At last, today (27/02/08) we got to see the sun. We went out for an excursion to look at an incredibly large glacier called Drømbreem, go up it and down another glacier on the other side of the hill and up a valley before returning back to Longyearbyen.
This looked like a hell of a long trip and we found out we were going to be doing it with a bandwagon (a huge tracked vehicle with four seats in the front pulling a tin can on tracks behind it) and three scooters pulling sleds.
This is definitely not the most comfortable way of travelling. Sitting doing nothing on the sleds with no suspension is very bumpy and cold, while in the bandwagon you can see very little but at least it is warm.
I started the trip in the bandwagon as everyone seemed pretty keen to ride in the sledges. I didn't think this would last so I had taken a lot of clothes with me for when I was on the sledge.
We got to the bottom of Drømbreen and stopped to have a chat about what we could see. It was pretty eye-opening for me. Any other time I spent in this kind of environment the only questions I had asked were “can I ski down it?” and “how am I going to get up it?”
Now looking around at all these massive features and finding out about how they were formed gave me a new way of looking at the environment.
At another place when we stopped we could get a real idea of how much these things are accelerating up the valley. Standing next to where the glacier was 100 years ago and looking at where its extent is now is pretty scary.
Anyway, the biggest excitement of the day was at the top of Drømbreen. I was back in the bandwagon (I spent a lot of time in the bandwagon this day, so much some people suggested I could be its mascot)with some people who had been in Svalbard from the beginning of January.
They hadn't seen the sun since then and when were coming to the top of the climb and could see the sky getting brighter and brighter they were getting more and more excited.
By the time we cleared the top and the bandwagon came to a stop, the sun was high in the sky and they couldn't wait to get out. It was like being transported back to Paganism with some serious sun worship going on by those who hadn't seen it for so long. Even for us, it had been about two weeks since we had seen the sun properly and it was good to see it at last.
It will still be 11 days before we regularly see the sun without having to climb to the top of a hill around here.
So close and yet so far...
Another day (24/02/08) and another little tour up another nearby glacier called Lasbreen. This has two peaks, Lars Hiertafjellet and Trollsteinen, which are around 860m high. There is another hope for this trip, which for anywhere would seem a bit weird: there is a chance we might actually see the sun.
We have only been here about two weeks and it is getting brighter every day, but the sun still will not make it above the horizon until about 8th March, because of all the mountains around here. To be able to get high enough to see the sun is actually really exciting. Two weeks is not time at all, but still after two weeks of nothing more than twilight, it would be fantastic to get up and see the sun.
The other great thing about Larsbreen is that there are no snow scooters. It is quite a lot steeper than the other places we have been, which probably makes it a bit riskier for avalanches (only a little bit) but means the scooters have more trouble getting up and so people don't really bother so much. This is fantastic when you are skiing.
Scooters are great fun when you are on them and necessary for any larger expedition, but when they come past you and you are on skis they are smelly, intimidating, noisy things.
To be able to get most of the way up a glacier and stop and just listen to the silence is one of the reasons you come out here. Living in cities, it is hard to appreciate just what silence is like with all the noise around, but half-way up a reasonable peak, knowing you are one of only a few people for a long way, the silence is incredible.
Anyway, we went straight up Lars Hiertafjellet, which is nearly 900m straight up to see if we could catch the sun. It was a little bit overcast so we weren't too sure if we would actually see anything.
When we got up, we were just out of luck, and could see the bottom of the sun just peeking from the clouds. By the time we had eaten lunch and had some tea, it was still hidden by clouds. All this way and still no sun.
We decided to travel across the ridge and head to the other peak, which was Trollsteinen. The walk around the ridge was pretty uneventful and we lost sight of the sun completely. When we were approaching the peak, which has an amazing rock feature balanced on top, we came face to face with a reindeer.
I have no idea what it was doing up there. There is nothing but a huge rock covered in ice and some skiers! It was pretty bold and didn't make a move until we were about five meters away, when it wandered down what to my eyes was an almost sheer cliff face. They are incredible things.
We made our way around the giant rock feature at the top (it is a bit out of place, just a huge boulder sat on top of a narrow ridge) and put out skis back on for the way down from the ridge on the other side.
The way down was an amazing, if short, powder field. We made it down in about half an hour after what had been about half a day's worth of climbing.
Dean Wood, 29, is a Masters student in Computer Modelling in the School of Engineering at Swansea University. 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.