Ever since the weather got better, I have been out every single day :) . It's soooo cold right now, I think my skin will soon be peeling off my nose :(
On Monday we scootered up to Boltodalen, and visited the coolest ice cave
Scott Turnerbreen glacier, Boltodalen
inside the cave
And then yesterday (Tuesday) we scootered across the fjord between lectures to the radio station on Hiorthfjellet, to catch another glipse of the sun. Unfortunately there was a thin layer of hazy clouds and so we didn't actually see it.
And so today we returned to the same spot, except this time saw the sun and also climbed up to the ridge, to get a view of the other side.
yay sunshine
Cool ridge
dum dee dum ...
In other news, we had a blackout last night in entire Longyearbyen. Nothing worked at all, not even the water supply. It was pitch black everywhere down even in town. What's more the internet had stopped working earlier on in the day, and one of the major mobile phone networks was down on the island too.
posted by Yann Rashid on 18:24
YAY !!!!!
After last week's horrific and shocking weather, today was the first day of perfect weather. Last night was the Icebreaker party (I'll hopefully post more about this later) and so I got home very late last night. However my curtain was open and so I was woken up by the most amazing pink sky and so had to jump out of bed. I woke Borgar up and we skied up Trollsteinen, in time to catch the few hours of sunshine !!!
That's right, since Monday last week the sun comes over the horizon (though we cannot see it from town yet cos' of all the mountains). The weather was perfect: cold, crisp and pure air. Not a single cloud in the sky. The colours were amazing. Funny cos' I've been on this walk a few times now, and every time the sky looks different - but this had to be the best so far since we are now getting a good few hours of daylight.
As we approached the ridge leading to the summit, I was worried that we might have missed the sun and that it might be hiding behind a mountain.... but as we reached the top it was revealed to us ! It did startle me for a second, so bright yet so beautiful. Arg I'm so happy. I can now synthesise Vitamin D.
Reaching the summit of Trollsteinen
Things just don't get any better :)
posted by Yann Rashid on 18:19
It was urg but now it's yay.
Just when snow had started building up (there isn't much precipitation here), the temperature suddenly rose ... above zero degrees !!! And on top of that, it even started raining! Longyearbyen looked like the biggest dump ever. It was horrible and very very depressing, especially since this isn't meant to happen. March is supposed to be the coldest month (which we are not yet in) and we had 4 degrees !!!
Anyways, this morning it started snowing very heavily. There was a horrible whiteout outside all day (I didn't go out - hence why I am out of food right now!), but as the evening approached it settled down a bit, leaving lots of lovely fresh snow ^^
So overall this place now looks magical again :)
Nybyen this morning
doesn't stop some people ...
posted by Yann Rashid on 16:19
The season of adventures has arrived, and I really do not want to miss any of it! Apparently the sun now officially comes over the theoretical horizon (not that I have seen it yet) and so we are now getting a few hours a daylight every day (and increasing!).
After Bjørndalen, I still had another day or so off and decided to go to the other student cabin found in Svea, a coal mining settlement found 50km south of Longyearbyen. I actually went there with my class back in September. The only realistic way of getting there is by snow scooter or plane, and the students here at UNIS have an agreement with Store Norsk (the coal mining company) that if there are spare seats on the plane, then we can go for free. And that is exactly what we did.
The plane was tiny, but there were very few people in it. As we took off, we got to see the most incredible views under the most incredible light. I swear our trip was made worthwhile simply by taking this flight.
Boarding the plane
Flying over Svalbard :)
Wow
Just amazing ^^
We departed on Friday and landed back this morning (Monday) and so spent three nights in the cabin. When we got there the cabin was of course freezing, but because of the nearby mine, coal in available (for free) in a plentiful quantity. We got the fire started and soon the cabin was too warm - so warm we were almost suffocating.
Student cabin at Svea
Polar Bear footprints near the cabin
So over the weekend we went skiied close to the shore of the fjord and then closer to the mountains the next day. Nothing crazy, but it was just nice to be outside and away from Longyearbyen. We saw lots of reindeer and even some polar bear footprints - but no polar bear :(
View from the cabin
Skiing on day 1
lol
At first Friday to Monday sounded like a long time, but it really went by fast. I've come back energised. The only drawback was that the cabin was found not too far from a mine, and so there was actually quite a lot of soot on the snow (not so nice when having to melt it to drink - but we just used juice concentrate to get rid of the foul taste). So next time it would be nice to find a more isolated cabin.
