G.A.P.S. / Svalbard
FOLLOW WILLIAM, TRISTAN, THIES, MARK, LUDOVIC, KAREN, JOSEPH, MIKEY, DAVID, ANDERS & SINDRE
G.A.P.S. 24-25 (Global Atmospheric Plastics Survey) is a series of expeditions aiming to provide a global snapshot of the type, size and distribution of airborne nano- and microplastics. This will serve as a baseline for future research and boundary conditions for models of the atmospheric transport of plastic pollution and the plastic cycle.
Ousland is proud to be part of this servey. Now we head into Svalbard.
DAY 0: LONGYEARBYEN
There are beddings, bags, tape, nudles and carabiners everywhere! Lists are being checked and double checked. "Has anyone seen a bag of chocolate?" Structured chaos at its best.
This is an very important part to be fond of. If you enjoy these tasks, and tend to them with enthusiasm and accuracy, you will gett payback in the field.
The team is slowly getting ready. All the food was prepped, all the gear sorted out. The few things now missing we do tomorrow before we head out.
Cheers from Sindre and the Team
day 1: N 78.141868°, E 16.481187°
It is not always you look up. The faces on our skiis stare back at us from the snow. They feel it too, it is cold and windy!
After some hours in the flat big valley, the mountains and glaciers of Svalbard greeted the team welcome as we skied through the worst of the cold. Stiff noses smelt a beautiful evening. The team were quick to put up a perfect camp, and right now the polar bear watch is watching as the rest of the team is sleeping.
Cheers from Sindre and the team
DAY 2: Sample Day - N 78.088514°, E 16.531549°
The night was cold, and the polar bear watch kept the camp safe. Early in the morning, we started the routines. We knew this day was gonna be hard. The glacier rises from our camp and up to the saddle we were aiming for, and it is a 30 cm layer of loose snow on top. It was hard.
After reaching some higher altitudes the first sampling of the expedition started. Effective and well organised group gather the snowsample quick as that. Notes were taken, coordinates registered, snowsample box noted. It was very good work.
The last part of the day was spent skiing slowly and calm through the most amazing glacier areas. A well spent day!
Cheers from Sindre and the team
Day 3: N 78.009861°, E 16.003776°
From a polar bear watch point of view.
"The world is lined with many small tent-states, all with their backs against the wind, but the entrance is never facing the neighbour. Inside each tent, they eat and drink, and speak and sleep. Meanwhile outside, someone is keeping watch. A faceless silhouette walking silently around the tents, whising they were inside. Warm and full! Outside, is only cold and predators."
The whole team is getting well into all the arctic routines, and today we got off the glaciers and went into the mighty Reindalen! Sking quite fast across a wavy terrain. Passing many reindeer on the way. Windy when we put up the camp.
Day 4: N 77.944417°, E 15.405889°
Powerful gusts ripped through camp during the night. Since the camp was pitched on a thin snow layer with ice underneath, the guide slept with to ears open. Then the day started slowly. Snowdrift had buried alot of the pulkas, and it was a job to free them from the snow.
A peg was missing! Everyone start digging, and after some time it appeared. Then we get ready to start skiing. "Stop! I only have one skipole!" What! Everyone start digging some more. Found it!
The valley was covered in a grey vail.
We move in tradition of the Ousland Explorers time table. 50 minutes skiing, ten minutes break, then continue. By the third leg the valley opened up and sunshine and meaning filled the landscape. Good day of skiing on our way to find a new glacier to sample.
Cheers from Sindre and the team!
day 5: 77.955283, 15.369508 - storm day
The search for more glaciers to take samples from is put on hold as a storm is brewing. Backoffice reports of strong easterly winds and a lot of snow, so our job today is to find a good camp spot where we can dig ourselves down and take on the storm.
We spent the early hours looking for a good spot, but the valleys of Svalbard are quite wind-ravage, so there mostly is 5 cm hard snow, then ice, then rocks...
After two hours looking we found a ridge where the snow had accumulated on the one side, and the direction was perfect for our tents. We manage to prepare spots and digg down all 5 tents.
Now as I am writing, the winds have started. There is no visibility and the valley is roaring. In 5 small tents, in a desolate valley on Svalbard, sits a group of people with wide open eyes and ears. They are protected only by paper thin fabric, and the ability to act.
