3 months after...

It's been more than 3 months since we got back to civilisation, and I guess we all agree that the 3 months after the exhibition have been harder than the months during the actual expedition. How does one adjust to living in a place with 4 walls again, a roof on the head and also the joys of being able to make a cup of tea with a press of a single button. Yes, it's difficult to adjust.

But looking back through the movie footage filmed en route, sorting out pictures and giving F5 talks (there was alreasy several at UNIS, plus the F5 Oslo base - UiO and the Czech Embassy of all places) brings back some of the Arctic magic. I hope this will be transmitted to you as well if you attend any of the F5 post-expedition events. These are currently being intensively planned and will be presented on this website soon. Keep checking back in the next few weeks!

Take care out there in the wild wild world, have fun and catch ya around!

Kim

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.

From Beach Boys 2 Frozen Toes

Last week we stood on this spot in boxer shorts. Today the same outfit would mean certain death within half an hour. A cold day, that's for sure, but not in absolute temperature. For Summer is almost here (though some may argue, that there are no Summers on the Svalbard (ice caps)). More than keeping yourself in harmony with the elements through elegance process of thermo regulation. Arguably the most relevant of all aspects of Arctic travel, thermo regulation is about keeping you warm and dry by adjusting clothing. Sounds simple? Well, it ain't.


For the start, you need lots of layers of clothing like in onion. As the body is pretty much drowned with the stink after two months of constant wear like Devold thermal underwear, the so called base layer. Its major purpose is to divert sweat away from the skin. A friend from northern Norway once told me that "If you sweat, you're dead." and I'm sure she wasn't referring to a game of squash. Out in the hills, sweat is the first thing to freeze and try running around in an armour of ice. You'd be dead or at least really miserable before you can say "Ice is nice".
But let's get back to our onion, the insulation layer(s), the essence of thermo regulation. The second layer is meant to keep you warm, so anything from a woolen sweater to a fleece would be great gear. You can have also more layers here, but remember what happens when you sweat.

Last but not least, the shell layer. Keep the snow, wind and cold out while still letting your sweat out. In practice, under our condition, all shell layers become armours of ice sooner or later, but as long as they still keep the cold out it's ok.

So how is all this relevant? 1000 metres below, on the Mediterranean beaches of Wijdefjorden, flowers blossom and reindeer graze yet up here we have substituted sun cream and sun glasses for face masks and goggles. To put it bluntly the reindeer below don't have to give a damn about thermo regulation since nature has designed them to live up here. In contrast, we are just 5 (and a half) tiny aliens in an environment that's capable of pushing you to the knees with a single snowstorm. Granted, pulling pulkas uphill in half a metre of fresh yet heavy snow is nobody's idea of fun. At least it's easy to see who to build up a respect up here, the snow queen and her environment. To end this pitiful entry with its very beginning ??? to the nature only, for you need to thermo regulate. Or else you know what ...

One of the truly frozen five

Lost, found and forgotten

Hey, have you ever wondered about what I have and you don't? Which make me going skiing and writing this and you don't? Well, if you haven't you get the answer anyway. I'm forgetful, that's all.

I tend to forget what I learned from the last journey and this makes me go on another. Or in other words, I forgot how nice it was so I better do it again.
I also forget other things and there this seems to become superstitious.

On expeditions you try to select your gear carefully, just enough, but not too little. But I still want to get rid of something, my gloves for example. Down south I ski glass and Lucas turns around in front of me asking what this black thing is behind me. Dog shit, I answered, but I better check it. Two minutes later I got my glove back.

One week later: I just want to grab my hat since it is getting cold. No hat, but my pocket wide open. At least I remember having it an hour ago. Result? Andre and me go for a reconnaissance trip. After 2 hours we join the team. The hat was found in a good condition after being run over by a few skiers and pulkas.

Meanwhile I totally lost my gloves. There remain the right question to the glaciologist and archaeologist in a few centuries.
My camera fell out of my case resulting in another reconnaissance for Andre and me.

The best last week, lunch break. Usually this means I bring my lunch bag out of my right pocket from the jacket. Not this time. No jacket on either in the pulk. Again, good old Ulli remembered that he took a jacket on this trip. That leaves another 2 hour reconnaissance.

I like the travels where you can see things twice.

The missing list

Expecting a poem ? or maybe a philosophical reflection on a journey across the biggest icecap Svalbard has to offer ? Well forget it!

Perhaps I am just not inspired by ski endless miles along a skidoo track or perhaps I just want to raise a few smiles in the computer script, and what is more suitable to make the world a happier place then my top ten list of the small things I miss on this trip?
Things so common it is hard to imagine they may be missed.

10) fried cheese, French fries, and infinite supply of mayonnaise; it would be a big lie to say good food preferably with a good (Czech) beer is not missed.

9) After sun lotion :It is easy to get sunburned with 24 hours day light especially if you ski around in boxers like me, but where is the pharmacy when you need one?

8) A chair : You would not believe how nice it is to sit down, lean back and enjoy the view. Next trip, I am taking a chair with me!

7) A good library :After 2 months of Stephan Gay Gould’s “Natural History essays”, my eyes begin to roll when I see the worlds “Darwin” or “evolution” one more time. will I say anymore?

6) Colours :Lucas’s bright green trousers, 20 different shades of white, and the red of Ulli’s down jacket, won’t quite cut it for a sensual frenzy, hey will they?

5) An electric kettle (with diesel generator). If I could spend my evening time thinking of how to save the world instead of melting snow our problems would have been solved twice over and the sound a kettle makes is so elegant.

4) Jakusi :Showers are boring but a Jakusi to soothe the muscles and warm the body wood be heaven sent. I wonder if there is one at Verlegenhuken.

3) Oxford English dictionary :At a non native Punch it is often tricky to decide which words are still real and which are not. You could always make a campfire if it gets too heavy.

2) Something else then porridge for breakfast. However lovingly prepared the porridge is in the morning even if delivered right in the sleeping bag (thanks to Lucas + Ulli) it is still porridge for the 56rd day in a row…

1) Innebandy (also known as unihoc or floorball):Last but not least, all that know me well will understand that being without a plastic stick and a ball for an extended period is down right torture.

