On Friday, I ran out of my dormitory building with my heavy winter jacket and my camping backpack onto the bus that would take us to the port. As soon as the bus left, I thought about all the things I should have packed, but didn't. More clothes, more food, more everything.
We arrived at the port and a small tourist boat was waiting for us. My professor looked down at my camping backpack and asked me if it was my daypack. 'No,' I said uneasily, 'This is everything.' 'Won't you want a pack for the v field?' I hastily took out my plastic Apple store backpack and packed a couple things, then rushed onto the boat.
Pretty soon, we were done packing all of our heavy crates and shovels onto the boat, and we set off into the Arctic ocean for Nordenskioldbreen to the north. The sea was calm, the weather mild, so the trip was without any problems. I stood on the deck, taking pictures of the beautiful snow-capped mountains that we passed.
I saw my first iceberg coming off of the glacier (ok, technically a bergy bit).
Once we arrived at our landing site, we slowly and piecemeal brought our baggage to the shore in a small inflatable motorboat, a Zodiac. There should have been two, but one of them had a dead battery. When it was finally my turn, I descended over the side of the ship into the little Zodiac and clung to the sides very tightly. Then we again took all the baggage from the shore up to the cabin that had been placed there. I was overheating in all my layers.
After a bit of struggling we put our tents up, and then started placing heavy stones all around the edges so that the strong wind wouldn't blow the tents away.
Inside the heated cabin we had snacks, and then fish and potato stew. It was really good, especially considering the location. After dinner, we were told that a polar bear had been sighted across the fjord on an island he had been seen before. Polar bear shifts hd been posted on the back door. My first shift was midnight to 1AM, which wasn't the worst. Also it was going to rain, so we needed to dig trenches. So before going to bed for an hour at 11, we all dug trenches around our tents and put the dirt on our tent flaps to make it more wind-resistant. My sleeping bag was nice and warm and I was in the most comfortable position when midnight came and I needed to climb to the top of the ridge by the camp for my polar bear watch.
On the top of the ridge was 1) Binoculars 2) a flare gun 3) a half-loaded rifle 4) a radio, and 5) a white Siberian husky named Troll who was making a constant whining sound. Troll would continue whining and howling for the entirety of the night. So Polar Bear watch was really more Cuddle with Troll Hour. Me and my partner for the watch would take turns between using the binoculars to search the horizon for the bear, and holding and petting Troll so that we wouldn't wake everyone up. Finally I was allowed to go back to sleep, and my first day of field work at Norrdenskioldbreen was at an end.
More to come...
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