The show is on!

[ This post comes from a warm room; not from them :-) ]

Today, the Frozen Five started as planned. If you read Norwegian you can grasp the mood of the start as published in today's Svalbardposten. If not you can at least enjoy the expedition first picture "on the road".

Or, you can try the Internet automatic translator which will not help much but it makes you laugh. For example, it also translates expedition members names. Kim Senger became Germ Bedstead, and Hella became Greece Net.

I can also confirm that their tracer is transmitting fine and the expedition on-line map started to be drawn.

Martin

Communicating with the F5

Only 1 night left. Tomorrow, after a full breakfast courtesy of SAS Radisson Hotel (thanks in advance!), we’ll be available to the world only through satellite phone. This way, this blog will remain updated (except an updated about every 3rd day).

You can also personally get in touch with us by sending us SMS messages. This free service, through the Iridium network, allows you to send us short messages to cheer us up. You can either use the form on the Iridum website (our phone number is 881631578544), our own website or email 881631578544@msg.iridium.com. Messages need to be kept under 160 characters, but there is no limit on how many you can send, just your imagination is the limit.

Thanks to everyone who helped us make it this far. From our families, friends and sponsors to all the helping hands and minds we met on the way. Without you we wouldn’t be here, and we hope we will be able to repay you someday! Tusen takk.

Kim

The time has come…

The last day before a long expedition is always something special. For some, it’s the last day that many things can be done that need to be done for the expedition itself. For others, this day is the last time you can experience things that will be impossible to experience during the ski trip. Like a hot shower. Or playing innebandy.

Over the past few days, the whole F5 team has been tying up loose ends, mostly in terms of preparing our equipment. Making the tent storm-proof, the sledges snowdrift-proof and the kite flyable all take their time and effort. And at least once a day someone forgets something that still needs to be bought at the shop (eg woolen underwear).

Still, we try to keep the preparation as light-hearted as possible, with all the stress around it’s easy to become disoriented on what the important things on our trip are. To have fun, and see a bit of Svalbard while we’re at it. This is why we also try to make the evenings a little bit more light-hearted, with cake & coffee (sorry, we forgot to bring the coffee up to Nybyen) evenings for both our “Longyearbyen support team” (these hardy Arctic folks can drive to our rescue at practically any point on the trip, to bring us fresh fruit, a new ski or maybe a newspaper ;) and the “foodpacking slaves” (thanks so much again. And again!). One more night to sleep in Longyearbyen and then we’re off. If we make it out of town on the first day though ;)

Don’t despair though, this blog will remain updated throughout our journey, thanks to our satellite phone.

Kim

Skiing the Troll’s rock

Since we have a blog about shooting at cardboard, I couldn’t resist writing a short one about something much more fun and exciting, skiing on Trollsteinen. Yesterday, me and Sanna (plus some very good telemark skiers we met on the way down) enjoyed great powder snow on Larsbreen (bet you’re all jealous, sorry ;) and views across Nordenskioldland.

Trollsteinen is one of the most famous “student-hills” on Svalbard, with multiple ascents on most nice days. It’s also one of the few hills up here where you actually have to use your hands to climb to the summit (ok, just for the last metre). Yesterday, its top was a rather windy place, but at least nice to test my Klattermusen jacket and the Crispi boots. The boots especially proved totally adequate both for the ascent and descent, keeping me somewhat upright even with the lack of telemark-skiing activity (that’s a project for next year, probably harder than this whole expedition). Last but not least, let’s not forget our tastiest sponsor, Goteborgs Kex and Safari cookies!

Takk for turen,

Kim

3+2 makes 5

This Sunday, the F5 team was reunited for the first time since the preparation trip ended in Grenoble almost 6 weeks ago. It was a somewhat strange reunion, since the mid-day arrival of the plane coincided with Lucas’ depot drop-off trip to Van Postbreen and my humble attempts to ski Trollsteinen using fjellski. In the end, we all met up in the local swimming pool, during the kayak-polo session. What a way to start and Arctic expedition!

