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