Have a great time, cherish this huge list needs of mine and I will keep myself busy with enjoying the things of here that I miss when I’m home like snow, porridge, and a spiritual connection with nature.

Until next time,

Kim

So far

(the blog about what changes we experienced and a bit more)

There have been blogs about white outs, shitting business and periods, poetic blogs about the midnight sun, questions have been put and even Andre has managed to make his voice heard. Today's blog is an attempt to be a bit less poetic and we'll try to explain what we have experienced so far.

In the beginning, the weather was cold, we lived our life in dawn jackets and with the face masks. Then we were dreaming about the warm weather we would have in May. Slowly the temperature increased with the usual stochasticity, that's mild weather and warm wind can create even during the mid-winter.

Now, when we are soon entering June, the weather indeed is less cold, but the air is more humid and the comfort of a dawn jacket is still a blessing from time to time.

When we started, it was ..... part disappeared in the air while transmitting ..... , ducks and geese. We have even seen ivory gulls that's a Norwegian polar institute fails to find. Spring has arrived to the Arctic! Both seals and polar bears has cubbed and some days when the sun is shining we ski in only t-shirt and long johns.

Around us the landscape has changed and we pass alpine areas with high and steep mountains, massive glacier fronts that carve into the ocean and fjords with their special feeling of homeliness.

But we have also experienced changes within our small group. We have had arguments and disagreements, we have rearranged tent partners and managed to be rather annoyed by each other. To say something else would be to lie. However now when we passed our northernmost point on this journey I have the feeling that we all have find our own ways to enjoy the trip. More individually than as a group.

We have now turned our skis homeward and we can feel the smell of home. More changes are to come. Spring will turn to Summer and skis and poles will be changed to backpack and hiking boots before we finally reach Longyearbyen less than 3 weeks from now.

Mats

Svalbard Skiing Scientific Expedition completes crossing

On 24 May 2007 at 9:00 pm local time the five members of SSSE reached the northernmost point of Spitzbergen - Verlegenhuken.

The group reached the point exactly 8 weeks after leaving the island's capital Longyearbyen in late March. To the best of our knowledge this is the first Svalbard på langs crossing this year and probably the first crossing by such an international group ever. The team comprising Czech Kim Senger, Lucas Girard from France, Swede Mats Bjorkman and Germans Ulli Neumann and Hella Garny was not the first to reach Spitzbergen's North Cape this day. Fresh polar bear tracks prevailed along the coastline and the northernmost point itself.

The expedition is far from over since 3 weeks of skiing and walking remain before the team arrives in Longyearbyen in mid-June.

Frozen Five


Notes from the support team:
To reach the northernmost point it took 56 days and approx 760 km from the start of the expedition.
The trip from the southernmost to the northernmost point was approx. 470 km long and took the group 32 days (incl 5 days of rest).
Further information can be found on 'Daily Progress' page on www.frozenfive.org.

Who let the dog out

Inspiration sought from the outside world.
This blog is anything but philosophical, funny or informative, but at least it's interactive.
For once you get to do the work for us (we are too busy skiing to reach Verlegenhuken).

What's the deal. An educational movie for 12 year old high school students is under construction up here and it needs the great starting scene. For always captivating beginning will keep attention of the class full of kids. For the scene is vitally important we've decided to get all the inspiration we can handle from the outside world - by holding a competition for the best opening introduction.

If you are still interested (and you should be) here are the details:
The movie evolves around Andre our dear four legged companion. Unsurprisingly the movie therefore starts in Longyearbyen dog yard, from where Andre leaves on his great adventure.

The big question and the task for you is what Andre is thinking at precisely this moment.

Contacting informations:
Andre's thoughts can be submitted via mail (881631578544@msg.iridium.com) provided they don't exceed ~160 characters. Send multiple e-mails if necessary and don't forget to include your name. The winner will be announced from the 1June and a suitable price will be found by then as well - maybe we'll name a mountain after you.

However as with the Olympics winning is half as much fun as playing.
Thanks in advance for all your efforts.

Who let the dog out film crew

A dog’s diary

So here I am, a Greenlander dog on a trip. It seems like a long trip, no one has told me for how long we will be out. But the word expedition seems to be a long word and a long word makes a long trip, I guess.

An expedition! Bah, all these guys do is slow motion skiing. If it would be me and my dogyard friends, we would have been at the North pole and back by now.

All day long, I have to pull this heavy pulka that someone named Fiffi and this guy Ulli who also pretends to pull this pulka, his bones and legs are always in way of my view. And when you want to have a look in front, he always shouts : “back” to me and I have to go back in his track.

It’s good that this girl is with us on this trip. At least someone that cuddles me. Well, the others do as well from time to time but it would be easier if they all could speak in one language. Or do they think I speak all languages of the world?

There are some good stuff as well. Food twice a day and small snacks whenever I find some left-over crumbles in the snow. Or when I found a whole “swebar” :yummy, “pure energy for everybody”. So I do not understand why they were so upset.

It’s like when they tried to make me bark at the polar bear at Vagabond. The other dogs were barking so I didn’t bother; Of course I would bark if a polar bear would try to steal my food but otherwise, no. I’m not a barking dog at all.

Just a few days ago I thought I was in heaven. I had a seal for dinner. The nice guy in Austfjordneset offered me seal meat, the best ever : a seal skull!

I have to go now, there is a stone sticking up a bit ahead and I’m going to pee on it! Even if Ulli disagrees since I will drive the pulka the wrong way. It would be easier if he headed for the stone right away.

Cheers

Andre

My family in the Arctic

I’m trying to collect my thoughts to find a nice subject for the blog but it’s kind of difficult to think after seven hours fighting gravity and dragging the pulka uphill !

Well, I could write about the beautiful landscape of the fjord we just went up, or about the number of polar bears we meet in this area, or again about the colour of seals in the midnight sun, or tell you about our last visit to the local trapper but let’s admit it, all these subjects are rather empty!
I’m going to write about something far more important to me and tell you some stories about the five living beings with whom I just spent the last fifty days!

