Sunday, June 24, 2007

pictures from the trip - version 0 !

Well, if there's one thing that is NOT easy after coming back from a long ski trip, it's to sit in front of a computer. I think I became totally allergic to it!

After hours of strugling, I finally managed to setup a small photo gallery. Enjoy this few pictures, captions will soon follow!

Cheers,
Lucas

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Home sweet home!


We made it back home! Hard to believe, but the trip has come to an end as we reached our point of departure, after 77days of travelling! Mission accomplished, we have been around Spitsbergen exploring over 1000km of arctic wilderness.

As soon as we reached the small road leading to Longyearbyen, we were first welcomed by the local press, for an interview. Then many friends joined us to walk the last hundred metres together and share a few beers.

It's actually been 3 days that we have arrived but we have been very busy celebrating until now :) (Great party at the beach yesterday!!)

Thanks everyone for a great welcome home! and thanks for all the mails! Pictures will soon follow (to be choosen among 5000 of them)

The big project is over, it's a bit sad in a way. But is it really over ? No I don't believe so, this is only the beginning! We came back from this long trip with a lot of experiences and it's now time to share them with friends and public. My head is full of new projects and ideas. I don't feel like I have seen it all, I know there is much more to experience and discover out there! No seriously, nothing is over, it's only beginning!

Cheers,
Lucas for the FrozenFive

A link to UNIS news about us

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Enjoy the moment

At this moment, the stove is running, soup is ready and Kim is trying to tell me tomorrow I reach home. Then the question comes to my head: Shall I enjoy the soup or focus my mind on something which might happen tomorrow?

Well, easy answer, I enjoy Kim's soup instead of waisting thoughts on something which hasn't even happened: future.

What would future be without Kim's noddles and tomato clumps? Kim just tells me the presence is the key to the future and I think he is bloody damn right because if I don't get my soup, I'm not going anywhere tomorrow.

Kim agree with cheese we could overeat tomorrow and trick everybody in Longyearbyen by not arriving tomorrow. Or is it all the other way around? Future is the key to the past??? Hei, I'm getting confused now.

What I really like are clear orders from Kim.
First: Ulli, eat your soup now!
Second: Ulli, walk home tomorrow!
Third: Ulli, enjoy the moment!
And because I don't have any smart arguments against Kim's saying, I will enjoy the moment: eat soup, macaroni, chocolate mousse, sit on a stone, keep on joking and let the rest to the future.
If you believe me or not, I loved to write this blog.
I thank for the opportunity as I thank you for reading them. I hope it make your moment enjoyable. Have a great day!

The most happy Ulli

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Hangover

Yesterday we meet up with some friends to leave our pulks. They also brought some signs of not so far away civilization. We had a lovely dinner, our second this day. A stew of reindeer and carrots and onions and potatoes and more, cooked in four hours and with some salt (just on the right site of the thin borderline between enough and too salty).

We had a nice evening with bonfire at the beach and with some other signs of civilization. They made this day to something special.

Thanks guys, we loved it, even if some of us suffered a bit today.

PS: we still have our skis and tomorrow we have a big open river to cross.

Mats

The Sound and The Silence

There is something that's hard to imagine when you are back home, things, that makes us, make so much of our daily life up here without even us noticing it and when you notice it, you suddenly understand, that it is special. Sounds are one of these things. The sound of the skis on hard snow, in soft snow or in molten snow. All are different sounds, even my left and right ski makes different sound. The sound of the ski poles and the knirkling sound of the pulka shaft. The wind that makes your jacket to vibrate or makes the snow drift. Or the sound of the stove that sometimes tells you that you need to come up the trasher again. All these are different sounds that make our daily life such that wouldn't have been noticed in a city or a place where human activity is high.

Then we have the silence, the silence, that suddenly appears when there is no wind and everyone is sleeping except you. The overwhelming silence, that makes your own blood circulation to be a high sound within your ear. This silence is hard to find anywhere else. It's a complete silence, so nice, it feels like vacuum.

I hope everyone one day will have the pleasure to hear this silence and also the sound, that skiing create.

Mats

Thursday, June 07, 2007

A Spring to remember

My first blog entry on this trip, written almost precisely 2 months ago amid the classic week 14 storm, dealt with the enjoyment of skiing, everything the step of it. Since this is highly likely to be my final entry while on lead, I consider it almost duty to report on whether it's still truth. How did, in my eyes, the trip evolve? Is skiing still fun?

Let's begin with the obvious physical changes around us. No more night and stars for start, though our very own eider ducks keeping us company 24 hours a day. So we switched to eerie time (GMT +12) work at midnight, sleep in the day and ski when Europe sleeps. .. even fast, ski ice forms only to be broken up again when temperature soars by at least 30 degrees to a comfortable 0°C. Since blue weather from the all the corners of the compass road yet, like the inhabitants of California anticipate the great earthquakes, we are still waiting for the real big storm. This now transformed compound making track, making a real battle of frictional forces, often almost lifting the pulkas of the ground. In every conditions our sledges only followed our skis since like I maintained 2 months ago, being able to enjoy these short, far steps, that bring you to the point when you want to vomit out of exhaustion is the key, and yes, I still enjoy every minute on my skis.

