Hello! Joint effort from Old el Conzo and Sam today. We're here to write about a number of things we've been doing over the past few weeks. Here's Connor to tell you about our fairly recent snow mobile practical training and a few other things.
Hello all you folk back at home, hope everything is well back down at beautiful SAMS ! Anyway, about 2 weeks ago we all had some practical training with the UNIS snowmobile's. We started our day pretty early at about 8am (which hurts my soul so much!) and kicked things off with a briefing in the logistics department which just involved some theory, going over the different parts of the vehicle and doing some practical exercises such as how do some minor repairs and loading gear onto the sledges. A particularly important point which was stressed to us, was the need to actively shift your body weight to the required side when turning corners, otherwise you run the risk of flipping the snowmobile over! Due to our group having so few people that had driver's licenses (myself included), the instructors decided that it would be easier to take all of us out at the same time during the afternoon. After lunch we made our way to logistics and got dressed in the appropriate attire: snowmobile suit, gloves, boots, balaclava, helmet and avalanche beacon. As we made our way outside, all of the Arctic CAT snowmobiles were lined up in two rows (some having the sledges which we had previously packed attached to the rear end). Shortly after all those without licenses had to find a driver willing to take a passenger, and luckily enough for me a girl in my class called Torunn was nice enough to drive with me even though she had never taken a passenger beforehand. When all of the engines started roaring I felt a jolt of excitement rush through my body which reminded me a lot of when I was a toddler in the back of my dads car, constantly nagging him to go faster down the motorway of all places (I've always been a bit of a speed demon haha!) As we got the signal from the instructor, a sudden burst of energy from the snowmobile was given off which signified the start of an amazing day out. The first part of the journey occurred on a fairly straight road just leaving Longyearbyen, so the pace was fairly steady and we got by with only a few minor hitches. One by one in single file we crossed over a road and made our way to a mutual destination, at which point we all stopped and formed two lines again. The instructors then addressed each person individually and suggested some ways in which our technique could be improved. For myself and Torunn he said that we should lean further out when turning and make our hand gestures a bit more clear - we had forgotten to raise our hand to let student behind us know that we were about to cross over the road ! Once the briefing was finished, all of the passenger had to rotate around the drivers so everyone could experience the difference in driving when passengers are present or not present. My next driver, Joakim (who I share a kitchen with) and I shared a particularly adrenaline inducing experience ! As we headed out to our next destination we had to navigate our way through what I would describe as a snowmobile circuit, which had a lot of different turns of varying intensity. As I mentioned before it is really crucial that you shift your body when you turn in order to keep balance and maintain stability - now here's the crazy part. Apparently at one particular turn, we didn't quite distribute our weight evenly enough, so this resulted in us hitting what I though was a rough patch of ice in the track that caused me to be physically lifted into the air momentarily - but lucky enough I kept a hold of the handles so nothing disastrous happened! Almost immediately afterwards, Joakim turned round sounding a bit panicked and asked if I was okay and of course me being totally oblivious I just responded a slightly confused yes. What actually happened at that moment in time, was that our snowmobile actually lifted itself onto one ski and we were apparently travelling a small distance elevated in the air - talk about excitement! After we came to a stop we had another short briefing about what to do when travelling up slopes and the do's and dont's associated with it. Once again we switched drivers for the ride home and luckily I was offered a ride by another girl on my course called Linn who I also share a barrack with. Our journey went rather smoothly compared to the last one and in my opinion we were pretty much in sync for all the turns on the next circuit which was a relief! However, we did encounter an issue which of course would have to happen because my luck is about as good as breaking a stack of mirrors under a ladder! Ironically the issue that we had was that the snowmobile tracks had become very hot as the previous riders had not been kicking snow into them to cool them off which resulted in a lot of smoke being generated. I can't quite believe that an engine fire almost started in somewhere as cold as up here - what are the chances ? In the end everything turned out to be ok after a quick check from one of the instructors and a lot of snow being kicked onto the snowmobile tracks.
