Penguin day

On Sunday we took Andrew, Frances and Katrine to see the ice cave. We had arranged to leave at 11:30 so naturally we did not set of till nearly an hour later as Frances the master faffer continuously found something else to do. She is skilled in trying what little patience I was gifted with, however, we did eventually set off and all was good.
We followed the road taking the right fork heading down along the scooter track in the valley. As we drew closer to the valley leading to the cave we headed up again so that we could start the day with a nice gentle slide down the hill. The wind was much harsher then it was on Saturday and it whipped up the snow a fair amount in some places. We opened the entrance with ease and Stu headed in while I chucked the bags in after him. I then followed with Andrew close behind. We waited around on the inside for a bit lighting the candles and setting out a mat so we could sit down and eat our lunch. Frances came in a bit later telling us that Katrine was not going to come in as the entrance way was very narrow and did not want to squeeze through the hole. Frances then went back out to stay with her and get her to try to come inside while the boys and I ate our lunch. A while later another girl came in through the entrance telling us that Frances and Katrine would not be coming into the cave and that she was also trying to convince her mother to come inside. I went outside with her to try to help as the wind outside was harsh and cold and it was much better for them to be inside or they would soon have to walk home. Understandably Katrine was worried about the head room and sliding head first into the cave as when you are at the entrance you cannot tell when or if it opens up. I lay on my front sticking out of the entrance and took her hands as we slowly made our way into the cave attempting to reassure her at each point. She did an awesome job and we got into the cave smiling and happy. As Stu and I had been in the cave the previous day we had an idea of what we were looking at and we wanted to go and explore the tunnel we had found the previous day a little more.
Heading out the back of the cave, Stu with camera in hand, we showed Andrew and Frances the entrance to go through. This time I took point, though my torch gave off very little light, and made my way to where the tunnel opened up again.


We knew that there was another entrance to the cave and in previous years it was possible to go all the way through the cave, nearly 2 hours, straight up onto the top of the glacier. Once again taking point we headed up through the cave, although the cave had widened the celling was still very low and you had to be at most crawling over the rocks or on the stream. This meant that you knees got seriously battered and, as I have discovered since I came to Svalbard, I bruise like a peach. At one point we decided that we had maybe gone far enough, as the celling did not seem to be opening up any more, and planned to leave the camera on the side as we looked some more. As I move a few more feet however, I shouted back to Stu, “You are gonna wanna bring that camera through here!” The cave had opened up in height and width to a crystal lined cave that appeared to go on forever. We were easily able to stand up now with room to spare and as we kept following the cave up.


Andrew had turned back a while ago to go stay with Kristine and Frances was a fair way back (faffing). Taking pictures along the way we headed as far back as we could get standing up. At the end the cave split off into two and it was unclear where it went next, however, there was a narrow tunnel with snow around it and another dark spot in the wall on the other fork (exploring for another time I think).
We headed back meeting Frances just as she was coming out from under the low tunnel and gave her time to have a look around before we headed back to the main entrance. As Frances carried on walking up Stu and I turned our torches off, the cave was absolutely pitch black not even a stray twinkle of the ice crystals surrounding us, it was amazing. The crawl back felt much quicker than getting there, however, as it was downhill and you were crawling over rocks, sometimes flat on your stomach, you ended up banging you knees and elbows a lot more. When we got back to the main cave we took a few snaps before heading out to go sliding down some insane hills.

The slope just opposite the caves entrance seemed to be calling Stu’s name as it was incredibly steep and appeared to be fairly solid snow (there also happened to be a rather convenient stack of rocks up the side making it easier to climb up to the top).

I managed to get some video footage of all of us sliding down as well as a few silly ones where I was holding it while sliding down (these mostly consist of a soundtrack of me screaming while the camera whites out with snow that I kick up on the way down).

