Scooter training

Scooter training, where do I start, okay let’s try the beginning. Every student at UNIS during the spring term are required to do field work. Most of this field work requires the group to take snow scooters out into the field with all the equipment, the two classes that I am taking this term are perhaps the only ones which do not require us to do this. We do, however, have to take the scooter class. The scooter classes started at 0830 this meant that we had to be up very early and out the house by 0750 to get to UNIS on time. I woke a little later than I had intended once again glad that I had the forethought to set out my clothes the night before. I went to the kitchen to make my lunch and then went to make sure that Stu was up, he wasn’t. Realizing that Stu would not have enough time to make lunch for himself I quickly made some more sandwiches’ before we both made our way out of the house. Andrew and Frances were waiting for us as we got downstairs to put our shoes on Andrew in a decidedly bad mood without having had his breakfast.
There were roughly 25 of us attending the scooter practice today and we got split into two groups the first group being the ones brave enough to immediately go out on the snow scooters for the practice. I was in the cowards group or to be honest the sensible group along with Stu, Andrew and Frances. We then spent the morning looking over the scooter mechanics as well as how to strap equipment onto a sledge. After an hour lunch break we headed back to the store room to kit up for the practical.
UNIS has a vast store room of equipment for various types of field work as well as all of the clothing that you need when riding a scooter. We all got kitted out in scooter suits, huge thick onezies with fur hoods, boots and helmets. They also have face masks, goggles and mittens; however, I chose to wear my own. If they were good enough for my scooter they were good enough for theirs.
We all made our way out to the scooters and started them up. I am not embarrassed to admit that I had been nervous all day about the exercise. Although having been on the back of one with Stu and not being bothered when we rolled it or worried any time we were out. I had, however, never driven one myself, and I am not a confident driver, motor vehicles being one of few things in my life where I much prefer to give control to someone else and enjoy being the passenger.
We quickly set off and I ended up 5th in the group, with Frances and Stu in front of me, and Andrew driving behind. The scooter track took us down along the side of the main road leading to mine 7 and out onto the sea ice of the fjord (a long way from the unfrozen part so it was very safe). This section of the journey was relatively flat, and by that I mean we were not doing any ridiculous hill climbs or riding on our sides along a ridge. The track did, however, have a large number of bumps and patches of ice which, the scooter can handle as long as you don’t speed up, slow down, or attempt to turn on. After making our way zigzagging across the fjord we started heading towards the base of one of the glaciers on the other side. This meant that the terrain now turned from flat to steep slopes and slanted path and you spent a majority of the time leaning off of the seat.
A snow scooter, in my opinion, is not an easy vehicle to drive. As with any open air vehicles you always feel like you are going much faster than you are, and that is all part of the fun. Due to the design of the scooters, however, to turn corners and make any kind of manoeuvre you need speed. This is all well and good, but the speedometer is not the one in control of the scooter, I am, and I in turn am controlled by my brain (for the most part). There are times when you know you need the speed to turn, however, your brain is also telling you that you are going fast enough and you might actually want to slow down a bit lest you lose control which, of course then makes you lose control because you are not going fast enough to make the turn and you completely cut the corner. Something I managed to do spectacularly on a number of occasions.
As we headed into or perhaps onto the glacier the visibility decreased the air becoming very foggy and at one point where I had not been driving fast enough I lost sight of the group in front of me. As with driving a car (something that I have not done in a long time), visibility is important and when you have no idea of the terrain or even how to adequately steer the bloody vehicle this becomes an issue. The windscreens on the scooters are unusually high and they were covered in ice from the morning trip so they were completely opaque and useless this meant that you had to lean slightly to the side at all times so you could see the track in front of you. I found that it was easier for me to see if I was leaning out to the right and upon telling this to Stu I got the response “I told you, you should have worn you bloody glasses!”
The group stopped somewhere in the pass and gathered round to take a short break before heading back along the same route. Although we knew the route we were taking back it did not make the task any easier, something that was driven home to us when one of the scooters managed to roll on a particularly harsh bank. There was a fair amount of faffing done to try to right the scooter and its two passengers as well as getting it started again but we were soon on our way again and no one was hurt. It was soon after we had headed off again that I managed to be the second person to roll their scooter. At this point I was following Frances perhaps a little too closely and hit a soft snow mound while trying to turn a corner up a slope and the scooter got away from me. It is one of those situations where you know what is going to happen but it is past the point where there is anything you can do. When you roll a scooter you are sensibly supposed to jump off of it uphill, which I did, however, the scooter also was attempting to turn uphill so rolled that way and I ended up scrambling away from it as it fell. This, however, left the scooter in a situation where it could be easily righted and I was quickly in line with the group again as we set off.
After the small fumble with gravity and snow I was much more comfortable and confident. It also helped that the terrain was flattening out meaning that I was able to stand up whilst driving and thus see over the windshield and where I was going. I had a lot of fun on the way back across the fjord and along the road, reaching speeds of 68 km/h standing up on the snow scooter and racing over the bumps I somehow felt more in control. When we got back to UNIS we filled up the tank with gas and cleaned the scooters (hit them with a hammer to dislodge snow) before heading home from the long day even though it was only 4 and the day proved later to be a lot longer than that.