Field work and excursion to Reindalen...

On Wednesday we drove out to Adventdalen and Innerhytte Pingo with two tracked vehichles and did some field work. we used a geo-radar to optain a seismic line of the ice within the pingo and some measurements with a termistor. it was sunny and clear weather with -20 and 10-15 m/sek of wind, so it was quite cold.

Friday we went on a scooter excursion to Reindalen to look at the pingos. there are app. 10 of them and in different stages (ages). so it was very good to see it and learn some more. we spent most of the day on the scooter and wasn't back in town untill 1800 hrs. the weather was sunny, -22 and almost no wind. one scooter broke down after 15 min of drive, then one sledge broke down in the inner most part of Reindalen, but we managed to get it back home. a great day in the arctic.

afterwards we had some beer at the friday gathering with the calss and the teachers, afterwards we went to the pub where he had some pizza and some more beer...

easter has ended...

The easter hollidays are over and we had a good Easter. from friday to sunday we spent the time in the student cabin in Bjørndalen. it's app. 14 km to walk there on skis. the backpacks were full of food and things to drink so it took some time to get there...
friday and sunday was great and cold weather while saturday was above freezing with snow and wind.

now it's back to school with lectures and excursions. i love excursions!!!

late afternoon trip to Sarkofagen

at 1730 Anna, Zoe and her newly arrived sister and friend from Italy and Lucas from Poland went up to the mountain Sarkofagen at 490 meters. it was good to have Lucas with us since all of the girls where speaking italian all the time...
we arrived at the top after 1 h 30 min, had a rest and drank some tea and had some tom and jerry biscuits while enjoying the scenery over Longyearbyen and the surrounding mountains.
the trip down took 45 min.
after a warming shower the italian girls made bruchetta and spagetti with pesto and then we had some waffles which Gemma from Holland had made. mmm perfect evening!

new pictures out there...

week 2 and 3...

On the 31st of march anna arrived here in Longyearbyen. she has adapted well to the Arctic cold, though it has been quite cold during her stay. we had temperatures ranging from -10 to -28, so it's cold enough for her and the rest of us!

while i have started with school, anna has been going around interviewing some people here in town, for her master thesis.
on saturday the easter hollidays started. the weather was good until monday when it changed to snow and windy conditions.
monday we rented some snow scooters and went to Tempelfjorden to look at the glacier and the frozen ship in the ice (used as a hotel) and looked for some polar bears, but we only saw the tracks... it was a very cold day, -28 so some of the members of the trip ( 11 of us) were a bit cold, but the weather was so nice and clear!

shopping in svalbard is for the rich people. it's so expensive in the shops that you always pay 500-900 kr and don't come home with anything... 1 litre of milk is 25,9 kr!

no i'm baking a bread and then i'm off to the store before it closes. the walk to town is 3 km and takes app. 30 min.

happy easter

ps put some pictures on the blog