Last time I came to Svalbard, I was camping all the time. As much as I would love to have that experience again, it was also nice to sit down and relax at the end of the day, around a roaring fire. It also meant we could dry our clothes and have a more comfortable experience.
Arriving back in Longyearbyen, Monday morning
We missed the first hour of lectures, but at least we managed to get a warm shower! I dunno but this short trip was just so perfect :). We even got to see the Northern Lights on Friday and Saturday night :)
posted by Yann Rashid on 14:04
For some reason, as biologists, we had three days off this week. I'm not complaining. And so a few of us decided to hike over/spend the night in the student cabin in Bjørndalen.
I went there in the summer, and it took me less than an hour by bike. This time round it took us 3 hours! I can't say that it was that bad, but we were hiking along a road which was a bit dull at times... and it got dark quite quickly. We took a few pulks (sledges) which made it a lot easier.
The cabin is quite charming, but not very well insulated and I did keep my down jacket on pretty much the whole time. Even though we didn't stay long, the views were spectacular. It's like a whole new Svalbard has been revealed since it has been in darkness for so long, and the snow has finally covered the mountains.
Bjørndalen cabin
Oscar II Land at the horizon
Pulking
View out onto Isfjorden
...
posted by Yann Rashid on 14:04
The Longyearbreen ice cave has finally been found and opened. It's basically a melt water channel inside a glacier. At the moment not too many tourists have been inside and so the marvelous ice formations are still relatively intact.
This year it is found quite some way up the glacier, and so took us nearly 2 hours or so to reach by ski (last Saturday) - but it was well worth it :). We got to a part which was a bit steep, but obviously very icy and so going down would have been easy, but not going back up - so we stopped there.
And then, a few days later, a few of us decided to go back - this time with some equipment and see how far we could reach. We got to the slippery slopes which was no problem, and finally reached what can only be described as a frozen lake. The ice looked pretty solid, but we could see some water seeping through. A few meters later we were presented with a small wall of ice, which we decided to climb. Going up was quite straight forward. However, the "frozen lake" ice randomly collapse and one of us (I was still hanging on the ice wall) went right through a layer of slush. Nothing too frightening except that he got very cold feet, which wasn't very fun especially since it took me ages to climb back down. When we (finally) got out of the ice cave, there was a mini whiteout and one of the scooters stopped working (obviously) so we had to toe it down with the other scooter. Overall we had just had a mini adventure :)
Outside the ice cave :)
Cool ice
It looks much better in real life !
Ice cave: take 2!
posted by Yann Rashid on 15:30
Mälardalen
Adventdalen
posted by Yann Rashid on 02:43
We have just had the snow scooter course, organised by the logistics team at UNIS. This must be the only university where you actually learn how to ride the funnest thing ever. The ride lasted a few hours, and we were mainly practicing going up and down hills, but also riding on sloping terrain. Incidentally, three people in my group managed to tip their scooter over when driving on the slopes
posted by Yann Rashid on 02:26
How cool. I have just come back from this place called "Villmarkssenter". It's basically the only ecotourism company here on Svalbard, and we visited it as part of the Arctic Environmental Management course I am taking.
It's a wooden hut found in the middle of Adventdalen, where tourist are given a taste of true adventure with dog sledge tours and anything that can work in harmony with the environment. The guy there has been on Svalbard for the past 35 years (bearing in mind most residents only spend 4 years here), and so told us about the adventures and challenges his company are facing - most notably trying to expand scooter free zones.
We had diner (free food! - a reindeer stew), coffee and cake around a lovely fire with my entire class. It was so interesting, and I feel quite lucky to have had this unique experience...
Tomorrow will be the UNIS snow scooter course which should also be fun, and next week I'll be visiting SvalSat :)
Eating the reindeer stew
Cool fire
Random photo of what it now looks like at mid day outside my barrack
Random photo of the view outside my window at night
posted by Yann Rashid on 23:07
