Deceased

The low quality blog is dead. Some of it lives on in Cottongrass. The rest was obsolete.

A cabin trip

Oh for fucks sake, it's almost a month since my last post. Not good, not good...
So in the spirit of being late, here's pics from a cabin trip I tagged along on some weeks ago.

Gorgeous weather, very little snow, one little ski trip where I skinned up and walked down... Evenings spent swing dancing and keeping the fires going. Ended up with +35 degrees celcius inside while the outside kept a snug -20 degrees.

Oh! And a stunning northern light popped up the second evening! Though by the time I scrambled in to get the camera, it had gone away. Doesn't matter, other trip participants managed to eternalize the moment.

The cabin: Vekvessætra....

....and the little toilet house

Stjernøy

So, I'm a geology student. I might have mentioned that before, mayhaps indirectly, here and here. And as a geology student you go on a lot of excursions and field trips. The following pics are from a visit to a mine in northern Norway a bit over a year ago. It lies on an island called Stjernøy outside Alta, and they take out a rock called nepheline syenite and make products for the glass, paint and ceramic industry. This is an open pit mine with the primary crusher situated inside the mountain.

Mines are cool. I like mines.

Do you like mines? You should, they're a prerequisite for your modern lifestyle.

Easter - part VII

Last post about Easter 2012 on Svalbard. The weather had been cold and clear all Easter, and this last night was no exception. Instead of spending another night in the icecave we ended up snuggly sleeping nine people in an igloo set up by Spitsbergen Travel on Tellbreen. They didn't need it. It strictly said on a plaque outside the igloo do not enter, Spitsbergen Travel uses this as a lunch stop during day trips. Or something in that general direction. Point is, we knew no one would pop by during the night anyway.

Even with nine people (where two of us had the extra long, extra wide downmats from Exped) there was enough room. I must say, great igloo Spitsbergen Travel! And thanks for the loan. We cleaned up very nicely after us as well.

Yes, this is pulka on snowmobile sledge. Amanda (on the right)  helped the skiing people by driving their one pulka up a steep hill. Afterwards Amanda, Katja, and I went skiing and then snowmobiled home.

Thank you wonderful Svalbard people for a magnificent Easter holiday!

Easter - part VI

After a bad night's rest in the icecave (note to self: inflate sleeping mat more, waking up with arse touching ice cold rock is not very comfortable), we all went for a ski. As far as I can figure out from maps, I think we skinned up Ottofjellet. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Mari and Elena skinning up.

Katja and Amanda sporting their Aklima wool nettings (very much recommended form all of us). I think that should be Tellbreen in the back left there...

Myrull:

Curtis:

Mari:

Getting ready to telemark down. And I'm making faces as always. And btw I don't actally know how to tele. Amanda did teach me some very useful stuff the day after this, but this day I mainly just came down by falling.

Now, that's me on the right there, and about two seconds after this photo was taken, I managed too fall as well, straight from where I was standing.

Easter - part V

After a night's rest in Longyearbyen recovering from the adventures of Easter part I-IV, Katja, Amanda and I headed out again towards Tellbreen. We knew some other friends had headed in that direction the day before, on skis. We went on snow mobiles.

Long story short: all nine of us spent the night in the lower part of an englacial conduit in Tellbreen, i.e. in an ice cave.

As I said, this was in the lower part of the conduit, meaning that we had ice above us and mainly debris and frozen ponds under us. Also, it was too low to stand upright.

And again, any questions, don't hesitate to submit a comment below.

Melting water form icicles freshly picked off the wall!

Meeee!

The next morning we ran into Doug Benn, professor at UNIS, and knower of all that is to be known about glaciers. He told us that this particular ice cave had not been very stable lately. Whoopsie daisy....

Easter - part IV

Heeeey! Remember Easter part I, II and III? No? Well, it's all about my easter 2012 adventures on Svalbard, and to be honest, they were quite interesting. Now I am going to my arse into gear (can you say that in English, or is that just a Norwegian expression?) and post pics from rest of the easter holiday during the next somthing days/weeks. I don't think I can be bothered to write too much about the general happenings in the pics, that's what stopped me getting the posts done the last time.

If there is anything in the photos that you are curious about, post a comment, and I will answer. Enjoy!

Easter 2012 - part IV:
The strangest sunset, and Eskerfossen.
 A little bit of background: Snowscootered from Svea and all the way to the east coast. Met complete whiteout and increasing winds at east coast, turned around, drove through tricky moraine, and headed back to Longyearbyen. Made a couple of stops on the way back:

We were met by the strangest sunset I have ever seen on our way back through Sassendalen. To begin with I thought something was on fire, because everything else had the usual bluish tint. One of the you-kind-of-had-to-be-there-experiences.

 Stopped at the Esker waterfall. Frozen at this time of year. Unfortunately it also had a big pile of drifted snow in front of it during our visit...

 

 Next time: Easter - part V: Sleeping in a Glacier

Stay tuned!