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Arctic Adventure (July 2011)

• Click Here to View the Previous Arctic Expedition Article

We arrived in Svalbard in the early hours of Sunday morning where walking out of the airport we got our first glimpse of the Arctic and our first experience of 24 hour daylight.

We spent the day collecting kit, and walked 3 miles to the rifle range to practise using the rifles we’d be taking out on the expedition, before later catching the Langosund Ferry to our base camp. Our base camp was a 4 hour ferry journey away from the nearest town (Svalbard) so we could feel how remote our expedition was.

We spent the first few days at base camp adapting to the conditions and practising the use of all our new equipment such as crampons and ice axes, as well as having refresher sessions on putting up the trip wires and using the science equipment. We also discussed in detail what adventurous activities we most wanted to achieve whilst there, and more importantly we spent time socialising with other fire teams and getting to know everyone.

After 5 days we set off carrying with us 5 days worth of food as well as our personal kit, group kit, science kit, rifle, rifle cleaning kit, radio, tents, fuel and group food so it culminated to quite a lot and at times, for those who were able to carry the weight, our bags were weighing 25kg or more. When you are crossing glaciers wearing crampons it was very tiring!

After a couple of days walking we returned to base camp in order to drop off any kit we realised we didn’t need to take with us and replenish our food and fuel supplies before heading back out.

We made an advanced base camp at a location which was situated conveniently next to a cliff edge which was perfect for ice climbing. We spent a day on the ice wall and then found an ice cave only 200m away which we went into and explored. It was really interesting because in the ice cave there was a river running through the glacier which led to a waterfall in the cave.

Another day we spent walking up a large hill called Hampus Fellet, and once we got to the top we used our survival bags to do some sledging. It was so much fun!

After this we started to do some serious walking up the valley and spent a few days trying to get to the main mountains which weren’t too far away. The mountains in the Arctic are called Nunataks and aren’t actually very high, as the majority of the mountain is under the ice meaning it’s just the peak which is sticking out. Unfortunately, due to a series of injuries within the group, we had to stop about a day’s walk away from the first mountain and were forced to stay there for 3 days of recovery. We still made the most out of this time, however, and those who were able went on what was supposed to be a half hour walk to the ridge but it actually ended up taking us 3 hours to get up and down. It was particularly amazing because once we had scrambled to the top the sights were breathtaking. We could not only see base camp from the top but also almost the entire route we had just walked. Because it was scree we were able to run and almost slide back down. It was so much fun and definitely one of my best days.

On the third day we were packing up to carry on walking when we were called back to base camp after a series of tragic incidents inside another fire team.

The time that I spent in the Arctic was fantastic. I made close friends, learnt about survival in the Arctic and wouldn’t hesitate if I was offered another opportunity to go there.

Sasha Kirkham, Nelson 09E

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