Thursday 9 April 2009
trip to the East Coast
I'm back from my 6 day ski tour round the East Coast of Spitsbergen :) Overall had a great experience, but have come back with frostnip fingers :S.
We were a 3 man team, with our skis and with our pulks. Route wise I chose a relatively simple, fool proof route, roughly 65km long (without all the wiggling valleys).
Route map
On Saturday morning, we were dropped off by scooter in Sassendalen at the start of Fulmardalen. We then skied into Agardhdalen, then up the Sveigbreen glacier and onto the Hellefonna icecap. We then skied down the Jimbreen glacier into Vendomdalen, passing through Trehogdalen and finally ending up at the start of Eskerdalen. We were collected by scooter at lunchtime.
Being dropped off in Fulmardalen on Saturday morning
Surprisingly, the trip went without any significant hickups. My pulk broke a few times but this was quickly mended. In the end we didn't actually make it to the sea ice which was a shame (we were just a few km away) but we had to carry on with our route.
For the first three days, we were blessed with perfect sunshine and blue skies. It was freezing though (I'll come to that more later). The first day we barely covered 7km, which was pretty rubbish. Going down Fulmardalen was a bit boring, and setting up the tent was a bit of a fiddle. But I guess that's day 1 for you.
First night camping, Fulmardalen
Day 2 we were mainly tackling moraine, before ending up in Agardhdalen, which is absolutely massive. On this day the temperature plummeted. I was so cold at the end of the day, and was even shivering in my sleeping bag. I managed to warm up a bit, but really the temperature was unbearably cold. I think it went down to around -25 to -30C.
Day 2: Approaching the East Coast
Arriving into Agardhdalen (few km from the sea ice)... so beatiful but oh so cold!
Camping on the East Coast, Agardhalen. I had to put my camera battery into my glove before taking this photo as it was so cold.
Again, beautiful but freezing beyond belief
We roped up while going up the Hellefonna. It was spectacular, but just quite difficult pulling your sledge for hours up a glacier. I remember looking at a piece of rock on the mountain side as reference point, and I never seemed to get any closer to it. We set up camp at the base of the icecap dome, probing around us to ensure there were no crevasses below our tent. As we went to bed we spotted a few clouds rolling in ...
Day 3: Approaching the Sveigbreen glacier, Hellefonna Icecap in background
The next day we woke up to slightly milder temperatures, but it was snowing and quite windy. We set off, and got some nice patches of clear sky (still windy) ... we even saw a halo. However when starting to descend the Jimbreen glacier, the wind really took off and there was very poor visibility. Because I was at the front of the rope, I could kinda decide when we would stop. For some reason I was feeling really energetic and was so determined to get down the glacier as it really was quite horrible... and we basically did not stop until we reached the end. I think I basically knackered everybody else out, which was silly on my part. Anyways, we later set camp in Vendomdalen and had a pretty stunning campsite.
Day 4: waking up to a whiteout on the Hellefonna
Heaven of Hell: Halo on top of the Hellefonna Icecap
Descending the Jimbreen glacier from Hellefonna. Lots of wind. Glad to get down it
Day 5: our campsite in Vendomdalen the next morning
Day 5 was meant to be quite straight forward: the last valley was only a few kilometres... but it took us all day, since it kept winding up and down/in all directions. There was quite a lot of cornice/avalanche debris in many parts, so I was glad to get that valley over and done with. We finally got mobile phone reception at the end, and organised our pickup the next morning.
Entering Trahogdalen. Vendomdalen in background.This slope had really unstable snow. Avalanche beacons ON!
Contouring round all the wiggly bits. Lots of cornices :)
End of day 5: campsite in Adventdalen (start of Eskerdalen)
Now that the ski trek is over (I'm still slightly exhausted) I can look back. I really have mixed feelings about it. The thing is, just like with any other trek that I do, I don't always enjoy on the moment because it's so physically and mentally difficult. But once it's done, I want to do it again.
Looking back and asking myself "would I do it again" I probably would. But the past few days were soooo cold. My feet were frozen most of the time, and setting up camp and cooking outside in the cold wasn't always the most enjoyable experience. It's funny cos' I did this for 3 months back in 2006 (camping everyday on Svalbard) and loved it. But then again it was much warmer in 2006. The past few days have brought back so many memories from 2006. I can remember how much I hated my first week on Svalbard back then, and in a sense I felt the same this week. But then again, I think it's because I had just left civilisation and knew I would be coming back to Longyearbyen shortly. It really makes me appreciate having a proper bed and hot showers again. Had it not been so cold ...
Overall though I had the best time. I got to see the most incredible scenery again. I had been dreaming about doing a trek like this since I got here last July, and now I feel fulfilled. I am also more confident about organising a trips like this ... who knows what's next? Maybe I'm analysing this all too much.
I do however think that unless I set myself a specific challenge, that in the future I want to enjoy myself a bit more, for instance spending a night or two in a cabin and then camp for a few nights etc, instead of just nailing the route. At the end of this week, my sleeping bag was a wreck and iced up in many places - which really wasn't pleasant. Maybe I am becoming more of a wimp.
So that's my love/hate relationship with the outdoors for you. For some reason I have signed myself up for the OMM again this year. I did it back in 2007, damaged my knees and nearly got hypothermia. Why oh why ... ?
Being picked up on day 6 :)
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