Jentetopptur

Sunday was easily the most beautiful day we've had so far this spring. It was amazingly sunny and barely a touch of wind. Naturally these are the days I feel up for skiing :)

I went for a trip up Larsbreen with two girls from UNIS, one who is a guest lecturer from the U.S. and was teaching in the course I work for, the other girl is a Norwegian Masters student who came on the cruise with us.

We were a little slow due to an event filled weekend, and in the time it took us to walk up to the top of Gruvefjellet, build a snow couch and talk for about 20 minutes, Oskar had already dropped us off in Nybyen, walked up Vannledningsdalen, sat at the top of Sukkertoppen for 20 minutes, walked across gruvefjellet and up Trollsteinen (we didn't make it that far) just to come back down to where we were sitting! We had a great time though, and it was so nice to be out skiing again and enjoying the sunshine.

The snow was actually soft and nice which is a rarity here on Svalbard, so we really enjoyed our descent. Oskar took some nice photos of us and we all made our way down to Longyearbyen. The nice thing was that we started after 16:00 so the mountain was nearly empty, no one was around, but you wouldn't know it was so late because the sun never went down!

Also I just wanted to point out that I made it down again without falling! Second time! It seems I'm getting better at this.

This is lazy science. Not even getting up to collect snow samples.

Cruise to Woodfjorden.

I was given the opportunity again this year to join the course I work with at UNIS on their field work cruise. We sailed with the boat Lance again this year and went up to the North West tip of Svalbard. Along the way we stopped at Ny Ålesund, nothing was open and everyone was still sleeping at 9:00 on a Saturday, so we just had a short little walk around and then sailed further into the fjord where I saw my first iceberg! It wasn't a very large one (not very tall) but it was still a significant chunk of glacier ice and it was awesome! We did a little bit of touristing and sampling in Kongsfjorden and Krossfjorden, then a little bit more touristing and sampling in Magdalenefjorden before making it around the North West tip of Svalbard.

We tried to find ice in Raudfjorden again this year, however it was all pretty soft ice and not very strong enough to have the boat freeze in. So instead we sailed further along the North coast to Woodfjorden and found some amazingly beautiful, perfectly flat fjord ice. This is where we spent the next two days.

We saw about 6 bears in total while we were stuck in the ice but they were all pretty far away, there was a mom with two cubs in the fjord when we arrived but they left the area within the day and were only seen as specks in the binoculars. Only once did we get some close up polar bear action when a male was walking across the fjord and came about 150m from the ship. None of the bears in the area really showed any interest in us. 

We had a great blue bird day on our second day of field work on the ice. I spent the day ice fishing with one of the girls doing some field work for her thesis. We didn't catch anything but it was still pretty rewarding to sit on the fjord ice at 79˚ North and fish in the sunshine. Some of the crew members even came out and brought us coffee and cookies. We were a little spoiled!

I organized for us to do a polar plunge, ice bathing, again this year and it was a pretty big hit. There was only one person from our group who didn't join in and we were able to convince the Captain of the ship to join us. It was really cold again, and I have another diploma, but I'm pretty sure this time we were a little further south than last year. The Captain was taking pictures of us jumping in through the ice hole and I have a great shot. I look really excited whereas everyone else is making a face of regret and worry. It was a great time and then we got to have a hot tub after so it was all worth it. You have to earn the hot tub, right?

After our field work was done on the fjord ice we sailed up to Moffin island just past 80˚ North, and we saw so many walrus. This island is known as the Walrus island because it's where they all hang out. The island is perfectly flat and covered in snow and the waters around it are very shallow, and a beautiful colour. There was no wind while we were stopped above 80˚ North just watching the Walrus bath in the water and lounge in the sun, it was a pretty special moment. We couldn't get too close (definitely not as close as Oskar has braved) because the ship was too big and the water is very shallow there, but we could still see lots of them form a distance. I can most certainly confirm that they smell big time!

Then we sailed home with some barely choppy water. Although many of the group were getting sea sick, I was hoping for some rougher waters, if only for a little bit!

The first iceberg I've ever seen, so cool.

Science in action.

 I actually sat on top (not just inside, but actually on top of) the crows nest while we were sailing in this fjord so that I could set up some UV sensors. I have no idea why I didn't bring the camera with me, because it was really high up and I had some amazing views.

 Amazing day of ice fishing, though no fish were caught :)

 This is the hole being cut in the ice for our little dip.

 It was a little difficult to will myself to do this again, but I did win best jump!

 

 

 

 Moffin (walrus) Island

We had Visitors!

This weekend Kristine and Didrik came up for a visit. It was so great to have visitors again and to get to see the two of them. After such a packed weekend I'm a little zonked and am having a difficult time concentrating at work when I know my bed is at home, empty and soft, but I'll make it through the day.

Having bought Didrik's entrance into the Svalbard ski marathon again this year for Christmas, we thought it would be fun to enter ourselves and Kristine into the half marathon, so we could all be a part of it. Oskar begrudgingly agreed to join in, but made it clear this was not his idea. I think he came around when he realised how much I stink at cross country skiing and there was no chance I would beat him. :)

The marathon was such a great time and I was really surprised at how little I hurt that night and the next day, I guess I should have worked a little harder. Though I think my first time ever skiing 21km went over quite well. We had pretty great weather and the wind wasn't too bad, once we reached the half way food station though we were pretty happy to be there. It was a long trip up a hill with people coming back from the full marathon racing down the hill next to us, (a man even fell they were speeding by so quickly), so the peace and quiet and chocolate biscuits were very well received. In fact we stopped at both snack tables just to make sure we weren't missing out on anything! The trip back to the finish line was a really nice down hill, easy going ski and the sunshine came out for it.

We had a little nap time when we got back home and then headed to Huset, with some friends we made last year at the marathon, and had an amazing 6 course meal with a few bottles of wine and a very large bottle of champagne.

On Sunday, a little rough around the edges from the night and day before, we headed to Basecamp to go on our dog sledding trip. It was a massive group of tourists who we were grouped with so it was a little overwhelming but we had such a great time. The dogs were stinky and lovable and were so excited to go on a trip. We were only out for about an hour but those dogs ran fast and were pretty tired by the time we got back. I really enjoyed the experience and I can't wait to do it again!

It was a little sad to have Kristine and Didrik leave because it's a long time now before we have any visitors or are going on any trips down to the mainland, but it had been a pretty action packed weekend and I think we all needed a little rest.

Thanks so much for coming up!

 Ski waxing is very serious business.

 As I said. . . very serious business.

 We were pretty thrilled about the snack table.