Other than our training, its been quite a busy few weeks. Since we last posted, I've now turned the ripe old age of 20 ! To celebrate my birthday we went out for a very nice breakfast in the town at a place called Svalbar and then had a bit of a get together in my kitchen during the evening and partied into the small hours. I was very lucky enough to get a batch of brownies made for me by one of the girl's in the upstairs kitchen called Anka (they were so tasty!) See the picture below that shows what we all looked like when the night was still young!
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| Before the madness had taken us all over.... |
Another couple of exciting things that I should mention is that we have had some amazing lectures this week on marine mammals. Our lecturer, Kit Kovacs is a researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute and its incredible how much she knows in her field. Recently we had to complete group seminars on different marine mammal species in the Arctic. Myself and Felix worked together on harp and hooded seals, which in all honesty I wasn't looking forward to. Nevertheless, after some research the topic became quite interesting and the presentation went by relatively smoothly as well, so much so that we were both awarded with best presentation in the class and both got given a copy of Kit's book: 'Birds and Mammals of Svalbard' - both of us were quite pleased to say the least! On a final note, I was very lucky to catch a nice glimpse of the Northen Lights last night ! Joakim actually managed to get a picture of me with them, even though my face is out of focus and I look like some sort of demon! But hey its not everyday that you manage to get your photo taken with such a breathtaking natural phenomenon. See below for some of the amazing photos that Joakim managed to take (of course all picture credit goes to him!) Until next time, I'll leave you all with the wise words and exciting stories that Sam has to tell you - happy reading!
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| The Northern lights over Sarkofagen |
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| The Aurora borealis behind the barracks |
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| A very happy UNIS student with a slightly blurred face! |
Over the past two weeks all us of bar Connor have taken part in a general course at UNIS called the History of Svalbard. However I'll let Lucy tell you about that in a separate blog entry. The past few weeks have been miserable weather wise up here, rarely getting above -18°C - almost as cold as my bedroom in Oban in the winter! Just like the seawater in the fjord it feels like my fingers and toes are starting to freeze together for good. Fingers crossed they'll thaw out when Spring comes around. The wind doesn't help things either, making that 3km commute to UNIS feel like a North Pole expedition. Whilst I've been here I've built up a mountain bike from bits of old bikes lying around from previous students. With no gears and one patchy rear brake the 9am ice and snow cycle certainly wakes me up in the morning. No crashes so far this semester!
On Sunday the SAMS bams minus Lucy took a trip up to the ice caves. It was a great walk up on fairly hard packed snow and the group moved surprisingly quickly. After a while me managed to locate the entrance - now covered with around a cubic meter of snow. It was pretty cold so I was happy to get digging with my hands and feet. 20 minutes later we were all donning our crampons and headlights and heading down the snow chute into the darkness. Being down in the ice cave with the 'freshers' was entertaining - lots of "woooooooowa" noises and "take a photo of me here, and here!" A particular highlight for me was after Connor disappeared up a small chute. Shortly after a crampon slid down from the small, near vertical tunnel and came to a stop at our feet. Then around 20 seconds old Conzo comes flying down on his back, fairly casually I should add, sliding along and stopping at our feet in a heap. After this we swapped the crampons around and made for the exit. Once out we were on our way back down to the barracks around 2pm. Vanessa had a few comical falls on the way down and eventually resorted to sliding down on her backside. To top of the trip we found a short and steep hill to slide down. Connor and Vanessa joined forces and picked up some good speed. I'm sure it wont be the last time we visit the caves. In the coming weeks it looks like we'll be pretty busy. The sun is well and truly on its way back and may be visible this weekend from the top of a nearby mountain. Time to get the sun tan lotion out I think. Here's some photos from the trip to the cave. :)
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| Left to Right: Old Conzo, Vanessa, Felix and Joakim |
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| Connor and Vanessa above Nybyen |
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| Connor, Vanessa and Felix make their way down into the depths. |
