NEWTONTOPPEN

FOLLOW Jan, Ross, Søren, James & Ine-Lill

We are sorry for the lack of photos in the diary. but A fantastic cavalcade have been provided after the trip!

Day 12 - last day

James writing: Just when we thought we has been through the last challenge we had to spend the night on the foot of the smooth glacier with a great view.
We’ve set-up camp with a direct view onto the bay where we’ll be picked up tomorrow, so all is ready for our return to civilization.
During the night the wind picked up and surpriced us with 20m/sec wind with 26ms gusts. But by morning all 3 tents were still standing and we packed and we let the pulls pull us down the last of the glacier and then along the base to the sea and the journey l’s end.’ r

Rght on cue the Billifjord came to pick us up. En route back in the dingy to the main ship, we passed two polar bears. So all those bear watches were necessary after all.
Back on the boat we relaxed in the captains suite at the end of an extraordinary expedition were we all learned so much and had a real blast. Much of the success of the expedition was due to Ine Lill’s great leadership and experience!

From Ine-Lill: What a fantastic group to be on the trip with; cooperation and a positive attitude solved every possible challenge.
I must highlight Ross in particular, who completed the entire trip on two broken and repaired skis 😀 It still puzzles us that the repair of the skis lasted so long, picture to come! 
Svalbard is fantastic. In total on this trip we did 4200 vertical metres, 179 km distance, and at least over 800 crevasses😀 and were 93 hours in motion

A small bonus art the end: We observed two polar bears 1 km from the last camp. Mother and offspring. Luckily we saw them on the way out in a boat. We are happy that it was there and not with us! Thank you for a wonderful, extraordinary trip😀

Day 11 - the shore in sight

Jan is writing: Today Team Cowboy made the final big push back down the glacier to get near the shore in prep for the boat pick-up tomorrow.

We’ve set-up camp with a direct view onto the bay where we’ll be picked up tomorrow, so all is ready for our return to civilization.
The feeling is very bittersweet. We’ve been pushing hard for several days in very mixed conditions, with not a single item on our sleds still being dry.
So when we were out on bear watch in the rain at night we sometimes had a fleeting thought of excitement for our return.

Today though, Svalbard is presenting itself as its absolute magnificent best, with the sun coming out in the afternoon and everything just looking incredible.
So we’ve just had a shared dinner in the warmth of the sun and are already starting to feel a little nostalgic about this crazy adventure we’ve had.

 But still one more half day to go, and a steep bit of glacier to descend into the bay. So for now the adventure goes on!

day 10

9 hours and 16 km today. Many crevasses, large and small, had to be crossed with the utmost care. We have crossed many, many hundreds, and have become experts at doing this in ropes with sleds in tow.
We have been on roped in continuously since we came up in the glacier system on the third day. Now we are out of the craxy part and are on our way down the last bit towards the sea.

 oday went by in whiteout = very demanding navigation and planning of river crossings But the cowboys fixed it

Now for the coast!

day 9 - pushing on

Today Mother nature threw everything at us. Rein, fog, crevasses, whiteout, and a fierce headwind. But did that stop us? NO!
The Cowboys completed a great return leg and banked in an astonishing 22km. It gurgled in shoes and mittens were twisted up during the breaks ti shed water, but if there was a bad mood, no😀

Now we have camped with a view! Yes, the fog has lifted a little, so we can see down towards Nordenskioldsbreen and Billefjorden where we are picked up.
With the weather forecast hesitating to predict better weather, we have chosen to press on and see if we can get an earlier boat pickup.

day 8 - restday

Diary from Ross: after a few long days, we took a well-needed rest day today while we wait for the weather to improve. This gave us time to rest our tired and aching bodies before crossing Lomonsovfonna over the next days, - as well a chance to reflect on the delights and challenges we have faced so far on this incredible expedition.
The team is tired but all in good spirits and proud of our successful summit of Newtontoppen!

 Some more datas: Total distance 124.22km / Assent 3.501m / Descent 2.390m

day 7, monday:

We got up a little later (8 o'clock today) as we needed some sleep after long and demanding days. With some sadness, we left our Newtontoppen basecamp at 10 am, and the peak disappeared after a white behind us.
But a lot of other nice views appeared, not least as we chose a different return route and avoided a slightly too hefty glacier area.
We varied between skis and crampons depending on the steepness,  the snow conditions and the ice. We have been walking in rope continuously since day 3, it is safe and the best way forward.

Now everyone has eaten dinner, and the night-watch has begun - and so has snoring.

Day 6 – summit!

