Dean Wood
19 February 2008
So, we have made the first week in one piece. It has been an incredible week, I've shot a rifle (something I thought I would never do), ridden snowmobiles and been skiing pretty much every day.
The weekend brought a little reminder of what the weather was capable of. A little trip was planned up a nearby glacier, Longyearbreen, for the weekend but the weather forecast was not good. Still, we got rifles from the store, checked avalanche beacons and shovels and got ready for a little tour. Cue one of the worst storms I have ever seen. What appears to be fog, is actually from falling snow and the wind whipping up the lying snow.
The weather cleared for Sunday though, and we got out for a ski. We started up the flatter of the two glaciers close by as the avalanche risk was pretty high, and headed up a peak known as Sarkophagan. It was good to get out and the scenery was fantastic. We skied out following a skidoo track but soon left it behind to cut to the top. It wasn't a huge hill to climb and it took just over two hours to make the top. That was still pretty much all the light we had in the day and when we made the top, it was getting darker and the weather was moving back in.
There was another little reminder of the extreme conditions we were in on the peak. It was a bit cold after the climb and after some tea and cookies to refuel, I thought I would put on an extra layer for the descent. You don't have to do so much on the way down, just let gravity do the work.
The extra layer wasn't so easy to get on when I found out I couldn't actually get my windproof jacket off. I had no idea what was going on until - with some help - I peeled off to find it was so cold that it had frozen to the layer underneath. It felt like it was held on with glue. I didn't think it would ever be so cold that your clothes would freeze to each other, but luckily my inner layers were doing their job and it wasn't a big problem.
The short arctic day was long finished by the time we made our way back in the near dark to the hut. It has been a fantastic trip so far and days like this are the reason I am very lucky to be here. The real work starts now though, with lectures and proper working trips. The next big trip is to dig some snow pits and look at a snow cave at a glacier a few hours' snow scooter ride away, so there will be less time for trips for fun like this.
Dean Wood, 29, is a Masters student in Computer Modelling in the School of Engineering at Swansea. Having previously studied theoretical physics and gained some experience computer modelling, he is working as part of a multidisciplinary project to model the effect tides have on the dynamics of Antarctic ice streams. Having no previous glaciological experience, the Svalbard trip is a very important part of the project for Dean, and will supply the necessary knowledge to complete a useful model.