Our last full day of skiing, and what a day it was! Our first two sessions were spent navigating our way up a frozen river, gliding over small fields of frost flowers, avoiding patches of slush, and trying not to slip over!
The third session was different entirely, our frozen river was now a snow covered sanctuary. Reindeer roamed the edges of the valley as we crossed paths with fox tracks, and a flock of ptarmigan scuttled along the rocky side walls above us.
We began the climb up to the pass that stood between us and Longyearbyen. A huge moon hung low in the sky, and rotated around the tops of the peaks as we climbed. After two solid sessions of hauling, zig zagging our way up the slope, we made it to the top.
We headed down into Bolterdalen, a valley used predominantly by dogsled teams. It had been hanging around -20 all day, but we had now lost the sun and were beginning to feel the cold. The descent was quite steep, and involved some skiing, some falling, and occasional use of the dogsled track as a luge whilst sitting on our sleds.
We’re camped a little over 5km from our pickup point, and as per usual at this point of an expedition, dreaming of burgers and pizza!
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