A Viking Takes Greenland by Storm

When Una Colby ’24 heard Lyndon Institute science teacher Jill Nichols make the announcement in assembly last spring, the then-senior’s ears perked up. Nichols had been scheduled to join a research team during the upcoming summer headed by a good friend and classmate from her undergraduate days at Middlebury College. But with Nichols about to expect her second child, making the trek to distant Greenland for two weeks of drilling permafrost core samples was no longer an option.

Fortunately, Nichols convinced the team to allow a substitution, giving some lucky student a rare opportunity.

“As soon as Ms. Nichols said ‘Greenland,’ I thought, I’m in!” Colby said.

After an application process, Colby—who is just starting her first semester at Boston University—was selected to take Nichol’s place. And so on August 9th—the day after her 18th birthday—she boarded a US Air National Guard C130 out of Scotia, New York for Kangerlussuaq, a small settlement located on a fjord on the west coast of Greenland. 

“The Greenland expedition was actually the second part  of the team’s project,” Colby explained. “The first was in Fairbanks, drilling permafrost cores.”

While Colby didn’t make the trek to Alaska, she was able to join the group for the Greenland part of the expedition. Known as the “DRACO nano” team (Dynamic Research of Arctic Cryospheric Organisms at the nanoscale), the group was made up of four others: Nichols’s friend Dr. Ross Lieblappen and his colleague Dr. Michelle Sama—both professors at VTSU Randolph—and their research assistants, VTSU students Caleb Tilton and Dominic Mazzilli. 

For the next two weeks, the DRACO nano team spent most days driving up into the nearby hills not far from the massive glacial sheet that covers the vast majority of Greenland. There they dug into the soil to collect bits of DNA and drilled down for core samples, removing frozen cylinders of layered dirt and ice from the permafrost.

Their home base was Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (KISS for short). Aside from the airport, a former US air base during World War 2, it’s one of the tiny town’s main features, bringing in researchers from around the world.

“It’s basically a hostel where everyone is a scientist,” Colby explained. “Our group was the only one from the US for the majority of our time there. I got to know people from the Czech Republic, India, England, and Denmark. It was amazing.”

While some teams spent their days “up on the ice,” studying the glacial plain, Colby’s team, focused on the permafrost.

“We met at 8:00 most mornings, had breakfast, and put our PB&Js together for lunch. Then it was time to load up Burt!”

Burt, it turns out, was the team’s transport, a slightly beat-up old truck with a lot of character. But it got the team where it needed to go as they searched out suitable sites for digging and drilling the needed samples for DNA analysis and state of the art X-ray imaging. Samples were collected and bagged, then transported back to town.

“We actually stored the cores in the freezer at the nearby mini-mart,” Colby said, explaining that the store owner also doubled as a manager at KISS. “Like I said, it was a small town!”

While Colby got down in the dirt with the rest of DRACO nano and enjoyed playing a role in the research process, science wasn’t her primary motive for joining the expedition.

“I’m actually interested in studying public relations and journalism at BU, so this gave me a great chance to practice.”

Colby helped create content for the team’s Instagram account, posting bios, daily accounts, and pictures, as well as crafting a write-up of the research for Vermont State University. 

“I love the outdoors and travel is very important to me. I’m game to go wherever, so this was perfect. And the idea of not only being able to experience field work but also having the role of sharing it with the world was very exciting.”

For Colby, exploring a landscape with a dramatically different ecosystem was a huge draw. While the team worked hard, there were opportunities for her to experience other aspects of life at 67 degrees latitude. Among the highlights was getting up on the ice. 

“It was so cool up there!” Colby said of the icy plateau. “You have to be careful because of the crevasses, but it's really beautiful. We hiked up into the region two different times. I got to explore the bottom of a glacial lake that had recently drained. I saw caribou, musk ox, and Arctic hares.”

Being above the Arctic Circle in August offered another new experience: perpetual daylight. 

“It never really got dark,” Colby said. “We stayed up once to watch ‘the sunset’ at 3:00 a.m., but it really just dipped below the horizon briefly and stayed light the whole time.”

Back in town, Colby not only got to spend time with researchers from around the world, she also got to know the locals. 

“Everyone was so nice,” she said. “Chris and his family even invited us over for dinner once. . During my time there I got to try maktak, which is a form of whale blubber, along with whale steak, which was definitely a new experience for me! We also got to sample caribou and musk ox.”

According to Colby, the best part of the journey was the DRACO nano team. “The chemistry of the group was remarkable. By the end of the two weeks, they felt like family to me. You basically spend all your time with each other, so it was great that we grew so close and worked so well together.”

For Colby, the fifteen day trip went by “too fast,” and before she knew it, they were on the return flight back to the States. But the team of Vermonters already got together last week for a reunion dinner and plans to stay in touch.

A thousand years after Erik the Red and Leif Eriksson settled on the edges of Greenland, the world’s largest island, a Lyndon Viking embarked on an expedition of her own, and the journey left an impression.

“It was the experience of a lifetime,” Colby said. “I’d like to go back someday!”