Post 6: From the arctic to the Southern spring

30.4.2011 – The 1st full day at home for a while

Somewhere along Lomonosovfonna

I am now back from my three-week expedition to the cold shores and jagged peaks of Svalbard. Ultima Thule 2011 is over but the aftermath has barely started.

Tent after a blizzard. Spot the pulka on the left!

On Thursday we skied a tad over one leg to the warehouse where we mended and dried our gear. We took an early start at 07:00 and had enough time to do some shopping and eat lunch in cafeteria before receiving our rooms at the hostel. We didn’t sleep much during the day but instead mostly bought souveniers, packed gear for return trip, had a long dinner in restaurant and many drinks in the bar.

Expedition closing to its end. Longyerby in the horizon.

Taxis came to pick us up at the Friday night around 01:30 and we went to airport for the lat big gear hassle. It was a nice hassle trying to squeeze 23 kilo of gear to our bags, 12 kilo to our carry on packages and as little gear as possible to our sleds (they are quite expensive to fly around). At the end the airport stuff just surrendered and put the stickers on all the packs, most un-weighted, and everything was okay. A short nap at the airport floor and the sleepy flight to Oslo, a quick change at the Oslo airport and a bit less sleepy flight to Helsinki. We where back in Helsinki around 11:00 local time and were amazed by the warmth and green grass.

An arctic fox seen from the bar window. Svalbard is wild country.

Preliminary summary

And inspired by Joe’s old post, here is a short summary in numbers:

20 continuous night in a tent in a sleeping bag, personal record
300+ kilometers of skiing, personal record
1712 meters, the peak of Perriertoppen, the highest point of the expedition
100000 calories eaten
2-3 kilo of weight loss (less than anticipated)
1 full day spent storm bound
2 day spent partially storm bound
0 the day when tents were needed as a shelter for lunch break
1 badly burned nose now covered with salve
64 GB of pictures and video shot
+ 16 Celsius, the warmest temperature in the thermometer during the trip
- 25 Celsius, the coldest temperature during the trip

79 degrees Northern latitude crossed!

What next?

Last night I had a nice 11 hours sleep in a proper bed, for the first time for over three weeks. Most of the gear is sorted out and waiting to be washed. I have almost 64 GB of pictures and video to be processed so it will take some time. There are some randomly picked teasers in this post but most of the pictures are still waiting to be uploaded on the computer. And unfortunately I have also three weeks od undone work waiting for me, starting on Monday.

The pass between Galleribreen and Tryggvebreen. Snowy slopes of Perriertoppen on the right.

Despite the minor obstacles I plan to write a punch of post-trip posts and get a nice set of pictures online. But it will take some time.

At the moment I am planning:
- an in-depth post covering my personal views on the expedition in general
- a post about the food which was plenty and worked well
- a post covering major observations on gear
- two sets of pictures (set for those with more time and a very selected batch for those with less time or interest)
- some kind of video built from all the short clips along the way, but this one will take time as I have to first learn how to edit the stuff smoothly together

If there are some things that you are especially interested and would like to know more, please leave a comment and I will try to cover the topics in the following posts!

And it seems to be almost summer here in Southern Finland so I have to put skis and winter gear in the storage and search my summer gear. Before leaving to Svalbard I already bought a neoprene wetsuit (can’t afford a proper dry suit) so there are trips being planned and when there is something coming up, I’ll let you know!

Post 5: Summer has arrived!

22.04.2011 – 19th day on skis

We left the town of Pyramiden (and the bar…) in the morning of Saturday 23rd. Sun was shining and temperature was clearly rising. We saw several seals on the sea ice but no polar bears. Some seals lety us ski very close before diving to the safety of the thick ice. After four legs of skiing we arrived at the shore near the fractured edge of the Nordenskjöldbreen. From there we started over 500 meter ascent along snowmobile track – with snowmobiles passing by often. The peace of the arctic wilderness was gone but for some reason it didn’t matter. During the sweaty climb we scored a new temperature record for the expedition when the thermometer rise to +15 Celsius in the sun! And no wind at all! We pitched the camp on a high pass and had a birthday party with some chocolate cake and Minttu kaakao (hot chocolate with peppermint liquor – veeery good!). A group of eight Spanyards arrived late in the evening and camped next to us.

The Sunday 24th started with great descent: almost 500 meters of downhill! The circle closed when we arrived at our old tracks (Well, they were nto visible anymore but we had been there two weeks earlier…) in the Gipsdalen. The descent was nice but the following climb wasn’t. Mister Boulton has probably been a pretty nasty guy if the glacier that we climbed is named accordingly! =D Once again some 500 vertical meters of sweaty pulka hauling in warm weather and after that we pitched the camp again to a high pass after seven legs of skiing. The wisdom for high camps is avoiding bear guard duty during the night. In the evening we had Finnish Easter delicacy mämmi (if you don’t know what it is, try Google picture search) for dessert, and boy it was good!