Today, the full team (with the exception of Andrée, our four-legged companion) took part in the UNIS safety course run by the one and only “safety Fred”. After a brief re-introduction to various dangers of traveling and working in the Arctic, we went up to the rifle range above the airport to brush up on our rifle shooting skills. Ulli won the shooting competition almost without competition and secured himself the role as our armed protector, in case we run into bear-trouble. We all hope to avoid such situations but better to be safe than sorry.

This afternoon, the various team members keep the ship rolling towards our near departure. Lucas is uploading the digital route information into the GPS units, Mats and Hella work on securing our stoves, Ulli is frantically organizing the rest and I laminated the maps and spent a few minutes admiring the view across Isfjorden towards Oscar II Land. In the evening, the team regroups for a 19:00 talk at the local Red Cross meeting. If you’re in the neighbourhood, see you there! If not, don’t worry and make sure to come to the UNIS lunch seminar on Wednesday, we promise you will not forget it (for a few days at least ;). Greetings from Longyearbyen,

Kim

F5 Education gets a boost from the NRC

A week ago, our project received funding from the Norwegian Research Council to help us achieve optimal education during the International Polar Year. The funding that we applied for covers costs associated with post-expedition presentations, production of a documentary movie clip (the stars of which will be your polar kids from the f5 team) and organizing photography exhibitions for the general public.

In this way, the Frozen Five project will continue even after we return back from the ski trip (yes, we will return contrary to the belief of many). Through this blog, we would also like to invite institutions/schools to contact us by email and express an interest in a post-expedition presentation at their venue. We’ll do our best to work something out! In the meantime, we would be grateful if you could spread the word of the F5 project to your students/friends/family and enjoy the spring!

Kim

A rainy day in the Arctic

The last Friday gathering (a real UNIS-tradition that makes the dark time pass faster by congregating students around the fireplace with some liquid) before we embark on the trip proved to be a very wet affair. Longyearbyen put on what must have been the worst weather-day in 2007, with “pouring” rain (not tropical, but this is the Arctic!!) and some wind. Not a lot you can do then, even the monster boots can get wet if water flows in from the top.

Instead, we spent the day gathering the equipment from Longyearbyen’s various sports shops and making a digital plan of our planned route. In theory, we should thus be able to know where we are even in a white out. The route is mostly based on gathering information from the locals, especially the governor’s office, the 3 girls that crossed Svalbard last year (see here) and of course our many contacts at UNIS and the local community. Things always go easier if the network is already in place, but even so thanks to you all that help us along the way!

Tomorrow, there’s a promise of a brief window with good weather, so maybe there’ll be time for a nice ski trip before Mats and Hella arrive in the afternoon. With another two pairs of helping hands, everything should be ready for our Thursday departure. It’s soon, real soon. The fact that our date of departure is already on the met.no forcast is a sure sign that we’ll be off very soon. But don’t worry, this blog will be kept updated while we’re “out there”…

Greetings from a Bergen-like Longyearbyen,

Kim

A fullstop to a Master’s project

Yesterday, the 3 northern F5, with the help of UNIS-students Stephan and Anne, spent the afternoon relocating a house. A house with plenty of history. For a start, the Chalet d’Ulli used to be an Antarctic field cabin, traveling more than 4000 km across the southern ice behind a skidoo. Afterwards, it made the long journey to Svalbard, where it has seen limited use in projects until Ulli adopted it a couple of years ago.

The cabin served Ulli for 2 years as a base station for his Master’s project, a mass balance study of Bogerbreen, a picturesque glacier in Nordenskioldland. Over this time, the hut has probably experienced more things than a normal person experiences in a lifetime ;) Storms, plenty of reindeer and 7 people inside it at one time (plus a dog??). The first time I saw the hut, back in autumn 2005 during a 4-day field campaign with Ulli, it had grass roots (yes, some stuff grows up here) stuck in the chimney. It wasn’t until we realized that the hut had been blown 360 degrees along its long axis that this made any sense…

Back to yesterday. Getting the hut back to town proved easy enough thanks to the “beltebil” and the whole crew. It even fitted under the bridge in Longyearbyen! Far more special than the actual relocation was Ulli’s bright-green, probably radioactive but very tasty, cake with vanilla crème served just for the occasion. Not bad at all!

