In a few weeks I’ll set sails towards Longyearbyen again. I’m excited to be living and studying in Svalbard for another two months. This is a great reason to start up this blog again. As you can see, I reworked the design a little to make the site more enjoyable for you. I even got my own domain “nordsheep.com”.
To get started with the blog again I’d like to tell you how my time on Svalbard came to an end and, at the same time, paved the way for my next stay...
As some of you know, I stayed in Longyearbyen until August to do fieldwork for my bachelor thesis. That meant I had a lot of time to cover from the end of my studies in June until the start of my field campaign.
Most of June and July I spent in Longyearbyen, guiding, hiking and even skiing. In July I flew down to the mainland and did an amazing road trip on the Lofoten islands for about a week together with Kristine.
She had to get back to work so I went on a four-day solohike in Skånland. Despite the pouring rain and the lack of a proper map I really enjoyed the trip. It also offered a great opportunity to try my new tent, the multifuel stove and some other small things. On the last morning it actually cleared up. I could see the beautiful mountains around and even got to climb one of the peaks, hidden in the fog the days before.
Friends
Back in Longyearbyen, two friends arrived and stayed with me for the next weeks. Julian and Ludwig helped me guiding and of course we went on some trips by ourselves, mainly hiking, sailing and kayaking in proximity to town. One day we also explored the abandoned Russian coal mining town Pyramiden. The first highlight was the boat ride. It’s very scenic and we got to see a lot of wild life. We spotted wales, puffins, seals and even a sleeping polar bear.
The town itself is spectacular. Most of the structures remained intact over the years. And in some of the houses you can still find objects left by the former inhabitants. Today there are eight people living in Pyramiden permanently again, running a hotel and offering tours through the lost buildings. With the tours you get access to some of the buildings, like the culture center with gym and cinema / theatre, the swimming pool and the cantina. It is impressing how much effort the Soviet Union put into making Pyramiden a “real” city. They even imported soil from the Ukraine to grow proper lawns.
Fieldwork I
Julian volunteered to be my field assistant and help me to collect the data for my bachelor thesis with me. Our field campaign was scheduled to last eleven days. Our field site was approx. 20 km north of Longyearbyen, close to Deltaneset. The first days, we spend together with some other students whom collected data for their master thesis. Julian and I explored the area to find good outcrops for our measurements. Our field party divided after three days and it was down to Julian, me and our sledge dog in the little hut.
The next day we had two polar bears visiting our cabin. While taking measurements in one of the slopes, we first recognized tourist boats lying in the bay of our cabin. With our binoculars we were able to spot the reason: A polar bear mother with quite a big cub was enjoying our dog food. We called UNIS Logistics and it was decided to evacuate us. They scared the bears away from the boat so we could recover our gear from the hut. Thanks to them we could stay in safe distance to the bears at all times. We spend the weekend in Longyearbyen until the bears moved on.
At least so we thought. It was nice to get back into the field on Monday and reunite with the rest of the field party. But it took only two more days until our single mom showed up at the place where we were staying now. We went on lockdown and were very happy that the new cabin was equipped with a sauna. The bears decided to stay close by, so we couldn’t really get back into the field and were transported back on Friday again. Overall a very exciting trip, unfortunately it wasn’t as efficient considering the amount of data we took. But that’s the game in an area like this and after all we took enough measurements for me to write my thesis and present a poster at a conference in Oslo.
Fieldwork II
Finally, I was about to leave Longyearbyen and fly back to Germany. But on my last Friday Gathering, I got a job offer that I couldn’t turn down: One week on a scientific cruise in the Forlandsundet area, gathering data on sedimentological and tectonic features. We spared the excitement of polar bear encounters this time. Still it was a very interesting and fun trip. After all I ended up being so excited about the geology in the area that I’ll write my master thesis about it.
So that’s what happened during my last months on Svalbard. They will not be the last. Beginning of next month, I’ll travel back to take my first master course. I’m very excited and hope I’ll have lots to tell…
But before that, I have a skiing trip to Romania coming up next Sunday. Make sure to check which adventures await Shivi, Max and me in the Carpathians.
Links
More information on Pyramiden:
My conference poster:
My master project:
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