Update (21 Decem­ber): The wea­ther has cal­med down again and after che­cking rele­vant ava­lan­che-pro­ne slo­pes, the aut­ho­ri­ties have deci­ded to lift the traf­fic ban that was imple­men­ted on Mon­day.
The evacua­tions from last week, con­cer­ning the upper row of hou­ses in Lia, remains in force until fur­ther noti­ce (end of update).

It seems almost stran­ge: exact­ly 2 years after the fatal ava­lan­che in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the wea­ther fore­cast for today (19 Decem­ber) seems almost exact­ly the same as it was just befo­re snow mas­ses kil­led two peo­p­le in their homes on 19 Decem­ber, 2015. Winds up to 20 m/s from sou­the­as­ter­ly direc­tions and strong pre­ci­pi­ta­ti­on are expec­ted during the evening.

For tonight, a com­me­mo­ra­ti­on cerem­o­ny was sche­du­led for the vic­tims of the fatal 2015 ava­lan­che. But it seems as if many people’s atten­ti­on will rather be deman­ded by today’s situa­ti­on and events. Some days ago, the Sys­sel­man­nen had alre­a­dy issued an order to evacua­te parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en. This was to be in force on 22 Decem­ber and based on the gene­ral ava­lan­che risk, rather than the actu­al wea­ther and ava­lan­che situa­ti­on. After new wea­ther fore­casts were released, this mea­su­re came into force alre­a­dy yes­ter­day (18 Decem­ber) at 22 p.m.

At the same time, the evacua­ti­on zone was exten­ded to include more hou­ses in Lia, the part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en that was hit in 2015 (“Spiss­hus­e­ne”, the colou­red woo­den hou­ses bet­ween the cent­re and the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen) and parts of Nyby­en (all hou­ses on the east side of the road).

The evacua­tions are in force until fur­ther noti­ce. Some addres­ses may not be acces­si­ble for months.

Lar­ge parts of Nyby­en and Lia in Lon­gye­ar­by­en are now evacua­ted becau­se of the cur­rent and gene­ral ava­lan­che risk.

Soon it will be two years ago that the ava­lan­che came down from the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen that des­troy­ed ele­ven hou­ses and took two lives. The­re will be a memo­ri­al cerem­o­ny in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on the day, 19 Decem­ber.

The­re has been – and still is – a lot of tal­king about the ava­lan­che risk in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on all levels. It seems obvious that the­re have been negle­cts on various public levels, but it was said offi­ci­al­ly that the­re is no insti­tu­ti­on or indi­vi­du­al that may legal­ly be held respon­si­ble.

And the­re is, of cour­se, the ques­ti­on of how to deal with the ava­lan­che risk in future. An offi­ci­al report about the ava­lan­che situa­ti­on has deter­mi­ned that a lar­ge num­ber of hou­ses in Lon­gye­ar­by­en is expo­sed to various levels of ava­lan­che risk. A local war­ning sys­tem has been estab­lished, which has pro­du­ced mixed results so far; on one occa­si­on, the sys­tem pro­du­ced a fal­se secu­ri­ty state­ment that was spec­ta­cu­lar­ly wrong. Two hou­ses were des­troy­ed on that occa­si­on, and it was a mat­ter of luck that the­re was no loss of human life. Instru­ments to mea­su­re the thic­k­ness of the snow lay­er have been instal­led on various slo­pes clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The­se instru­ments are sup­po­sed to pro­vi­de real-time data about snow accu­mu­la­ti­on in loca­ti­ons whe­re peo­p­le had to mea­su­re manu­al­ly in the past, some­thing that is often dif­fi­cult or even impos­si­ble in situa­tions of seve­re wea­ther when an increased risk has to be assu­med. But that is obvious­ly exact­ly when you need that kind of data, so the­se new deci­ves are expect to make a signi­fi­cant impro­ve­ment to the ava­lan­che war­ning sys­tem.

Ava­lan­che bar­riers are ano­ther mea­su­re expec­ted in the future, but they are not the­re yet, almost two years after the big, tra­gic 2015 event. Evacua­ting parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, on a situa­ti­ve or per­ma­nent basis, is also one of the opti­ons which are dis­cus­sed. The finan­cial aspects of all that is yet ano­ther issue.

