Mørketid is over and soon the Sun will come.

We have now been in Longyearbyen for nearly 2 months and the dark season is over; well, we still haven't seen the sun but it will soon shine on our cold little town. About two weeks ago the sky started turning blue instead of black just to the South, but it is now a very bright sky for many of the 24hours in a day. Come Sunday the sun will be above the horizon for those standing at 1000m above sea level and by the beginning of March we will no longer have an actual black night just blåtime (blue hour). The rain has stopped now and the snow has finally arrived (what little there is on Svalbard), so we have been out enjoying the nature that lured us here.

Our brand-spankin-new snowmobile has taken us on a few short trips, including those where we went to the ice grottos. On the first trip we left the longyear valley and went into Adventdalen (the valley with the fjord) and then turned up one of the neighbouring valleys. Because we were now away from the glow of the "city" we saw so many stars and Northern Lights; it was an amazing show.

We have been on a couple of ski trips so far, but my first successful topptur on skis was yesterday afternoon up Sukkertoppen. I am still yet to have my first yard sale (big fall) on skis, but I'm sure you will all be informed by the ever-so-loving Oskar the moment it happens.

At the top of Vannledningsdalen before we went over to Sukkertoppen.

The view to the south from our house... March 8th the sun will appear over the mountain and shine down on our house.

The "magic mountain", Hiortfjellet on the other side of the fjord. With it's 1000 heightmeters, it's a "must go" ski mountain later in the season.

Towards north from our house, it looks darker... well, darker than to the south.

Exploring the cave systems under the Scott Turner Glacier, with our good friend, neighbour and tenant Henning.

The cave is kind of like a frozen water slide, with 30 meters high walls, without the water, the heat or the swim shorts.

Graceful smurf

Icicles hanging from the roof. some places 5 meters long. Hence the helmets in all of the other pictures.

Which way was out again? I think it's this way....

Last little glimpse of the dark sky. This is what it would look like if you fell into a crevasse.

On our way back out and up.

Most of the photos from our ice cave trip are from our friend Espen.