Frances had brought a bum sledge type thing at the coop and went on a suicidal run down the hill right from the top losing it half way down. This, of course, sparked a race of who could climb up the slope to get to it first. Frances was the closest and started trying almost immediately sliding back down before getting to it. I tried the speed approach running up the hill as fast as I could; however, I hit a patch of solid snow and promptly slid back down. As I made my way back on my feel I climbed on all fours like a gorilla and hearing Andrew approaching from behind made a mad dash for it. I managed to grab it just moments before he got his hand there. Victory was mine!


Once we had all been thoroughly covered in snow and our clothes had solidified in the cold we decided that it was time to head home. Overall it was an awesome day and although my left knee is so bruised it kind of hurts to bend it, it was well worth it.
*Thanks Stu for the fabulous photos that match what i am saying perfectly*

Scooter Saturday

We decided that this weekend we would actually get off of our arses and go out to see the Arctic. So waking up early, 1000, on Saturday we sat about for an hour deciding what is was that we were going to do. Well we watch Black Adder II for half of that, but that is neither here nor there.
After a lot of indecision we FINALLY made our way over to the Barakke 13 to check out what was left in the student equipment. We managed to nab a few helmets for the ice caves and an ice axe (just in case). We headed back to Barakke 9 to get the rest of our stuff together and head up to the first cave at the base of Longyearbreen. After packing my bag I went to check on Stu’s progress where he informed me that he thought we were going out on the scooter. A morning of miscommunication it seems.
After making our final decision, and repacking my bag for a scooter trip not a walking one, we headed out to the scooter to see if we could find the first ice cave in the moraine of Longyearbreen. We headed out from Nybyen along the very busy scooter track leading up Longyearbreen. We weren’t entirely sure where either of the caves we wanted to see was, so headed off relying on common sense. The small cave at the bottom of the glacier was right next to where we had done our survival training exam. We parked the scooter off the track and started walking into a small valley. We knew that the entrance to the cave was marked and as this one was an easy one to get to was considered a tourist cave so also had a pallet in front of it marking the doorway. Upon finding the cave we (stu) set about opening up the entrance so that we could get in.
The gap to gent in was much smaller than we had imagined, as we would not be able to get in with our back packs on, and we were not sure what it would be like inside so Stu went in to scope it out and see if it opened up at all. When he shouted back the all clear I chucked his and my bag through in front of me pushing them along with the rifle as I attempted to slide in myself. Once you get through the main tunnel entrance the entire cave opens up with just enough space to stand up, even for Stu. Inside the main part of the cave there were a number of tee candles that Stu had lit by the time I got in and the scene reminded me of Woking Palace on Boxing Day. The main body of the cave gradually slopes back into the glacier and Stu took point in further exploration. The floor of the cave was a mix of ice and rocks in a number of cases the former encasing the latter. There was a clear body of ice that formed a stream winding its way through the cave that was very slippery although parts of my clothing had been covered in snow as I crawled through the entrance to the cave and began sticking to the ice. Like if someone was to stupidly put their tongue on the ice melting it lightly before it froze to the skin, luckily ripping my jacket from the ice is a lot less painful. Towards the back of the cave there was a small opening in the snow that with the ice and rocky outcrops was just big enough to let a person through, though they would not be able to turn around if it did not open up again. Stu with a little trepidation and encouragement, as well as the fact that the challenge was laid out in front of him, started to crawl through. The tunnel slopped upwards making it difficult to gain footing in the small space as you could barely bend your knees. At the start of the tunnel there is a tight squeeze and I had to turn sideways so that I could simultaneously bend my leg to push myself up and get my hips through. Once you manage to get through the sausage squeeze the cave starts to open up again (width not so much on the height). After deciding not to try to go any further we made our way back out, which was much easier and faster than getting up. This basically involves you acting like a penguin and sliding down on your belly. We then made our way back to the ain entrance to take some pictures before heading off up the glacier again.

We took the scooter up to the top of Longyearbreen following the scooter track that we had skied up previously and the scooter made light work of what took us an hour. We did not want to go to far as we were by ourselves and if the scooter had broken down then we would have had a long walk back. We stopped on a large ridge giving us a good view of the town in all its midday Technicolor. After getting a few awesome photos we headed back down again.