It does, howe­ver, not cost the public much to evacua­te cer­tain addres­ses on a pre­ven­ti­ve basis. Evacua­ting parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en has beco­me a stan­dard pro­ce­du­re during win­ters sin­ce late 2015. Yes­ter­day (14 Decem­ber), the Sys­sel­man­nen has issued an order that cer­tain addres­ses have to be left until 22 Decem­ber until fur­ther noti­ce. This mea­su­re is expec­ted to be in force until the snow is gone, which means, the hou­ses will not be available for months.

The­se parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en (mark­ed red) will be evacua­ted from 22 Decem­ber until fur­ther noti­ce. The com­ple­te map is available from the Sys­sel­man­nen.

So far, evacua­tions were made in or befo­re an actu­al risk situa­ti­on, based on snow con­di­ti­ons, wea­ther fore­casts etc. This time, howe­ver, the­re is no such base for the evacua­ti­on, some­thing that beco­mes clear from the time span of 8 days bet­ween the issue of the evacua­ti­on order and the date (22 Dec) when it actual­ly enters force. Sys­sel­man­nen Kjers­tin Askholt says “The ban on traf­fic is based on the risk eva­lua­ti­on for indi­vi­du­als and public safe­ty, becau­se this area is espe­ci­al­ly expo­sed to ava­lan­ches. The cur­rent prac­ti­ce with a local ava­lan­che war­ning sys­tem and pos­si­ble evacua­tions, based on tech­ni­cal advice from ava­lan­che experts, does not exclude a high resi­du­al risk and remai­ning uncer­tain­ties, so the hou­ses in ques­ti­on can not be used while the­re are no mea­su­res for ava­lan­che safe­ty in place” (Sys­sel­man­nen, auhtor’s trans­la­ti­on).

Are­as con­cer­ned are addres­ses in way 222 and 226, which are loca­ted direct­ly next to the moun­tain Suk­ker­top­pen, but may be exten­ded to other are­as at any time as dee­med neces­sa­ry by aut­ho­ri­ties.

Evacua­ting a num­ber of hou­ses for a lon­ger peri­od of time based on gene­ral pre­cau­tio­na­ry reasons rather than an actu­al risk situa­ti­on appears to be a dra­stic step, com­pared to the impact that this has on the lives of tho­se who have to lea­ve their homes for months. The­re are tho­se who have, next to their home in the area con­cer­ned, ren­ted a place else­whe­re in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on a per­ma­nent basis, some­thing that obvious­ly invol­ves high cos­ts and this is not a con­tri­bu­ti­on to the alre­a­dy dif­fi­cult housing mar­ket in Lon­gye­ar­by­en eit­her. Tho­se who own a place in the area that is affec­ted, are also faced with a sub­stan­ti­al­ly dif­fi­cult situa­ti­on.

Not a glo­rious chap­ter for poli­tics, con­side­ring the cur­rent deve­lo­p­ment star­ted with the ava­lan­ce in Decem­ber 2015 – two years ago.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen

During a walk on any of Spitsbergen’s beau­tiful bea­ches, you can’t help it but be ama­zed about the impres­si­ve amounts of drift­wood. Not only does it add a aes­the­ti­cal aspect to the other­wi­se rather ste­ri­le shore­li­ne, but it does also have a fasci­na­ting histo­ry: Just as Fri­dt­jof Nan­sen did with his famous ship the Fram, did the wood drift all the way from Sibe­ria with the pack ice across the Arc­tic Oce­an and all the way to the north Atlan­tic, whe­re it was thrown onto an arc­tic beach in Sval­bard, Green­land, Ice­land, Jan May­en or Frans Josef Land.

Drift­wood at Wig­dehl­pyn­ten – Wood­fjord, Spits­ber­gen

And the­re we have it. If you are a trap­per, you can use it to build a hut (that was rare­ly done, too much effort) or as fire­wood (that was very com­mon). I am not a trap­per, but a pho­to­grapher, so it was an obvious idea to use the drift­wood to make pic­tu­re frames. Can you ima­gi­ne a more appro­pria­te pic­tu­re frame for arc­tic pic­tures than one made of drift­wood from Spits­ber­gen?

