Sun
24 Mar
2019

The days are get­ting lon­ger, and time is just fly­ing! Now we have alre­a­dy had this year’s spring equin­ox. The equa­to­ri­al pla­ne of the Earth pas­sed through the cent­re of the sun on Wed­nes­day (20 March) at 21.58 hours (UT = uni­ver­sal time = GMT). From now on, the days are lon­ger again than the nights on the nor­t­hern hemi­sphe­re, and the fur­ther north you are, the more light and the less dark­ness.

This means that the cur­rent nor­t­hern light sea­son in Spits­ber­gen is now slow­ly coming to an end. On Satur­day (16 March) we had ano­ther ama­zing celes­ti­al per­for­mance. A stun­ning auro­ra borea­lis, inten­se, vibrant, fast.

Auroa bora­lis abo­ve Ope­raf­jel­let.
The nor­t­hern light sea­son in Spits­ber­gen is now coming to an end.

This nor­t­hern light was defi­ni­te­ly abo­ve avera­ge! To cap­tu­re the very fast move­ment, I used shut­ter times of up (or, rather, down) to 0.3 seconds, and even that was pro­ba­b­ly too slow to cap­tu­re the fili­gra­ne, but very lively struc­tures (click here to read more about nor­t­hern lights and how to pho­to­graph them).

Aureo­le (or dome) of nor­t­hern light abo­ve Advent­da­len.

The last days were full, the­re was just no time to wri­te new blog ent­ries … the­re will be more soon.

Tue
12 Mar
2019

Sola e’ til­ba­ke! That was the mot­to of the day last Fri­day (seve­ral day ago alre­a­dy, time is run­ning!), which was THE big day: sol­fest – sun fest – in Lon­gye­ar­by­en!

As men­tio­ned, the sun has actual­ly retur­ned to the lower part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, near Advent­fjord, seve­ral days befo­re …

Sun in lower Lon­gye­ar­by­en, Fri­day (8.3.) mor­ning.

… but as tho­se parts of Lon­gye­ar­by­en did not exist back then, the sol­fest is tra­di­tio­nal­ly and duly cele­bra­ted on 08 March, short­ly after 12.30 hours, as the sun returns to the stairs of the old hos­pi­tal. This old hos­pi­tal buil­ding is long gone, but the stairs from the back door are still the­re. Actual­ly, the stairs are said to be a recon­s­truc­tion so peo­p­le know whe­re to cele­bra­te, but any­way … they are next to the kin­der­gar­ten clo­se to the Sval­bard church. So that is whe­re ever­y­bo­dy meets on sol­fest-day at 12.30 hours. Hundreds of peo­p­le gather to wel­co­me and cele­bra­te the sun! Espe­ci­al­ly the child­ren, dres­sed as litt­le suns, real­ly sweet. Ever­y­bo­dy is sin­ging and chee­ring the sun up, who is doing her best to climb abo­ve the moun­tain: Sol! Sol! Komm igjen! Sola er min bes­te venn! – Sun! Sun! Come on! The sun is my best fri­end! The rhy­me does not real­ly work in Eng­lish, well.

Sun­ri­se abo­ve Lars Hier­taf­jel­let during the sol­fest in Lon­gye­ar­by­en,
Fri­day noon (8.3.).

And final­ly, here she is! The sun, bright as ever, clim­bs over the rim of Lars Hier­ta­fel­let, behind Lars­breen, and the­re is gre­at chee­ring and jubi­la­ti­on. It is real­ly an emo­tio­nal moment! The­re has not been any direct sun­light in Lon­gye­ar­by­en during 5 months, due to the moun­ta­ins around the sett­le­ment.

Sun­ny view towards Gips­hu­ken and Bil­lefjord.

Yes, the sun is back. It is gre­at to be out­side, to enjoy the light-floo­ded land­scape and to feel the sun on the skin.

Sun over Nor­dens­ki­öld Land.

But, it is and remains icy cold, the ther­mo­me­ter is rather con­stant­ly some­whe­re near minus 20 degrees cen­ti­gra­de. The­re is fresh ice near the shore of Advent­fjord, but a solid ice cover just does not want to form in spi­te of the cold. The warm water sup­p­ly coming with the West Spits­ber­gen Cur­rent (“Gulf Stream”) is inex­haus­ti­ble, I guess. Unfort­u­na­te­ly. A fro­zen Advent­fjord, that would be gre­at. We have not had that for quite a few years.

Fresh ice forming near the shore of Advent­fjord, in Hior­th­hamn.

Sat
9 Mar
2019

The win­ter keeps show­ing off with cold, sta­ble wea­ther and the sun is clim­bing a tiny litt­le bit hig­her every day. We make use of such grand con­di­ti­ons as often as pos­si­ble to enjoy the out­doors in this ama­zing coun­try, to which the light is now retur­ning with might.

Sas­send­a­len.

Here, we are in Sas­send­a­len. It is big and wide, one of Spitsbergen’s lar­gest val­leys. At this time of year, it is one of the most fre­quent­ly used snow mobi­le rou­tes, to the east coast or to Tem­pel­fjord. But it is so big that it is easy to find a silent cor­ner wit­hout traf­fic.