Ladies first, let me start with Hella. She really impresses me with her courage and determination. She takes on perfectly as the woman in our group and she even had the guts to break through the poetic spirit overtaking the blog and to write about our everyday life in its most physical issues. But may be she needed 40 days to understand how to adjust her telescopic poles to the right size…

Concerning Mats, our outdoor living expert, he never looses his calm and serenity however bad the situation may be. I will never forget that evening under the tent in early April by minus 30°C. I was shivering in my sleeping bag and praying to wake up alive the next morning, while Mats was unshaken, reading aloud a chapter of his book.

Now about Kim : author, poet, scriptwriter and director of the expedition film. Kim is the brain in our group. All the time he spends on his skis, he plans ahead and organises his ideas into what he will do next! His weak point : waking up! In the morning he looks completely drugged for an hour after he wakes up and can not speak more than one word at a time!

Ulli is our clown. He has a funny word for every situation. He’s also a true acrobat. He survived a major accident when his pulka ran over him at full speed. Most of the time Ulli has an extraordinary energy but when he is exhausted , he truly is. Some nights, he was so tired we had to feed him with a spoon.

Finally, Andre,our dog, who is a full member of the group ! Always in a good mood, Andre is as energetic as ever since Staffan ( the trapper at Austfjord) gave him a seal skull to eat. Andre’s major problem is getting adapted to 24 hours sun light. As soon as we stop skiing, he goes to sleep. One wonders what he does when we sleep!

A question for all of you who know my fellow companions better than I do : do you think they behave normally?

Our little society gets along rather well. There are at times some stress or clash. Generally bad mood goes along with grey weather or tiredness. Group decisions are not easy to take and one has to be flexible to conclude an agreement with the others. Finally, there lies the real difficulty and challenge of our expedition : getting on all together! The physical challenge is only subsidiary…

Lucas

Things that everyone wonders about but no one talks about

Summer has come! The down jacket is replaced by a tee-shirt, snow is melting and today we even found first tracks of vegetation!
Just now, I was lying in a patch of grass in the sun just next to Austvotnhytta in Wijdefjorden, the first cabin we used on this trip.

And what a nice feeling it is to feel and smell the wind of summer, and even tough to most of you out there it would feel like a day in early spring, to me, it feels like a tropical summer!

Just next to the cabin is a tiny melted water stream, the first liquid water we meet after one and half month.
And also, the part of our life out here which is left less beautiful and also the hardest part of the day becomes much easier: yes, I’m talking about doing the “big business” to put it in nice words.

As unusual and socially unaccepted it is to talk about that in civilisation, as normal it is here.
After all it’s only a natural body function and if you are as close together as we are for 24 hours a day, you start to share the pain and the relief of the daily toilet expedition.
But as long as it’s nicely warm and sunny as now, it is actually almost better than the toilet at home : you just grab your toilet paper bags, with unused and used toilet paper (we collect the used toilet paper and burn it) and search for a quiet spot in a certain distance from the camp : this distance can vary from 50 meters down to 2 meters depending on how much privacy is necessary and on the urgency.

Well, but if the weather is less comfortable, it can be a challenge to try to dig a hole, and build a wind shelter to prevent from being covered by the snow drift, and the toilet paper bags can fly away pretty quick in strong wind.

Talking about the “big business”, I want to give an answer to a question that has been asked to me as only female on this trip already several times: how do you handle your periods ?

Well, I have to say it is not a big deal at all, you just do the same as at home and the woman’s “rubbish” will be burned along with toilet paper.
And as for being in a bad mood I think that it’s only because of the pain you have and no medicine is better against this than movement, like dragging a pulka through deep snow up a steep slope, I can only recommend it!

Oh yes, and while I’m on it, to prevent the second question which was predicted to me which is whether it is smelly with all the boys. Sure, they stink, they wear the same clothes since 47 days, they don’t take showers…just as me and it is a pleasure!

Hella

Snow, the bright side of life

Let’s face it: for us, no element of life is more elegant than snow. It’s around us, it’s under us, in many cases, it’s above us, and anyway it is in us.
We are in the world of the snow queen.

I didn’t grow up in an especially snowy place; where my love of snow is founded is a mystery.
Snow is not white! If the sunshine against snow has the colours of skiing over endless fields of flowers- green, blue, red, yellow- all are made out of ice, it’s a sparkling white.

Snow is never boring, it can change itself into funny states but it always remains as snow : Hard as concrete if compacted by wind, not even Fiffi, my pulka makes a track in it.
Flying snow, as my skies flow through the newly fallen crystals, not one is the same.
It reminds me of us, humans and animals : all are individuals.

Snow on your skis is tasteful but snow in your underwear (after having a shift) is, let’s call it, different.

Snow talks! If you don’t believe me, try it yourself. Find some snow, walk over it and listen.
For me skiing over cold snow gives the best symphony life ever heard.
Pulling pulkas over snow is never the same, not in time neither in space :
Hard snow, let us fly!
Deep snow, let us die !

A few words I noted down after a glacier climb in deep snow :
“All I want to do is not writing this. I kneel down on my skies, my body still attached to my pulka. I don’t really know if it is my body or my mind that is busted. While pulling (…) my heart is panting, my vision is grey, legs are shaking, fucking up! as we all use to say, or mind over matter,… confused!”

Having said this I want to thank everyone who cheers us up, send us satellite phone messages especially the birthday wishes.

Please answer the following questions by sending us SMS :

What can you build out of snow?
What’s the colour inside an igloo?
How tall is the snow queen?

Not easy, I know!

A special remark to skidoo drivers Paul and Sigrid : without you the world could have stopped turning, thanks.
Cheerio!

Ulli

Why?

This is not one of these days when I usually ask myself the question : why am I here? These days used to be when the pulka is sliding heavily in the deep snow or when the wind tumbles down the mountain side and makes the tent rumble.
This is not one of these days, this is a day when the sun slowly makes its way down towards the horizon but turns just before and starts to rise once more.

This is a day when the whole world is smoothly painted in a warm yellow colour and the clear blue sky makes the surrounding mountains to be never ending.
A blue colour that is light and dark blue at the same time, a colour that can only be found where the air is clean and dry, a beautiful colour. This a day when I know why I’m here.

