Tue
2 Apr
2019

As beau­tiful as Longyearbyen’s sur­roun­dings are espe­ci­al­ly at this time of year, it is always temp­ting and actual­ly also gre­at to get fur­ther away from “civi­li­sa­ti­on”. We take the oppor­tu­ni­ty that the fine wea­ther pro­vi­des, pack the sled­ges and set cour­se east through Advent­da­len. Spitsbergen’s east coast, espe­ci­al­ly Mohn­buk­ta, is a clas­si­cal desti­na­ti­on for snow mobi­le tours in the late win­ter – now – for good reason, as you will see!

View over inner Advent­da­len.

It is cold, around minus 20 degrees cen­ti­gra­de as so often during the last cou­ple of weeks. Clear and calm.

The lar­ge morai­ne of Rabot­breen, east of Sas­send­a­len, may be an obs­ta­cle for some who are not used to dri­ving snow mobi­les, as the­re are some cur­ves, bends and litt­le slo­pes.

Dead gla­cier ice in the morai­ne of Rabot­breen.

For us, it is a gre­at and very impres­si­ve bit of land­scape. Just the sca­le is enorm­ous! And then the­re are some expo­sed bits of dead gla­cier ice, slow­ly mel­ting away, crea­ting some ama­zing shapes and colours on their way back to the glo­bal water cycle.

The litt­le ice cap Nord­manns­fon­na.

We con­ti­nue across Nord­manns­fon­na, a litt­le ice cap whe­re you get a lit­te impres­si­on of how it might be in cen­tral parts of Green­land or Ant­ar­c­ti­ca. It is of cour­se just a minia­tu­re ver­si­on of tho­se con­ti­nen­tal inland ice mas­ses, but for me this is enough. Honest­ly, I have never real­ly been keen on going to any pole, by bur­ning nuclear fuel to get to the north pole or by bur­ning end­less volu­mes of air­craft fuel to get to the south pole, whe­re tou­rists are not always real­ly given a warm wel­co­me by the crew of the Amund­sen-Scott South Pole Sta­ti­on. But any­way … I am get­ting off topic. I am hap­py here on Spitsbergen’s Nord­manns­fon­na and her rela­ti­ves around here 🙂

Wea­the­red ice­berg in Mohn­buk­ta.

We have rea­ched Mohn­buk­ta after a short dri­ve down ano­ther gla­cier. The bay and the wide waters of Storfjord are fro­zen solid as far as we can see, and we have a fan­ta­stic view all the way to Barent­søya and Edgeøya. The ice is a fan­ta­stic world in its­elf! The­re are some small (well, it is all rela­ti­ve), but beau­tiful­ly (abso­lut­e­ly!) wea­the­red ice­bergs fro­zen in the sea ice. We had some stun­ning spe­ci­mens here in ear­lier years, click here for some pan­ora­ma pho­tos of ’em.

Lunch break in Mohn­buk­ta.

A gre­at place for a litt­le lunch break 🙂

Then the­re is the gla­cier front of Hayes­breen as the scenic high­light of the day. Just stun­ning! Espe­ci­al­ly on a day like this. Now – it is late March – the sun is still low even around noon, which is when she is coming from the per­fect direc­tion to illu­mi­na­te this ama­zing ice cliff. A gre­at spec­ta­cle of ice, of colours, shapes and size!

Gla­cier front of Hayes­breen, Mohn­buk­ta (I).

Gla­cier front of Hayes­breen, Mohn­buk­ta (II).

Then … off again, and back home. We have still got more than 90 kilo­me­t­res ahead of us.

Way back home over Königs­berg­breen.

The love­ly evening light makes the trip over Königs­berg­breen and through Sas­send­a­len ano­ther delight. Some­thing we just have to enjoy, the­re won’t be any evening light here any­mo­re in just a few weeks time!

Evening light in Sas­send­a­len.

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.

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.

Thu
21 Feb
2019

Some visit a temp­le to find enligh­ten­ment.

We visit Tem­pel­fjord and find the light.

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.

View from Fjord­nib­ba into Tem­pel­fjord.

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.

Fred­heim, the hut built by Hil­mar Nøis, in its new loca­ti­on.

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.

Ice on the shore of Tem­pel­fjord.

Mon
18 Feb
2019

… is not real­ly what you expect in Spits­ber­gen in Febru­ary.

But it is also not real­ly a good descrip­ti­on of what we curr­ent­ly have in Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Theo­re­ti­cal­ly, we should have had the first sun­ri­se on Satur­day (16 Febru­ary). This does not mean that you can see the sun from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. You would have to climb one of the hig­her moun­ta­ins such as Troll­stei­nen, some­thing that is actual­ly quite popu­lar on that very day.

