The last week of winter

Last week we were having the last week of winter. We were busy to enjoy white mountains around us.

We got a lot of snow earlier in May and that made an unstable layer of snow. That became apparent to people on the town when an avalanche crossed over the way to Nybyen. Luckily nobody was on the way or on the mountainside on the way to up to Gruve 2b eller Julenissegruva, as it's also called.

Even though, it's was clearly feeling of spring there were still good conditions for skiing.

I was having two extra dogs for a week, our dogs mother (in the middle) and sister (on the right). They were really eager to pull. The were lot of speed on the team Border Power!

17. mai - Norwegian Constitution Day

Beautiful but pretty windy day in Longyearbyen. Good day for celebration!

Air sightseeing

Air sightseeing is forbidden in Svalbard, but luckily we can't avoid that when commuting. Last week I got even an extra amount of it. I needed to have a day tour to Longyearbyen from Svea middle of the work week for to get a course.

Longyearbyen.

Here we're flying over Platåfjellet. Longyearbyen is hiding in a valley.

When weather is beautiful we're having really nice views over the mountains.

The airport in Longyearbyen.

Svea just beside the engine, Kapp Amsterdam (harbour) on right side. The runway is visible middle of Svea.

In the airplane we don't need to be fighting about window place: Everybody is having one.

Winter is still continueing

In early May we got suddenly lot of new snow: It was snowing, snowing and snowing couple of days. And that was just what we needed - It meant the scooter season was continueing! When snowfall was over we got a brilliant week with blue sky and confortable cold temperature.

We had a little tour to Barentsburg, a Russian town.

This is a school. I think it's really interestingly painted.

It looks cosy with kittiwakes nesting over the windows.

Driving with sunglasses in relatively nice temperatures and with perfectly windstill weather - That's the best time for scootering!

Heavy snowfall we had earlier made an unstabil layer of snow on the mountains sides. I wouldn't take a risk with going on mountain sides on that kind of conditions.

Driving around

Earlier years a tour to von Post, a glacier on Templefjorden has been almost obligatory but this year there isn't almost any ice on the fjord. Luckily we arent't lacking alternatives for a little tours. 

Brattlidalen is a narrow canyon like valley.

Eskerfossen, a frozen waterfall, is also a nice pop in.

Entrance for a huge ice cave.

If one glacier front is out of reach, there is always some others to visit.

Sounds of dogyard

I was taking care of my friends polar dogs for a week. My black coated companion was thinking that was just a brilliant thing to do. It's so fun to be running with other dogs on the dogyard!

In winter time Svalbard is just so quiet. There is just sound of wind and otherwise quietness of nature. Now we have got some birds back and even screaming of glaucous gulls is sounding beautiful.

Always safety first

When we are on the trip, safety is always the most important issue. I have to admit that I'm pretty chicken: I'm not too good trying something what I'm thinking is too risky - but that doesn't mean that accident can't happen. Just in case we're having always a proper equipment with us but we're hoping we'll never need to use them.

Here we're looking a hole beside a scooter route. If you fall down on that hole you would end up about 4-5 meters down. In this kind of beautiful day that might sound like an absurd scenario, but on the flat light it might became reality. You never can be too careful!

And then it happened: Our friend fell suddenly down in a crevasse, not in a glacier but on a moraine. Luckily crevasse was that narrow that she got hanging on her armpits - and that was really lucky because otherwise she would have fallen down pretty deep. But luckily, we got off with a fright.

A land of no sunset

We haven't had dark time at nights since 2nd of April and we had our last sunset 19th of April. Next time we can see the sun to set is 23th of August but we need to wait for dark nights almost until middle of September.

I don't mind at all to live some months in darkness when we're having such a long time light day around!