Survival suits in Arctic Waters, Rifle Training, and a twist from Mother Nature (June 15-16)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Today was Amazing!!! One I won't soon forget! The day started off pretty early, I was only able to get about 3 hours of sleep. It's kinda difficult adjusting to a 10 hour time difference but being here is 100% worth it! We started the day down at UNIS with a 1 hour lecture on different safety issues to keep in mind while out and about on Svalbard. We learned about the local glaciers and the challenges they provided. You have to be very careful so you don't fall into crevases while walking, and you also have to be careful now that it's spring when crossing over partially frozen meltwater streams. There are also of course the Polar Bears... haha. Yes they're a very real threat up here!! Everyone that walks beyond the limits of town is 100% advised to carry a rifle and a flare gun... which we learned how to use later that afternoon! They actually have this equiptment available for students to check out... just like you would a library book... at any other institution. They rifles are so common in town that they have places outside most businesses to leave your rifle while you shop, and we even have gun locks in our baracks!

So back to the day... after the safety lecture we broke into two groups. My group started out with the survival suit training! I was soooo excited!! If you've ever seen deadliest catch, the equiptment they have is pretty much the same. Here's a view of their insane collection of arctic survival gear... they literally have a whole warehouse of this gear! It's insane...




Here we are trying on the survival suits in the warehouse and learning how they work. They have clips attached to them so you can clip on with others in a rescue situation so you stick together and no one drifts off. They also have neoprene gloves attached to wear... however we later found out that they are NOT waterproof... lol. After trying them out we piled into a couple vans and headed out the the harbor.... off of the Arctic Ocean!! What an interesting drive it was!! The poor guy driving the car was one of the students, and the car was of course pretty old and was very difficult to shift gears. It made for a very interesting and bumpy drive! But we made it to the Ocean!

So after arriving we walked down onto the dock and zipped up our suits. Not to many pictures as no one wanted to get their cameras wet. We were instructed to "walk the plank" and jump in. Let me tell you... that first hit of freezing cold water to your face is a HUGE SHOCK! WOWZA! Of course your face is open to the water, and the gloves are not water proof... they filled with water pretty quickly, but at least they provided a little bit of insulation from the water. The crazy part of these suits is that they're very very bouyant! We were instructed to float around our our backs and kind of backstroke to move about. They we had to try to get back up onto the dock... Holy Crap that's hard with the suit on!! It's really weird too when you try to get vertical in the water to get out... all of the air rushes to the top of the suit, and your boots kind of suction in because of the increased water pressure!

After that exercise we all had to jump in again. This time we had to gather the group in the water and try connecting everyone together in a circle. One that was done we unclipped and headed for the dock again and jumped out of the survival suits. What an Insane experience!!! I can tell you I have a new respect for the guys on Deadliest Catch! I can't imagine doing that in 25 foot seas!!! We piled our stuff back into the vans and drove back to UNIS for lunch. Over lunch we chatted with the other group and heard about all of their fun and shared the fun we had... and then after lunch we switched.

This time we were on our way to the Rifle Range.... Hellls YEAH! I'd been waiting for this moment since the day I found out we'd have rifle training to defend against polar bear attacks!!! And the need for training is very important! Here's a link to a newspaper article on a guy that I actually know that goes to UAF. He was up here in Svalbard on research not too long ago and was actually attacked!



Okay back to the fun stuff! So up at the range the instructor first gave a brief presentation on the dangers of Svalbard, and the rifles we would be using, the .30-06 rifle ("thirty-aught-six"). Then we headed out and everyone was able to first practice loading and unloading the rifle and the shooting positions. After that the fun began!




We each shot 8 rounds from a lying down position, then checked the targets, and then shot 8 rounds from a kneeling position and checked the targets. I was pretty proud of my shots! I had a pretty nice pattern, although not on the bulls-eye... the sights were outta wack so as long as the pattern was tight I was doing great. [Here's my pattern from lying down]

Kneeling was a little more difficult but it still went pretty well. Here are my results and some of the others in the group.