Monday morning started with another great downhill section when we skied back to the sea ice of Tempelfjorden that we had crossed over two weeks earlier. The sea water edge was now very close to our route and the route that we skied in the beginning would have been impossible now. The snow mobile track was occasionally slushy and all snow was wet and you could almost see it melt. During the day we passed a Basecamp boat and cottage in Freheim that are used as a restaurangs by local tour operators but unfortunately both were closed. We made a camp far enough from the the sea to avoid bear guard. We didn’t see any polar bears at Tempelfjorden so that was likely it: no bears to be seen on this trip. It’s quite a dissapointment…

We are now advancing slowly to arriev in schedule to Longyarbyen. OUr plan included one rest day for storms that hasn’t been used and now we ski short days to spent that extra day. Because of this we started Tuesday one hour later than usually, this meant one hour of extra sleep! I haven’t been able to sleep the planned eight hours at most (or any) of the nights as there is alwasy something interesting to do, so the extra hour is welcome. We spent the day skiing along the snowmobile track in great sunny weather and no wind with thermoter peaking at +16 Celsius in the sun! Some of us, me included, skied without shirts as it was very, very warm. We had an extra long lunch break (70 minutes) to kill some time and we slept and rested in the sun. In the camp we brought sleeping mats and stoves outside and cooked and ate together in the sun. The evenign was spent with the miniature Mölkku game that I had brought and we popped the rest of our popcorns. THe weather has been incredibly and unusually warm and mild. This has caused some problems (too hot sleeping bags, sports drink powder being on rationing, badly burned and sore nose dispite SPF 50 sun screen) but mostly it has been very nice but not that arctic…

Tomorrow we will ski six legs the the outskirts of Longyearbyen and on Thursday morning we will get to th town and start gear maintenance and packing, get to a shover for the first time in three weeks, do some shopping, go to a restaurang, etc. The flight back will leave aroun 04:00 on Friday night so next updates will be from Finland.

Thanks or following! There will be still updates reated to this expedition at least thru the whole May and I have over 64 Gt of pictures and video to sort out…

All well for the expedition.

Post 4: Perriertoppen and Pyramiden

22.04.2011 – 15th day on skis

Once again the time and solar power available for personal blog hasn’t met in the best possible way…

On Monday 18th we woke up seeing the summit of Perriertoppen thru a veil of clouds. We postponed the start towards the summit for two hours to let the clouds break away. First we climbed hill with skis and then changed to crampons. The next two hours was spent on 45 degree snow slope with strap crampons falling occasionally off and being taped and strapped back on their place to keep us on the steep slope. After five hundred vertical meters of ascent in white-out like conditions we reached the summit ridge and were soon on the summit! Clouds broke away and the view was spectacular! Descent with crampons was slow and careful with one minor slip leading to a broken ski stick. The desent on skis was fun with nice slope and powder snow. It was over seven hours trip with no food breaks so we ate and hit our sleeping bags. During the evening the temperature dropped to -25 Celsius. No wonder that it felt cold!

Tuesday 19th meant a turning point for our trip. We turned our skis towars South and home. Well, to be precise we started to ski towards West and Austfjorden. After a good day of skiing with great views we camped on the shore of the fjord and started the usual bear guard duty (two hours shifts rolling from tent to tent). Unfortunately no bears were seen but several birds instead.

During the night a storm broke and the start for Wednesday was postponed until afternoon. In the afternoon the wather got better and actually very good and we skied under sunny skies on the Mittagleflerbreen. It was, once again, a good day of skiing and we got so high up to the glacier that there was no need for bear guard during the night.

Thursday 21st started with a nice sunny weather and after admiring an old empty glacial lake we found ourselves sweating in a steep uphill with some 400 meteres ascent. But after every ascent cconmes a descent and we had an enjoyable ride down to the shores of Petuniabukta where we pitched our camp. We spent the evening sitting outside in a great wheather and the night was spent in a bear guard duty.

Friday 22nd started in a milklike mist with poor visibility but we started the ski towards the abandoned Russian town of Pyramiden. On the way we saw some seals on the ice but no polar bears. The city is wierd, great and maybe a bit spooky but it wasn’t abandoned. According to a Norwegian we met there are 4-10 people keeping the place together and what really surprised us… They keep a bar! There is a hotel and a bar in the old abandoned mining town! And in addition to sightseeing we really, really had to have beers in the bar. Arctic skiing expedition are like the life itself: full of surprices. =)

Less than a week left and we are back to Longyearbyen. Today is the time to change socks and underwear.

All well for the expedition.

PS. Sorry for the typos, I’m in a hurry writing this before the battery dies!

Post 3: One miss, one hit, one to go!

17.04.2011 – 10th day on skis

It has been a while since the last update. Either I’ve been too busy/tired to write or we haven’t had enough power for personal blog updates.

Wednesday 13th was a full working day: eight legs and 17,25km as the crow flies. It was a good day of skiing with nice down hill section in the end (we still need to ski because of skins and heavy pulkas but it is easier). I decided that I won’t chance socks or under wear at least for the first two weeks. Just to see how it goes… Hopefully my tent partner Matias can tolerate it.