Cheers from Sindre and the team!
day 6: 77.955283, 15.369508 - rest day
The visibility is low. The team shakes of the tents and pop their heads out to see what the storm has done. All tents are still firmly standing, only the top sticking out of the snow.
Now it is quiet, white and mysterious. It is almost like the valley and the mountains are resting after the storm. So the team decides to do the same. We move on tomorrow!
Cheers from Sindre and the team!
Day 7: Out of the white
As always the team wakes up at 0600. As always we will try to be ready at 0830, but there is a difference today. We need to dig up the tents!
At around 0800 everyone is packed and ready except for the tents. We do a run-through of things to consider when using a sharp shovel on hard snow next to tent fabric. Very important. Then we start digging! We dug down good, and the storm added tons of snow, so we spent two hours digging out all tents! Finally we are on skis.
There is a deep layer of fresh snow every where, a fine opposite to the iced surface from two days ago, but it is hard to ski in.
Another aspect of all this fresh snow is avalanche danger, so we all have beacons on and have run a group check.
Through a narrow valley we luckily see that the snow has been blown away from the steep sections, so without any huge risk we make it to Coles Valley.
Since there hasn't been a lot of sampling lately, so the team decides to use some of the kits on the fresh snow that lies everywhere in the valley. It is purely powder snow and might make a good and relevant sample.
The team is still quite efficient!
Cheers from Sindre and the team!
Day 8: Proper Sample Day
The campspot was probably the best on the entire trip. Reindeer and fox occupy the nearby hills, and the view is amazing. We ski around a hill so we can see the ocean in the distance, the mighty Isfjorden.
We are closing in on the destination of today, Bogerbreen glacier. But first we have a great lunch in Fardalen under a scorching sun.
Are we at the glacier yet? We'll first we have to battle som uphills, some deep snow, some detours, and some avalanche danger, but finally we are on the glacier. Suddenly the team are storming out of the trenches like WWI and samples are coming in in all directions on the glacier.
A very happy team are closing the zipper on their sleeping bags, getting some sleep in before polar bear watch.
Cheers from Sindre and the team!
Day 9: From glaciers to highways
Early morning on Bogerbreen, the stoves are humming as the pale, cold mountains let the first glimpse of day glide over their snow-covered sides. There is a que at the toilet.
Not too cold, but if you don't pay attention, the frost will settle where you let it. We are heading off the glacier and down in to Endalen. Should be a easy task. But the heavy snowfall combined with the storm 4 days ago still breathes life into a cunning hazard. The avalanche!
Still there is thunder under our skiis as we step on to untouched snow. Had we been in steep hill sides this might trigger avalanches. We pay attention and we make decisions. One such decision is to go down in to a narrow river canyon. The risk of avalanche seemed acceptable and we all "skied" down in one piece.
From here it was out of the valley and then we passed old mines, roads, cabins, snowmobile tracks, powerlines, trucks filled with coal. We decided to ski across the valley and camp under Operafjellet. A beautiful campspot for the last night in camp with the gang.
In the distance the lights of Longyearbyen is blinking.
Journey's End
There was a sense of excitement and competition in the air this morning. The reindeers were watching as the entire team, for some reason, decided to be the most effective team that Adventdalen has ever seen. By 0800 all tents were down, the pulkas were packed, and the snow-toilet had been demolished.
The last 5 km to Longyearbyen was done under a beautiful morning sun, the valley was quiet, and the city was just waking up. We skied past convoys of 20 - 30 snowmobiles with excited tourists driving out of town to see what the nature of Svalbard has to offer. We looked down on our skies and felt lucky that we are able to move through such a landscape, over time, by the sheer force of our own bodies.
There will come a day in life when this is no longer possible.
We skied on towards town.
At the Ousland Explorers storage the after-work began immediately. Counting pegs, brushing snow from pulkas, hanging tents to dry, Pouring remaining fuel into storage canisters, and so on. Then the samples were checked and controlled, before carefully carrying them to the hotel.
Ludo got driven to the airport, as his services were needed far south of the equator.
This evening the team is meeting for dinner and a beer at one of the town's many restaurants.
With that the GAPS and Ousland Explorers Svalbard expedition came to an end. There have been challenges and learning. Cold bear-watch hours and powerful storms.
Reindeers and toilets. Nuts and noodles - and most importantly, samples and teamwork!
Cheers from Sindre, William, Thies, Tristan, Mikey, Ludo, Karen, David, Joe, Mark and Anders.
The Riders of the Storm