Hiking in Sas­send­a­len.

We park our snow mobi­les in such a silent cor­ner and start hiking up a gent­le, but end­less slo­pe. You could hike a who­le, long day here wit­hout real­ly get­ting some­whe­re, but get­ting some­whe­re is not the point here. Just being here is the point. It seems a bit other­world­ly. The light, the land­scape … the wind has blown the snow away from many sur­faces. The coun­try appears very bar­ren. Nevert­hel­ess, many reinde­er roam here, try­ing to find some food.

Reinde­er in polar-desert-like land­scape, loo­king for food.

Later, we dri­ve north, towards Tem­pel­fjord. We have been here some weeks ago alre­a­dy. Today, the land­scape shi­nes in com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent light, the inten­si­ty of which is impos­si­ble to grasp with a few words unless you are Shea­k­e­speare.

View from the moun­tain Fjord­nib­ba into Tem­pel­fjord.

Even under “nor­mal” light con­di­ti­ons, the view from the litt­le moun­tain Fjord­nib­ba over Sas­senfjord and Tem­pel­fjord is stun­nin­gly beau­tiful. Whoe­ver crea­ted this land­scape must have been in excel­lent mood that day. Ama­zing.

And then in this light …

Gla­cier front of Tunab­reen in Tem­pel­fjord in sun­set light.

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You just can’t spend enough time in such places! I just have to return as often as I can.

And the timing is just per­fect right now. It is just befo­re 4 p.m., the sun is about to dis­ap­pear behind the moun­ta­ins, cas­ting the last direct light of day in fire-red colour over moun­ta­ins, fjords and gla­ciers.

Sun­set over Sas­senfjord and Nor­dens­ki­öld Land.

Inner Tem­pel­fjord is lar­ge­ly fro­zen solid – only at Fred­heim, the ice has bro­ken up recent­ly – and now the­re is a fresh ice cover forming also fur­ther out in Sas­senfjord. Let’s see how far far the deve­lo­p­ment goes this sea­son. Here, we have the view towards Dia­ba­sod­den in outer Sas­senfjord.

View from Fjord­nib­ba to Sas­senfjord and Dia­ba­sod­den.

A final litt­le excur­si­on takes us from the moun­tain down to sea level at Fred­heim. It is icy cold today, air tem­pe­ra­tures are around -25 degrees cen­ti­gra­de. The cold beco­mes visi­ble in the colours, which ran­ge from pink through pur­ple to blue. Colours of frost and ice.

Ice on the shore in Tem­pel­fjord at Fred­heim.

Final­ly, a last view into Tem­pel­fjord. As I said, colours of the cold! A pic­tu­re can give you an idea of the colours – just an idea, but at least – but it does not deli­ver the sounds. The silence is one thing, the sound of the ice yet ano­ther. The ice is con­stant­ly working on the shore, being moved by the tides and pos­si­bly by some waves fur­ther out, in open water. The ice is groa­ning and moa­ning, squea­king and sque­al­ing. Not load, but con­stant­ly.

Ice on the shore of Tem­pel­fjord at Fred­heim.

Final­ly, my cur­rent ceter­um cen­seo: I have made a new pho­to book, focus­sing on aeri­al pho­to­gra­phy and thus show­ing the Arc­tic from a very unsu­al per­spec­ti­ve. In theo­ry, the book is in Ger­man, but in prac­ti­ce, it does hard­ly have text. 134 out of 137 pages do just have stun­ning pho­tos, pla­cen­a­mes and a litt­le map.

Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (2) – Aeri­al Arc­tic shows Jan May­en and Sval­bard from the air.

Rolf’s new pho­to book Nor­we­gens ark­ti­scher Nor­den (2) – Aeri­al Arc­tic shows Jan May­en and Spits­ber­gen from a new and stun­ning per­spec­ti­ve.

Wed
6 Mar
2019

Spits­ber­gen was under full con­trol of the polar night just a few weeks ago, but now the light is retur­ning with full force. The sun is get­ting hig­her up on the sky every day, and around mid-day, the migh­ty Hiorth­fjel­let is alre­a­dy ful­ly expo­sed to the sun.

The return of the sun is cele­bra­ted for one week in Lon­gye­ar­by­en with the tra­di­tio­nal “Sol­fest­u­ke” (sun fes­ti­val week) with a ran­ge of events. The first one was a fire­work on the night sky 🙂

Nor­t­hern light in Advent­da­len.

The sun, hers­elf obvious­ly not visi­ble, had cle­ar­ly in pret­ty good mood, let­ting off steam towards us out here in space. The who­le spec­ta­cle las­ted for a while, so we could chan­ge poso­ti­on and per­spec­ti­ve.

Nor­t­hern light abo­ve Sar­ko­fa­gen south of Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

The “Spits­ber­gen­re­vye” is the tra­di­tio­nal ope­ner of the Sol­fest­u­ke. The revye brings events and peo­p­le on the sce­ne of old Huset in Lon­gye­ar­by­en which have moved peo­p­le here in one or ano­ther way in the year that has pas­sed. Sati­re, humour and music are defi­ni­te­ly part of the event. Good fun, espe­ci­al­ly if you under­stand Nor­we­gi­an with a nor­t­hern colou­ra­ti­on and you have done your home­work and fol­lo­wed Sval­bard­pos­ten (or this blog!).