I’ve been on trips before by ski, by foot, by the song of the paddle when it whispers its dripping song in the dark water that belongs to the beaver and the pike. Over sea I’ve travelled and time from time the question pops up : why am I doing this? Why do I leave my comfortable flat with hot water from a tap and a fridge full of food ?

This question is not easy but today I know the answer. As I managed to find it many times before, I found the answer while we move North with the sun shining from the side and our shadows stretching out on the other.
I feel complete, complete and fulfilled. I had this feeling before and I wouldn’t trade this moment for anything; this moment is worth the trip, a long trip. I do feel complete at home, at home with the ones I love, at home in a city, complete in a city with its pulse. I like cities, I like to be out.
There is a difference, a small non-named difference that I never managed to put in words : difference between the “at home” and the “out here” completeness. And this might be the reason why I’m still going on trips : to feel the completeness when your mind is somehow closer to nature, when the step between you and the surrounding is small and your life is attached and dependant on the nature around you.

You do not need to go on a long trip, the feeling of being complete can appear anywhere. It can be found in music, in art, in woodcraft, but today I feel complete. Today is a good day a good day to feel complete. We have so far not experienced a bad day, a bad day without a moment when light lifts the compact cloud cover, when sprikling light sends a Gloria on the slopes or the snow drifts. I think it was Ibsen, the Norwegian poet, that once said the words : “here, up on the mountains, here is God and down in the valley there are the others, dwelling”.

Today is a good day, a good day and I feel complete but I wouldn’t say that this is any religious feeling and I do not consider myself as a supreme being, a mythic hero or extraordinary man. I am only myself, living my simple life as it goes and for the moment in a lovely surrounding with a feeling of being complete.
The mountains, the snow, glaciers, sun and sky, everything feels so close and feels so far away. My body slowly works his way North but I’m not here for skiing, not for putting one foot in front of the other. I’m here because this is part of my life and feeling complete is part of my life. Feeling complete up here and at home.
The sun’s never ending journey over our heads reaches its lowest point and disappears behind a mountain. Cold air runs over the slopes and over glaciers, it’s time to make a camp. My moment of philosophy turns into the routine of our everyday life : putting up tents, melting snow and cooking food and sliding into the sleeping bag and into the world of dreams.
But the good feeling is still there, the feeling of being complete.

Mats

PS : this blog was written a few days ago. Today, the 9th of May is the second day we spend in our thirtieth camp, the second due to both bad weather conditions and to the love-sickness-rescue-patrol that was sent out from Longyearbyen to please the youngest and the oldest members of our team now when we just covered half way of our trip. Life is still good to us and I’m still having the feeling of being complete but the question of why we are all here on this planet will still be without an answer. Some questions are just not to completely answered.

N.B. from the blog support team : this article was sent three days ago.

North through the night

There is no sound, no noise at all,
Only the snow groans from dusk till dawn,
Where is the dusk where is the dawn ?
The midnight sun grows shadows tall.

There is no time, the clock is gone,
the darkness sleeps, don't turn it on,
I dream of none, yet I dream of all,
Is this my life, the Arctic call ?

There is no night the hours bright,
How does one sleep through this light ?
My eyes close, they block the glow,
A good day's sleep charges the soul.

Where is my mind, what are my thoughts ?
I think of wind, I think of snow, of storms,
Of humble lives, of eternity,
of fractures dreams, of naivety,

Of things to come, of dusk and dawn,
Of love, of peace, of space for all,
Of bitterness, of tenderness,
of loneliness and happiness.

I ski North, facing the sun,
The muscles soar, the steps are done;
The world sleeps, yet I march on,
The glaciers weep, the winter's gone.

All stars vanished, the skies are blue,
Day and night, a strange kind of blue.
All snow glistens in the magic light,
While I ponder the meaning of life.

The whys, the hows,
With the whom, who knows ?
The path of life, it rarely slows
My brain may think, my heart knows.

This is my place, my humble home,
The midnight sun is like a dome,
Protecting me, I'm not alone,
The Arctic lives, the dark be gone.

Kim

Warmly welcomed onboard Vagabond!

Skiing down towards the East coast on the long glacier of Inglefieldbreen, my heart started beating stronger. No need of a map or a GPS, my skis knew where to go, I felt like coming home.
We were just a few kilometers away from our 2nd resupply point and a place of very special importance to me: the French polar yacht Vagabond.

Contourning the last hills of the moraines and skiing along the glacier front - the blue stripe of happiness as Ulli calls it - it finally appeared , red haul, tall mast, proudly standing in a small sheltered bay: Vagabond - the only inhabited location on the wild east coast of Spitsbergen.

Eric & France, the skippers are the new generation of polar explorers! Recently, they circum-navigated the Arctic ocean; with the help of friends they sailed along the North-East passage (Siberian coast) and the next summer they came back home via the North-West passage (Canadian and Alaskan Arctic).
They will tell you about this trip as a pleasant and enjoyable journey but one has to keep in mind that they were the first ones ever to complete such a challenge on a sailing boat!

Vagabond is now over-wintering in Inglefieldbukta, where Eric & France are offering a basecamp and logistical help to scientists willing to explore the area.
One of the main projects concerns oceanography and aims at understanding the formation of brines (dense salty-cold water) in the nearby Storfjorden which is then influencing global ocean circulation.


Warmly welcomed onboard, we spent a cozy day resting, talking and enjoying the visit of a polar bear.

I am extremely grateful to Eric, France and Léonie for their hospitality! This is my 4th stay on Vagabond and it is a place where I learned a lot about adventure, life in the Arctic, enjoying the environment in company of Eric and France.

That is why it was great for me to be able to come back to this very special place. This bay feels a bit like home!

I think this is what our trip is about: Spitsbergen has been our home for a year or more (and still is for some of us) and we are simply enjoying a walk in the backyard!

Lucas

F5 on board

The frozen five have now reached the polar yacht Vagabond

Read more on line in Vagabond's logbook

Colourful white

We are out now for over one month. The day we left Longyearbyen feels like a day a long time ago but still time passes fast.

