A weekend dedicated to skiing

We just had a most beautiful weekend for this winter. I just needed to dedicate those clear and cold days to skiing.

On the way up to "Tv-tower". You can see a little bit of a halo over Nordenskiöldtoppen.  A daddy is taking his kids up to the mountainside. It's fun to be skiing when you get a lift up.

Our "TV-tower" beside Hiorthfjellet.

Our town from the moraine of Blekumbreen.

Hiorthfjellet from a little bit different view.

One of the nicest things with long days out is to come home again. Hiorthfjellet on evening colours.

A fall from nowhere

Mostly it's irritating to be driving in flat light but it can be also dangerous. When light is flat it's just impossible to see any surface definitions. Everything is just white and you can't see if there is some slopes or you can't even see the surface of snow.

When we were on Dunérbukta conditions became just like that. Visibility was actually pretty reasonable but light became totally flat. We were driving really carefully on the moraine, between the stones which were sticking out of snow and giving us a meaning to surrounding. Suddenly a scooter front of us stopped. The driver got out of his scooter and looked little bit confused. "He just disappeared", said him, meaning the scooter front of him. We left our scooters and started to walk on the scooter track. It really looked like the track disappeared in nowhere.

First I saw a sledge, somewhere far down, then a scooter little bit apart from the sledge and a man beside it. They had just fallen right down some meters. Luckily the man had got rid of the scooter to avoid landing on it, because that could have given him serious injuries. Instead he landed on quite soft snow and just got short of breath but didn't get any broken ribs, split spleen or whatever. Ironically enough he was hurting mostly on the breast because he had a satellite telephone on a pocket and he landed on it.

Now I knew there were a vertical drop front of me, but I still couldn't see it. I saw the place where the scooter track ended up, I saw our friend with his scooter and the sledge far down, but I still couldn't see the drop. That's kind of spooky.

But the most important thing was that our friend was uninjured!

Polar-power on loan

Our friend was having a tour in the mainland and we got to take care of her two polar dogs. Luckily we got the prettiest week for this winter, so it was really nice to spend as much time as possible out with four pawed polar-heros.

Our own dog isn't any polar dog but also he enjoyed visiting his tough species-specimen at the dogyard.

I borrowed some more dogs to get a complete team. Then we were able to have little bit longer trips than with skies and just couple of dogs.

Vernal equinox

I'm feeling it's not that long time ago we got light back but now it's already vernal equinox. Now we're having longer days than people in the mainland! Just one month forward and we're having the midnight sun as well. To tolerate couple of month darkness is just fine payment for all that light what we're having in the next half years time. Now only thing we're lacking is proper amount of snow and coldness.

Solfestuka

I came from the holiday just on the end of Solfestuka (=The Sun Festival Week). The celebration for to get the sun back was already over (that's always at the 8th of March) but for me the most important happenings are Ta sjansen (a competition for funny sledges) and Solfestrevy (=The Sun Festival Revue).

Ta sjansen is usually on the other side of the fjord in Hiorthhamn, but this year it was arranged on the root of Sarkofagen because lack of snow and icy conditions. Usually we have been joining the happening with frozen fingers and freezing us but enjoying the sun over the mountains. This year there were no any problems to hold us warm in the mild weather, but also the sun was lacking as arrangement was in the shadow for addition to cloudy day.

But Solfestrevy didn't disappointed us. That is kind of round-up for everything what has been happening in the previous year in Svalbard. And as usually, nobody can feel safe - anything can be taken up!

Wonderland of winter

One of the best thing in Svalbard is winter. And when it's lacking, I think it's a good enough reason to get desperate. After rainy winter and couple of weeks in mild weather I had got enough and decided to take a holiday immediately. I just needed to get a real winter!

I took our dog with me and flew to the wonderland of winter. We spend couple of weeks in mainland enjoying the best winter weather what anybody could wish. It's actually extremely nice to be skiing without having a rifle with you!