But it was clou­dy, so a tour some­whe­re in the near­by val­leys was a good thing.

Moon­light tour with dogs in Advent­da­len.

Today (Mon­day) was the first real­ly clear day. The grey snow clouds gave way to the clear sky during the mor­ning. The blue light of the late polar night is now giving way to the pink-blue light of the ear­ly polar day, at least around noon.

So today we could see the sun again – at least indi­rect­ly. It won’t be befo­re 08 March that you can see the sun direct­ly in Lon­gye­ar­by­en again, some­thing that will be cele­bra­ted duly. But the moun­ta­ins are now get­ting beau­tiful crowns of pink-oran­ge glo­wing light now for a while around mid-day.

First sun­light on Hiorth­fel­let.

The sun remain­ed abo­ve the hori­zon for quite some time, cas­ting her beau­tiful light over the moun­tain tops for the first time in months, while the moon is clim­bing over the peaks.

Yes, and we do have 20 degrees (cen­ti­gra­de) and even more. Below zero, of cour­se!

The moon next to Advent­top­pen.

Sun
3 Feb
2019

The expe­ri­en­ces to be made here in Spits­ber­gen in one day can be very rich in con­trast: a litt­le ski tour in Advent­da­len with com­pa­ny on four legs brings exer­cise, fresh air and impres­si­ons of light and land­scape – pure plea­su­re. For all invol­ved, with two and for legs.

With ski and dogs Advent­da­len.

A few hours later you may find yours­elf in an old hall which belongs to mine 3. No coal is mined in mine 3 any­mo­re, after years of silence it is now regu­lar­ly used as a mining muse­um and occa­sio­nal­ly for events. Today, the­re is one of the last con­certs of this year’s Polar­jazz fes­ti­val going on here. An expe­ri­men­tal Spits­ber­gen-Jazz-ope­ra – does that make sen­se? 🙂 The title is “Spor” (tracks) and it com­bi­nes sto­ries, impres­si­ons and emo­ti­ons from the histo­ry and natu­re, hun­ting and mining in Spits­ber­gen. All of that is put into music and sounds by a trio, in major parts with the addi­tio­nal voal powers of the Store Nor­ske Manns­kor, resul­ting in sounds that vary from spheric/experimental through jaz­zy to groo­vy.

Polar­jazz 2019: ‘Spor’ in Mine 3.

The atmo­sphe­re of the event was cer­tain­ly even increased by the loca­ti­on.

Sat
26 Jan
2019

My dear fri­ends, let me tell you, it is tough. For weeks we have been try­ing to get some sleep at nor­mal times. But it just doesn’t work. This nor­t­hern light is real­ly too bad. Real­ly, it can be annoy­ing! You always have to go out, watch Lady Auro­ra dancing, take pho­tos … yes, life in the Arc­tic can be hard … 🙂

Nor­t­hern light aureo­la, near-ver­ti­cal­ly abo­ve the photographer’s posi­ti­on.

It was almost warm today, just about -6°C in Advent­da­len. In com­pa­ri­son to the last days, it felt real­ly mild. Only the wind was a bit chil­ly.

Ring of nor­t­hern lights over End­a­len.

I can’t pro­mi­se that the­re won’t be any more auro­ra borea­lis pics in this blog during the next weeks. This is how the polar night is. On the other hand, Lady Auro­ra can be very moo­dy. Some­ti­mes she is just slee­ping some­whe­re far away or she is just dancing for the clouds. When she is in good mood then you just have have to take the oppor­tu­ni­ty. You never know when the next one comes – may­be this is her fare­well for the moment and she deci­des to move on to ano­ther pla­net or whe­re­ver.

The famous polar bear war­ning sign.

Fri
25 Jan
2019

The days are just fly­ing, or rather this end­less night. It will still take a while until you can talk of “days” again in Spits­ber­gen. But the light is coming back! The­re is cle­ar­ly some faint dawn on the sou­thern hori­zon around noon. The sun is not far any­mo­re.