We have an everyday life out here, even tough it differs a lot from what is commonly seen as everyday life in civilization, with daily routines of melting snow, building the camp and of course, skiing.

The days are similar to each other but still it never gets boring and everyday has its own character.

Many glaciers and passes we crossed in the last month, skiing through a seemingly endless landscape in white and blue.



But the white is never the same, it can be grey in a whiteout or blue in the shadow, or all kinds of red, orange, pink in the low evening sun or better, the night sun, since the time of the midnight sun started by now.

That allow us to use the timelessness of the Arctic summer.

We do not have to plan our day according to the light. In the last days, we shifted our rhythm to skiing in the afternoon and night, when the light is beautiful, and sleep during the day when the sun is sleeping as well.

When there is no wind, there is often no sound to hear in the white endless snow desert and the surroundings seem dead.


So I’m always very happy to meet signs of life, like the reindeer couple we met at Sorkapp. They came very close to inspect what strange creatures crossed their land.

Or like the birds of which we meet more and more.

Today we also met our second polar bear but as the first one, he seemed to be more afraid of us than the other way around. And he was running away even before we spotted him.

It seems that our caravan of seven pulkas, five people and one dog is looking suspicious to most inhabitants of Svalbard !

And so we move further along the East coast of Spitzbergen towards North making a track through the colourful white leaving dead land.

Hella

Tracer software released

[ From the backup team in England ]

While our heroes are pushing North we got several times questions about the software that populates F5 Online map and F5 Daily Progress. That's why we put it together, wrote a bit of documentation (of course, with the real data from the real FrozenFive - we even used F5 logo in the software main page) and let it released as an open-source package. It is available for browsing or download here.

Jitka and Martin

The birthday mission

Many of us have a birthday at some point. Mine happened to be yesterday or the day before. Everyone were invited.
The locals : Hella, Kim, Lucas, Mats and André, and the non locals.

Well, there they came!
Four scooters lined up facing towards our camp site.
The birthday mission arrived.

You can imagine we welcomed all the things they brought but far and most of all, their coming was the greatest gift to me and will never be forgotten.

Driving two hundred kilometres in an unhabited terrain to a birthday party is not an expedition, it is a mission.

I was and I am still overwhelmed : Sigrid, Sanna, Päl and Trond celebrated with us in the best ever camping place you will find on Flatbreen or elsewhere in the universe.



They just left Northward with our best wishes for the journey, letters to our dearest and warmest thoughts.
Well there are good things happening in my life, friendship is one!

Our thoughts are with Sigrid, Sanna, Päl, and Trond. We wish you safe travel back and thank you very much!

Ulli

A chair, a dip in the ice, and speed kills

Burning news from the frozen Arctic!

I’m looking at a red mountain beside a frozen bay in the comfort of a sun chair.
I’m looking at the drift of sea ice from the comfort of a dip in the ocean.
I’m looking at wild glaciers of Southern Spitzbergen in the comfort of travelling at 45Km/h on skis.

If all this doesn’t make sense to you, keep on reading!

Last couple of days were full of excitement : new things to see and new stuff to think.

We spent a full day camping on a glacier overlooking the bay of ice known as Isbukta.
The contrast with the carven face of the glacier front and the frozen sea of the bay were astonishing and I spent a little time carving a comfortable armchair out of a snow block to be able to fully enjoy the beauty of the place.
Sorry but this beauty is not to be described here
Not that I would not like to, I just can’t find words.
I spent the whole afternoon and evening in the chair.
We returned to the location four days later and the chair remained where I built it, visible from a distance of more than three kilometres.


I learned how to swim in the garden of my parents. From early age they taught me swimming lessons in cold water. I kept the fashion.
Lucas and I celebrated the arrival of the Frozen five at the most Southern point of Spitzbergen. This point is also called the point of no-continuation, but we continued tough a 100 meters to make a meter wide hole in the 10 centimetres thick sea ice.
If you believe me or not I don’t care, but I enjoyed every second of that bath in minus 1.9° water.
Undressing and breathing and slowly sliding in the hole is the one moment in my life when my mind was so empty but under full concentration, and very few things can compare with that!



Well, how do you power up your skis to 45 Km/ hour on a flat snow surface without the help of any kind of machine?

Take a kite: a bit of fabric, a few lines and off you go.
A friend of mine lent me his kite for the expedition.
We still have just practised and so far haven’t used the kite yet to cover some distance.
It is just pure fun to be well over the snow by pure wind.
I like the rush of adrenaline in my veins and I must admit I like speed, speed without machine.
The wind whips the lines It is the song of speed.

Ulli

PS and erratum from Sylvia, French back up team : Another "swiss pools" story!
The distorsions in our satellite communication system ended up in another funny story!
The "PBM" mentionned in April 25 article as a smell dropping and body lotion is in fact a "VBL", or Vapor Barrier Liner, an anti-condensation bag to put inside your sleeping bag to keep it dry and avoid ice forming from human breathing in very cold atmosphere. Lucas sent me the exact meaning by sms.
Technology is not my part but now I have a great story to tell when I'm invited out to dinner!

Life is like a tent, it has 2 doors

Leaving philosophy behind, this new group approach to F5 blogging focuses on practical information in favour of the inner sauce from the inner tent.

And where else to start than in the inner tents themselves?

Like who speaks with whom, who uses the “PBM”(?) (a moisturizing body lotion that has a smell dropping function) and why our two youngsters only found their tent’s second door last week.

Let’s start with André. He sits outside, rain on shine, hidden behind a snow wall we make each evening. Next, we have “Romeo”, formerly known as tent 2, with Hella and her 2 mentors, Mats and Ulli. And then, there is the young and colleague tent lovingly known as “Juliet” inhabited by Lucas and Kim.

Our 2 homes with plenty of space (each is designed to accommodate 4 people) and two entrances each, provide useful shelter. Their tunnel design, double poles and ease of kitchen, make them perfect for the artic environment. We have cupboards with a kitchen hole we dig each night in the absid.

Our tent life is a pretty considerable affair.

