78.2˚ North

The midnight sun welcomed us to Svalbard :) it is never completely dark here in Bodø now, but this was the first time we got to see the midnight sun and probably the only time we will see it quite like this.

Goodness! It's been a long time since i have blogged. The last time i put up a post, i managed to get some things in before my Easter break trip. Unfortunately, it looks as though i will be mixing my time lines with this post. My marine biology class returned from Svalbard just a matter of two days ago, and i can't wait to tell about it. i'm afraid that my 800+ pictures from Italy and Croatia are still being sorted out. oops :) Perhaps i shouldn't be allowed a camera?? Either way, i have fewer pictures from this trip, and they will be supplemented by pictures blatantly and shamelessly stolen from my friends. Lets begin with a few facts, shall we? Just in case you would like to know exactly where i was, i put in a map below. It is from http://www.scantours.com/Spitsbergen_Wilderness_Camp.htm

The Gateway to the Arctic

Svalbard sits between 74˚ and 81˚ north - for some perspective, this is above the northernmost tip of Alaska, which is somewhere around 71˚N. My home town of Laurel, Nebraska sits at a latitude of around 42.5˚ N. Svalbard is 1338 km (831.4 miles) from the North Pole. i strongly doubt i will be this far north again in my life.

About 60% of Svalbard is glacier, and the land is has permafrost and tundra.

Svalbard: approx. 23,550 sq. mi (61,000 sq. km) - Population: somewhere under 3,000 people, possibly about 2,600. Our professor, Ketil; however, lived up there for eight years and said the population is going up pretty quickly - Density: (if we go with the estimate of 3,000 people) you get something like .13 people per sq. mile Nebraska: 77,421 sq. mi. - Population: 1,796,619 people - Density: 23/sq. mi.

There aren't very many settlements on Svalbard. The capital, and where we stayed is Longyearbyen (where the majority of people live - 2,060 as of 2007, thank you wikipedia) and is the world's northernmost town with a population of over 1,000 people. The other main settlements are Barentsburg - a mining community, Ny-Ålesund - a research community, and Sveagruva - a mining outpost. The settlements aren't connected by any roads. Snow mobiles and ships serve as transport. We stayed in NyByen just outside of Longyearbyen in a guesthouse that once held barracks for coal miners. The series of buildings are now guesthouses and student housing for UNIS - University Centre in Svalbard. It was approximately a half-hour walk to get to UNIS where we spent a lot of our time.


Here is building #2 where we stayed. To the right you can see the an area where two girls were attacked by a polar bear in 1997. One was killed and one jumped to save her life. It is now illegal to leave town limits without a rifle. Below is a view of the area from the side of one of the mountains nearby.







Longyearbyen! The capital city with as many people as my hometown of Laurel. Where we would have cars in row, they have snowmobiles. Oddly, we did see a limo, and of course, there was a Radisson Hotel. Go figure. Below is the walk to UNIS. UNIS is pretty interesting really. It is a field-work based school and is not a school that awards bachelor degrees. Its courses are supplemental to many different programs, and there are lots of masters and Ph.D. students taking courses and doing research there. It teaches courses in Arctic Biology, Arctic Geology, Arctic Geophysics, and Arctic Technology, and there is no other place of higher education so far north.


They have a pretty sweet location in terms of research, and as you can see by the picture above, they are well equipped to do the work. It's really great for studies because where you need to be is right outside your door. They have perfect view of the auroras and have the unique chance of studying processes in the polar night. We all thought this was pretty sweet. Hooray for being a bit of a science nerd :) We got a taste of what it would be like to do field studies here, and we borrowed all of our equipment from UNIS. We spent a night out, a several hour trip by snow mobile from Longyearbyen, and took plankton samples every three hours all night long.

