Alt. Hist. request, Vikings make a go of the "New World"?

[Anomalocaris]

I meant unlucky in the sense that they already had superior technology to anything in north america - but that this technology could not be productively employed in greenland.

Later USian colonists did something similar (but..somehow stranger, because MURRICA!).  We had the tech and the environment (the tech probably came to us by way of vikings, no less)..but we left it and anybody who worked it at home.  We tried pastoralism and later hunting...depending on regular imports.   We also resisted any significant regional acculturation.  It would take us centuries to apply what we already knew to situations that it was judiciously suited for.

In this regard, in contrast, their society never seemed to slouch.  The whole point of colonization, to them, was access to productive farmland (and, yes..productive in the manner to which they had become accustomed.. in crops, tools, and procedure).  They didn't find that in greenland.  They would have anywhere along the us coast or inland on major tributaries.  The great lakes would have been incredible.  We know what happened when we finally got our act together, after centuries.  That's the point they'd likely have begun at.

My point is the Viking failed to adapt when conditions change, not that they did not have technologies that could have been suitable at first.

The Viking were able to use familar technology successfully at Greenland when they first arrived during a warm period when natural harbors were ice free all year and growing season was productive. They farmed, cattle ranched, exported fish and became the major source of walrus ivory for Europe. But they failed to adapt when the little ice age began to set in, even though the Inuits are right there demonstrating how that can be done. They rigidly adhered to increasingly untenable, but familiar, social organization and food productions. Never did they think of trading with the Inuits to exploit superior Inuit technology for the new environment.