Tur­ning drif­tood into pic­tu­re frames requi­red more effort than we expec­ted to begin with. We made the first serious attempts seve­ral years ago, when mas­ter car­pen­ter Wolf­gang Zach ope­ned his carpenter’s work­shop in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. He cal­led his litt­le com­pa­ny “Alt i 3”, which is a play of words: “3” is “tre” in Nor­we­gi­an, which also means “tree” or “wood” at the same time. So it trans­la­tes to “Ever­y­thing out of wood”. We found also out that you do actual­ly need a licen­se to export drift­wood from Spits­ber­gen, so that was ano­ther thing we had to take care of.

So I star­ted coll­ec­ting drift­wood in small amounts. The first pro­ject was a books­helf for our flat in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, and at the same time we star­ted making the first pro­to­ty­pes of pic­tu­re frames. We just had to find out what works well with this very spe­cial mate­ri­al. One of the dis­co­veries that we made was that if you cut and sand it, it looks as fresh and new as a woo­den board that you just bought in the buil­ding sup­p­ly store. Which is of cour­se not the idea with pic­tu­re frames made from arc­tic drift­wood. So I star­ted loo­king for pie­ces of wood that had a good shape to start with. Most pie­ces of drift­wood are not natu­ral, but rather trees cut in forestry in Sibe­ria or even rea­dy-made boards. Com­ple­te­ly natu­ral drift­wood – trees with roots – are actual­ly quite rare.

Rolf Stan­ge trans­port­ing drift­wood to Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

I took this drift­wood in small amounts to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, were it had to be stored and slow­ly dried over lon­ger peri­ods of time. Then, Wolf­gang and I could start making the first pic­tu­re frames in his carpenter’s work­shop. After some expe­ri­men­ting, we had a pro­to­ty­pe that we both lik­ed, so the mas­ter car­pen­ter could start to pro­du­ce the first set of 16 pic­tu­re frames – all of them were made by Wolf­gang Zach in Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Now, the­se had to get to Ger­ma­ny. If you know me, then it won’t sur­pri­se you to read that they tra­vel­led from Spits­ber­gen to Fra­n­eker in the Net­her­lands on the good sai­ling ship Anti­gua and from the­re via Müns­ter and Dres­den to my ship­ping depart­ment in nor­the­as­tern Ger­ma­ny.

After this long jour­ney from Sibe­ria, down a river, with the ice across the Arc­tic Oce­an to a beach in Spits­ber­gen, from the­re to Lon­gye­ar­by­en to Wolfang’s carpenter’s work­shop, from the­re on a sai­ling ship to Euro­pe. And the­re they are now, the very first series of 16 pic­tu­re frames from Spits­ber­gen drift­wood, available for the first time sin­ce Novem­ber 2017.

Every sin­gle pic­tu­re frame is a uni­que spe­ci­men. This has to do with the histo­ry of the wood, the natu­ral cha­rac­ter of the mate­ri­al, the manu­al pro­duc­tion. So I took pho­to­graphs of all frames, which you can see on this page (click here), which also has all the tech­ni­cal infor­ma­ti­on (dimen­si­ons, pri­ce etc.)

A new pan­ora­ma on this site gives a 360 degree view of Ball­stad on Ves­t­vå­gøy, one of the Lofo­ten islands in north Nor­way. I shot it free­hand and the wea­ther was quite typi­cal Novem­ber.

In Febru­ary, the Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018 takes us to the east coast. In the win­ter sea­son, this is a popu­lar desti­na­ti­on for snow­mo­bi­le day-trips, enab­ling rela­tively many peo­p­le to see this grand win­ter sce­n­ery. Storfjor­den is fro­zen to fast ice here in Mohn­buk­ta, and some smal­ler bits and pie­ces of gla­cier ice are stuck in the ice. They bro­ke off last sum­mer from the com­bi­ned gla­cier fronts of Königsbergbreen/Hayesbreen/Heuglinbreen, of which we can see a small part in the back­ground.

It is quite com­mon that polar bears are roa­ming through this icy land­scape. We will see if we are lucky enough to spot them some­whe­re later …

The sun is just start­ing to rise abo­ve the hori­zon in Spits­ber­gen in mid-Febru­ary, and the days are still short. It is still too ear­ly for lon­ger trips. But the light can be breath­ta­kin­gly beau­tiful!

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­dar 2018: Febru­ary. Ice-land­scape on the east coast.

