Upernavik

Upernavik is a small coastal town in northwestern Greenland’s Avannaata region, positioned amid fjords and sea ice that make it a natural launching point for sea-borne climbing expeditions along the Greenland coast. Climbers use towns like Upernavik as logistical bases for multi-week trips that combine sailing, iceberg navigation, and climbing on coastal granite walls and fjord cliffs.

Vertical Sailing Greenland follows a Belgian crew — including Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll, Nicolas and Olivier Favresse, Ben Ditto, and captain Bob Shepton — as they work their way down the coast from Upernavik toward Cape Farewell. The film shows the practical demands of that formula: living aboard a small boat, timing climbs around weather and sea conditions, dodging icebergs, and shifting between boat duties and steep, cold rock. It also records the photographer’s perspective, with Ditto providing a steady eye for composition, and alternates climbing footage with scenes of instrument checks and cramped sleeping quarters.

As an introduction to Greenlandic expeditions, the film is revealing about the interplay between marine logistics and climbing objectives: viewers see how a coastal town like Upernavik functions as a staging ground and how the season’s rhythm—sailing, scouting walls, and seizing weather windows—structures the climbing itself.