Kim

The shoe business

One of the major problems of an Arctic expedition is keeping the fingers and toes warm. In cold conditions, blood circulation to these parts is severely reduced, often leading to frostbite. That’s the last thing we want to experience on this trip, and that is why we paid much attention to securing the most suited shoes for us.

Among the five bi-pedal expedition members (our dog Andree doesn’t wear shoes) we will be using three different approaches. One is Ulli’s monster boot from Alfa (with a shoes size over 50), made famous by Borge Ousland and the 3 girls from Jenter-pa-langs. Mats and Hella opted for the traditional Varg Polar approach, a leather skiing boot with a woolen inner sole. The youngsters on the trip, Lucas and Kim, became shoe brothers by using Crispi’s Top expedition boot. The newer model that Kim will be using was kindly lent to us by Acron, the importer of Crispi products in the Czech Republic. Thanks!

The Crispi Top expedition boot fits firmly into our telemark bindings, is super-warm (we’ve both been walking around the town with them and it’s as good as a skidoo boot in terms of insulation) and provides good ankle support when kiting or downhill skiing. After the expedition, a comprehensive test of the boots will be available through our media partner Svet Outdooru.

Kim

Himalayan gear from Sir Joseph

When we leave Longyearbyen next week for the grand traverse, the first thing that will hit us is the week 14 storm. This strange phenomenon has bruised many expeditions in each of the last three years, and we cannot really expect to be spared by an Arctic storm, be it in week 14 or at some other time. This is why we’re extremely happy to have Sir Joseph gear in our pulks, some of the best designed down products made.

The Czech brand Sir Joseph was set up by Josef Rakoncaj, perhaps the best-known Czech Himalayan climber with a reputation that speaks for itself. Since 1972, he has been making down products for his own expeditions to the world’s highest peaks and it thus should not be surprising that these are some of the warmest, most comfortable and well thought-out products you can buy. For more information on the brand, visit the official website.

The Frozen Five team kindly thanks Sir Joseph for providing us with discounted down jackets, a sleeping bag and gloves.

1 week to go !!!

In exactly 1 week, on Thursday 29th of March at 12:45 (Longyearbyen local time, same as most of Europe) we will leave Longyearbyen for our 80 days voyage around Spitsbergen. All are welcome to come and say goodbye to us at the "Arctic Gateway", the main entrance to UNIS!

Kim

Bearing the load

A quick update from Longyearbyen on our journey to Austfjordneset. Over the last 2 days, we have spent about 15 hours on snowmobiles delivering the ~200 kg of food to a small trapper's hut in northern Spitsbergen, on the edge of Wijdefjorden. The journey, totalling almost 400 km, took us over varied terrain, including some broken sea ice, slopes with deep powder and a "cemetery of the icebergs".

If all goes to plan, we'll be returning to Stefan and Lene's hut in mid-May to pick up our food and re-stock for the journey to the north. Even the short visit this time (we ended up sleeping in a hut further south, where a polar bear was chewing on the scooter seats during the night) was very inspirational and I can't wait to get back to this place, this time on skis.

See you in a few months! And greetings to the polar bear that was walking around the hut when we arrived on Sunday evening. Now it's time to enjoy the good weather in Longyearbyen and do a skiing trip!

Lucas went to Barentsburg (a Russian/Ukrainian coal mine about 60 km away) today, showing his parents around the place that we'll be spending the next few months skiing across. I hope they will still allow him to join!