The wreck of the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter that cra­s­hed into Isfjord clo­se to Barents­burg pre­vious Thurs­day was lifted last night. The spe­cial ship Maersk For­za was brought to Spits­ber­gen for this task and com­ple­ted the work suc­cessful­ly on the night from Fri­day to Satur­day. The­re were 8 per­sons on board the MI-8-heli­c­op­ter when it cra­s­hed, inclu­ding 5 crew mem­bers and 3 sci­en­tists. One body had alre­a­dy been found some days ago about 130 m away from the wreck. The­re is no trace so far from the other crew mem­bers, and the search for them will be con­tin­ued.

The cock­pit voice recor­der could secu­red tog­e­ther with GPS units which are expec­ted to have the actu­al flight track saved. They will be brought to Mosk­va for fur­ther inves­ti­ga­ti­ons.

Mean­while, ques­ti­ons are rai­sed regar­ding the cau­se of the crash and the cir­cum­s­tances of the flight. The data recor­ders that were secu­red are likely to shed light on the actu­al crash. It seems that the flight was not legal accor­ding to appli­ca­ble Nor­we­gi­an legis­la­ti­on. The Nor­we­gi­an flight per­mit issued to the ope­ra­tor covers only flights in direct com­bi­na­ti­on to the ope­ra­ti­ons of the mining com­pa­ny Trust Ark­ti­ku­gol, for exam­p­le trans­port of com­pa­ny employees bet­ween Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Barents­burg. Com­mer­cial flights and trans­por­ta­ti­on of tou­rists and sci­en­tists are expli­ci­te­ly excluded.

The­re were 3 sci­en­tists on board the heli­c­op­ter when it cra­s­hed.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

The wreck of the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter that cra­s­hed into Isfjord last week was iden­ti­fied on pho­tos taken by a dive robo­ter from the rese­arch ves­sel Ossi­an Sars. The MI-8 heli­c­op­ter is lying on the sea flo­or at a depth of 209 met­res in Isfjord, about 2 km from the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter base at Heerod­den clo­se to Barents­burg.

One body was found in a distance of 130 met­res to the wreck. It is alre­a­dy in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The­re is no hope that any of the 8 peo­p­le in the heli­c­op­ter, 5 crew and 3 sci­en­tists, sur­vi­ved.

The Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ty for traf­fic dis­as­ters (Sta­tens hava­ri­kom­mis­jon for trans­port, SHT) is now in char­ge of fur­ther inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. A sal­va­ge ves­sel is expec­ted to arri­ve in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on Thurs­day. The uplif­ting ope­ra­ti­ons will start as soon as the ves­sel is in posi­ti­on at the acci­dent site. Rus­si­an spe­cia­lists are in Lon­gye­ar­by­en to sup­port the Nor­we­gi­an forces under Nor­we­gi­an lea­der­ship. When the wreck is lifted, it will be taken to the Nor­we­gi­an main­land for fur­ther inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. SHT is curr­ent­ly con­duc­ting inter­views with wit­nesses and coll­ec­ting various data inclu­ding wea­ther, the con­di­ti­on of the heli­c­op­ter, qua­li­fi­ca­ti­on of the crew and more.

Source: SHT

The wreck of the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter that went miss­ing on Thurs­day after­noon is now most likely found. A ROV (Remo­te­ly Ope­ra­ted Vehic­le) of the Nor­we­gi­an Navy has loca­li­zed an object at a depth of 209 met­res on the sea flo­or that appears to be the wreck of the MI-8 heli­c­op­ter. The ROV named “Hugin” and ano­ther ROV of the rese­arch ves­sel Ossi­an Sars will con­ti­nue to gather data to iden­ti­fy the object and to find the miss­ing per­sons. The­re were 8 peo­p­le in the heli­c­op­ter when it cra­s­hed on Thurs­day. No traces of sur­vi­vors could be found.

The posi­ti­on is 2.2 kilo­me­t­res nor­the­ast of the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter base at Heerod­den clo­se to Barents­burg.

A Rus­si­an aero­pla­ne has brought divers and other spe­cia­lists from Rus­sia to Lon­gye­ar­by­en to take part in the ope­ra­ti­on under Nor­we­gi­an lea­der­ship.

