Kite Ski Spitsbergen
Mar 21
#2: Day 1 on Spitsbergen.
Published at 19:37
What a great start to this trip. My daughter Mardi and I have been in Longyearbyen, Svalbard for 2 days, madly packing but also struggling with jet lag after a 22 hour flight and almost half a day time zone change.
HOW COOL IS IT TO BE HERE WITH HER! Something I've dreamed of for years.
Hired two snowmobiles, loaded a trailer sledge with our sleds and with my friend and local guide Audun Tholfsen we headed to the east coast. Fortune favours the uninitiated and on our arrival we spotted a polar bear loping along to the north. It saw us just as quickly but wandered on its merry way, unperturbed though smelling the air to get a whiff of us. Staying well clear of it we repositioned a couple of times to get a better view until it retired on the coastal ice for a siesta.
After visiting a coastal hut and picking up a Finnish guy needing to return to town we drove west to the top of Rabot glacier where we bid farewell to the guys and set up camp. Tomorrow we ski north, or if we get lucky with the wind, kite.
Eric
- Name: Day 1
- Elevation: 554 m
- Latitude: 78° 16’ 60” North
- Longitude: 18° 22’ 35” East
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