After yesterday's mamuth push to maximize the weather window, they went for the summit.
They left camp 12:00, reached the Summit 18:50 and were back in camp 23:00!
From what we know, it was a spectacular day with light clouds, sun, tons of crevasses, melt-rivers, and a small gale that meant standing on their knees on top.
Well back in camp they were again soaking wet, but super happy and proud. This team really know to work hard together!

Plan now is to maximize Monday before a front hits tonight with rain and whiteout.

Greetings from the Svalbard Cowboys

Day 5, Saturday  – a stunner

No diary as it was all heads down today. As a weather front is looming just beyond their weekend, they pushed hars among wet snow, tons of crevasses, and another ski break.
The good thing is, they now have control over the summit push.

Hope for some more news and details.

Day 4, friday

Early morning: The day started not so well. Ross broke one of his skis over a crevasse and we hat to stop to  fix and repair.  We hope it works..

 A bit later in the day: The solution works well😀, I hope it lasts all the way.

 By camp: Almost 18 km today😀amazing, looking down on the sea now framed by glaciers, mountains and snow, incredibly beautiful.

It was a reallt great day. The fixi for Ross’ ski is good for now. There are cracks and crevasses almost all the time. We have crossed about 150 until now. So we are on a rope all the time.

 We are a little concerned to see how much more melts for the return as it keeps being very warm. The snow is wet and rotten and not compressed into the ‘summer snow’ we had hoped for.
But beautiful weather, good atmosphere. We have had a few miss steps halfway ino crevasses but feel we are in control. No drama😃

We have come across Fox poop and fox tracks in several places, but no major tracks from bigger animals have been observed.

Days 3, her comes the sun!

After two hard and wet days, we went out of camp in good and finally sunny conditions and stunning visibility. In the beginging flattish (little up hill), then real uphill.
We quickly ran into crevasses and roped up. But, we managed to pass the fields without any big issues (just a few drop in :-)
After reaching the top of the Nordenskjöld Glacier, we had a small, easy downhill section.

Conditions were sunny but with pretty wet snow / rough ice.
As we reached and turned north into the Lomonsovfonna Glacier, we found the perfect campsite. The first one on snow! And in full sun, so we could dry all our wet items. Tomorrow, we will start out on skis!!!

Greetings from Søren

Day 2 - white folded

We indulged in a slightly later start than planned, as yesterday became a very late day.
But the first night with polar watches went very well. even though Ross and Jan had a lot of rain on their watch.

We are probably in a beautiful area, but today, we saw nothing—like walking inside a white cotton ball. Still, we had more than enough to be excited about. A big stint of carrying our loads and a great river crossing with ropes and prusik systems spiced up the day. 

As we have climbed higher we have really gotten onto the ice. Pure ice. Luckily we have ice screws for the tents as there is still no hint of snow.
It is still raining, but as the happy cowboys settled in camp the sky started to break. And tomorrow we are promised sunshine!

Day 1 - part 2

Everything went as planned. It was indeed exciting to be set ashore from a boat! We felt like the explorers from the heroic age :-)
It was great to be safely at the foot of the Nordenskjöld Glacier. Then, the hard work started.

The glacier had really melted quite a bit and pulled back a lot. We were left with a long and hard climb up the moraine. It became a real fight with jumping rivers, carrying, slipping in the orange, and finally stepping onto the ice. Great creativity and spirit!
While Ross had the first polar bear watch. The rest of us gathered there to finally have dinner after a long day.
Even though, it was hard to go to bed in this fantastic environment. Goodnight from Team Cowboy in camp 1 on cocktail ice.

Day 1 - boat & climb

At 08:00, the bus took us down to the docs. There, we loaded everything onto the Ferry. It left as planned at 09:00.

Now we are steaming out in the Isfjorden before later turning into Billefjorden and Adolfbukta. There, we will load everything onto dingies that be set ashore at the bottom of Nordenskiöldbreen. Then we will need to carry everything up the moraine and onto the ice.

We hope to be on our way ca 13:00

Day -1 - Longyearbyen:

It was a frantic day. We continued packing, preparing, and reviewing ropes and safety. As we heard up Nordenskiöldbreen, it seemed we'll start off in a drizzle with almost no visibility. So we can’t drift into routines learning as we go.

Today, Børge showed up to say hello and goodbye. He is here to take over our new property, which will be the Ousland Explorers Svalbard Hub! Big moment for us!
Cross your fingers for us!

Team cowboys🤠

COUNTDOWN

Everybody have flown into Longyearbyen and preparing. Soon you can follow this team as they cross the epic glaciers to Newtoptoppen.
Here we are at work with big smiles! Excited and soon ready with prep and packing - but we would love t to be a little colder on the😀 ice