Kim

Spreading food around Spitsbergen

After enjoying a great kitchen-to-kitchen party in Nybyen (the home of arctic students), Kim, Ulli and Lucas had a tough morning! Due to stormy weather (70km/h winds on Saturday) all activities had been canceled for the weekend, but late at night yesterday, a short window of not-too-bad weather was forecasted which seemed good enough to try to drive to Austfjordneset, in northern Spitsbergen, to bring one of our food depots. Therefore, the 3 of us had to get up after a short night sleep to pack the sledges and prepare the snow-scooter trip. Together with Eystein, a UNIS staff, Ulli and Kim left town at noon for a 300km journey. If everything goes well, they should be back tomorrow evening!

After spending most of the week organising the food, we finally got everything packed and ready to be taken to our 4 food depots. The total weight of our food seems somehow outstanding, Kim made an estimate of about a ton :) which is almost twice what we were expecting… better too much than not enough though!

On Friday, a helicopter flight to Vagabond was scheduled and I (Lucas) was invited to join, in order to bring our food to the boat. Unfortunately the weather was too bad to take off! Another attempt should be made on Monday, let’s hope it goes better this time!

Today the temperature has dropped to -15, the windchill is about -40. While skiing up Sarkofagen, one of the mountains around longyear I really started to get the feeling of “being in the arctic”, to make it simple: I froze my butt! Great feeling!

10 days to go! Cheers,
/Lucas

Two weeks to go!

Only two weeks to go until we leave Longyearbyen! Panic! The start date (29.3), time (12:45) and location (outside UNIS – The Arctic Gateway) has been set and now it’s up to us to get the show on the road. We’ve already got 3 of the 5 team members up here, as Lucas arrived early Monday morning for a week full of food preparations with Ulli and Kim. Still, we’re sooo helpful from all the help of our “slaves” (not sure who invented this term, but it wasn’t me!).

So what do we actually do? First of all, organising the food is a full-time job on its own. Thankfully the people at Svalbardbutikken, the local shop and our generous sponsor (Thanks and tusen takk!), prepared our order onto one pellet that we managed to drive to our temporary home on the seaside shore of Longyearbyen. Together with the parcels from Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden and France these make up the basis of our rations.

With all that work, there needs to be time for some fun as well. Like Saturday, with the famous “Baby Bullet” win and riding around in a “Beltmobil”, kind of like a tank-on-snow. Very fancy. There are also these quiet evenings that you can spend sewing on the patches, modifying the last pieces of equipment or simply relaxing (not much time for that though).

Kim

A gastronomical experience

With only 2 weeks left until we leave Longyearbyen, the expedition preparation has stepped up another couple of gears. We have taken over a whole house in Longyearbyen, working full-time on preparing the expedition food and delivering it to the various food depots.

We would not be able to manage this phenomenal job without the aid of our helpers from the University of Svalbard and elsewhere. Thanks a lot girls and guys, for the help and the company! And yeah, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, of course we still need your help ;) Stickers provided…

Just imagine this: 5 people, 80 days, one bag for lunch. That’s 400 bags of “lunch-ration” (named Jager-snus by Mats and other Scandinavians), and almost 4 days worth of work. It feels somewhat industrial to mix 60 kgs of chocolate with 30 kgs of nuts, lots of dried fruit and plenty of crusli. Especially if you do it in a scooter-box! And I don’t even mention the breakfast, that needs to be mixed in a similar fashion but in two different amounts (one of our tents will sleep 2 people, the other one 3). What a mess! Still, at least it makes you appreciate the amount of food that one person is capable of eating over a period of one whole year. It’s a lot!

Finally, my favourite moment of food-packing. This has got to be the breaking up of chocolate bars using a hammer and chisel. The idea behind this is that all the chocolate needs to be in bite-sized chunks, since chocolate has to be one of the things that freezes first. And there’s nothing worse than not being able to bite off that well-deserved chunk of your favourite chocolate!

