Palasip Qaqqaa is a 544 metres (1,785 ft) high mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 in the Qeqqata

Qeqqata

Qeqqata is a new municipality in western Greenland, operational from 1 January 2009. The municipality was named after its location in central-western part of the country. Its population is 9,677 as of January 2010. The administrative center of the municipality is in Sisimiut...

 municipality in western Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

. It is located on the mainland of Greenland on the coast of Davis Strait

Davis Strait

Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....

, immediately to the north of Sisimiut Airport

Sisimiut Airport

Sisimiut Airport is an airport located northwest of Sisimiut, a town in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland. The airport has a single runway designated 14/32 which measures , built on the northern shore of Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay....

.

The mountain massif is spread out over 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) in the west-east direction, constituting the terminal point of a long mountain range extending from the Pingu mountain group halfway between Davis Strait and the Greenland ice sheet

Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering , roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is at a latitude of 77°N, near its...

 . The range flattens considerably towards the east in the area of Kangaamiut dike swarm north of Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality, located at the head of a fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub, being the site of Greenland's largest commercial airport....

, due to pressure exerted by the icesheet for long periods in the past.

Topography

Palasip Qaqqaa has two distinct summits: the western (466 m (1,528.9 ft)) and the main, eastern summit, culminating in two peaks at 544 m (1,784.8 ft). The summits are separated by a depression of a very wide saddle. The massif is separated from the remainder of the ridge via several indistinctive saddles in the east.

The southern wall of Palasip Qaqqaa − the only wall of alpine character in the massif − is bissected by a chimney between the main summit and the slightly lower trabant to the west. It is the only part of the massif of interest to mountaineers.

Past the southern pillar falling directly from the summit, the wall gradually peters out into a progressively less steep rocky and grassy slope. The northern slope is not steep and is accessible via a range of routes.

Tourism

The main summit is often visited for its long-range view of the coast, through a winding path from the south. The path crosses several barriers, from grassy at the bottom, to rocky at the top. The path disappears in the depression between the last barrier and the southern slope of the main ridge to the east of the southern pillar, to reappear as a lateral ledge in the slope below the eastern ridge.

The entire massif apart from the southern wall is easily accessible, while the southern pillar of the main summit and the small northern wall of the western summit offer many short routes for climbers.