More adventures... and some studying!

Hello again, Jamie here this time.

The semester is fairly rocketing along now and the last few weeks have been very busy, with lots of lectures during the week and private trips out over the weekends. The geophysics courses I am doing are structured so that almost all the lectures are past and we are moving our attentions over to fieldwork and then report writing now that the weather and daylight is more suitable for being outside. We were out twice over the last couple of weeks digging snow pits to look at the structure of the snowpack and we were due to go out on scooters again on Monday to look at the calving front of a glacier a few hours from Longyearbyen but the trip had to be cancelled because of a lack of sea ice in the fjord that we would have to drive along combined with the fact that snow scooters sink. We are planning to be out every day from this Monday until the following Sunday completing the major part of our fieldwork for AGF-212 Snow and Ice Processes that we will write our reports for this course on.

AGF-212 class digging snow pits

The weather generally has been very mild (for the arctic) with February this year being on average 10 degrees celsius warmer than the long term average for the month. We also experienced rain on the way home from field work last week which was a good reminder of what it would be like to be back in Oban during winter!

In my own time I've been exploring further afield than was possible last semester by using my snowscooter to drive out with friends to places to hike or explore. A group of us (including me and Matt) spent a night in a cabin at Kapp Schoultz, which seemed appropriate since one of the classrooms we spend a lot of time in at UNIS is named after it. Getting to the cabin was more difficult than in previous years due to the lack of sea ice on the fjord, although this did mean that some of us could go swimming - very refreshing as there were pieces of ice from the glacier drifting past! For the sake of decency I've spared you all the photos of that...

My scooter with a sledge full of stuff on our way to the cabin

The view on a hike from the cabin on the Sunday morning before heading for home

A couple of weeks ago a group of us drove out and climbed Skolten, one of the highest hills in Nordenskioldland to see the sun for the first time.

On our way up Skolten

At the top, enjoying the sun!

Getting ready to set off back, photo credit Maiken Rian

The views were fantastic and it was amazing to see the sun back after such a long time. For almost everyone in the group it was also the first time they had seen the sun on Svalbard, so a very special moment for them. I meanwhile celebrated by singing "here comes the sun...." to myself as I reached a high enough altitude for it to crest the horizon. Luckily for all concerned I was a distance from anyone else at the time! That evening was the icebreaker party at UNIS (although the ice is already well and truly broken amongst most of the bachelors students there are a lot of new masters students) and despite spending much of the party just speaking to friends next to the fire in the cantina by the time I got back to my room at about 3 am I was quite tired. Nevertheless we were up not too late the next morning to make the most of the last day that we could drive to the far larger ice cave out on Scott Turnersbreen (a glacier about 25km from town) before the area it is in was closed off to snow scooters. Me and my crew were the only scooter ready on time however so a slightly delayed departure ensued.

Inside the Scott Turnersbreen ice cave

Last weekend a couple of friends and I managed to at the last minute (the evening before) join a group including Holger going camping in Foxdalen. Camping in Svalbard is not as simple as in other places as firstly you have to keep a polar bear watch at all times and secondly because camping on snow above permafrost means that you cannot use normal pegs - special snow pegs are required - the best method by far however is to park a sledge or snow scooter next to the tent and tie the guy lines to it. Another method is to bury objects such as jerry cans of fuel or other heavy things and again tie the guys lines to them, although in retrospect this is best done before burying the object!

Camp all set up

The following morning we were up early and packed away the camp. Holger and I used the scooters to deliver as much of the stuff as we could back to the road where the hikers were getting a taxi and, leaving our passengers from the journey there to walk with the hikers back, we went and joined other friends for a day trip to the east coast of Spitzbergen. This is quite a long day as it is about a 180km round trip. It was also quite and eventful trip: right from the start I got a phone call saying that the others would be late to our agreed meeting point as one of the other scooters had shredded its variator belt which had to be changed for the spare (that everyone must carry as this is not an uncommon problem but results in the scooter's engine not being connected to the gearbox and track). We headed back to where they were and I took the sledge that the temporarily disabled scooter had been towing to give it an easier time as it was now running on the spare belt.

We continued on eastwards through fantastic scenery and lovely weather, stopping for breaks occasionally to take photos, have a snack and discover you can drive a scooter surprisingly well with your feet if you sit on the passenger seat; sadly we were to busy to take photos of the latter endeavor!

All was going smoothly until about three quarters of the way there when the scooter in front of me stopped pretty suddenly half way up a steep slope. Some investigation pointed towards the gearbox failing as the engine was running fine but the scooter was going nowhere. We left the scooter at the side of the track and moved the people from it to the spare seats on other scooters that you always have on long trips. As it was still early in the day and the conditions were so good we decided to continue on the last few kilometres to the east coast proper and we were very glad we did. The views were amazing and from a small promontory we could see out onto the sea ice where there were two polar bears walking across!

Polar Bears!

If you are going to break down there are far worse views to have

It had taken 7 months to see them but it was definitely worth it, even if they were a very long way away. At a distance is probably the best way to see polar bears for all concerned however!

We headed back towards Longyearbyen to the stricken scooter and set up a tow, sadly after a very short distance the track seized up and so towing was impossible and it had to be left out on the glacier for the night. Three of us returned the following day with a special plastic sledge from UNIS to fit under the track and two of us shared the towing home.

Getting ready to tow the disabled scooter the next day

This meant there was a certain irony when on the next trip (a day trip to see the sea ice by Svea on Wednesday) my scooters gearbox failed rather dramatically and it had to be left behind on another glacier far from town. At least we have some practice towing now!

That's all for now, but there will doubtless be many more stories to tell in the very near future, hopefully including the phoenix-like reincarnation of my scooter.