Arctic magic

Last week I was up north, in our archipelago in the Arctic at 78 degrees North.  The archipelago is basically the continental shelf lifted above sea level.  It’s one and half times the size of Denmark, and more than half of it covered by glaciers. The rest of the land is free from snow and ice in the summer.

One week away from the modern world, away from cell-phone coverage and wireless networks. It was the last week of midnight sun, and still light around the clock. We stayed in a nice and comfortable ship that took us around in the fjords. When I woke up one morning and pulled the curtains to the side, the first thing I saw was a Beluga playing outside of the window.

It’s cool to hike around with geologists, because they know everything about the landscape we pass; how and when it was made. Layer-cake mountains and rivers, valleys and fjords, carved by the glaciers of the ice ages.  Present-day glaciers flow slowly from the mountains to the fjords. Sometimes ice bergs break off the front of the rugged ice, and exhibit the bluish ice core.

In the morning we went by Zodiaks to work, from the red and white ship to shore. There were smart and shy students, and loud professors with big egos, and everything in between. All of them were nice people. We had a great time.

We hiked over shorefaces and plains with scares flowers, into the valleys, and up in the mountain sides. At interesting exposures we stopped to study the rocks, and to get a lecture by an expert. The outdoor classroom, as stunning beautiful as it can possibly get.

Polar bear scouters armed with rifles were ahead of us and out to the sides. This is the kingdom of the polar bear. It’s his home, we are only visitors. We must behave according to this. 

The polar bear is the perfect raptor, waiting patiently by the seals breath holes, climbing vertical cliffs to get to the bird nests, and running twice as fast as Usain Bolt. The polar bear is the king of the Arctic, and one of the few raptors that hunt humans.

The Arctic is magic, the Arctic is addictive.  I had to get home before I got stuck.  But I’ll be back >:)

(I took more than a hundred pictures last week. Above are just a few of them)

Amazing glacier

We’re back on the glacier. It’s time for summer skiing. We have been doing this for about ten years now.  In the beginning of the school's summer vacation we go skiing on a glacier.  It has become part of my duty as a ski dad, because my boys are addicted to snow (and I've posted about this before).

Actually, this year it’s only little boy and me. Older boy is running around on his own, with his buddies. This summer they have picked a different glacier. They’re driving down to the Alps, to spend 3-4 weeks on a glacier in Austria.  That’s OK with me, as long as he works to earn up the money himself.

Little boy and I made it simple. We went to the closest glacier, a four-hour drive from home, and we stay in the same camping down in the valley. We plan to ski four or five days, depending on the weather. So far it’s been shifty; partly sunny yesterday, snowy and foggy today, good forecasts for tomorrow.

Being on a glacier is quite amazing. We’re skiing on snow and ice that fell hundreds of years ago. Actually the surface is not that old. The snow we skied today fell last night.

Some years ago I bought a text book on glaciology, to learn about the science of glaciers.

The core of the glacier is old. When the snow is buried it gradually turns into ice that moves by plastic flow. The weight of the ice makes it flow from the top to the bottom, slowly, but steadily, a few meters per year. When pieces on the lower edge break off, the old bluish ice becomes visible.

Big glaciers are very useful for climate research, because glaciers keep a record of past climate.  The ice in the core contains small sealed air bubbles.  This allows scientists to measure for instance the CO2 levels of past times.

There are two main types of glaciers; polar (cold) glaciers and temperate (warm) glaciers.  Polar glaciers are found in the Antarctica and the Arctic (e.g. Greenland). They’re often frozen to the rock surface below. The glaciers on the American and Eurasian continents are mostly temperate.  They’re near the melting point, with free flowing water at the base.

In the upper part of the glacier, the accumulation of snow and ice is larger than the melting (and sublimation). In the lower part it’s opposite. The line of zero net accumulation (over a year) is called the firn line.

When glaciers flow over the terrain beneath, they’re squeezed and stretched such that crevasses are formed. Crevasses can be deep and dangerous. Therefore many glaciers are not suited for skiing.

The glacier where we’re skiing has a nice and smooth surface. There are just a few small crevasses near the top.  That’s the way it was last summer. This year I haven’t checked.

That’s one of the things that make glaciers so interesting. They’re changing all the time. Every summer there’s something different, if you have the curiosity and patience to look closely.