Of course there are multiple maneers of melting snow for drinking water and cooking, each one preferred by our tents “Romeo” and “Juliette”.

The Romeo gang uses the stove within the inner tent, with storing temperatures usually up to +15°C.

In contrast, the boys in Juliet, live the Nansen way, growing beards for insulation and keeping the stove in the absid. Lucas makes the morning porridge, while Kim cooks the evening meal.



To conclude with Lucas philosophical remark, “the tent is the place we spend two third of our expedition” forming thus our home sweet home.

The Frozen Five

White out

The white nothing, a compact white feeling. Like a porridge.

A world without any reference points : without up, without down, but with a track left behind.

Forward, there is all white. There is nothing or maybe there is everything.
Maybe everything exists in front of me ?

The future is uncertain, next step might go upward or it might go downward.
Without a point of reference, time and space disappear.
Your brain starts to spin.

Is there a mountain ahead or is it only my mind spinning?
Where am I about to go?
My eyes are constantly trying to find a spot to focus on but everything is white, only white.

But there is something, a small spot. I focus on it, it’s hard, no there’s nothing. The small something is only some dust on my sunglasses

Heading onward, I start to sweat. It might be uphill, uphill since I sweat and there, far away are the contours of a mountain, something to focus both eyes and mind on for a while.
Then it disappears.

Once more I’m alone in the totally white world and I would probably be frightened if there would not be a track left after my skies and if the four others were not following in these tracks.

This is what keeps me going in the right direction. And there, in the back, Ulli is pointing out the direction. I have been drifting out of the course once more.

I correct my skies, I turn my head forward into the white nothingness.
Into my soul and my own self.
Into the white world where only my own mind creates the reference.

It’s white out once more, it’s white out.

Mats

“White out” is an expression for when snow fall, low clouds or snow drift by wind, lower the visibility and together with the snow covered surface make everything white.

Life, universe and everything

Breaking news from the Arctic

I have found the meaning of life!

Well not really, at least not yet.

But now that I have your undivided attention, let’s talk about more serious issues like how I feel about skiing the wild South of Spitzbergen and how I cope with the constant drag of “Bozena” and “Lyyli”, my two pulks, and always the big enchilada of questions: why?

Now that we are heading South again, I feel the excitement in my veins yet again. There is a destination out there: the lone cape of Sorkapp. The point at which most of us will be geographically closest to home yet also one of the most remote and isolated point in our voyage.

Well Sorkapp itself remains at least another three days skiing away. We have marched through the gate of Sorkapp land today, welcomed by fresh polar bear tracks but very dabbled labyrinth of melted water streams and the so familiar white out conditions. This last frontier is truly something special.

Everybody uses a different approach to cope with the physical strain of moving our heavily laden pulkas from North to South. For me, it all boils down to enjoying the movement of passing one ski in front of the other. Some steps are undeniably a struggle but if the body’s motion is in harmony with the mind, they become at least manageable.

But why put yourself in our position if it’s such a struggle?
To be frank I believe that life out here is the only way of escaping the real life with its unaccountable traps and society expectations.
Out here my usual over-busy life style simplifies itself tremendously to three things: eat, sleep and ski, in order of importance. The level of comfort I’m prepared to give up, for the chance to experience the need to abide only to nature, is a small price to pay.

Dangers: another hard topic of discussion when it comes to expeditions, may be somewhat elevated in some aspects (polar bear attacks for example) but minimal in others (like getting run over by a car) and believe it or not, I am more worried about those dears to my heart than about myself here in Serkapp-land. I have four friends and my dog Andre to protect me after all!

Thinking of you, sending the ice magic around the world, and wishing you all a nice spring (autumn for those down under.)


Kim

PS : Last but not least, the big news of the day : we have finally seen the King of Arctic. We must smell rather funny tough, since the bear met a large loop around us never coming closer than about 1,5 km.

Time and Space

The last three days, we’ve been enjoying a very special Arctic cocktail that I named WBS : 1/3 Wind, 1/3 Blizzard and 1/3 Snow.

And so we keep on pulling endlessly our heavily loaded pulkas around Hornsund fjord trying to find our way to the South Cape.

The task is made even harder as we’re moving on deep and fresh snow.

Our arctic caravan, as if led by elephants, heavily and slowly keeps on moving forward.

But what on earth is giving us the energy to continue this useless quest in Spitsberg frozen desert?



Curiosity is certainly one of the main reasons that keeps us going : we are constantly curious to discover what is hidden behind the next mountain and looking forward to contemplate Arctic wonders.

At the same time, we each react with what science has taught us.

Kim, the geologist, can tell the history of moutains by observing the structures of rocks.
Mats, the biologist, spots the signs revealing presence of ptarmigans, the only bird to hibernate in the Arctic.
Hella is interested in zaturgis, the snow structures sculpted by wind.
Ulli follows closely the movement of glaciers and can predict crevasses.

As for myself, my favourite subject is the sea ice. Only a few centimetres of ice covering fjords and bays are required to open up new and infinite space and let us cross easily over.

But we have to be careful!

We have to switch fast from contemplation to concentration to navigate correctly in the Arctic universe and always have to be watchful to prevent from frost bites, meeting bears or falling in crevasses.

When I feel tired from walking and each step demands an extra effort, I try to concentrate on the present moment to extract myself from harsh reality, forget the snow constantly hitting my face, the wind that’s chilling me down to the bones, in order to fully enjoy the unique environment we’re going through.

“Infinity lies in every moment about to finish”.

Quoting Sylvain Tesson, as he crossed by foot the Oustiourt Desert in Kazakstan by plus 45° Celsius, I try to concentrate myself on the very second going by in order to forget space and time as a whole.

“Here and now, in this universe, eternal calm reigns for neither wind nor blizzard, deprived of reality, can take form”.

Lucas

Following nature's rules

Two days ago, on Wednesday morning, we left the Polish station in Hornsund with one eye crying and one eye laughing.

Crying because it was sad to leave behind civilisation , laughing because we were looking forward to continue our trip.
Only that now, the route is not as straight forward as it was the last two weeks.
Especially because the ice conditions in Hornsund are pretty bad this year.

