The week of the almighty _ _ _ _ _ _!

Hey guys, Vanessa here!

We have just come back from a wee trip to Barentsburg with the AB-203 course.

Last week was rather adventurous. We saw a walrus, had field work and spent a weekend in a beautiful cabin. So let’s get started!

First up is the walrus…

What can I say? It was beautiful, massive, extraordinary, amazing, cute, and it only had one tusk. Move over narwhals, walruses are the new unicorns of the sea. 

Anyway, around 22.30 there was a knock on my door and Sam & Trude came in to tell me that there was a walrus near the airport. Did I have to think about wanting to see it? Hell no! I urged Trude to get ready and Felix came back just in time to hear the exciting news. 

So around 23.00 we were on our scooters and on our way to this beautiful and massive creature. We parked the scooters several hundreds of meters away from it and Trude & I tried to run as fast as we could across a very ice 'field'. As we got closer the excitement was building up and we just wanted to see it! And then we spotted a huge blob in the distance surrounded by people. The walrus! The setting was just perfect.

The sun had set earlier on creating a beautiful arrangement of colours in the sky with the mountains as a dark contrast; the walrus was lying on the beach having a nap.

It did not seem bothered at all by all the people excitingly taking photos and posing with it. We were only about 1m away from it! It scratched itself, stretched and went back to sleep. We returned to the barrack around 00.30 and went straight to bed to get up bright and early for our field work that day…

Beautiful, beautiful walrus + sky

Am I not cute?

Chilling in the Arctic

Second up is Van Mijenfjorden…

On the 8^th of April, half of our AB-202 class went out to conduct field work on sea ice. 

This field work is not actually part of the course, but was arranged as an 'add-on'. 

We met early in UNIS to finish packing the sledges and to get the scooters ready. It was a sunny day and pretty warm for our standards. 

We took a break after driving more than half way to have lunch surrounded by reindeers.

As we set of again and arrived near the fjord, two other scooters stopped by and told us about a polar bear mother and her two cubs that had been sighted in the area. 

This obviously excited all of us and we were eagerly looking left and right to see whether we could spot three moving objects in the distance. We did not. The only thing we saw were blobs on the ice, which were ringed seals. 

As we arrived at the point in the fjord where we wanted to be, the rifles were half-loaded and two people kept polar bear watch as the others started sampling (it is funny in a way how normal it becomes that rifles are just there). Ice cores were extracted and a hole in the ice was made to do a CTD cast and zooplankton sampling with a net (20 to 0m & 80/70 to 20m).

We took ice cores for temperature, salinity, Chl a and meiofauna. An ice corer was used to extract the cores and they were cut up and stored in bags with filtered sea water for analysis later on. Some ice cores, such as the one for temperature, were discarded and were used instead for a sculpture (the ice henge). It was so sunny and ‘warm’ that all of us were just running around with sunglasses and scooter suits down.

The field work took until about 19.00 and we were back at UNIS around 21.00 exhausted, hungry but very happy. The following days we spent in the lab going through all ice cores and zooplankton samples. So many copepods...

Sampling location

Unfortunately not our lunch

Let's have a break and enjoy the sun

            Part of Van Mijen bathed in sunlight                    

Joakim with the ice corer

Making a hole in the ice is not easy work (girl power!)

The all-mighty ice henge

Polar bear tracks! Exciting!

That's it from me guys. I am signing off and leaving it to Felix to write about the cabin trip to Kapp Linné. Hope this will keep you entertained until then.

Barentsburg Away Round 2

Hey, Sam here. 
Over the past 3 weeks the weather has been fantastic up here! I've almost been out skiing every day hence why you haven't heard from me for a while. Anyway, around 2 weeks ago it was Longyearbyen's turn to go play sport in Barentsburg in the second leg of the competition. Mathias (my partner in crime up here) and I left a day early on some scooters to hunt down a cabin and do some skiing before the competition. We left around 10am and drove towards Barentsburg for around two hours. After locating the well hidden cabin at the foot of Tungebreen in Grondalen we dumped our gear. It was a great little cabin and was stocked with food, wood and coal. Soon we were off uphill on the skis traversing and icy ridge with large drops on either side. We ski'd down and explored the other side of the valley. Conditions weren't ideal so we had an early dinner and spent the evening in the cosy cabin. 

Woke up to bluebird conditions so toured up a nearby mountain. The view from the top was incredible, but contrast quickly dropped and the light was really flat. Mathias ski'd down the face of the mountain, dropping 600m in about a minute. I took the easier route but the restricted visibility and hard packed snow made it so hard. Bailed off by traversing over a big gully which was a little scary. Having seen several groups on their way to Barentsburg from the mountain we packed up and caught up with the party. Driving into to Barentsburg was amazing through all the abandoned buildings and mining equipment. Once in the famous sports centre I was on court for basketball almost immediately - which we won by a mile.  Straight after I was crushed in table tennis then ran upstairs for football. Came on and scored a goal then subbed myself off as I was super tired! Volleyball was last on the agenda which we won in the last set with four smaller than net height girls who played amazingly! So, thats it all over - a clear victory for Longyearbyen!

Me getting  a lesson in table tennis

The basketball team  on route to victory

Volleyball team victory

Everyone hurrying to get ready as the Atlantic storms picks up

Unfortunately we were all unable to stay like last time as a big storm was hitting and would likely trap us in Barentsburg for the next 3 days if we didn't get going. We set off in two teams of 15-20 scooters and headed for Longyearbyen in the whiteout and strong winds. It was pretty crazy driving - luckily we had an experienced guide leading the way. On the last steep section my little scooter looked and sounded like it wasn't going to make it. However to my joy it found some extra gas and climbed up the last section to Longyearbreen above the town. After a few stops, refuels and mishaps everyone was home and having a few victory beers. As it happened there was a large party in UNIS that evening which most of us joined and had a great time!