UKH

Does anyone know where to find a list of which mountains/routes in Greenland are unclimbed? 
 

Thanks. 

I don't think such lists exist. Its usually a case of picking a relatively unexplored area and trawling through relevant journals. AAC and AC are usually a good bet. As are MEF funded expidations as some details are on line. Or making friends with someone who knows the area you are thinking of really well. 

At least that's how I always picked objectives.

As said above, it's more a case of somebody comes back and says when they climbed a mountain for the first time, then on the other side saw some peaks further down the glacier, that didn't appear named or have confirmed height etc. Or had an attractive looking line, but they could have been 2 days away so they didn't go any nearer. 

From my very limited experience, I would just add that even if a peak had seen a previous ascent say 30 years ago, the condition, approaches etc will be markedly different due to climate change. We did a minor peak and on the summit found evidence of an ascent back in the early 70s. A bit of research revealed the maps and write up ...... the original approach and suggested grade bore no resemblance to present conditions and possibilities. So, while you may not get a first ascent, you may well get an experience unlike any previous mountaineers in the area.

In my limited experience of searching for unclimbed peaks, it really comes down to trawling through vast amounts of journals/articles to see what pops up that has been climbed, and crossing them off the map. I went to Kyrgyzstan in 2019 and had it under fairly good authority that a western flank of a certain range hadn't seen any attention, which all trip reports alluded also to. Then about two months before departure I looked at the weather conditions on windy.com and low-and-behold, two of the potential summits had names on them. A quick google search led to an obscure article about the ascents. 

Happy searching. 

I seem to recall an ethic on some Greenland trips of not reporting which peaks had been climbed.

Thus preserving the exploratory experience for future expeditions.

You could settle for 'as good as unclimbed' or 'unclimbed as far as we know'. 

It must be true in the UK as well, I'm betting there must've been climbers including well known climbers who do that on UK rock 

Take up caving? There are probably hundreds of miles of unexplored caves including in Britain and Ireland. Which would reduce your carbon footprint.

Try contacting

paul@greenlandexpeditions.com

Owner-operator of Greenland Exploration Logistics & Consultancy (GELCO)

Good luck!

Yes, Paul, is the easiest source for such info. His old company Tangent ran many first ascent trips over the years and they kept records, plus had aerial photos and maps of areas they had not climbed in.

The old journals are also good and many are online free now. There's been a helluva lot of climbing done in Greenland though, so anyone would want to look hard and do their research if they want to claim something 'significant'.

I'd guess there are a lot more unrecorded climbs on UK rock though. I mean, if you go and bimble up something obscure and, honestly, utterly un-noteworthy while you were tramping across the middle of nowhere one weekend, you might just not bother writing it up anywhere.

But if you went on a Greenland expedition, it's a pretty major event and climbing any of the peaks is going to be something you properly plan for, then execute and seems noteworthy at the time, I would think.

So in the former example there will be plenty unrecorded due to lack of quality, too much quantity or just plain apathy but none of those reasons seems likely to apply to Greenland peaks, so it would only be the desire to deliberately obscure one's ascents that would apply.