Celestia Forums

Indeed the light is coming back in Spitsbergen. This is my 3rd year of WEBcam "observation" of this incredible place

video: Landing in Longyearbyen Airport:
http://www.svalbard-images.com/videos/v ... en-001.php

Video: Flying over the glaciers of Spitsbergen:
http://www.svalbard-images.com/videos/v ... rg-002.php

Here are the already familiar WEBcam views once more:
Longyearbyen harbour =>

Ny Alesund (further north)


Bye Fridger

Why are you so fascinated by Svalbard? Have you been there? (??I??d like to go there myself, but then, i am constantly bickering with my girlfriend on where to go on vacations: she wants to do touristy things in the sub-tropics, and i want to get to know my own "neighbourhood" )...

- rthorvald

rthorvald wrote:Why are you so fascinated by Svalbard? Have you been there? (??I??d like to go there myself, but then, i am constantly bickering with my girlfriend on where to go on vacations: she wants to do touristy things in the sub-tropics, and i want to get to know my own "neighbourhood" )...

- rthorvald

Of course, I am not a dreamer . Long time ago. But Spitsbergen is tricky terrain because of these fellows:



Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:Of course, I am not a dreamer

Well, that??s not entirely true ?€“ if a place can strike you enough that you bring it up every year around this time
Seriously, what impressed you about the place... The light?

- rthorvald

rthorvald wrote:

t00fri wrote:Of course, I am not a dreamer

Well, that??s not entirely true ?€“ if a place can strike you enough that you bring it up every year around this time
Seriously, what impressed you about the place... The light?

- rthorvald

It's not just Spitsbergen. It's the splendor of arctic nature, the lonelyness, the incredible auroras, the huge glaciers, the subtle colors of the moss, rocks etc and of course the light.

I always wanted to experience arctic winter, i.e. continuous absolute darkness. Never made it, of course. That's what still fascinates me when I watch the fading light on Longyearbyen's WEBcams in late summer...

My wife and I have been travelling extensively north of the polar circle. We travelled e.g. with a landrover all across the inland of Island to the northern coast, up on the lava flow of some vulcano to the crater, slept on top at far subzero temperature, knowing via radio that we were the ONLY people 'en route' within a radius of 140 km (in the last days of August!) ...got badly snowed in thereafter and finally got stuck in the midst of an icecold river with the landrover... Iceland becomes "pure adventure" once all tourists are gone end of the summer (August)...

We travelled from the south of Greenland along the west coast to its very north (Thule), partly by helicopter, partly with the Danish post boat and partly on a small trawler with an Eskimo family, partly by foot, etc...

No package tours, no hotels ... . I never did a package tour in my life.

Spitsbergen is not easy terrain. The best is to be homed on a boat and to do plenty of (shorter) land excursions from there. Polar bears are really a problem when you want to sleep in a tent outside without having good weapons or without knowing how to use them...

Our base motivation for Spitsbergen actually came from my wife's Swiss uncle who went there first with a mountaineering expedition to climb some tough glaciers.
They had guns, however ...

Nowadays, one pays 700 Euros, enters a plane in Frankfurt and some hours later lands in Longyearbyen, with transfer to the hotel that even hosts international conferences

At our times one had to take a frighteningly small and old boat in Troms??. It was a long and partly very rough ride north, passing the Bear island until finally one entered past Icefjord the harbour of Longyearbyen...

Did this give you kind of an idea WHY?

Cheers,
Fridger

"It's the splendor of arctic nature, the lonelyness, the incredible auroras, the huge glaciers, the subtle colors of the moss, rocks etc and of course the light."

I can relate to that. It looks and sounds like such a really beautiful place Fridger. Heh!... I'd give an arm for such an excursion! I must confess, my last adventure was a package tour - Alaska. I'd always wanted to see it (Alaska), especially the glaciers, and whales. The following are a few of the 35mm images I took on my trip... pardon the poor quality, my scanner isn't a very good one.