As we got back to Nybyen we decided to take the scooter on a little exploratory mission down a different route towards town with a brief stop off at the petrol station for some coolant. We eventually headed back out along the fjord where I once again got to drive taking it a fair way along the track though when we stopped to turn back it did not look much further than we had previously driven. The fjord is huge and as you reach the section towards mine 7 it opens out with wide frozen snow covered rivers between the mountains creating tracks that the scooter can follow (when we find someone to go with I think a big scooter trip is in the cards). We had now been out on the scooter for 4 hours so decided that we should head back home for the day as we had forgotten to stop for lunch.

When we got back home we opened the boot only to discover that the coolant bottle had leaked everywhere so we had to take the boot in to get it cleaned out. Unfortunately Nigel the ninja was a casualty, his face turned blue by the antifreeze, but after a good nights recovery he is cleaner than ever and can survive in colder conditions than he could before.
Tomorrow back to the ice cave with Andrew for lunch then sledging.

Here comes the SUN!

Okay so on Wednesday the 16th the Sun officially popped its head above the horizon here in Longyearbyen. When I say in Longyearbyen what I mean is you had to climb one of the mountains (most people climbed Trolstein out the back of Nybyen) to actually see it.
Unfortunately we had lectures. This, however, did not seem to stop a vast majority of students who had clearly skived off to go see the Sun. Damn them!
Stu and I had decided that we would scooter down to school and take a trip out onto the fjord in the two hours we had for lunch to get some snaps of EISCAT and the Sun on the mountains. It was also a good place for me to test out driving our scooter as it is relatively flat and has a good “scooter highway”. After taking the scooter down to UNIS we had two hours of lectures with Anja Strømmer who, although has the worst part of the course to teach us (the math), is a very nice person and a really good teacher. I was not feeling very well again as my internal thermostat seemed to be playing up, however, felt slightly better when we headed out to take the scooter up the fjord.
Stu drove first as I had never driven our scooter before and never driven a scooter with someone on the back. We took the scooter route along the road like we did on scooter training but instead of heading off across the fjord like we did before we carried on heading further up towards mine 7. When we reached the old aurora station Stu and I swapped around giving me the chance to try out driving on a flat “road” instead of up a glacier or something equally as ridiculous. I was covered head to toe, having put my goggles on a couple of minutes before as my eyes got cold, so did not feel how fast we were going at all. That was until I got a rapid tapping on my shoulder from Stu who quickly pointed at the speedometer showing me that we were going over 70 and into the red, which would eventually make the scooter very angry. Slowing down and keeping an eye on the speed we followed the scooter track in a sweeping curve across the fjord eventually deciding to come to a stop somewhere in the middle.

I really liked driving the scooter and found it much more stable sitting at the front driving than at the back, something that Stu was happy to confirm with me (he didn’t like being a passenger much, he assured me it was not my driving). It was also made easier considering it was really flat terrain and we were following a well-used scooter track so I had no doubts about direction. Also a bit of speed never killed anyone!

We pulled over to the side (the right, wrong, side over here) and got out the cameras to take some pictures. I had remembered to pack the video camera though its resolution is not great it in some ways does appreciate the light more. As we were down in the valley and completely surrounded by mountains as far as the eye could see, and it was a very clear day so that is pretty far, we could not directly see the Sun. We could, however, see the sunlight on the tops of some of the mountains its light casting a pink glow on the peaks.


Looking back towards town we realized just how far out we had driven in just 20 minutes as you could only just see the power station chimney. All the more reason to bring the rifle out with you as we had passed the dog pens about 10 minutes back and that is where a Polar Bear was spotted on Tuesday so…
We had a really good vantage point up to EISCAT and Stu got some good picks with his uber lens.