At first we decided to try to go along the shore of Hornsund in order to cross it further East.
Therefore we crossed Hansbreen and walked down a small narrow gully or canyon to the next bay.

At the end of the gully we had to drag our more heavily loaded pulkas up on about a 10 meters snow drift and after some trying we figured out that the easiest way was to pull altogether on each pulka one by one.
The sea ice in the Bay was about 20 cm thick consisting of small floats frozen together.
A bit of a discussion started whether we could cross it with pulkas. But this was solved in the morning as the ice broke up over the night and there was no way to cross it now.



So Svalbard showed us again that the nature is the one who knows up here and if it doesn’t want us to go off that way, we have to turn around and search for another route.

That’s why we are back on Hansbreen now once more, planning to go East on the glaciers until we hit the route that we planned to go, back from the South cape where is a food depot.
So we will try to reach the South Cape this way.

But not only the route, but the weather is also unpredictable. Today we decided to stay in camp since the temperature grows above zero and it started to rain!

But after all, even with having all these problems to face, I am very happy to be back on the skis and going back to the tent after two days in ”civilisation” feels like coming home!

Hella

PS : Ulli invites everybody to his birthday party on the 26th of April. The location is to be found from our tracer. Birthday presents are welcome only if they are digestible or eatable.

Hella mails from Hornsund

It's probably a surprise to get an e-mail from me - no worries, I'm not yet back in Longyearbyen, but we are in the Polish research station in Hornsund and we even have internet here! (next to warm rooms, shower, food ... a bit of luxury..).

So I have the opportunity to write my first personal report:

Our start from LYB 2 weeks ago was quite exciting, about 50 people came to the UNIS building to say good-bye. With the words: "I don't know where you go, we go to the South! See you in Sommer!" we started, it was really great start. Since then we were 12 days on the way till we arrived to Hornsund, 3 days before the planned date thanks to the good weather and optimal conditions.

First 2 days we went along the Scooter-"motorway" in the direction to Svea and it was great to leave this path on the 3rd day. At the beginning the pulka was for me quite heavy though I've got it a bit lighter than the "boys". With the time it was better and fortunately after about 2 days my knee got used to the burden, so I didn't have yet any problems with it! Then we crossed Van Mijenfjord, luckily well frozen just as later Van Keulenfjord. Inbetween we had one day with bad weather, our camp was on the pass between the two fjords and although it wasn't really bad storm we decided to stay in the tent.


Since the Van Keulen crossing we move along on the enormous gaciers and the landscape is fabulously beautiful!! Since then I also feel it was right to come here and I can really enjoy the trip.

Also with the team is everything ok, we understand each other and we can coordinate ourselves well. I share the tent with Ulli and Mats and meanwhile we have quite good routines - even when we have huge tents, sometimes it is with 3 people a bit narrow and we need to arrange who how when is moving. In the temperatures (often till -30 degrees in the night) everything needs its own time, above all to melt and cook the water, so even when we wake up at 7 we can be on the road at 10:30 and also in the evening we need few hours. So we are three we alternate always in cooking, so everyone gets 2 "free" evenings to write a diary etc. and especially on 2 from 3 mornings gets breakfest practicaly into the sleeping bag (you can't underestimate this factor with -25 degrees).

My sleeping bag is luckily warm enough, just becomes as the others very icy from the outside, but the daily sunshine allows to let it dry on the pulka. Here we had opportunity to let ourselves and our equipment dry and sort a bit and above all pack the heaps of food for the next 27 days. Starting from here will be a bit harder as the fjord here (Hornsund) is not frozen ehough, so we will need to find our way along it. On the other site it should be again easier, we'll continue on the big glaciers about 40-50km till we reach Sudkapp. You'll be able to follow it further...

Also it is great to have our dog Andre, it pulls quite a lot and hears very well - and is always happy to be stroken. It's really lovable and trusty friend.

Generally I'm very fine and I'm looking forward to the next weeks of the trip.
Thanks a lot for all sent messages!!!!



Hella


p.s. from Mathias: FrozenFive sent also few photos.
The pictures in this blog are actual, not from the archive.
(it pays off to click on the last one to get it bigger ;-))

Skiing is inspiration

It is great to feel the hospitality here at the Hornsund research station. We owe everybody here at the station a big thanks. We had time to rest, eat, sleep and repair some equipment and last but not least reflect on something which I felt the last three days before reaching Hornsund research station, our first depot in southern Spitsbergen.

Skiing is inspiration

If nature speakes
You can listen to your inner self.
The landscape is in harmony
And gives us travelers the freedom we whish for.

After leafing Longyearbyen, the beauty of the landscape made my mind settle down. Since the year 2007 started, many things in my life has happened in a short while and I had hardly any time to catch up with it. As I ski along my mind is moving from one side to the other like a broom, cleaning up all the mess I left behind in my little brain. Now everything seems to just settle in the right place. Being out here on the glaciers, between the mountains sets everything in the right relation. Worries I have had are not left behind, they become small, smaller and finally disappear. They were self made or at least artificial. This is a great feeling. I love freedom and that’s what I can find out here. If my mind settles my inner voice speaks up. This inner voice of me is one of the most important things I actually own. One reason to be here skiing is to listen to that voice. The lectures I already learned by listening to that voice are one of the most important in my live. It guides me. I believe it is the truth in me that speaks up. This voice is very silent and it needs a harmonic setting to be heard. Among the glaciers, on skies and leaving nothing behind then silence, that’s the right place for me.

This journey is not an adventure, my life is the adventure. At this moment I don’t want to be anywhere else then where I am. With my five companions, in the breathtaking landscape of southern Spitsbergen and with the snowprincess in my heart.


I want to thank anyone who has helped us to make this dream of mine come true.

With the best arctic whishes
Ulli

Let's face the storm

The only place we have Internet access on our trip is the Polish research station at Hornsund. The hospitality of the local scientists and station crew is tremendous, and since I cannot sleep this night (too nervous of the things to come), I would like to use this opportunity to thank them for all the help and support extended our way. The same goes for all the support crews back home, especially Sylvie Girard for transmitting our sat phone messages into a great blog (you're doing a great job!). Thanks for all the messages from around the world!

