We’ve each been doing an hour and 20 minutes polar bear watch every evening. It can often be a nice peaceful experience, but the wind and snow last night was less than pleasant, well done everyone!
We headed out of camp in low visibility (again!) and though the forecast looked good, our hopes remained relatively low.
The morning saw us skiing single file through a thick layer of snow, down into the saddle and then up to the pass at the top of Innerbreen (Inner glacier). During the climb up to the pass the cloud began to lift giving us some insight into the undulating landscape around us.
We stopped for lunch shortly after coming over the pass, and were entertained by a faint beam of sunlight emerging from the clouds in the distance. Little did we know that this was just the beginning! As we skied (and tobogganed on our sleds!) down into the valley, our little beam of sun began to crescendo. Over the next hour and a half we were treated to a spectacular light show, changing by the minute, and culminating in one of the most incredible views I’ve seen here on Svalbard since my first trip in 2016.
As we skied out through the moraine into Oppdalen we passed an expedition dog team that were heading up the glacier, which was a novel sight. We then set up camp with views of the mountains, pink skies and very low wind. What a day!
PostScript: OMG we just saw the most incredible northern lights too! So good!
