Back to the north...

Hi all,

Jamie here again. I'm back this semester studying Air-Ice-Sea Interaction and Snow and Ice Processes in the Arctic Geophysics department. Holger and Matt are also here studying Arctic Biology, I'm sure you'll hear plenty more from them on that soon; it's a little different from last semester when all the SAMS students were in one class, but it should make for less arranging  to avoid repeating ourselves on blog posts.

I was supposed to arrive in Longyearbyen on Friday 8th January but due to Aberdeen Airport flooding and gaining an unfortunate hole in the runway on the Thursday night as I was waiting for my flight I didn't get here until Sunday 10th. I did get a free night in a hotel in Aberdeen then 2 in Oslo, meals and all though, so I definitely landed on my feet! It did however make Sunday evening pretty busy, getting my stuff out of the student storage container next to UNIS and up to my new room in Barrack 11 before the safety course starting on the Monday.

I can't really go further with this post though without mentioning the events that hit Longyearbyen in my absence: a storm hit the town on the night of the 18th of December, causing some damage to several buildings and ripping the roof off Barrack 10 that we had thankfully moved out of a week or two earlier, and which is now set to be demolished. This was followed on the morning of the 19th by a large avalanche from the slopes of Sukkertoppen into a row of houses on the eastern slope of the town. Incredibly sadly two people lost their lives. A huge debit of gratitude is also owed to the many people in Longyearbyen who worked tirelessly to rescue as many people as they could and it is thanks to these efforts that many people survived. The Norwegians have a word "Dugnad" which is the community working side by side and it seems the most fitting description of the way the community pulled together in the face of this tragedy.

Barrack 10

Back to nicer topics however! The week began with the official opening of the semester in Moysalen the largest lecture room in UNIS with all the students currently in Longyearbyen and included a welcome from the Governor of Svalbard and the heads of the UNIS departments. After the introductions were completed there were several lectures starting off the safety course covering topics from the local environmental rules to appropriate clothing to wear on fieldwork. We were also split into groups and much to my surprise as a student who was here last semester I was given the role of "group leader", meaning I was supposed to keep other students informed and happy for the week!

The practical activities proper started quite early on Tuesday morning, especially for anyone who wasn't ready for the dark. In our groups we rotated around, with two activities each day for the rest of the week. The safety course did include some sessions that were nearly or exactly the same as in the previous semester such as the rifle and flare gun handling lesson and shooting test or the first aid session, but also included lots of entirely new to me sessions including glacier and avalanche rescue, the use of search beacons, sea ice safety, and basic navigation. On Saturday there was a large practical exercise to practice all the skills taught during the week that culminated in a short exam back at UNIS. To compensate for the exam we were then fed and had the first "Friday Gathering" of the semester, although misleadingly taking place on a Saturday.

There wasn't much opportunity to take pictures during the safety course but there are a couple below and UNIS have some nice ones on their fancy new website here.

First Aid - Practicing treating wounds on pieces of pork and lots
of red food colouring, I think it might be a bit late to save...

Rifle Handling

Courses proper started the following Monday, I'll not go into detail on them this time but suffice to say we've have been pretty busy so far. The sky above Longyearbyen is starting to illuminate slightly in the middle of the day and so we're able to see where we are living and explore the area around Longyearbyen, some for the first time! We have also had a snow scooter driving course, which involved an introduction to scooter maintenance and sled loading - all very basic common sense stuff like balancing the sled, how to use a ratchet strap and how to change the variator belt on the scooter - followed by driving the scooters out into Todalen about an hour's drive away to practice some more advanced driving on steep slopes, tight turns and digging out a stuck scooter. I got a bit stuck (twice!) trying to tow a loaded sled up a particularly steep slope at the same speed as without it. After taking of the sled though it felt very nippy and I even managed to get off the ground for a moment at the top of a wee ramp. Although you need a driving licence to use a scooter here it is more like driving a boat in that you have to balance and cornering is less exact than a car. Great fun and now I'm itching to get out on trips with scooters which will let us cover far more distance than hiking and see more of Svalbard.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from our first private trip out (back up to the old mine above the town) and the light returning.

Scooter Training - Lunch Stop

Travelling, arriving and settling in...

Hello, this is Matt writing our first blog post of 2016 from the Arctic Circle!

My flight here was incredible. From Oslo Airport we burst almost immediately through the clouds into clear skies and a stunning cloudscape. At first the tops of hills formed islands above the clouds and then the clouds faded to reveal snow-covered hills, lakes and then the fjordic coastline. The mountains got bigger and bigger as we headed north and the sun began to set even though it was still morning! It was a beautiful way to say goodbye to the sun.

In the Arctic, the sun sets in early winter and doesn’t rise above the horizon until early spring. That means it’s dark 24 hours a day until mid-February. It’s also cold. At the moment it’s about minus 10°C and with a bit of a breeze, but the weather’s going to get colder and colder and we can expect high winds and temperatures below minus 20°C in the coming weeks.

Term starts tomorrow with the Safety Course where we will learn how to stay alive here in these Polar conditions. This includes clothing and equipment, boat safety and rifle training to protect ourselves if a polar bear attacks us. Until we’ve done the course, we can’t leave Longyearbyen – the town where we’ll be living and studying at UNIS for the next 5 months. We’ve been watching videos of snowboarding, skiing and scuba diving on Svalbard and we can’t wait to go exploring. We'll tell you all about the Safety Course in the next post.

                                                       

Even walking to the supermarket is an adventure here. It’s 3 km down the hill from the Barracks where we live and it’s freezing cold when you step outside. I already had hiking gear and my old snowboarding gear and after reading forums by Canadian ice fishermen, American winter hunters and Extreme Cold Weather armed forces servicemen I bought lots of second hand stuff on Ebay and some Army Surplus gear. Here’s a photo of my Mum pimping up a fashion hat made for the UK climate. She’s sewing in Velcro patches so I could attach a fur liner we custom-made. I built my own winter boots too. Follow this blog for a gear-review later this semester. For now I’m just crossing my fingers!

There’s an extra module running later this semester on the Northern Lights, so we’ll do a post on them when we know what we’re talking about, but for a taste of what’s to come here are a few photos we took last night just outside the Barracks…