Then there is our group, undergoing its own internal transformation. Over the week the initial keen spirit was overprinted by the development of unofficial coalitions. This natural breakup was far from unexpected. For our group is made up of great individuals operating at specific wavelengths, that was bitter at times and sad nonetheless. In a way I guess we'll all remember this trip in different ways, each personal magic moments in memories. ... the majestic ... in front, the towering peaks of the lifting clouds that turn white out into blue sky, we've been very fortunate to see Spitzbergen from this side, step after step.

Finally the time has come to take off the skis, leave challenges hide behind the corner and extract tundra, falling rivers, captivating swamps and all the unfamiliar motion of hiking, all conspired to make the last week up here one to remember. At least it's how I feel now. I guess you can ask me in a week if I was right.

As I said before, this trip is a realized dream for me. Now that the time has come to wake up, I wish I could snooze the alarm clock a few times. On the other hand, opening your eyes to a new day you see there is something to look forward to.

Greetings from our last snowy camp,
Kim

Monday, June 04, 2007

Newton takes a rest

It's 8:30 pm. I just got up. I have no clue what day of the week it is and can hardly remember that we are some day in early June. But all that doesn't really matter, what is important is that it is a rest day. That means that today we forget about our nomadic tradition of eight hours skiing, we'll sleep, relax, read and enjoy the day as we want.

Well, I have to admit, that the initial plans for today were not only about the relaxing. We happen to be camping just next to the highest peak on Svalbard Newtontoppen. I bet you know how keen we were to go to the summit. But the weather decided differently (snow and low clouds).

Unlike my companions, who can sleep three to twelve hours flat in a row, I'm not really a long sleeper and to keep myself entertained on rest days like today, there is nothing better than The Place Names of Svalbard book (limited edition, ?? , 4kg).

This rather heavy, but very informative book, that Ulli and Kim have been nicely carrying since Longyearbyen, tells the origin of all place names of the island. These names come in an incredible variety, they can be great storyteller as well as they can be extremely boring. I would for example not recommend you to look up what the book has for Flatbreen (glacier in southern Spitzbergen). Well, it just says it's a flat glacier. But I was really excited to know that Spitzbergen also has a peak called Mt.Blanc (only 485 meters high though). Or a mountain ridge named after the French polititian Jean Paul Pierre Casimir Perrier (anyone knows what he did?).

Now get back to Newtontoppen. I bet you know that the peak is named after the renowned mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton. There is even a small knob nicked to the peak called Eplet an allusion to Newton's apple!

Greetings to all of you, dear readers!
A few more ice caps and valleys to cross and we'll be back in the civilization.

Cheers, Lucas


(note from the support team: searchable version of the book is provided on the net by the
Norwegian Polar Institute)

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Diary from Asgarbfonna

An other day on Asgarbfonna

On this icecap in the north of Spitzbergen, it is our third day of progression

In my last blog I wrote about the summer, about walking in T-shirt, and laying in the grass…
Well, now we see another side of svalbardian summer. Blue clouds hanging above the island, and since we are on one of the highest area, we are in the middle of the cloud.
The humidity together with the wind blowing over this endless white area makes everything else then T-shirt well come.

The whiteness is only broken by some view a few times otherwise the only thing that are introducing some variety in this continuous infinity are some shout like “one step to the left !” and “ppc” and “five minutes brake !”
These shouts are the most strandard words for us now after 2 months of skiing out there: every half hour the Pole Position Change (this is what ppc stand for), the first one, le leader making the track in some time heavy snow changing to the back and every hour we have a five minute brake lasting about 10 minutes in average and the other shout are for navigation from the first person in the row who check the course with the compass and direct the whole group. Like this we walk for hours and hours in the cloud on our way home. My thoughts wander out in the past as well as in the future, thinking of people that I met, thinking of my life with day dreaming on the future of how it will be nice to get home, to have a cup of coffee with my family at home or a beer with my friends or other trips I will make in the summer.

But now I am here on Asgarbfonna and even if the skiing is heavy some time and we are stuck in clouds, I am happy to be here and the thought of wishing to be somewhere else is absurd; and after every bad weather follow good weather and the midnight sun warms us and when the cloud disappear we can see the beautiful crown of mountain.

Hella

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Only the winner wins


First of all, thanks for all the insights into Andre's mind. They were truly inspiring. As with all competitions however only one winner can emerge.

In this case it was Karolina's entry, which elegantly, yet bluntly, combined Andre's only wishes: food, cuddle, food, cuddle, food, cuddle, food ...

However unfair it may be to let Andre's owner herself participate, the jury decided her entry fitted our friend best and are presently seeking a suitable peak to be named Karolina toppen.

Thanks again to all for all your help and have a nice day.