Thursday was a day of great weather! Sun shine, blue skies, calm, warm (well, -7 Celsius but it felt warm) and I skied without jacket wearing my Finnsvala Powerstretch shirt (superior!). And great views also! We skied 8 legs and made a record day with 18,25 kilometers of progress. At the end f the day we crossed to ski tracks! Apparently we are not the only ones here, but we haven’t seen any one else for a well over week now. We reached the so called Newtontoppen basecamp and planned to launch attempt to the top on the next morning… In the evening the temperature dropped to -26 Celsius. FIrt time I really had some use for my sleeping system.

The weather wasn’t too promising on Friday morning and we postponed the summit bid until 11:00 am. Nine of us (three stayed in camp resting and healing sore heals) started the ski towards the summit. The wind was getting stronger all the time and visibility was dropping accordingly. After 1,5 hours of skiing our guide Vaiska called a U-turn and we returned to camp. We were left 450 vertical meters and few hours of skiin shy of the summit. As the bad weather continued to reign, I decided to celebrate my birthday a day earlier. We made a great cake, 3 liter pot on Minttu-kaakao (actually, we made the full pot twice…) and invited everyone for a visit. Hilleberg Keron 3 GT can easily take 10 people and a stove box… It was a nice day and a special way to celebrate birthday. =)

We were woken up on Saturday morning with very stormy weather and poor visibility. Winds gusted over 18m/s with average speed being over 13m/s. This meant no go for the summit and we started the waiting game in our tents, mostly spending time burying ourselves deeper into our sleeping bags. After some time we took a vote and ended up leaving the basecamp and continuing towards our next goal: Perriertoppen. I was against this but as the weather didn’t improve during the rest of the day, it was a good desicion. We skied 7 legs towards the Perriertoppen basecamp, place with beautifull views called "Little Chamonix".

So we didn’t make it to the top of Newtontoppen but we crossed 79 degress of Northern Latitude which was one of our goals. This means that we have one hit, one miss and two things to try.

Today (Sunday 17th) we skied another seven legs but spent three hours lowering our pulkas down the Gallerbreen with climbing ropes. It was a very steep descent and we had to wear crampons and lowering the pulkas with ropes was the only way to get them down in one piece. But we reached the Perriertoppen basecamp which is insanel corgeus place! I can’t describe the views… Hopefully we get good weather tomorrow so that we can make it to the summit. If we make, the only thing left is seeing a polar bear and that is quite likely during our way back to Longyearbyen as we ski mostly along shores (and via the abandoned Russian town of Pyramdien).

All well for the expedition.

PS. SOrry for the typos, I’m in a hurry writing this. It’s not about the drinks but about the hurry!

Post 2: Days of storm and whiteness!

12.04.2011 – 5th day on skis

Since the last update, the second day on skis, a lot has happened: for example we have skied, slept and eaten and waited down a storm .

The third day started as any day: wake up at 07:00, at skis on 09:00 and seven legs (50 minutes skiing + 10 minutes break) of skiing. THe first three legs until lunch were pretty nice skiing in valley of Gipsdalen. After lunch we started the asent to the main glacier of Spitsbergen. This means some 1000-1100 meters of ascent. We managed to climb about 500 meters during the day until we pitched our camp with rising winds on the glacier. I measured energy consumption of 4950 kcal during the skiing with maximum heart rate peaking at 185! The weather got wotrse during the evening but was still managable, wind being around 9m/s. After the usual evening chores we hit the bunk… on sleeping bags, to be exact. It was still only some 5 Celsius and I was ince again sweating in very, very warm Cumulus sleeping bag. I’ve been screwed! This was supposed to be artcic stuff!

The fourth day started with a lot more arctic feel! Temperature was still around -5 Celsius but winds were bloving around 13m/s with gusts closing to 20m/s. Air was full of snow and spindrift meaning zero visibility. And being on å possibly crevassed Glasier that meant also a forced day of rest. Day was spent mostly making salad as our guide Vaiska said. We don’t have any vegetables with us so we opted rum. =) We celebrated Henkka’s birthday (which was on Friday but we didn’t let is slow us down) and in addition slept, ate, slept and tweaked gear (I think I’ll never get bored to that). At the evening weather was already better and we saw a blink of the sun!

The morning of the fifth day started in near white-out conditions with zero wind, jumped on our skis at 09:00 and continued climbing. We skied again seven legs compliting the worst of the ascent and pitching the camp at Lomonosovfonna glacier. A normal day of skiing with varying visibility, light or zero winds and slightly dropping temperatures. We saw some great moutnaisn during the day but at the evening we are once again in a cloud.

It feels strange to type with a laptop, back up photos to USB hard drive etc. while sitting in a tent with a stove and the middle of nowhere… Well, it’s great here. I just hope that the tempreatures would drop a bit. It would make some things a bit easier… Some 36 kilometers to Newtontoppen.

Tech is up and running so there should be photos on the official expedition blog!

All well for the expedition.