After standing around for a bit and getting a pic of us on the scooter we started to get really rather cold so decided that it was time to head back. Stu drove the whole way back as, although I had loads of fun driving, I really don’t mind being the passenger. On the way back I attempted to film us driving by attaching the gorilla pod to the bottom to give me something to hold onto. This, however, did not work as my hands still got insanely cold, and when we went over a particularly harsh bump it flew out of my hands hitting the snow at 50 km/h. running back to pick it up I saw that it had shut down so unfortunately did not capture the fall on video, though it would just have been a whole lot of white. We headed back to UNIS pretty quickly as at this point my legs were getting insanely cold due to the fact that they stick out substantially more than when driving and do not have the front of the scooter to channel the wind around them.
It was a really cool scooter trip in the light and gave us something to do whilst still being jealous of those seeing the Sun. Maybe we will go up on the weekend.

This is one of my flatmates Vegard standing at the top of Trolstein with the Sun while he happily skived off from school.

EISCAT Radar station

Today we headed up to EISCAT to have a look at the radar and some of the data so that we could attempt to understand where the horrid math we had been learning fit in with what we were seeing.
The EISCAT radar dishes in Svalbard are two huge radar dishes one that is fully mobile and one that is stationar pointing up the magnetic field lines (32 meters and 42 meters in diameter respectivly).
We drove up to EISCAT in the car and when we got there we took the opportunity to take some pictures. It looked like we were on Hoth and I expected a giant Ak-Ak to come stumbling over the hill.

The technicians there were kind enough to move the dish for us and I quickly ran back to get it all on video while Stu took a time lapse with his camera’s wide angle lens. Just got to say this, “It was so totally WICKED!”

We then headed inside to warm up and although watch and filming the dish moving was awesome my hands did not like it much. Anja took us on a short tour of the building showing us the instruments and the control room. We then headed into the corridor where they have a huge data set displayed on the wall from four of the EISCAT stations over the same time span.


On our way out we heard about a Polar Bear sighting down by the dog cages very close to town so in a chance that we could catch a sighting we quickly kitted up and headed back down the hill. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately the polar bear had been chased away from the town and back either across the fjord or into the mountains.
Even though we did not see a Polar Bear it was an awesome mini field trip and we got to see the dish move. Anja also said she could arrange for us to go up there and stand in the big dish digging out the snow that had built up in it which would be an awesome thing to film so hopefully in the near future we will be doing that. Tomorrow Stu and I are going to take the scooter out to the fjord and have a look around.

Party Weekend - The ICEBREAKER

On Friday night after the day of scooter training me and Stu had happily sat down in my room to watch the next episode of Lie To Me. About 15 minutes into the episode all of the lights in my room went out as did the street light outside and the lights in the barracks opposite. We quickly got up and looked out the window to see that the whole town had actually gone out putting a small damper on our movie night plans. Cecille, our flatmate, told us that this had happened a couple of times last term and that all we had to do was make sure each of the doors was closed to keep the heat in (the power station powers the pumps that transport the water round town so the radiators were off). We went back to watching Lie To Me and a few minutes later Andrew showed up for the movie night fun (it must have blacked out on his way over). After we finished the episode we decided to go to the living room to join some other who had gathered there with the candles. As the Icebreaker was on the Saturday night I had already made my head torch into a makeshift Star Trek phaser and ended up walking around with that (very silly). After only at most and hour and a half of blackout, the power came back on with a cheer and we set about getting the projector for the intended movie night. We watched Star Trek 6 then rearranges Stu’s room so that we could set up the projector in there and stop hogging the living room. We then all spent the evening drinking beer and some wine while eating brownies and fish and chips watching loads of TV.
The next day I did not wake up until 11 and decided to stay in bed anyway. Stu still did not have a costume for the icebreaker in the evening so I set about looking on the net for any movie or TV show set in the future so that I could get ideas for a simple costume. At around 1400, 4 hours before the icebreaker was due to start I settled on a thunderbirds costume that I could make using some red material I had found in the kitchen. It turned out pretty well considering I have not sown in years and have actually never seen thunderbirds. I was going dressed as a Star Trek red shirt, another show that I have scarcely watched.
The Icebreaker party is a gathering organized by all of the new students at UNIS where we have a meal, dancing and lots and lots of alcohol. Each Icebreaker party has a theme and this term we picked Time this is then split into four groups, prehistoric, medieval, 60’s/70’s and the future. Stu and I were in the future while Frances and Andrew were back in prehistory.
The cantina was decorated in the different themes and everyone was elaborately dressed with some amazing costumes. My favourite was Ingrid’s, one of our flat mates, who had come dressed as Apollo 11’s Saturn V rocket for the 60’s and 70’s especially awesome when she was dancing later on in the evening.

