Two snow mobi­les bro­ke through the sur­face of the fast ice in Mohn­buk­ta at the east coast of Spits­ber­gen. Nobo­dy suf­fe­r­ed any inju­ries. Both belon­ged to a group of nine snow mobi­les with locals from Lon­gye­ar­by­en out on a pri­va­te tour. Accor­ding to offi­cals, the group had been careful and exer­cis­ed good prac­ti­ce. Short­ly befo­re the inci­dent, they had mea­su­red the ice thic­k­ness to be clo­se to 70 cm, a value that usual­ly indi­ca­tes safe con­di­ti­ons.

As the indi­vi­du­al dri­vers had kept suf­fi­ci­ent­ly lar­ge distance bet­ween their vehic­les, fol­lo­wing ones could avo­id dri­ving into the dan­ger zone. The dri­vers of the snow mobi­les that had bro­ken through the sur­face mana­ged to get off and onto safe ice. The group could retrie­ve both snow mobi­les with ropes, avo­i­ding loss of equp­ment and fuel in the envi­ron­ment. Imme­dia­te­ly after the inci­dent, they infor­med the Sys­sel­man­nen in case anyo­ne had seen them and rai­sed alarm.

On tour on the ice in Mohn­buk­ta on the east coast of Spits­ber­gen: beau­tiful, but never enti­re­ly risk-free.

The inci­dent, which hap­pen­ed yes­ter­day (Satur­day), shows that fjord ice is never an enti­re­ly risk-free envi­ron­ment for tra­vel­ling. Even with careful beha­viour, risk can­not be ful­ly excluded. Care and quick avai­li­bii­ty of safe­ty equip­ment (ropes and “ispig­ger”, kind of nails with hand­les or some­thing simi­lar that helps you in the worst case to get out from the water and back onto ice) can safe lives.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten