Hiking in the Arctic

This morning 16 of us assembled in front of brakke 3 to prepare for a hike to the south of Longyearbyen over glaciers and up into the mountains above the valley. After some discussion about the route and some planning, we broke up into smaller groups and headed out. Was really a nice day - the snow was deep and there was a lot of ice on the rocks beneath the snow, so we had to go slow. The views were incredible, and overall the experience was outstanding.

In the image below, the dorm I stay in is about 1 km away.



At one point, I stumbled across what appeared to be the carcass of a reindeer that something had been recently dining on. I also found what looked like Arctic Fox tracks nearby...



After you get outside of town and away structures of known size, it becomes difficult to judge distance and scale. For example, look at the photo below - my two companions Arthur and Samuel are on the edge of a huge valley, but you'd never guess it was there unless the two skiers far in the distance (look closely!) were in the picture.



I had the task of carrying the Ruger...