Spits­ber­gen­re­vye in Huset. Sun fes­ti­val week, Lon­gye­ar­by­en.
Polar bears and coal mining are always part of the show.

Ano­ther tra­di­tio­nal part of the Sun fes­ti­val week is a church ser­vice – out­doors at Tel­el­in­ken on the slo­pe of Hiorth­fjel­let, whe­re you see the sun ear­lier than in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Wea­ther per­mit­ting, that is. And it was clear and sun­ny! But cold … below -20 degrees cen­ti­gra­de, and win­dy. Cold.

Open air church ser­vice at Tel­el­in­ken (I). Sun fes­ti­val week, Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Open air church ser­vice at Tel­el­in­ken (I). Sun fes­ti­val week, Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

In Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the sun will shi­ne “offi­ci­al­ly” again on 08 March. Prac­ti­cal­ly, it is actual­ly a bit ear­lier as you can see on the next pho­to.

Sval­bard Snøs­ku­te­rut­leie in the sun – on 05 March.

The sun was shi­ning on Sval­bard Snøs­ku­te­rut­leie, lower­most in Lon­gye­ar­by­en near Advent­fjord and Advent­da­len, on Tues­day, 05 March!

Nevert­hel­ess, 08 March is the cor­rect date for historical/traditional reasons (unless it is a leap year). The lower­most part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, whe­re the sun is shi­ning a few days ear­lier, did not exist back then. As soon as the sun is seen from in Skjæringa, the oldest part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en whe­re among­st others Sval­bard Kir­ke (the church) is loca­ted, it is time to cele­bra­te – that will be on Fri­day!

Sat
2 Mar
2019

Febru­ary can be a beau­tiful month in Spits­ber­gen. Espe­ci­al­ly if it is nice and cold and not as bat­te­red by cli­ma­te chan­ge as last year, when warm air incur­si­ons brought seve­ral peri­ods of tha­wing and rain. This year, we have had good frost for most of the time in Febru­ary. Cold, clear wea­ther and not too much wind. The sun is still lar­ge­ly behind the hori­zon and hid­den by moun­ta­ins, but the moun­tain tops star­ted glo­wing a good week ago and we have had the first rays of suns­hi­ne on our fro­zen noses! You still have to do a litt­le trip to enjoy that plea­su­re, the sun won’t reach Lon­gye­ar­by­en befo­re 08 March.

Lon­gye­ar­by­en Cam­ping is still a quiet place.

The avera­ge tem­pe­ra­tu­re in Febru­ary was -11.1°C, “only” 5.1 degrees abo­ve the long-term avera­ge which is defi­ned as the avera­ge from 1961-1990. Five degrees abo­ve a “nor­mal” tem­pe­ra­tu­re that is impos­si­ble to reach now! That is still a lot. Nevert­hel­ess, a month­ly avera­ge of -11.1°C invol­ves a lot of fine frost. Even the fjord, Advent­fjord, seems to con­sider free­zing over again, just for a chan­ge. This has not hap­pen­ed in many years. It is unli­kely to hap­pen this year eit­her, but the­re is at least some initi­al ice for­ma­ti­on in pro­tec­ted in-shore cor­ners.

Ice in Advent­fjord and sun on Hiorth­fjel­let and Advent­top­pen.

You still have to make sure you get out around mid-day to catch some direct sun­rays. An after­noon trip does not bring any­thing but twi­light. Which can of cour­se also be beau­tiful, but if you want the see the sun, then this is not the real thing.

Out with ski and dogs: “rope ski­ing” (snø­rek­jøring) in Advent­da­len.

Hiorth­fjel­let, the cha­rac­te­ristic moun­tain oppo­si­te of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, is a very popu­lar place the­se days. Half-way up the slo­pe, the­re is a hut with some lar­ge anten­nas, which is local­ly known as Tel­el­in­ken. Per­fect­ly pla­ced on a slo­pe facing south with a fan­ta­stic view over Advent­fjord and a good place to catch some first sun­rays!

First sun over Advent­fjord.

The air tem­pe­ra­tu­re is minus 20 degrees cen­ti­gra­de, but we enjoy the first direct sun­rays on tho­se few squa­re cen­ti­me­t­res of expo­sed skin that we have had for some time …

Arc­tic sun wor­ship­per.

… and the ama­zing light that the low sun brings back to this cold island.

Sun­ny views of some moun­tain tops in Nor­dens­ki­öld Land.

The­re is not yet much wild­life bey­ond tho­se spe­ci­es that spend the win­ter here, arc­tic fox and reinde­er. Recent­ly, still in dark time, the­re was a com­mon eider near the shore in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. That one has pro­ba­b­ly spent the win­ter in Advent­fjord, some­thing that is not com­mon but not unhe­ard of eit­her. A kit­ty­wa­ke has been seen some days ago.

Tracks of an arc­tic fox on Hiorth­fjel­let.