Kim

Taking over the Arctic

The exploration season in the Arctic regions has really gotten underway both on Svalbard and throughout the Arctic. It almost seems like there will be so many people skiing or sailing around us that we will have to keep a good lookout during whiteouts to avoid colliding with them ;)

One expedition in particular, the Czech Arctos III team, may actually meet us at some point during our traverse. One of our common aims is the ascent of Newtontoppen, Svalbard's highest peak. In true Czech fashion, we decided to make a bet with them. Whoever comes to the top last will have to sponsor a round of beer for all involved! Read more here.

On a more serious note, the Frozen Five team wishes all the best to all the Arctic expeditions that are currently ongoing! For a comprehensive list, check out ThePoles.com.

Kim

Speed Kills

Every year during the Solfestuka celebrations, a sledge race takes place on Hiorthamn. This international event is prestigious due to both its long tradition (the sun has been coming back to Longyearbyen for a very long time) and the nature of the sledges that pummel down Hiorthamn’s slopes each year.

Both speed and style are judged by the organizers, with particular emphasis on “the crazier the better” (like the Finnish sauna-team). Even this year was no exception. Five sledges went down, all with a certain flair of their own. It isn’t surprising that three out of the five teams comprised UNIS students, including your very own Frozen Two (Ulli and Kim).

Their sledge was put together with help of Anne during the last few nights as part of the Frozen Five preparation. The beast, aptly named “Baby Bullet”, rocketed down the hill in less than 22 seconds. From known sources, this is a historic record, one that we hope to hold for a very long time! The metallic sledge, fearsome with teddybear Isolina and an old ice drill at its nose, weighted around 200 kg even before the four riders (steering lady Eeva, Swedish representative Albin and muscle power Ulli and Kim) jumped on. No wonder the crowd ran away when they saw us coming…

Greetings from the Far North! Kim & Ulli

Sun "shines" in Longyearbyen

Today, at precisely 12:39, the sun would normally return to the city of Longyearbyen. After more than 4 months with the sun spinning its circles over the southern hemisphere, the citizens of Longyearbyen naturally congregated by the old kindergarten to await its appearance over the Sarkofagen ridge. Most of the people turned up, with the whole school (yes, there are kids up in the Arctic) turning up to sing, dance and look into the sky.

Unfortunately, today was pretty cloudy and no sun appeared, not even a hint of one. Better luck next year! It actually feels somewhat un-Arctic up here at present, with temperatures hovering around -3 degrees, but this may rapidly change.

In other news, I (Kim) have arrived in Longyearbyen yesterday almost precisely 3 weeks before we're setting off. During these last weeks, we'll be preparing daily rations from our food accumulated at Ulli's place. We also have to deliver some of the food depots, stocking them up with necessities such as toilet paper! Not forgetting the training as well, of course!

Arctic greetings from Kim

Where is the Arctic?

In a few hours, I'm heading up to the Arctic. Going from London, via Oslo, you reach Longyearbyen in about 6 hours. It's pretty clear that Longyearbyen lies in the heart of the Arctic, and almost equally evident that south-east England does not (you couldn't tell from the storm outside right now). So where exactly do I enter the Arctic proper?

That's a very good point, and one that deserves a special leaflet for you to have a look at. In this resource developed for the NZ YSC, I try to outline the main differences between the two global polar regions, and consider some of the things that make the Arctic unique. Personally, I think the biggest difference to Antarctica is the fact that the Arctic has been inhabited for so long. The survival of the Inuit civilizations, not just through 80 days of skiing in a Svalbardian spring but through millenia, is inspiration by itself.

Now that you have had some time to read the above-mentioned leaflet, consider the dynamics of the Arctic's boundaries. Defining the spatial area of the Arctic by temperature clearly makes this area change significantly, as is the case with almost all of the other boundary definitions. How tolerant are these boundaries to human influence?

Kim

Iceland cool enough for you?

The last week before heading out to Svalbard would normally be probably better spent trying to remember all the things left behind and forgotten at home, but where is the fun in that? Instead, I managed to get on a "preparation trip" with my father and a friend Akéla to one of the most amazing places in the world, Iceland.

