Hey,
Luci here :D

So whats new...
We are now getting some amazing light here and it makes for beautiful horizons/landscape photos - when we are not over cast or snowing - and there has been some beautiful pictures being taken and I have a few ok ones to contribute:

Figure 1 - Longyearbyen town - the sun is almost making it!!!!

Figure 2 - Student barracks and the sun on the mountains behind

Figure 3 - View across Isfjorden from the bottom of Longyearbyen town

Last weekend I ran another dive course in the pool with Caitlin, another instructor, which went really well and was good fun!!! Although a tad jealous of another group of students who went to the east coast on the snowmobiles and managed to see the mythical beasts (polar bears) which I am yet to encounter! :(

This week has also been great fun as I have had no lectures which means during the day (which is getting brighter and brighter) we can make the most of the daylight and study in the evenings!!! Thus I have been out skiing a few times - however its a fair bit different to the skiing I am used to as they haven't yet built chair lifts in the arctic yet!! That being said it is no less fun - just a lot more hard work!!! Myself and my friend Caitlin on Tuesday hiked up one of the nearby mountains call Trollstein on our Ranndonee skis with skins on (which stop you sliding back down hill)! It was the first time I had used these type of skis and they are pretty awesome! By the time we got to the top - I think it may have taken us longer than most - our legs were a little tired and shaky from the work and using muscles that have not been used in a while, but we still had big smiles on our face and a beautiful view!!! The ski down was great though and it was awesome to be back on the slopes, even if my legs had lost all ability to be controlled by my mind!

Figure 4 - Veiw from Longyearbreen glacier - with the sun

Figure 5 - Skiers Climbing up for the ride!

Then we went out on Wednesday again and this time took my snow mobile up with 2 sets of skis strapped to it and then we pulled two people on skis behind it - kinda like water skiing - which was really fun!! We all went up one of the glaciers behind our barracks and took turns skiing down a slope, Figure 5, and then being picked up by the snow mobile for another go - brill fun!!

Myself and Ribanna have combined some of our fun moments into a short video clip to show the SAMS students how much fun it is up here - you should apply it is really amazing!!! It doesn't show a great deal of our studies side - but believe me that does happen too! I thought it would be nice to attach it on here to so everyone else can see it :D (a couple of the photos are not mine or riba's so thank you Joran for lending them to us :D )

Figure 6 - Video of fun things in Svalbard

Its not the best quality to be able to upload it on here but hopefully its watchable....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/89r2d6st0fmpfjj/UNIS%20SAMS%20movie.wmv

Thats a better copy ^^^^

Also I, as the biology bachelor representative, joined a meeting with the heads of departments to give feed back on the courses etc. and have heard that they are aiming to shape up the Biology courses and make them even more hands on. They are hoping (not certain yet) to offer a almost internship week here in certain courses with respective companies on Svalbard - which I think sounds great and would give students a bit more experience of working environments!

This weekend I have also been out and about on my snow mobile again - although it was not the best visibility as it was snowing most the way there and back but still got some cool pictures of little ice bergs which have made their way on to the beach and a cool frozen waterfall.

Fig 7 - Ice

Fig 8 - More pretty ice blocks

Fig 9 - Frozen water fall with Ribanna and Ida

Thats all for now,
Luci.

Hello from the far north!

Time is running up here. It is March already! Which means we are approaching the time of eternal sunshine! Well, ok, it still takes some time for that, but it is pretty much just around the corner. Soon (8th of March), the sun will face Longyearbyen for the first time this year and already now, it is getting a bit brighter and daylight lasts a bit longer every day. It is amazing how fast it changes and how überexcited we all are getting.
I have seen the sun last saturday for the first time since I am back up here. We made a trip on our scooters (yes, I bought one, too) to Barentsburg. It was quite cloudy in the beginning and we didn't expect to see sunlight or even the sun at all. Just a few hundred meters before we got into town, we made a small detour up a hill and there it was: Bright, yellow-pink-orange, warm (not really), cosy, epic and amazing! You really learn to appreciate the sun when you have to wait for it for so long. Screams of joy followed by half an hour pure silence and lying in the not very strong sunlight was our reaction!

Our way to Barentsburg along the coast of Isfjorden

                                                      First sunshine of the year! Gotta go to Russia for that

 Barentsburg itself is a cute, little, communistic town. In documentations it always looks really sad and depressing. When we've been there (still with pinkish sunlight), we were pretty impressed by the sort-of-modern architecture and also the very old buildings and cars (and a wee cabin saying "Neutron Monitor" whatever they are doing in there).                                        

                                                      Architecture in Barentsburg

                                                                The "Neutron Monitor" in Barentsburg


I also got new skis last week and, being a total newby to this, I will have to find some people that are patient enough to spend their time with me. But I assume they will enjoy watching me falling over and over again and again.
The last three days, tons of snow were coming from the now finally clear sky which means: awesome scooter and ski tracks and high avalanche risk! There are already several small avalanches (no harm to anyone) coming down right behind our barrack and the cornices up the mountain are huuuuuge. So we always take our avalanche kits as soon as we are going on a trip.
As part of the safety group, we are arranging another avalanche rescue training for the students at the moment. Here, we will practice skills like using avalanche beacons, probes and shovels efficiently and how to organise chaos in an avalanche situation. Important stuff!

On Wednesday, we have been to Svalsat as part of the Arctic Environmental Management course. It is the big satellite dish area up Plateaufjellet and it is of great importance worldwide! All weather data that is used all over the globe comes from here. And much more. Svalsat delivers data to their costumers all over the world. The reason it is so far north is that the orbit of a satellite covers the area of reception 14 times a day which decreases towards the equator. So, more data can be downloaded the closer the station is to the pole. About 30 antennas download every sort of information the customers want. This is apparently also in the focus of politics as, according to the Svalbard Treaty, no military use may be made of anything on Svalbard. Quite contradictory every now and then, but so far, they didn't have any severe problems.

Luci and me in front of some gigantic satellite dishes (photo credits: Luci)


Yesterday, I have seen the sun a second time. Just out Adventdalen when we've been out on a field trip to collect reindeer faeces. From these, the carbon/nitrogen ratio can be determined and the quality of their food controlled. This is done in regular intervals to monitor reindeers throughout the winter. It can become difficult for them to find food at all when thawing and freezing periods succeed each other. Ice layers form in the snow which can make it pretty hard to get to the ground.

                                         Reindeers in Adventdalen during our field trip (photo credits:Julie Huseklepp Tunli)

 Measuring how hard it is to get to the ground (a weight is lifted and released until the measuring stick reaches the ground) (photo credits: Julie Huseklepp Tunli)

Some other students have been to the east coast today where they could watch a polar bear with two cubs. WWF is tracking this female and other individuals (4 on Svalbard at the moment): WWF Polar Bear Tracker
Here you can also see what crazy distances some individuals travel. There are much more on Svalbard and in winter, chances are always good to get to see some. So that is on the agenda for the next days/weeks!

Ribanna