The meal was awesome and brilliantly prepared by the food group, while the entertainment group provided some entertaining songs one of which Stu had to sing a solo line, hilarious.
The whole evening was amazing and loads of fun getting to know everyone a bit more and drinking strange concoctions till 3 in the morning down at UNIS. We then piled into a taxi and headed to the after party in barrack 4, I only lasted till just gone 4 before heading home leaving Stu to have fun with the hangover he would get the next morning from the horrid beer they were drinking and the dreaded port. All in all it was an awesome night making a great number of new friends, so I will take that as a win.

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.

Hike up Sarkofagen

Today we went on a hike up Sarkofagen, I googled it. It means sarcophagus, which made me think of Stargate and all of the episodes with Hathor, those were some awesome episodes.
Anyway… Sarkofagen is the mountain directly out the back of Nybyen and requires quite the walk around before you can get to the top. We had wanted to go walking for a while, none of this skiing stuff, and we met a now PhD student who came from Aber back in 2007 with Gemma. The plan was to leave early so that we could reach the top when the sunlight was at its greatest and to get down before it disappeared again. This meant, at least for us, an early wake up to be ready and out of the barracks at 1030. As I predicted we made it out a little later heading to Barrack 13 to collect avalanche gear. The path up to Sarkofagen starts heading out the back of barrack 13 and we headed along a trial that a group of skiers had left early that morning, though we later found out why skis are slightly more practical, as they glide along the top of the snow while our feet plunge a foot down into it. The path up was incredibly steep in places and as my back had still not fully recovered from its re-injury whilst skiing last week I could only take it very slowly. Who would have though a back injury would restrict the movement of your legs!

As we neared the top of each ridge the wind picked up significantly and by the time we reached the top of the glacier it was a consistent snowy breeze. It did not feel that cold as we were walking up, however, this was mostly due to the physical exhortation and when the terrain flattened out the temperature drop was felt. We only had one more hill to climb before we reached the ridge of Sarkofagen by following the rocks as closely as possible you can avoid the knee deep snow. This, however, is not guaranteed. At this point Frances and Hannah were way out in front leaving Stu, Andrew and I trudging along as I attempted to make my spine cooperate with my legs. It did not!
When we got to the top of the ridge the wind had picked up significantly leaving my nose almost white in the chill. It is at this point, or before this point preferably, that you cover any exposed areas of skin to avoid the inevitable frost bite. This process is a silly one as it normally requires you to remove several other vitally important pieces of clothing to get the new one in place in the meantime leaving other vital areas exposed. After a relatively swift clothing rearrangement we carried along the ridge to the front and top of the mountain looking out on Longyearbyen in the valley below. After a brief stop and picture session we started the walk down as the light was quickly reducing.



The walk down, I feel, is although swift, a far more jarring and difficult one. We attempted to follow the tracks we had left in the snow for the most part however the wind being what it was and the snow being light most of them had disappeared in the short time since we left them. For most of the way down I got the privilege of Stu’s supporting arm as we both continuously fell through the snow. At points I had Stu on one side and Andrew on the other making it feel like a scene out of singing in the rain though not sure which of the boys was Gene Kelly and which was Donald O’Connor.
I managed to get some spectacular footage of Andrew acting like a seal and a generally hilarious and lovable idiot. We made it back pretty quickly and only on the way down did we realize exactly how steep some of the climbs we made were the last one requiring us to slide down on our butts.
All in all it was a good fun walk and it was really nice to go on a proper hike up a snow covered mountain without people insisting we should be wearing skis. The rest of the day has been spent allowing my back to recover, kinda, and watching lots of Lie To Me at Stu’s insistence. I will convert you all!