Sources: NRK, Sval­bard­pos­ten

The­re is no cer­tain­ty yet if the object that was loca­ted by echo­lot in a depth of 200-250 met­res on the sea flo­or in Isfjord, not far from the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter base at Heerod­den clo­se to Barents­burg, actual­ly is the wreck of the heli­c­op­ter. But the­re is no doubt that the MI-8 heli­c­op­ter did crash into Isfjord yes­ter­day. As more than 20 hours have gone by sin­ce the crash and the­re is no trace yet of any sur­vi­vors, hopes to find any of the 8 peo­p­le on board are get­ting smal­ler and smal­ler and the worst has to be feared.

Names of the 8 per­sons on board were alre­a­dy yes­ter­day released by Rus­si­an media. Now, also the respon­si­ble Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ty, the Res­cue Cent­re North Nor­way, has released the names offi­ci­al­ly.

The per­sons on board the heli­c­op­ter were

Pas­sen­gers (Sci­en­tists of the Insti­tuts for Arc­tic and Ant­ar­c­tic Rese­arch in St. Peters­burg):
Oleg Golo­va­nov
Niko­laj Fade­jev
Mak­sim Kau­lio

Crew:

Jev­ge­nij Bara­nov – Chief pilot
Vla­di­mir Fro­lov – Second pilot
Alek­sej Poul­jaus­kas – Mecha­nic
Marat Mikht­a­rov – Tech­ni­ci­an
Alek­sej Korol­jov – Engi­neer

The­re is hope until the oppo­si­te is pro­ven, and every effort is taken to con­ti­nue the search and find sur­vi­vors. Nor­we­gi­an SAR forces are on loca­ti­on with heli­c­op­ters, a spe­cial aero­pla­ne from the Nor­we­gi­an air­force, ships and boats. But the more time is going by, the more likely it seems that it is a tra­ge­dy wit­hout sur­vi­vors.

The Sys­sel­man­nen has estab­lished a cont­act pho­ne num­ber for rela­ti­ves and expres­ses deep sym­pa­thy with tho­se who are affec­ted. This is shared by the aut­hor of the­se lines, who­se thoughts and sym­pa­thy are also with tho­se who were in the heli­c­op­ter and their fami­ly, fri­ends and col­le­agues and all others who are invol­ved.

Accor­ding to inter­na­tio­nal law, Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ties are respon­si­ble for the inves­ti­ga­ti­on of the acci­dent. A hava­ry com­mis­si­on is alre­a­dy in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and will soon start to gather all infor­ma­ti­on that is available. But curr­ent­ly, the effort to find sur­vi­vors and the heli­c­op­ter are still the focus of all efforts.

Source: Sys­sel­man­nen, Sval­bard­pos­ten

The Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter that cra­s­hed on Thurs­day after­noon is pro­ba­b­ly found. Search-and-res­cue forces sen­sed a strong smell of fuel and saw air bubbles coming to the water sur­face at a cer­tain posi­ti­on in the area in ques­ti­on, in Isfjord, about 2-3 km from the heli­c­op­ter base at Heerod­den. A ship has found an object on the sea flo­or with the echo­lot that could be the wreck of the heli­c­op­ter or a part of it. This needs to be con­firm­ed, though. The depth is bet­ween 200 and 250 met­res, far bey­ond the reach of divers.

Alre­a­dy during the night, a diving robot (ROV = Remo­te­ly Ope­ra­ted Vehic­le) was brought from main­land Nor­way to Lon­gye­ar­by­en with a SAS pla­ne. The ROV will be ope­ra­ted at the alle­ged acci­dent site as soon as pos­si­ble. This has pro­ba­b­ly alre­a­dy hap­pen­ed at the time of wri­ting (08.30 local time on Fri­day mor­ning) or it may be going on right now.

The­re were 8 per­sons on board the heli­c­op­ter, and the search after sur­vi­vors is going on. SAR forces are sear­ching the near­by coast, east of Heerod­den. Heli­c­op­ters and ships are scan­ning the water. Accor­ding to all that is known, the worst has to be feared, but all efforts are taken to find sur­vi­vors. The Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter was of the type MI-8, which is equip­ped with a life raft and with lif­ting bodies that keep the heli­c­op­ter afloat at least for a while in case of a con­trol­led emer­gen­cy landing on the water sur­face. The fact that no emer­gen­cy signal was released by the crew makes it howe­ver doubtful that it was a con­trol­led emer­gen­cy landing. A sud­den, uncon­trol­led crash seems likely. Wit­nesses say they have heard a loud noi­se like a bang at the time in ques­ti­on.

