Longyearbreen

Poor visibility on the way up

Rest stop

Walking Up

In the cave

Cave view

Musical icicles

Travelling back down

Yesterday, eight of us made a trip up Longyearbreen, the glacier above Nybyen where we are living. The way up was hard going- it is almost impossible not to sweat when hiking up a glacier- but we sure got our exercise for the day. The views back down the valley were not great as visibility has decreased in the last few days, but were enough to see the town spread out below us. To start with we followed the compressed scooter tracks as these made for easier walking, but at points we had to branch off and flounder through the deeper snow. I made good use of the tracks of the guys who walked at the front!

After a false hope (finding a partial igloo with an Australian flag on it!) and a further trudge in the deeper snow, we eventually located this year's entrance to the ice cave in the upper part of the glacier. Donning head torches we took it in turns to sit down and slide in, making good use of a rope to get us down the almost vertical section at the start. Good job there was a rope otherwise we would still be down there! I struggled with my hands getting cold as my gloves got wet so had to do a rapid glove change and have help warming my fingers.

The cave was slightly smaller in width than that on Scott-Tunerbreen but we could still walk upright in a fair proportion of it. Some section were easier as a bum slide, and others required crawling under huge bunches of icicles but it was all part of the fun. Phillipp even discovered that a line of icicles can make a good musical instrument; that is until they break off and a note is missing!

We ate lunch sat on the floor of the cave as it was warmer than the glacier surface, and promptly stuck to the walls as our body heat melted the surface slightly. For a while we turned all the torches off to see how dark it was, and put it this way, we could have sat there forever and our eyes never got accustomed to the dark!

When we reached an area where crampons were needed to carry on, we turned back and retraced out steps back out of the cave. Heading down the glacier was much easier and we kept up a good pace. At the snow covered morraine we sat down and slid the rest of the way which was good fun. We arrived back hungry and tired but the day was worth it.