On skis to Eidem­buk­ta

Sat
19 Feb
2022

The days are quick­ly get­ting lon­ger after the return of the sun. This is inde­ed an ama­zin­gly quick pro­cess. Just 2-3 days after the very first sun­ri­se of the year, the sun is alre­a­dy for seve­ral hours abo­ve the hori­zon.

The fact that we have a clear sky again after more than a week of clouds does, wit­hout a doubt, also con­tri­bu­te to the sub­jec­ti­ve part of this impres­si­on.

Time to get out and see a bit more of the sur­roun­dings. Some of you may know Eidem­buk­ta from the sai­ling ship tours in the sum­mer sea­son. This lar­ge bay is just a few kilo­me­t­res north of Farm­ham­na.

Ski­ing from Farm­ham­na to Eidem­buk­ta. Towards the sun 🙂 at least for a while.

Stay­ing out­side for some time is inde­ed a refres­hing expe­ri­ence, with tem­pe­ra­tures around -15 degrees (C) plus wind­chill. It is much, much less win­dy than in parts of NW Euope up here the­se days, but the­re is a pret­ty con­stant bree­ze blo­wing, which feels quite icy.

I sche­du­le the day in such a way that I make use of the sun­light as much as pos­si­ble, but the idea to see and pho­to­graph Farm­ham­na from a distance with the sun­set in the back­ground fails due to a bank of clouds. It doesn’t mat­ter. The­re is beau­ty all around me whe­re­ver I turn my eyes. The wide, open, snow-cover­ed land with soft colours ran­ging from red through pink to blue, the drift snow being blown over the low hills. The lar­ge and beau­tiful­ly cur­ved coast­li­ne of Eidem­buk­ta. I fol­low the beach for a bit wit­hout fin­ding a sin­gle pie­ce of drift­wood, to my sur­pri­se. A litt­le can­yon sculp­tu­red by the melt­wa­ter river of Venern­breen, one of the near­by gla­ciers. I fol­low the can­yon for a bit, kee­ping a good eye on the cor­nices, but whe­re­ver they look sca­ry, the­re is enough space to stay away from them.

Can­yon in Eidem­buk­ta.

I see some lonely reinde­er on the way back. The only living crea­tures out here today, apart from a glau­cous gull and a few nor­t­hern ful­mars.

I try to find a shel­te­red place for a lunch break, but my spot under a litt­le rock cliff turns out to be the win­diest and col­dest place any­whe­re around. I don’t stay long and rather return to the hut with the cozy wood-bur­ning sto­ve.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Do you agree that spitsbergen-svalbard.com is a gre­at re­source for any arc­tic enthu­si­ast?

Ever­y­thing is available for free, no pay­wall, no regis­tra­ti­on, no paid adver­ti­sing, and all this in spi­te of con­stant cos­ts and effort. Plea­se help us to keep it that way, wit­hout pay­wall and paid ads, and sup­port us through Ste­ady!