Next to the 2 Nor­we­gi­an SAR heli­c­op­ters, the­re is a num­ber of ships and boats in the area: Polar­sys­sel (Sys­sel­man­nen), coast guard and boats from the tou­rism indus­try in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Initi­al­ly, the visi­bi­li­ty was redu­ced by snow fall, but the wea­ther is by now quite good, with litt­le wind and clear visi­bi­li­ty. The polar night has begun a cou­ple of days ago, so even around noon, the sun remains below the hori­zon, making light very scar­ce.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

The­re will be updates (see bot­tom end of this artic­le) as fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on beco­mes available.

A Rus­si­an MI-8 heli­c­op­ter cra­s­hed near Barents­burg and fell into the sea in Isfjord. The heli­c­op­ter was on the way from Pyra­mi­den to Barents­burg with 8 per­sons on board.

The emer­gen­cy call from the air­port tower Lon­gye­ar­by­en was recei­ved at 15.35 local time by the emer­gen­cy respon­se cent­re North Nor­way. Nor­we­gi­an search and res­cue (SAR) forces are on loca­ti­on with heli­c­op­ter and ships. The crash site is in the Isfjord, 2-3 kilo­me­t­res away from Heerod­den, the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ter base at Barents­burg.

No infor­ma­ti­on is curr­ent­ly available regar­ding the con­di­ti­on of the 8 per­sons on board. The­re is a bree­ze (7-8 m/s) and the visi­bi­li­ty is affec­ted by snow­fall.

Accor­ding to Nor­we­gi­an law, the Rus­si­an heli­c­op­ters in Spits­ber­gen are only allo­wed to fly for com­pa­ny pur­po­ses. Char­ter flights, for exam­p­le for film teams or sci­en­tists, are not per­mit­ted. This makes it likely that the 8 peo­p­le on board were employees of the owner of the heli­c­op­ter, Trust Ark­ti­ku­gol.

Update: next to the pilot (Bara­nov Evge­ny), co-pilot (Fro­lov Vla­di­mir), flight engi­neer (Alex­ei Pou­ly­aus­kas), a tech­ni­ci­an (Mihtar Marat), and an engi­neer (Koro­lev Alek­sey), the­re were 3 sci­en­tists of the Insti­tu­te for Arc­tic and Ant­ar­c­tic Rese­arch in St. Peters­burg on board: Golo­va­nov Oleg, Fade­ev Nicho­las, Kau­lio Mak­sim. The names were released in the Rus­si­an press.

Update: Dmit­rij Zjel­jaz­kov, direc­tor of Kon­vers Avia, the com­pa­ny that owns and ope­ra­tes the heli­c­op­ter, has told the Rus­si­an news agen­cy Tass that the 3 pas­sen­gers were miners of the Trust Ark­ti­ku­gol.

Source: NRK

In the high arc­tic, Janu­ary is icy cold – usual­ly at least. Some­ti­mes, spells of mild air mas­ses from the Atlan­tic can bring tem­pe­ra­tures fluc­tua­ting around zero degrees and rain. That was not total­ly unknown in the first half of the 20th cen­tu­ry eit­he, but it is cer­tain­ly more fre­quent in the times of cli­ma­te chan­ge. But nor­mal­ly, it is real­ly cold! The tem­pe­ra­tures will make every river and every water­fall free­ze solid.

The Janu­ary page of the Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018 shows the water­fall Hyperitt­fos­sen in De Geerd­a­len, about 20 km nor­the­ast of Lon­gye­ar­by­en as the ivo­ry gull flies. The water­mas­ses that fall down over basal­tic rock cliffs are quite impres­si­ve in the sum­mer. Now in the win­ter, the water is fro­zen to crea­te struc­tures like organ pipes. I used a rather extre­me 11 mm wide ang­le len­se to cap­tu­re the per­spec­ti­ve. It is not every year that the shapes of the fro­zen water­fall are so impres­si­ve: when I took this pan­ora­ma of Hyperitt­fos­sen some years ago, most of the icy struc­tures were hid­den under snow.

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­dar 2018: Janu­ary. Fro­zen water­fall.