Man fell 6 met­res into gla­cier crev­as­se on Con­way­jø­ku­len

The simi­la­ri­ty to the next to last head­line is no coin­ci­dence: again, a ski­er fell down a crev­as­se on a gla­cier in Spits­ber­gen. And again, it went well in the end.

A group of five tou­rists led by one gui­de was on the way back from a trip to New­ton­top­pen, Spitsbergen’s hig­hest moun­tain. In the area of Con­way­jø­ku­len, nor­the­ast of Bil­lefjord, the group got into crev­as­sed area. At the time (Thurs­day, 16 April) the wea­ther was bad in the area, with strong winds and drif­ting snow and visi­bi­li­ty accor­din­gly poor. The six ski­ers were roped up into two groups of three per­sons each, when the gui­de, lea­ding the first group, well down into a crev­as­se. His two fol­lo­wers could, howe­ver, stop his fall after 6 met­res. The second team approa­ched the crev­as­se and final­ly mana­ged to retrie­ve the emer­gen­cy bea­con, which the gui­de had with him.

Due to the poor visi­bi­li­ty on the ground, the res­cue heli­c­op­ter was not able to land, despi­te seve­ral attempts. Res­cue forces in Lon­gye­ar­by­en pre­pared a ski expe­di­ti­on, and the heli­c­op­ter pre­pared to winch the six per­sons all up indi­vi­du­al­ly, when the wea­ther impro­ved slight­ly, allo­wing the heli­c­op­ter to land. Mean­while, the five ski­ers on the ground had mana­ged to get their gui­de up from the crev­as­se. He had suf­fe­r­ed light should­er inju­ries, but was other­wi­se unhurt.

All six and their dog could then board the heli­c­op­ter and return to Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

The exact posi­ti­on of the crev­as­se has not been published. The wide gla­cier are­as of Lomo­noss­ov­fon­na are gene­ral­ly thought to have few crev­as­ses only. It is pos­si­ble that the group had ended up some­whe­re they would not have gone in bet­ter visi­bi­li­ty. It is not known if the crev­as­se had been visi­ble under bet­ter con­di­ti­ons.

Sources: Sys­sel­man­nen, Sval­bard­pos­ten

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