Polar bears and Sam's long hair.

So today was the last day of the sun above the horizon (for a minute....) and we're now into the twilight period before 24hr polar night. Sorry for lack of posts, we've all become a bit lethargic due to deadlines and mid-term exams!

 

On a social note, over the past few weeks we've been graced with the presence of a few SAMS people here in Svalbard. It was lovely to see Kim, Estelle, Laura, Finlo and Colin and catch up over a pint or two, or three....

Unfortunately, no one has any photographic evidence :( but it was really good to see people from civilization!

Last weekend there was an Icebreaker party and the theme was 'Hippies vs Hipsters'. It was really nice as Vanessa (H3) was here and it ended up being a really good night with party games and cocktails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam decided his hair was a little out of control so I put my non existent hairdressing skills to the test. I didn't make a bad job!

 

 

Last week Longyearbyen got a little excited/apprehensive when a polar bear strolled into town. It was chased out of town but kept coming back so eventually it was anaethetised and lifted by helicopter to the other side of the island. The poor thing must have felt like the definition of a bear with a sore head.

 

This week, the Arctic Technology class (Lucy and I) had a field trip into Adventdalen for some snow pack analysis (a lot more interesting than it sounds, I assure you) Unfortunately, we've had a warm spell this week and most of the snow had melted so we didn't get amazing results, however we got to go in the duck again (the big blue thing) and wear really attractive snow suits.

 

 As you can see, Lucy and I are still talking (just)

So as all the snow has melted it really is like being in Scotland, its wet and windy but its set to get cold again by the end of the week.

Hope all is well in Oban!

From the Svalbard gang.

Longyearbyen to Coals Bay

Longyearbyen to Coals Bay

So as it is now crunch time with mid semester tests and reports coming out of our ears there is not much to report, but those of us in Arctic technology where lucky enough to have a long weekend and so decided to use our 3 days by hiking out to Coals bay, highlighted in red on the map above. The map show’s where we are Longyearbyen we took a car out to the Bjodalen and walked the 20 odd km to the cabin. This cabin is situated on an old Russian minors track in between Graymont and coals bay. It also happens to be one of the best maintained cabins I have stayed in with the furthest North museum attached to it. We spent the rest of the weekend walk into and around the bay exploring the abandoned village before making our way back on the Sunday arriving back to a very snow covered Lonyearbyen with water proofs that had long given up being water proof. Below are a few pictures:

Cruising on the Barents Sea

Hey folks, Sam here! It seems I drew the short straw against Felix and I have to write about all the boring academic things we’ve been doing recently. Things have been pretty quiet recently so I’ll try my best.

Only joking, we’ve been having an amazing time! From the 15^th- 21^st of September we took part on the AG-211 Marine Geology cruise - were we circumnavigated Svalbard aboard the Helmer Hanssen. It was a crazy week – I’ll let Felix tell you about all the exciting things that happened when we weren’t doing fieldwork.

The Gravity Corer on deck

As we covered a lot of ground (or sea) aboard the cruise the majority of time was spent between sample locations. Aside from 2 hour instrument watches in the night we both slept pretty well.  Over the week we took a number of gravity sediment cores, multi cores and completed several multibeam surveys over areas of interest. The majority of the remaining time was spent attending lectures or in four separate groups carrying out various lab work techniques to examine each core. My group managed to talk for an hour about a 3m core of mud - which was surprisingly pretty interesting. I can’t say I enjoyed staring at foraminifera through a microscope in heavy seas though! Only just managed to avoid looking like a panda for the rest of the week! 

Felix on Instrument Watch

Luckily 9.15am lectures were postponed the following day until 1.15am – which for many was still a struggle to attend. The next week was spent at lectures given by Prof. Julian Dowdeswell from Scott Polar Research Institute with follow up lab work in the afternoons. Everyone felt slightly land sick at the start of the week (or that was our excuse after the heavy night!). The weather over the weekend was glorious resulting in two great hikes for me. However, today (29th of September), the snow has set in and It feels winter really has arrived. Time to get the ski’s out  I think!

Cheers, Sam.

We had been told that there would be a lot of free time on the cruise and the best advice probably was to bring a book. Unfortunately, one wasn’t enough: within the first five days I had gone through a seven hundred pages and was left with playing cards and looking out for wildlife for the rest of the time. Sam and I spent much time on the foredeck and the bridge, marveling at extraordinary views and sighted a few fin whales, who seemed to enjoy cruising with Helmer Hanssen despite the constant, mind-numbing noise the acoustic devices of the research vessel produced.

On a short detour to Moffen, a small island about 20 miles north of Spitsbergen, we had our first encounter with walruses. Unfortunately, the draft of the boat prevented us from going very close, and thus we didn’t get any great photos. However, thanks to the Arctic Biology Students’ fish trawls during the previous week, the boat emitted a rank smell, attracting many birds that hovered above the deck at an arm’s distance literally begging to be photographed.

The last evening of the cruise, we transformed the lecture room into a movie theatre and watched ‘Shackleton’, filling us with pride on how far British polar research has come since the first attempts during the ‘Heroic Age of British Antarctic Exploration’. And as soon as we were back on land, we found our way into the pub and celebrated the end of our cruise with pizza, beer and whiskey – the  Norwegians’ favorite import from Scotland. The land sickness/hangover (as Sam mentioned) accompanied us for a few days, before we got used to steady ground underneath our feet again. As the night gets far longer than the day now, we have started looking out for northern lights and hope to be reporting of a first sighting of the aurora borealis soon.
-Felix