First Time Skiing

On skiis

En route

Snow cat

View back

Today was my first attempt at skiing. After eventually finding enough skiis, boots and skins for all of us on Thursday and Friday, we were disappointed to find we couldn't go on Saturday because of a storm. Today (Sunday) the weather seemed to have cleared somewhat, so off we set!

With skins attached (like carpet for the bottom of your skiis), and some tips from Allen, Sam and Anna-Marie, I soon got the hang of going uphill. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't pretty, but I was moving! In fact I found it easier than climbing on foot as we did last week. Again we climbed longyearbreen as it has a shallower descent, but it was still fast enough for me. We turned round half way up the glacier as we could see the weather closing in. There was a light snowfall all day, but at times the katabatic winds picked up, and we got snowblasted, so felt it safer to make a descent in the light and before the visibility got too poor.

Downhill was rather faster, and there was a lot more to learn at a quick pace. Allen and the others had some great tips and I soon swung from falling over every other second to once every 30 seconds! The breakthrough was when I eventually got the hang of standing straight in the body and bending my knees, not leaning forwards, and found it is possible to make turns without falling down and skidding along scooping snow up. The final part of the descent I made without a fall, and were it not for the weather I would have wanted to go up and try again. I may ache tomorrow, but for now, all is good!

Northern Lights

And so I have seen them. The Northern Lights. So I thought I would share them...

northern lights I

Northern lights II

Longyear Life

Living out here is a bit different to home. I thought I would note a few things down:

1. Going anywhere that involves going outside is a mission. At least 5 minutes extra time is needed just to put on boots, ski pants, down sweaters, jackets, scarves, hats, gloves...

2. You burn off way more food just staying alive here...which gives a great excuse to eat copious amounts of chocolate.

3. Wind is way more of a problem than temperature in keeping the frostbite away. You look like a terrorist or bank robber when the wind blows as everything is covered up.

Mostly covered

Completely covered

4. Food costs an absolute fortune. 6 pounds for a red pepper anyone? Or how about 10 pounds for a block of tasteless cheese! I have eaten proper meat only once while being here. And I have never eaten so much pasta- what a good job I like it.

5. Your hair cannot ever look good. Hats do dreadful things to freshly washed hair.

6. I miss the sun.

7. I like dry snow to walk on, but you can't make snowballs with it.

8. Ice caves are stunning (although you wont get me down too narrow a cave).

9. Scooters are far too noisy and smelly, but are essential to travel any distance here.

10. The view never gets boring- it is always different even though it is always the same.

11. There are no trees. Or much of anything other than snow and ice, and a few rocks, and in places a few buildings.

12. Live ammunition freaks me out. Polar bears are even worse. Always be with someone with a gun.

13. Nostrils can freeze shut.

14. The Arctic is beautiful.

15. So are the northern lights.

16. Cheese and ham mixed in a tube is wrong. There is just nothing right about it!

Tunabreen & Von Postbreen

Fjord view

Tunabreen

Blue ice

Looking back

A little light

Our second excursion was to two glaciers about 60 km from Longyearbyen. It is a pretty long drive on a snow scooter, especially in the cold. And was it cold! I had numb feet the entire day and think my hands would have fallen off it it weren't for the heated grab bars on the scooter. It made taking photos hard, as wearing only thin gloves could be only momentary before fingers were too numb to press buttons! Lunch was intriguing too- at such low temperatures everything has frozen solid before you have a chance to eat it. Flasks of tea, and chocolate smashed into shards and melted in your mouth, were the only sustenance that day!

The trip had been brought forward as the excursion involved a drive of a few km along a fjord to the calving fronts of the glaciers, and so required the sea ice to be thick enough. Bar one sudden stop en route, as the first person checked a lead in the ice, we made it there safe and sound. To be honest the smooth ice was a welcome relief after many km bouncing around over bumpy snow on land (when I learnt that it is possible to feel sea-sick on a scooter!). On the way back however, a line of open water had opened up against the shore, and so we all increased speed to clear the gap. No-one particularly fancied a swim! As a precaution when driving on sea ice, we all wore ice picks around our necks in case of falling in, which are spikes to dig into the ice to haul yourself back out- however in water that cold I wouldn't like my chances of being able to manage the picks.

The drive out was beautiful, with clear skies, and a glimpse of the sun between the mountains at one point. I cannot wait for the sun to appear in the town.

Tunabreen is a surging glacier with a steep crevassed front, making for beautiful blue ice sculptures along its length. We couldn't go too close though due to the open water directly against the calving front, but still got some good photos. Von Postbreen has not surged for a long time, and so the front is much smoother. It did however have some fascinating ice which had layers of sediment in it and thick clear ice patches with beautiful patterns and bubbles inside. To reach this wall of ice, we had to walk across some super smooth ice that you just slid across in snow boots, although sometimes the surface cracked under your weight in an alarming way.

Philipp had become my trusty driver, and I was thankful he was driving not me when the weather closed in on the way home and visibility dropped dramatically. Seeing only a couple of metres in front of you is not ideal when driving a scooter! The only way is to watch the person in front, and not let their back light out of your sight. But we made it home safe and sound, and even managed to fix and pick up a broken scooter on the way. Was it ever nice to have a hot shower when I got home though, followed by food and some wine. Not surprisingly I slept well after that!

Ice wall

a few glaciologists

wall II

wall III

Wall IV

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.