Epic Journey Through Reindalen

Days like today are those that I will always remember vividly, for the rest of my life. On today's excursion, the class departed UNIS around 10 am on what ended up to be a 125 km journey that lasted 9 hours. The weather was very good, but cold. I got to drive again, and was the only person besides Doug who drove all day and stayed outside the entire day. Most everyone else rotated from the sledges/scooters to the bandwagon or vice versa. Riding the scooters is warmer than being on the sledge because they have hand warmers and you are closer to the heat of the engine which may only be sensible with your feet, but that didn't stop some who were driving from getting cold. We traveled an average of 20 km per hour but sometimes much faster, for good reason. I welcomed the responsibility of pulling a sledge of 4 students and our gear - its awesome experience.



We stopped at the base of Drønbreen, a recently surging glacier to discuss and observe its terminus features. After some lunch and a lot of ooohs and aaahhhs about how striking the landscape was, we proceeded to drive up the glacier. The slope seemed steep and we moved from plateau to plateau on the glacier, traveling very very fast uphill over rough deep snow. I maneuvered the scooter swiftly, shifting my weight side to side when necessary and slamming on the gas at the right times...I recall it being so surreal it was like a video game, seeing 80 or 90 km/hour during some of the most exhilarating moments...bear in mind the speed is required to navigate over deep snow, for if we did not achieve a critical velocity, we'd get stuck...and two scooters did get stuck. After a lot of work they were free. Luckily I was able to read the terrain pretty well and avoided getting stuck twice by stopping, unloading the sledge and proceeding with a lighter load in sketchy terrain.



As we approached the Drønbreen-Tellbreen pass, it was clear that the scooters were not going to be able to make the drive loaded–there was just too much weight and too much deep snow. We decided to unload everything and ferry the students over the pass to the top in the bandwagon. After the students were all taken up to the top, the remaining scooters pulling the empty sledges made their attempt. One by one, we started up the glacier. At one point, I was by myself, and would be the last one to make the attempt up Drønbreen to the pass. I started slowly and gradually increased my velocity until that Yeti was wide open. Roaring up a river of ice, mountains moving quickly by, I raced toward what I hoped would be a sunlit pass with my sledge bouncing behind me. I didn't know what lay ahead of me but I stayed focused. The scooters were disappearing one by one over the glacier, its horizon curving away and out of site. Closer and closer, brighter and brighter. I started to squeal. My view in front of me widened and lengthen tremendously as I rapidly approached the top–I started laughing because I was about to pass into direct sunlight, my first since I arrived in Svalbard. I stopped at the top; all had finally arrived. There was a celebration, dancing, and exhaustive play in the snow. I dropped down and made a snow angle myself. Nothing but smiles all around.



We proceeded on the next leg and longest part of the journey over Tellbreen and stopped at its terminus for discussion and observation. We continued down Reindalen, a massive valley with mountains on either side. As the name implies, it was loaded with scores of reindeer, some perched on extremely windy knolls, while others were grazing and roaming about. The wind was quite strong, but we were moving with it for several couple hours, traveling around 20 km/hour. Very few people have been in this area, and only this time of year once can actually access it by scooter. Along the way, we stopped at a pingo. These strange, large upwellings of ice-rich rocks and permafrost have been forced upward by subsurface hydrostatic pressure. These are interesting features that are found throughout the Arctic and Antarctica. The remainder of the journey found us zipping down Reindalen into the sunset. The imagery I saw during this section of the journey left me speechless.