The Mendenhall glacier, just outside of Junea Alaska


Mendenhall a little closer, to catch the blue in the ice



From the College Fiord,

the Harvard glacier


the Yale glacier



One of the things I found most striking, was the distinct demarcation of the pea-green silt-laden glacial waters (glacial milk) and crystal-clear blue Pacific ocean. I'd never expected such a boundry to be so sharp and distinct.

Wow....

your photos are gorgeous, indeed!

While the light in-between low-hanging clouds and extended ice fields in polar regions or at high altitude

http://www.celestiaproject.net/~t00fri/images/index.html

is so special, the polar regime offers in addition the spectacular "marriage" of glaciers and the sea, as also apparent on your great photos.

It is impossible to describe in words the "drama" when large parts of glaciers suddenly break off into the sea, "giving birth" to hundreds of icebergs filling a whole bay within a few hours...The cracking sounds accompanying such (not unfrequent) ghostly scenes, rise suddenly from absolute quiteness to inferno. They are frightening indeed...

We once had a short stop-over in Anchorage during one of our numerous trips to Japan, taking for a change the amazing polar route. I remember the pilot was so kind and flew once around Mt McKinley before turning towards Anchorage. The views were unforgettable...

We always wanted to come back to explore Alaska. But no luck so far ...

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:I always wanted to experience arctic winter, i.e. continuous absolute darkness. Never made it, of course. That's what still fascinates me when I watch the fading light on Longyearbyen's WEBcams in late summer...

Well, people i know further north seems to think the darkness is overrated

t00fri wrote:My wife and I have been travelling extensively north of the polar circle
...
We travelled from the south of Greenland along the west coast to its very north (Thule)
...
No package tours, no hotels ... Wink . I never did a package tour in my life
...
Spitsbergen is not easy terrain. The best is to be homed on a boat and to do plenty of (shorter) land excursions from there. Polar bears are really a problem when you want to sleep in a tent outside without having good weapons or without knowing how to use them... Wink
...
Nowadays, one pays 700 Euros, enters a plane in Frankfurt and some hours later lands in Longyearbyen, with transfer to the hotel that even hosts international conferences Wink
...
Did this give you kind of an idea WHY?

Yes, indeed... Several of these places, Iceland in particular, is on my list... I have family that have been there, though their story is not as evocative as yours.... I??d like to see Svalbard too, but in the summer, i think.

As for mass tourism, that is a constant discussion here; i prefer to find my own places, while my girl and children wants other things... So, it is one year of this, another of that... Last year i got my wish, so this year i fear i am going to end up in some tourist trap in Greece...

At one time, i was on an extensive trip across Finnmarksvidda (the great nothern plains - the samii territory) and into Finland. Exept for the mosquitoes, it was a fantastic trip... Over a month. In the summer, of course, sun up 24/7...

Thank you for sharing!

- rthorvald

rthorvald wrote:Yes, indeed... Several of these places, Iceland in particular, is on my list... I have family that have been there, though their story is not as evocative as yours.... I??d like to see Svalbard too, but in the summer, i think.
...

Runar,

as to Island:

I have been in Rejkjavik 4 times at different times of the year. Our really /adventurous/ trips through Island are ~ 20 years back, so a number of things might be different now.

But note that the flow of tourism in Island cuts off SHARPLY in the second half of August. When you do inland crossings on your own, it is advised and even kind of obligatory to communicate your schedule to the national rescue squad who also can be connected to by radio in the numerous unmanned rescue huts that are distributed over the inland.

So you can always find out who else is en route and how far away there might be people for getting help. In any case (northern) Island get's VERY lonely towards end of August/beginning of September.

South of Akureyri (northern port) beyond the polar circle,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akureyri
http://www.port.is/index.php?pid=6&imgid=14
we stayed overnight in the last farm before the uninhabited inland begins. The next morning, when we had planned to start towards the south, we woke up with 1 meter of fresh snow outside. This was in the last days of August...

Probably your relatives were in Island earlier in the year?

