Today (Satur­day, 27 April) at 9 a.m., the start­ing shot for the Sval­bard Ski­ma­ra­thon 2019 was fired by Sys­sel­mann Kjers­tin Askholt.

Sys­sel­mann Kjers­tin Askholt is rea­dy to fire the start­ing shot for the Sval­bard Ski­ma­ra­thon 2019.

The moment when the 2019 com­pe­ti­ti­on was a fact must have come as a bit of a reli­ef for the orga­nisers. The strong tha­wing during the week befo­re Eas­ter took a hea­vy toll on the snow con­di­ti­ons, and the rou­te had to be moved on a short war­ning. Today’s Ski­ma­ra­thon takes the par­ti­ci­pan­ts across Advent­da­len and a short turn into Mälard­a­len, then along the coast of Advent­fjord to Hior­th­hamn and Advent City and final­ly into Hanas­kog­da­len and then back again.

Start of the Sval­bard Ski­ma­ra­thon 2019.

In addi­ti­on comes the strike of the SAS pilots. Many had hoped that Lon­gye­ar­by­en would be excluded from the strike as the­re are no alter­na­ti­ve means of get­ting here and away regu­lar­ly available other than fly­ing. Buses and trains are obvious­ly not an opti­on, in con­trast to many cities in main­land Scan­di­na­via. But the SAS flight Fri­day after­noon was can­cel­led and more can­cel­la­ti­ons are likely to fol­low.

How many regis­tered par­ti­ci­pan­ts were unable to fly to Lon­gye­ar­by­en is not known, but it is likely to be more than just a handfull. And a few days ago, the num­ber of par­ti­ci­pan­ts was alre­a­dy a bit lower than in 2018: about 800 in con­trast to about 700. The­se figu­res are not final, as par­ti­ci­pan­ts could regis­ter up to Fri­day evening, some­thing that some locals always do, depen­ding on their moti­va­ti­on sta­tus of the day and the wea­ther fore­cast.

Pre-race award cerem­o­ny 🙂

Today’s Sval­bard Ski­ma­ra­thon is the 27th one. It is one of the lar­gest regu­lar events in the calen­dar for Lon­gye­ar­by­en, attrac­ting inter­na­tio­nal par­ti­ci­pan­ts from many count­ries.

A gre­at day with much fun to all par­ti­ci­pan­ts and all others invol­ved!