Miilu Gehlert has just spent hours captaining a water taxi deep into the Nuuk Fjord, a winding waterway that lies just north of Greenland's capital.

But it's far from the most difficult task he's had to navigate.

"We were out for four days and maybe managed to get around 10 hours of sleep in four days," he recalled of one tour. "Full of mosquitoes, not a lot of sleep, had to keep an eye open for enemies — yeah, it was tough."

Gehlert was among the first-ever class of recruits in Greenland's Arctic Basic Training program. Launched last year and overseen by the Danish military, it aims to train young Greenlanders in emergency preparedness and search and rescue.

Miilu Gehlert stands outside the water taxi he’s steered through Nuuk Fjord. He was among the inaugural class of recruits in Gre

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