View through Eskerdalen, Sassendalen in the distance
in the dawn of the early polar day in February.
The start of our little excursion was admittedly a bit bumpy. First we had to drag a car out of a deep snow hole that a supposed turning around area had turned out to be. It was not the first time that f§/%!”=g hole has fooled someone. We should put up a sign …
View over outer Tempelfjord towards Isfjord.
Also the snow mobiles don’t want to do what we want them to do, something these things quite often do. But finally we are off and on the road. It is a bit fresh today, well below -20°C around Longyearbyen and certainly not far from -30 in Sassendalen and Tempelfjord. A colleage who was on the east coast today said later that he estimated the air temperature on the glaciers around -40°C … as mentioned, it is fresh today.
It is not just the air that is icy, so are the fjords as well. There is a continuous layer of ice stretching from Fredheim into Tempelfjord. Also Sassenfjord – the continuation of Tempelfjord towards Isfjord – shows clear signs of freezing. If this only continued! We will see what happens the next weeks.
Lukas enjoys the amazing views over Tempelfjord.
After enjoying the amazing views from the little mountain Fjordnibba, we make a little excursion to Fredheim, the famous hut built by the even more famous trapper Hilmar Nøis. He started building Fredheim in 1924 and turned it into a real home during the years to come. In 2015, Fredheim was moved a few metres higher up and away from the coast that was slowly appraching the historical huts due to coastal erosion.
We enjoy the place, the great scenery, the cold, the ice, the light and last but not least some hot soup for a while before we start moving back home. The days are still short, but it is amazing how quickly the light is coming back.