more midnight sun

Just how prepared do you have to be to head out of town? We arrived in Svalbard around 1AM on Thursday night/Friday morning, and we began preparations for an excursion with a 10 AM safety overview the next day. A rather abrupt gentleman (the head of safety at UNIS) told us calmly and in patchy English about all the ways we could die, pictures included via powerpoint. If caught by an avalanche, try to stay on top; if you have a hypothermic victim, keep them flat; if you fall through the ice, swim fast or in about two minutes your survival suit will be too heavy for you to support; if you slip into a crack in glacier, don't panic and wait for your team to find a way to get you out - if you went straight down it will be a much easier rescue. Travel in groups, and everybody has a role when an accident happens. - "And of course, if you don't like the shit you don't gonna be the one doing the first aid."

Concerning snowmobiles:

"If you are out driving one hour and the shit stops, you have one day to walk back, so think about that."

Concerning polar bears:

"Then you have the boss."
"Other times they give us shit in that and they looking for some dinner and that means you."

Naturally we were all very comforted by this lecture.


Then came rifle training. As it is illegal to go out of town unarmed, we all had to learn how to handle the rifles. i've used smaller rifles and shotguns, but many in our group had never shot a firearm of any sort. We learned to half load, to shoot from three different positions, how to handle the flare gun, and where to aim on a polar bear. Guns are a last resort and ONLY for self defense. Usually the bears can be scared away with snow mobiles, but sometimes you get a bold teenage bear, and if they make up their mind, they can move fast. There has been an average of about five bears shot per year for the past several years. The last one they killed was about a meter and a half away from people when it finally dropped.

My favorite section of the lecture concerning guns was gun etiquette in town. If in a building, you leave the gun empty and the bolt open so people can see for themselves that the gun is empty. Most stores have gun lockers in the front, so tromp in and hand your rifle to the person working. Technically, guns shouldn't go in the bank, but if you have no one to hold the gun for you do as follows: walk in, remove the bolt and put it in your pocket; next, make eye contact with the teller and make sure they see you place your empty gun by the door; then go about business as usual!

Only in Svalbard my friends, only in Svalbard.

We were left the shooting range and headed back to UNIS for lunch the then to learn how to suit up and pack sledges. We were to have a lesson on snow mobile driving as well, as half of us had never touched one before. i personally wasn't too keen on driving, but we needed everyone with driver's licenses to drive. yee! Things with motors and i often oppose each other.



The survival suits were bulky and heavy. Fully assembled they left practically no skin exposed, just holes in the balaklava to breathe through your nose and mouth. John isn't suited up quite correctly above, but i think you get the idea.

Some lovely Canadians :)

yes, the one it the middle is me. i still maintain that i should never wear sunglasses. Sam is on the right. You can see that she is wearing a tracker - its the gray strap slung across her chest. This was a sort of remote sensing device that perpetually sent out a signal. We all wore them under our suits. In the case of an individual getting caught under an avalanche, all other members of the group would shut theirs off, and the search would begin. There is a sensor that beeps when near the device you are wearing.

the gang :) being warm has nothing to do with dignity.

Loading up the sledges. i believe we took six sledges. It's almost insane how many things you need to stay out in the snow. Each sledge had an emergency box, and we took plenty of extras of things. If you get out there and you don't have it, you're in trouble. Our day at UNIS ended in a confused jumble of packing sledges and trying to figure out exactly what was happening (our prof and those in charge were in the process of figuring it out as well - funny how research works the same way all over the world, isn't it?)

It was a long day in preparation for our excursion. We ended the night with a gathering in the guesthouse in honor of April's birthday. It was a funny evening as we were all getting to know each other better. There were nine Norwegians, two Russians, two Canadians, and four Americans i the room. Isn't international study wonderful? :) The Norwegians got a kick out of our stories of living in Høglimyra and our pronunciation of every Norwegian word we attempted. We Americans took the opportunity to extol the virtues of peanut butter, and all of us enjoyed some excellent cakes and good hot tea.


The next day was the beginning of our excursion, and i think i will write about that in the next post!

happy day all! :)