We had a busy day today, fixing various pieces of equipment (like a tripod, sealing the VBL - a plastic bag we sleep in to avoid ice forming in the sleeping bags) and repacking our pulks with the new food. Now we're real ready for the next stage, scheduled to last 27 days (!!!). This means the pulks are about twice as heavy as when we left Longyearbyen. And thanks to the ice conditions in Hornsund it's also not the easiest route. It feels like a labyrinth of steep cliffs, uncertain ice foots, (lack) of sea ice, polar bears (lots of tracks around here) and also a little bit of headwind (like 10 m/s). I guess it's not hard to understand why we're all a little bit nervous, but at least we feel positive about the new challenges ahead and want to "face the storm", in a hopefully not literal sense of the word.

Greetings from Hornsund, and have a nice spring!

Kim and the rest of the F5 team

A night at Hornsund Palace

A quick message from Hornsund Research Station : yes! Even here in the middle of the Arctic desert, Internet brings everyone close!

We got here on monday in the late afternoon and people welcomed us warmly.

Ten minutes after we got in, they served us a full hot meal!!!

Hornsund is a rather small research base. Only eight people live here during the winter, twelve at the moment.

The Polish scientists are very friendly and greeting us very warmly. It's a great pleasure to get to know them. Life here is so different from Longyearbyen.

It is a unique opportunity for us to be here, to meet these people and share a little bit of their lives and activities.
The Hornsund area is totally forbidden to snow scooters and tourists. There are only scientits around.

I looked at the blogs and Iwant to thank the support team for all they are doing updating them. It feels great for us to to have all this information network around our expedition!

I just loved the "Swiss pools" story !!! (NB :support team members spent a few hours on that one!) I also checked the web site and the number of visitors is up to 700 per day this week!

I 'm falling asleep so I guess I'll go to bed now. Everything is going so well, it sounds too good to be true... Things might get a little tougher around thursday, as there is a storm forecast with a 30 knots wind!

Kim is going to try to send some pictures but I'm not sure the Internet connexion will let them get through.

NB from support team: Kim's pictures did get through, you just discovered the first ones!

Another Easter surprise

Yesterday, in the evening, we had a call from Lucas.

One thing for sure: our Frozen Five explorers are really happy and enjoying every second of their skiing trip.

They are moving fast on the map and are even a few days ahead of schedule.
The storm they went trough at the beginning didn’t stop them for long.

During the storm, they had problems because their tent wasn’t totally closed and the freezing wind got inside and froze part of their stuff.

But this misfortune left apart, they are lucky and enjoying a superb weather, very cold and sunny. The low temperatures (down to minus 30°C) ensure good snow and ice .
Their muscles are getting used to pulling the pulkas although they had one very hard day, with a continuous climbing and had to put on their crampons.
When the snow is deep and fresh, the pulka seems heavier to pull, but on hard freezing snow, they even forget their burden.

As for food, they planned extra-large! Except for Ulli who manages to finish his daily rations, the other four have too much to eat. They plan to leave their extra food at the Polish research station where they are to arrive on Monday.

They have met reindeers but no polar bears yet. The bears though, are not far : bear footprints are to be seen here and there in the snow.

Lucas is totally amazed by the awesome landscapes he and his companions are discovering everyday. Although he’s already spent some time in the Arctic, he still feels very little in front of the gigantic beauties of mountains and glaciers large as two highways brought together !

Erratum : In one of our last messages, we told you it was sometimes difficult to hear every word in Frozen Five messages: so we must confess after checking with Lucas during this conversation that the F5 actually crossed recently“Nup passet” and not passage…

Sylvie

Behind the scene 2

FYI (For Your Information):

Martin (yes, the one who is also behind the daily maps and progress, so we can follow Frozen Five in almost real time) found yesterday some other blogs mentioning the expedition. I'm taking the liberty to post the links here:

100th blog of Laurel (photographer- ecologist- journalist- healthcare researching- animal wrangler) with some nice photos taken when the expedition started.

Guardian Mobility blog posted on the 1st February 2007 in the connection with the tracer testing during the Frozen Five preparation trip in France.

Northern Waterways blog posted on the 28th March 2007 with general information about the expedition and its start.

Thanks, Martin!
Jitka

Easter update

Hello!

This is Mats from the Frozen Five delivering the blog for today!

It’s been quite hard for all of us to start again after the break. Today we were entering the Nup passage and we left the old mountains and valleys behind. As we entered this completely new area, I realized how long we had spent in the same place.

The sun has been shining today and we have done quite a good distance. and it’s been a really nice day for all of us. The weather has been really nice everyone is happy and even our dog André is going well along with us. He is actually walking freely in the camp from time to time.

We all wish you the best and a Happy Easter to everyone at home. We thank you for all the messages that we received so far and we hope we’ll hear from you soon.

Bye Bye!

Mats

PS from Sylvie : As Martin wrote, we are sometimes having problems hearing F5 voices during their phone messages. We're doing our best to update the blog!

Behind the scene

First of all, congratulations to F5 - today their route tracer reported that they reached the first 100 km (in reality they did it already sometimes ago because the tracer does not record all nitty-gritty route windings).

Now back to my "behind the scene" theme. Last evening I felt like a decrypter from the Bletchley Park. Kim called Sylvia (a head of the backup team in France) asking to check about... well, about the "Swiss pools". His voice, torn by wind and storm, was obscure and impenetrable. Sylvia made an evening call to England, transmitted us the Kim's voice message, and deciphering started. What the hell, could he mean?

Was it a subconscious message reflecting Kim's hidden thoughts about a thermal pool in the luxury of Switzerland? :-)

Of course not. Finally, after few dead ends, Jitka hit the jackpot: Kim's resting email box shown that he negotiated a deal with a sponsor about the ski poles (ski sticks), which have not arrived before the expedition started. But they are on the way, and Kim definitely wants them. And their name? Well, "Swix poles". Melodically not so far from the "Swiss pools", is it?

Martin

PS. At least, we think we solved it... Let's wait for after Eastern.