Kapisillit
©
Kapisillit

Kapisillit

Inland Greenland village at the head of Nuup Kangerlua, named for its salmon river.

Kapisillit is one of very few inland settlements in Greenland — a tiny village of around fifty people roughly 75 kilometres east of Nuuk, at the head of one of the long fingers of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord system. The name means "the salmon", and a small river near the village holds the only known spawning ground for Atlantic salmon in Greenland.

The setting is the reason to come. From the wharf, the fjord runs deeper inland to the Qooqqut and Kangersuneq glaciers, where the inland ice tips into the sea — a short boat ride brings you within sight of calving icebergs. Behind the village a valley climbs toward the abandoned reindeer farm at Itinnera, and a two-to-three-day hike crosses the country south to the Ameralla Fjord.

There is no road in. Boats run from Nuuk in summer when the fjord is ice-free, occasionally also by helicopter. Accommodation is limited to a small hunters' cabin and a couple of houses bookable through Nuuk Tourism. Bring everything you need; the village shop is basic and not open every day.

Guide

Getting There

There is no road to Kapisillit. Most visitors come by boat from Nuuk, a four-to-five-hour passage through the fjord system, run by local skippers in the summer months. Nuuk Tourism can arrange charters and the occasional shared service.

Air Greenland also operates an irregular helicopter service to the village, used mainly by residents and for medical evacuations. The fjord normally clears of ice in June and refreezes in October or November; outside those months access is difficult and unreliable.

Guide

Things to Do

Almost everything in Kapisillit is on or near the water. The salmon river that gives the village its name draws a few anglers each summer; the rest of the visitors come for the hiking and the boat trips deeper into the fjord toward the inland ice.