Looking South for Northern Lights

Hello, this is Felix with another update on our Arctic adventures.
The polar night is getting to us, messing up our sleep pattern and confusing us every morning we wake up. However, what else could be better to keep us from going outdoors and force us to study (probably not even Scottish rain)?
The only natural source of light that now brightens the sky occasionally is the collision of solar winds and magnetospheric particles in the upper atmosphere – Northern Lights. Despite its name, the aurora borealis are only visible looking south, where the sun's energetic particles hit the atmosphere.

The Austrian 19th century polar explorer Julius von Payer described this phenomenon much better than I could: 'No pencil can draw it, no colours can paint it, no words can describe it'.

So, I'll waste no more words and leave you to the photos...

Longyearbyen vs Barentsburg: Rounds 1 and 2.

Hello, Sam here. 

It’s been a while since I've written a blog entry, apologies! It’s been pretty busy in the Arctic Geology department. I’m here to tell you about my role in the Longyearbyen basketball, football and volleyball teams and our recent matches against the nearby Russian town, Barentsburg, Every semester 5/6 teams in a variety of sports from Longyearbyen  play against  Barentsburg home and away. Generally the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed, however a strong rivalry still exists between the teams of each town and the games can be pretty exciting.

Barentsburg  - Away
We left around 8am in the morning on Sysselmannen’s (The Governor of Svalbard) brand new boat. Upon arrival we were ushered up to the sports centre and straight on to the volleyball court. The team played well and it ended up being a very close match were only two points separated the winners, Longyearbyen, from Barentsburg.  Whilst Longyearbyen played indoor hockey a few of us wandered around Barentsburg. It was really interesting to see the architecture and old communist posters. The town had a nice character and atmosphere. It was then time for Basketball were Longyearbyen won again by a large margin. It was then made a clean sweep with a victory in football. Everyone then headed up to the canteen where everyone was served some tasty Russian food. This was of course accompanied by some Russian vodka, passed to us in rather large glasses whilst being told “Russian tradition”. This tradition was repeated numerous times, with the measurements getting less precise each time. Before long we were exchanging laughs and songs and communicating via a mixture of grunts and cherades – It was a great laugh. Our time to leave came to quickly and we said our goodbyes to the Russian miners. The party continued on the boat back to Longyearbyen and we were back by 11pm.

Longyearbyen volleyball team  after winning a point

Friendly smiles after the meal in Barentsburg

Longyearbyen - Home
The games kicked off at 12.45pm with volleyball and table tennis being played first. Longyearbyen were given a clean sweep from Barentsburg in table tennis whereas we won 3 sets to 1 in volleyball, playing strong both in attack and defence throughout the game. Football ended up with a 2-2 draw with Longyearbyen conceding 2 late goals in the final minutes. The basketball game was as rough as ever. I was marked out of the game in the first two quarters along with a few elbows in the back of my head. In the end we lost by 9 points. Everyone in the team managed to get some good game time so everybody seemed happy with the result. The final result was an overall win by Barentsburg. After the tournament all the teams went for pizza and beer at the local restaurant Kroa. After eating a fair amount of pizza I made a quick exit, declining various offers of vodka, martini and whisky from the Russians. Although I had to leave the party early, with hindsight I'm pretty glad I left! Until next semester Barentsburg, the score stands at 1-1!

A rare unblocked attack from Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen basketball team on the attack

Ice caves and company

Ice caves and company

Since the arrival of the polar night head torches have become a permanent feature in our activity. With the recently cold weather we decided to make the most of it and head where we knew it would be warm. The Ice caves of Larsbreen. Using the last of the twilight hours we found the entrance to the the cave and set up a  a belay rope to rappel down.

(the view from the bottom looking at the entrance)

(walking along in the cave watching the torches catching light on and through the ice)

Once in the caves we where all in ore  of the structure and pattern created in the ice highlighted by our head torches. In particular the matter suspended with in the ices, stopped mid movement was amazing.

(Felix looking back through an opening between two tunnells) 

(Sam taking in the cave)

There were so many different parts to the cave. The photo above of Sam was taken in a part filled with hoarfrost, making beautiful, almost cobweb-like structure on the ceiling and wall. Of course it was the perfect setting in one of the larger caves to have our tea by candle light.

(our tea party in an ice cave)

Also there are a two SAMS Phd students who have joined us out here for the rest of our term, as I am sure many of you know this is Neil Fraser and Lewis Drysdale. So we headed for a walk and climbed up Sarkofagen despite the white out evident in the photo below.

Lewis, Neil, me (Lucy), Isabella (fellow UNIS student) and Felix