What can be better training for the Frozen Five expedition than pulling a pulk across Iceland's barren interior around Mt Hekla, wandering around the crater of Snaefellsjokull (remember Verne's Journey to the Centre of the World?) and eating all these Scandinavian pylsur (hot-dogs)? We managed to make some nice loops in beatiful yet crispy weather (it dropped to around -15, with a wind-chill value at least another 10 degrees below that), make some humble attempts at kiting on a frozen lake and, of course, accumulate some heat by soaking in geothermally-heated hot springs.

Iceland is a truly remarkable country, though it may be even more so for a geologist like me. The tourism industry's favourite saying "land-of-fire-and-ice" certainly holds up in Iceland, where subglacial volcanic eruptions commonly occur and even us mortals managed to sleep next to a pond with 20 degree warm water while everything else was frozen solid. Not a bad place at all, and I certainly recommend a visit!

Kim

The Anorak!

Finally I managed to put the last peaces of my anorak together. An anorak is a jacket with a big hood and a short front zipper. Some people wonder why I make some of my clothes instead of buying them. However, it’s really hard to find a winter jacket that I like and almost impossible to find one made out of cotton, so it’s not really an option to buy one. I have already tried it during an eight day winter trip course I hold a week and a half ago. During the course we experienced temperatures almost down to -20ºC and winds just over 10 m/s, and I really loved the anorak and the big hood with the wind tunnel that protects your face. The anorak is made out of Ventile, wind and to some extent waterproof cotton fabric, with reinforcements at the shoulders of Action Cordura, and at the bottom of Reflective Cordura. (Cordura material where provided by Shelby.) The design is almost home-made with some inspiration from Klättermusen and Arc’teryx.


/mats
(photo: Anna-Lisa Wrange)

SWE BAR™

Just a week ago Gunnar Dalblad at Dalblads-nutrition came to Mats doorstep and delivered 360 SWE BAR’s. These protein rich bars will be a sufficient food supply to eat in late afternoons just before setting up the tents. Of course we will have some more food to eat, don’t worry. According to Hellas calculation we have about 6000 kcal to eat each day! That would be about 1,2 kg food in dry weight per person and day! Not to bad at all!
/mats

Getting the gear ready

Over the past few months, Ulli's postbox in Longyearbyen has been steadily receiving parcels from around the world with various pieces of equipment for the Frozen Five expedition. The supply of food, mostly from the Czech Republic and France (yummy), has been so sustained that Ulli hasn't even managed to eat it all, giving us a slight chance that some of the 60kg of chocolate will still be left for the actual expedition!

Last week, one of the fundamental building blocks of the expedition's equipment list arrived in three very large boxes. The expedition "pulkas", or sledges, arrived from our sponsor Fjellpulken, who have kindly provided us with a discount on their expedition model. Each expedition member will have his/her own pulk, pulling all the gear for the 11 week voyage. The actual load will depend on our food/fuel consumption and will always be heaviest at the start of the individual legs, when we will be picking up additional supplies. The heaviest load is predicted to be around 80-90kg per person, the weight of a reasonably-sized adult.

IPY starts today!

The 1st of March 2007 marks the start of one of the grandest undertakings of the 21st century, and one that the Frozen Five project is proud to be affiliated with.

The International Polar Year (IPY) is a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009. Further information is, of course, available on the official and new IPY website.

IPY, organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), is actually the fourth polar year, following those in 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, IPY 2007-8 covers two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009 and will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics. It is also an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate, follow, and get involved with, cutting edge science in real-time.

Our education and outreach iniatiatives, including classroom presentations, documentaries and exhibitions, make young students aware of the problems facing the Arctic and demonstrate the need for further research in the area. These aims fit well with the hard work of the Youth Steering Committee (for details on the YSC's activities and ways to get involved click here), with which the Frozen Five team is collaborating. In addition, data collection for snow isotope studies will be collected en route, more details on which to follow in another blog.

Good luck to all the other IPY projects! The Frozen Five