More day-light

Since the light came back, we have been going on a few scooter trips. Anna is not to found off the cold weather when scooter driving, so I have been more on trips on my own.
Last week-end it was only -7 and no wind, so I drove to Tempelfjorden, 60 km away while Anna was working ;0)
This week-end I went with Anna to the Russian settlement of Barentsburg. The weather was not to good but not bad either. We still had a good trip.
Yesterday we hiked up to a mountain ridge, Sarkofagen. It is always good to move the body after being on a scooter for a whole day...

The frozen boat in the fjord

The frozen boat in Tempelfjorden

The frozen waterfall in Eskerdalen

View over Tempelfjorden

 

View over Longyearbyen from Sarkofagen

Anna on her way to Sarkofagen

Scootertrip to Barentsburg

Welcome to Barentsburg

 

Night-photography

This evening there was no wind and sky clear weather. While Anna was going to pilates and eating pizza with her friends, I took my scooter and my camera and drove across the valley and up on of the mountains. It was bitterly cold in valley, with temperatures dropping down to -30, not very pleasant when the two hand warmers on my scooter decided to stop working. But it was all worth it. The view was magnificicent!!!

 

The sun is back

Yesterday after nearly 4 months of darkness, the sun came back to Longyearbyen. For some weeks though the sun has been visible if one had went out of town and up on a mountain ;0).
For the first time since 2005 the sun was actually visible in Longyearbyen on the return of the sun. The other years it has been overcast and bad weather.

Today is a local tradition called "ta sjansen" where people and companies in town have a competition using their imagination making some sort of sledge and trying to get quickest or funniest down a long slope at the end of town...

After that we will walk on skis to a friends cottage outside town, for some cocoa and cakes :D

Anna happy

The winning team

Let the games begin..

Drilling season and web cameras

We started our drilling season last week, by driving snow-scooters to a glacier between Longyearbyen and Svea, to mark our first hole. Last night my colleague and I went to the drill site to see how the work was progressing and to mark the next drill-hole. This morning I got a phone call at 0300, as I am the Geologist on duty. This meant that I had to drive out to the drill-site this morning to find out if the drilling was finished or not. The hole was 344 m deep. After logging parts of the core, I could conclude that the hole was finished and my job was done.

The daylight is now increasing by 20 min each day, so soon it will be possible to see the sun. In longyearbyen we will be able to see the sun on March 8th :D

I have added two new links to the web cameras, one is from the loading facilities in our coal harbour in Svea and the other one is from Svalsat, on the mountain above Longyearbyen.
Enjoy the light...

The drill site

Watching the light from my scooter

The drill site on the glacier

Self portrait - waiting for the light...

The flu has gone and winter has come

The helicopter spotted Anne

We are both now finished with the flu, which is a very good thing. This year it took a very long time to get or the ice to come ;0)
Since my last blog entry the temperature has been quite stable around -10 degrees with an occasional increase to around 0 degrees. At work we are preparing the drilling campaign, this year 1 month earlier than last year. It is still very dark though but the blue light is coming...
Anna is still with-out a full-time job, but is quite happy with working as a substitute now and then. She has also started working in the kindergarten.
During a short scooter-trip with Anna, due to bad  weather we suddenly saw a red flare , shortly followed by several other flares and then a Super Puma helicopter, belonging to the search and rescue team passed over us. It took a while before we understood it was only an exercise. It was very interesting to see how the rescue teams work when it is winter and snow and wind being blown all over the place.

The helicopter attempting to land

Northern lights from our bed-room window ;0)

cooling down again...

For the last couple of days the temperature has been plumeting here in town. We had temperatures around -20 degrees with lows down to -23. There has been some northern light and very little wind and almost clear sky.
Tomorrow the forecast says wind, snow and increasing temperatures... this is the way it goes on Svalbard, just enjoy it while it lasts ;0)