later (there was literal ice everywhere inside despite the heater being on, dress warmly) and we had arrived to our home for the night – Igloo Lodge.

This unique lodge is owned by World of Greenland and is open from late January to early April each year. The igloos melt come summer and thus are rebuilt each and every season.

In addition to the igloos, there is a warm cabin where you’ll eat your meals and spend time warming up ahead of the frosty night ahead.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! We arrived to the lodge at around 11am and the sun had just started to rise. We were welcomed to the lodge, warmed up with coffee and given a rundown of our program for the next 24 hours. The sunrise light was absolutely bananas and I couldn’t resist taking droney boi out for a spin, although how he managed to keep flying in the extreme cold I will never know.

Our first meal was a selection of Greenlandic meats – musk ox and reindeer – accompanied by breads and spreads. It was simple but delicious, and the Greenlandic beer on the side helped to warm us up.

Given the extreme temperatures during our stay, a good number of hours were spent hanging in the lodge, drinking coffee and staring out at the ice.

Oh, and when I say extreme cold, I mean it. Our stay at Igloo lodge was by far the coldest few days of our time in Greenland. During the day the warmest temperature was -28°C and overnight the mercury would dip as low as -34°C!

However, we certainly didn’t go all this way to not do some adventuring! There are various activities on offer (all of which are optional and subject to an extra cost) including snowmobiling, snowshoeing and dogsledding.

Despite having gone dogsledding just a few days prior, we decided to go ahead and do it again as it had been so much fun.

Imagine our surprise when we headed out to see Jørgen, our musher from just a few days earlier! He seemed surprised and happy to see us again, and I knew that we were definitely in for a good ride.

Our dogsledding journey was definitely more ‘off road’ than the one in Ilulissat had been – we skated around an enormous frozen lake before really testing the strength of these dogs and beginning quite the uphill climb. It was absolutely amazing to witness the strength these dogs possess.

Eventually we made it to the top of what was quite possibly the highest peak in the area – and wow – the views were truly something else, however, I was only able to bask in the splendour for so long before Ella gave me an unwelcome reality check – her phone was nowhere to be found.

After I rechecked all of her pockets myself and eyeballed our surroundings, we both realised that at some point in the journey, her phone had decided to go walkabouts. We explained the situation to Jørgen but didn’t hasten our journey back to the lodge, we figured that it was gone and we might as well appreciate the views a little while longer.

The downhill sled was exhilarating but I must admit, we were both preoccupied with keeping our eyes peeled for Ella’s phone and thus we didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would’ve liked and as we approached the lodge, just about all hope was lost…

But then, quite literally out of nowhere, Jørgen reached out (whilst the sled was going very fast mind you) and plucked Ella’s phone out of the snow! I don’t know how he saw it, let alone how he picked it up so deftly, but he found it!

You know that scene in Mulan where there’s been an avalanche and Mulan is looking for Shang and accidentally plucks out a Hun by his hair? It was a whole lot like that.

We both threw our arms around Jørgen, thanked him profusely and proceeded to give him pretty much all the Danish Krona that we had on us – he bloody deserved it.

After we had sufficiently defrosted, it was time to go and investigate our lodgings for the evening whilst we still had some daylight.

That evening we watched the sunset whilst basking in the warm glow of the fireplace, ate a delicious and hearty Greenlandic stew and listened to spooky tales and legends from the area.

Despite much looking in the freezing cold, we were only afforded a brief look at the northern lights that evening and eventually we decided it was time to hit the hay.

We saw the mercury drop as low as -34°C before we headed to bed, which is beyond bananas.

Now, despite it being significantly less cold inside the igloos than out of them, they are still pretty freaking cold. In order to keep (semi) warm and have any chance of actually sleeping, one definitely needed all the accoutrements.

When we were ready for bed, we collected a big sleeping bag, a cosy inner lining and a hot water bottle. The idea is that your body heat is the best way to warm the inside of the sleeping bag and thus the less clothing you wear the better – generally, just thermals, socks and a beanie are advised.

We made the mad dash out to the igloo, crawled inside, tried to get into our sleeping bags as soon as possible to maximise our body warmth and before we knew it, we were sleeping in an unbelievably unique place.

After a not terrible nights sleep we woke up, ate a light breakfast and warmed up with numerous cups of coffee before our snowcat returned to take us to Ilulissat. Our night in the igloo hadn’t exactly been comfy, but it had certainly been an adventure, one that Ella and I will remember for the rest of our lives.

Stay tuned for the few days we spent in Amsterdam + Paris <3

THE LOWDOWN

Paa and Jannik’s: I stay with Paa and Jannik every time I visit Ilulissat. A stay in my favourite apartment (#2) will set you back 1375 DKK/$305 AUD/$202 USD per night, click here to learn more
Dogled and Ice Academy: Jørgen is a fantastic guide and I cannot recommend him enough. A 90 minute sled ride in Ilulissat will set you back 1000 DKK/$222 AUD/$147 USD person, click here to learn more
Igloo Lodge: One night in Igloo Lodge for two persons will set you back a whopping 6985 DKK/$1547 AUD/$1040 USD and if you choose to add on a snowshoe trip, a dogsled or a snowmobile ride, these will all cost additional fees. The price is pretty exorbitant but we were very happy that we had made the decision to splurge on it, click here to learn more
Remember: Make sure you secure your phone in a reliable pocket before doing any snowy adventures!