A few years back we had a great Particle Physics conference in the "middle of nowhere", or more precisely in a lonely hotel in Sariselkae, 40 Km away from Murmansk/Russia in the north of Finish Lappland.



I used to spend major parts of the night outside watching the gorgeous summer aurora's ...

An incredible place for a conference. All the meat we ate was rendeer meat decorated with some berrys that abunded outside the hotel .

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:But note that the flow of tourism in Island cuts off SHARPLY in the second half of August. When you do inland crossings on your own, it is advised and even kind of obligatory to communicate your schedule...
...
So you can always find out who else is en route and how far away there might be people for getting help. In any case (northern) Island get's VERY lonely towards end of August/beginning of September.
...
Probably your relatives were in Island earlier?

Thanks!
I have planned on going there for several years. With a little luck, as soon as next year... Probably by boat, to make something extra of it for my family; there are regular lines going there from the west coast.

- rthorvald

rthorvald wrote:

t00fri wrote:I always wanted to experience arctic winter, i.e. continuous absolute darkness. Never made it, of course. That's what still fascinates me when I watch the fading light on Longyearbyen's WEBcams in late summer...

Well, people i know further north seems to think the darkness is overrated

Runar,

I think the darkness itself is not the real point.

It rather has to do with the effects on people's psychology when you have to live without natural light for months. It tends to have a destabilizing effect for quite many. It calls upon people's "reserves". It's a challenge on your internal stability...I always was curious how I would react under such conditions...

In Island, many people/relatives use(d?) to visit each other in the dark season, reading jointly the famous Island sagas, discussing about their interpretation and drinking quite a bit of alcohol I suppose...

On the other hand, among Eskimos, this is considered the best time of the year! Why? Well in winter, the sea is entirely frozen and the travelling season can start. It is typically at this time of the year when families set off with their sledges to visit relatives, for example. Also it's the hunting season etc.

Bye Fridger

The pictures in your hiking link are very beautiful, Fridger, and that is definately a place where I could wander about all afternoon with my camera and a macro lens! Scenics, flora, and insects are among my favorite things to photograph. That snowscape image last posted is wonderful too.

I must say, what you've written about glaciers calving has stirred much in my memories! Indeed it is impossible to describe to someone, though I have tried several times LOL! What an incredible sound though, the act itself of calving... and echoing through the fiord as well. I now wish I was there again.

I just wanted to mention also that I've seen current images of the glaciers in my pictures, and I'm shocked by the amount of melt-back and rate that it's occuring.

Things are getting warm.

I'd also recently read that the ice cap of Mt. Kilimanjaro is melting.

LordFerret wrote:The pictures in your hiking link are very beautiful, Fridger,

Just my 2 Mpx handy camera

I must say, what you've written about glaciers calving has stirred much in my memories! Indeed it is impossible to describe to someone, though I have tried several times LOL! What an incredible sound though, the act itself of calving... and echoing through the fiord as well. I now wish I was there again.

Indeed! We have very inspiring (and many!) slides from such 'calving acts', unfortunately I don't own a scanner (since I always thought this will 'castrate' my beautiful slides...)

I just wanted to mention also that I've seen current images of the glaciers in my pictures, and I'm shocked by the amount of melt-back and rate that it's occuring.

Things are getting warm.

In Switzerland the retreat of the glaciers is shocking. Near St. Moritz, where we are hiking every summer, they added signs marking the glacier ends between now and 100 years back. My wife and I still remember very well, from when we skied down these glaciers ~20 years ago in winter. What a difference!!

Near the famous Matterhorn, the Swiss glacier experts are experimenting since a couple of years, covering the ice with huge amounts of white cloth, hoping to delay the melting this way.

Here is a comparison of the landscape near St Moritz in summer (from my album) and via a WEBcam now. The base altitude of the (frozen) lakes in the Engadin is ~ 1850 meters:

Summer 2006:


Tonight (6:30 pm):


I love watching the seasons in this gorgeous place where we spend 3 weeks every year since ~12 years, meanwhile.

Bye Fridger