Snow mobi­le sea­son in Spits­ber­gen: accidents/important to know

The snow mobi­le sea­son has star­ted a few weeks ago in Spits­ber­gen. Some locals start alre­a­dy during the polar night, while most others and most tou­rists start their snow mobi­le excur­si­ons when the light comes back around mid Febru­ary. The sea­son lasts as long as snow and ice make it pos­si­ble to be out, usual­ly into the first days of May or until mid-May if it works well.

Snow mobi­le excur­si­ons make it pos­si­ble to see ama­zing places which are other­wi­se hard to reach, if not impos­si­ble for most, but they bear their spe­ci­fic risks. If you don’t know the local ter­rain and you do not have expe­ri­ence with snow mobi­les, then it is defi­ni­te­ly a good idea to join a gui­ded group. This is also the offi­ci­al recom­men­da­ti­on by the Sys­sel­man­nen (gover­nor).

Some inci­dents of the last cou­ple of weeks:

• In ear­ly March, tou­rists had to be evacua­ted with heli­c­op­ters in two cases after having suf­fe­r­ed frac­tures while fal­ling with their snow mobi­les or, rather, tur­ning them over in uneven ter­rain. Both inci­dents hap­pen­ed near Sas­send­a­len, one in the morai­ne of Rabot­breen and one in Bratt­li­da­len. Both per­sons were mem­bers of gui­ded groups.
• On Tues­day (March 18), a man had to be air­lifted with chest inju­ries after he had dri­ven his snow mobi­le over a steep slo­pe, fal­ling down 6 met­res. Other mem­bers of his group cal­led the res­cue forces with mobi­le pho­nes, but could not pro­vi­de a posi­ti­on as they did not exact­ly know whe­re they were. The group was not gui­ded and did not have GPS or local know­ledge. The inci­dent hap­pen­ed on the coast bet­ween Coles­buk­ta and Barents­burg, a fre­quent­ly used rou­te, but with seve­ral steep slo­pes which are hard to see and serious­ly dan­ge­rous at ina­de­qua­te speed.

In ano­ther case, a per­son went uncon­scious and fell from his snow mobi­le at low speed in Grønfjord, south of Grøn­da­len. First aid was given, but his life could not be saved. The infor­ma­ti­on available seems to indi­ca­te a heart attack or simi­lar medi­cal emer­gen­cy.

The first two cases indi­ca­te that acci­dents can natu­ral­ly also hap­pen while on tour with gui­ded groups. But at least local­ly know­led­geable gui­des will make sure ade­qua­te speed is being used, which is espe­ci­al­ly important in case of ter­rain obs­ta­cles such as steep slo­pes which can be very dif­fi­cult to see. Ade­qua­te speed is of vital importance. Gui­ded groups also have emer­gen­cy equip­ment inclu­ding satel­li­te pho­nes. The mobi­le pho­ne cover in Spits­ber­gen is unre­lia­ble or, rather, inexis­tent over wide are­as.

For safe tours with snow mobi­le and ski, the fol­lo­wing are recom­men­ded or should be con­side­red:

• Ava­lan­che equip­ment (snow sho­vel, ava­lan­che pro­be), unless you stay in cle­ar­ly ava­lan­che-safe ter­rain.
• Local know­ledge or good advice from peo­p­le with local expe­ri­ence. GPS with digi­tal map, spa­re bat­te­ries (!), and prin­ted map and com­pass as a back­up.
• Emer­gen­cy equip­ment. Prepa­re for a pro­lon­ged stay in the field in case of sud­den bad wea­ther or snow mobi­le break­down. Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on equip­ment inde­pen­dent of mobi­le pho­ne grid such as satel­li­te pho­ne and PLB. Tent, slee­ping bag, iso­la­ti­on mat­tress, cam­ping sto­ve and fuel, extra warm clo­thes. Be rea­dy to stay out for at least 24 hours in bad wea­ther.
• Rif­le and other polar bear safe­ty equip­ment.
• Stay with an expe­ri­en­ced per­son or join a gui­ded group if you don’t have expe­ri­ence with snow mobi­les.
• Make sure you know how to deal with minor, com­mon repairs such as exchan­ging the v-belt.
• Snow mobi­les like to break down, espe­ci­al­ly when it is most unwel­co­me. Con­sider this for any trip fur­ther away than you can walk back.
• If you don’t real­ly know the ter­rain: expect ter­rain obs­ta­cles that are dif­fi­cult to see.
• Obser­ve regu­la­ti­ons: you need hel­met and dri­ving licen­se, zero alco­hol and, for lar­ge parts of Spits­ber­gen, insu­rance cover and noti­fi­ca­ti­on to the admi­nis­tra­ti­on in advan­ce. The­re are scoo­ter-free are­as. If you don’t know the regu­la­ti­ons and boun­da­ries, you have to join someone who does, such as a gui­ded group.

This list is not com­ple­te, but it includes some important points.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen, Sval­bard­pos­ten, my own expe­ri­ence.

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