After everyone had a chance to fire 16 rounds we had a short lecture on what to do in the case of a polar bear encounter. You're first supposed to gather the group together and make a bunch of noise and wave your arms and walk away... not run!!! If the bear continues to follow, you should start a snowmachine or fire off a shot or flare from the flare gun to try to spook the bear. If that still doesn't work you should stop and maintain your ground... you need to continue making noise and determine a line... that if crossed... you will shoot the bear. Simple as that... haha... yeah right! If i were in that situation I'd be pretty darn freaked out!! Haha.

After that we had a quick demonstration of the flare and noise shots for the flare gun before packing up. Here are a few pictures of the view from the range before we headed back down to UNIS.





Such an AMAZING day! I had a Blast! After our adventures we had dinner up at "Huset" which is Norwegian for "The House" It's one of the oldest buildings in Longyearbyen and was the community hall for the old miners. Now they have an auditorium, store, and cafe in the building. The food is practically gormet and soooo tastey! Dinner tonight was roasted lamb with ratatoui and mashed potatoes...mmmmm good!!! And dessert was homemade vanilla icecream with cinnamon and carmel flan. Delish!!

It was also kinda neat that one of our instructors, Dr. Liz Thomas from the British Antarctica Survey ran into an old colleague while we were there! It turns out that a large group from the UK had just completed a 10 week research expedition in Svalbard and were enjoying a nice warm meal in the other room while screening pictures from their adventure! So we all were able to stop by and chat with them, find out about their research, and see some crazy pictures from their adventures.

Overall an amazing day! I'm loving it here!!


Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Overnight and on through this morning, Mother Nature decided to throw us a curveball. I think she thought we all needed to see what Svalbard is like in the winter months... haha. I awoke in the middle of the night to the building shaking... the wind was very very strong... with gusts up to 50 mph. Outside my window I noticed that the mountain outside my window had a white coating on most of the face and there was still sleet/snow/ice pellets falling horizontal in the wind.

So after packing my lunch and grabbing a hot beverage I bundled up and headed out on the 1.5 mile walk down to UNIS for the day. What an Adventure! I felt like I was back home in North Dakota!! haha. There were times that the wind would shove you forwards... stop you in your tracks... blow you sideways... all due to the turbulence in between the mountains. It was very entertaining to feel like a kite! haha. The trek down took a few extra minutes but eventually I made it inside and found a spot in the auditorium (Lassegrotta).

Today was our first day of lectures, and the theme was weather and climate. We heard a total of 5 lectures. The first two were by Dr. Ole Humlum on "Climate of the Arctic: past and present". Then we had lunch in the canteen followed by 2 lectures on Paleoclimatology. Dr. Elizabeth Thomas gave these lectures. She works at the British Antarctic Survey and is also one of the organizers for this field school. Her first lecture was on Ice cores.... how they work, the advantages and disadvantages to their use, and what information can be obtained from them. The second lecture concerned "Rapid Climate Change". She discussed an event ~ 8,200 years ago that had a sort of "Day After Tomorrow" scenario... it's possible that when Lake Agasi drained in Canada that it offset the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a temporary global cooling. Very interesting stuff!

The final lecture of the day was by Dr. Ole Humlum once again... this time on the "Meteorology of the Arctic, with special emphasis on Svalbard". It was interesting to hear about the local weather patterns up here. The terrain truly offers many unique and hard to preduct weather patterns and conditions.

After our last lecture we had a brief question and answer session and a few other notes about the rest of the field school. Then we walked back up to Nyben... thankfully the walk back up wasn't quite as windy (very nice since it's uphill... haha) but we still caught a really neat mixture of frozen precip on the walk. Started out as mist/sleet... then sleet/ice pellets... then heavier and larger ice pellets.

Dinner tonight was at "Huset" ... and it was once again Amazing! We had salmon with veggies and boiled potatoes, and dessert was some sort of chocolate custard tart with berries...mmmm good! Now I'm back at Barack 1 unwinding from the day and enjoying the evening. The winds have calmed down so the room is no longer shaking... haha... and it seems like the snow has come to an end for the time being.

Tomorrow we continue our lectures with Geology and Glaciology... and some sort of avalanche demonstration!