First daw­ning in late Janu­ary, mid-day in Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Still, the polar night is obvious­ly a good time to do things insi­de. And the­re is no lack of good oppor­tu­ni­ties. Next to all the work that never takes an end, the­re is, just to give one exam­p­le, the alre­a­dy men­tio­ned Sval­barse­mi­nar. And for Per Kyr­re Rey­mert, the “cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge ora­cle”, the same is true as for Maar­ten Loo­nen (see pre­vious blog): you are gua­ran­teed to get a solid por­ti­on of inte­res­t­ing arc­tic know­ledge, and it is fun to lis­ten to! A very enter­tai­ning hour whe­re you can only try to memo­ri­se as much as you pos­si­bly can. Today, it was about the French Recher­che-expe­di­ti­on (1838, 1839). Yes, that was the one with Leo­nie D’Aunet, the first woman who visi­ted Spits­ber­gen. As far as we know, that is.

Per Kyr­re Rey­mert spea­king in the Sval­bard­se­mi­nar at UNIS about the Recher­che-expe­di­ti­on (in Spits­ber­gen 1838 and 1839).

And it is cer­tain­ly good to know what the guys from the Sys­sel­man­nen (govern­ment repre­sen­ta­ti­ve, poli­ce and other sove­reign duties) are kee­ping them­sel­ves busy with. Fly­ing dro­nes, for exam­p­le. Of cour­se they are only doing sen­si­ble things with the­se dro­nes! Who would thing of any­thing dif­fe­rent … Poli­ce inves­ti­ga­ti­ons, search and res­cue ope­ra­ti­ons, docu­men­ting ero­si­on and wear and tear on cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge sites … the list is long.

The “dro­ne-squa­dron” of the Sys­sel­man­nen pre­sen­ting their work in the Sval­bard­se­mi­nar at UNIS.

It is and remains stun­nin­gly beau­tiful out­side. The light of the moon is now less bright than last week, but the retur­ning sun – still well below the hori­zon – brings seve­ral hours of blue light into the dark­ness during day­ti­me.

The blue light hours are coming back to Spits­ber­gen during day­ti­me.

A litt­le trip into Advent­da­len, far enough to escape the “big city” light pol­lu­ti­on. The silence and the blue light are ama­zing! And the view into Advent­da­len wet­tens the appe­ti­te for more. That is the way to Sas­send­a­len, to Tem­pel­fjord, to the east coast, … soon will the days be lon­ger and the same goes for the trips out into natu­re!

View into Advent­da­len during the blue light hour(s).

Soon, howe­ver, the blue light gives way to dark­ness again, the “days” are still short. But the night does always have some­thing to offer. In recent days, nor­t­hern light acti­vi­ty was a bit limi­t­ed. Not that the­re weren’t any at all, but limi­t­ed, and some­ti­mes you do also have to sleep, so it is ine­vi­ta­ble to miss out some­ti­mes. It is all about being in the right time at the right place, and that litt­le bit of luck!

Nor­t­hern light over Advent­da­len (I).
The lights of mine 7 and some huts in the lower right cor­ner.

Today, we were – once again – at the right time in the right place. We just had that bit of luck. Kind of on the way to go shop­ping. Never lea­ve the house wit­hout the came­ra 🙂

Nor­t­hern light over Advent­da­len (II).

Mon
21 Jan
2019

Today (21 Janu­ary 2019) was the day (well, it is not real­ly a day, the sun does not rise at all here curr­ent­ly) of a major astro­no­mic­al event, the next one after the solar eclip­se in 2015. The lunar eclip­se that was visi­ble in Spits­ber­gen from appro­xi­m­ate­ly 6 a.m. was cer­tain­ly worth set­ting the alarm clock for.

Today’s lunar eclip­se: the “blood moon” over Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

After a short obser­va­ti­on of the initi­al lunar eclip­se over Lon­gye­ar­by­en, we went out into Advent­da­len to get fur­ther away from the big city lights and to get a natu­ral back­ground for the impres­si­ve celes­ti­al event.

Lunar eclip­se over Advent­da­len: the “blood mmoon” over Spits­ber­gen (I).

The dura­ti­on of the lunar eclip­se was much more agreeable than that of the abo­ve-men­tio­ned solar eclip­se, the total pha­se of which did not last lon­ger than 2 minu­tes and a few seconds. This could make the astro-pho­to­graph­ers sweat despi­te of the tem­pe­ra­tures around minus 20 degrees (C) back then.

Mond­fins­ter­nis im Advent­da­len: der “Blut­mond” über Spitz­ber­gen (II).

Not that it was any war­mer today, but we could take it with time: the total pha­se of today’s lunar eclip­se was near­ly an hour long, so next to taking pho­tos, we could just enjoy the event and a sip of hot cho­co­la­te – a very good thing con­side­ring the tem­pe­ra­tu­re. The stars were ama­zing, they came out bright and strong due to the redu­ced moon­light. Very impres­si­ve!

Stars during the lunar eclip­se in Advent­da­len.

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.