(Some pictures taken with my cell phone  at the glacier. (1) Skiing at the glacier. (2) A cool rock by the edge of the glacier. Great forces are needed to form a mountain range. This rock have experienced both metamorphosis and faulting . (3) At the lower part of the glacier the old bluish ice core is visible.)

Destiny of a ski dad

It's summer and it's vacation. We could have been on the beach. We could have been down south in the warm sun.

But we have our habits. Guess what we do. We go to the snow. Same procedure as every year. In the first week of the school's summer vacation, we go skiing on a glacier in the mountains. We've done this for eight years in row now. No training camp and no races. Just vacation, and skiing for fun.

Yesterday was foggy and white-out, but good skiing. Today we had a nice sunny day with four inches of fresh powder and great skiing. Tomorrow we get who-knows-what; probably the oposite of what the weather forecast says. The high mountains and glaciers are unpredictable. Anyway, I hope night temperatures go below freezing.

Then skiing will be good. After a day of skiing, we go back to camping down in the valley. We barbeque, skateboard and play football (soccer), and we watch the Euro2012 games in TV.

Yesterday there was no TV-football, so we went for a historic walk around the camping. We visited the 12-century stave church, and passed by a farm from medieval times. Finally, we stopped by the house (more like a log cabin) of the author Tor Jonsson, who ended his life at the age of 35 yo.

Something for the body in the morning, something for the brain in the evening. That's a nice combo.



We've got six months of snow and winter. Why do we spend the short summer in the snow? Because the kids want it like this.

I could think of better ways to spend my summer vacation, no doubt.

America has soccer moms, and Canada has hockey moms. Winterland has ski dads, and I'm one of them. I enjoy skiing a lot, and I gave the kids the chance to get hooked on it. So here I am, stuck in the snow. It's my own fault.

It's the destiny of a ski dad >:)

(I took the top picture at the glacier today. It's the best day we've had so far. The 2nd and 3rd picture are from yesterday's historic walk near the camping.)

Let's go to church

The weather was really bad on the glacier today. It was foggy, rainy and strong winds. We skied till noon and got soaking wet. Then we took a break to eat some food, and skied some more, and got even wetter.

We decided to call it a day, at least insofar as skiing was concerned, and went back to the camping down in the valley, a vertical drop of almost a mile down from the glacier.

"What should we do now?" the kids asked.

They were bored in the bad weather, and I needed to come up with some ideas.

"Let's go to church," I said, "as soon as the rain stops."

And that's what we did, the way I go church of course.

Right across the river from the camping, there is an old church, from the 12th century. It's a stave church, built from wood, dark brown from the tar-paint. We walked around the church, and studied the 800-year-old logs and planks, and the dragon heads on the roof. The kids had a competition about who could find the oldest gravestone on the churchyard.

That's the way I go to church, to admire the architecture and the history. It's nice to have some cultural backup when the weather is bad, and there's some time to kill >:)

(Above is a closeup picture of the church, as much as I could capture from inside the fence with my crappy cell phone camera. Both the walls and the roof are made of wood. The oldest part of the church has been dated to 1158. It's assumed that it was completed between 1170 and 1200.)

Back to the snow

I'm back in the snow, skiing with the kids.

I could easily survive without skiing in June, but the kids insist. They want their summer-skiing this year, like previous years. We go up to the mountains for a few days in the beginning of school's summer vacation.

The kids love it, and I must admit I enjoy it myself too.

Today, we had a great day on the glacier. Nice and sunny weather, and no wind. Now it's time for BBQ at the camping down in the valley >:)

(The picture is from the glacier today on the kids' play ground, the terrain park. It's my good old skis and poles in front of the rock.)

Stockfish and rock

I just came back from the north. On the way south, the plane passed over a glacier, the second largest in Winterland. From the plane, I took a picture where you can see the crevasses in the glacier if you enlarge it.

Yesterday we were on a short geology field study along the beach. South and west of the island, there are potential oilfields under the sea floor. Therefore, it’s of interest to study the geology where it outcrops on dry land, to learn about what’s down there in the ground.

Yesterday we had a nice dinner, with dry cod prepared after the local recipe, served at the local bar. The cod is dried outdoor by the sun and the wind, without adding salt. This kind of dried fish is called stockfish.

All over the island there were racks made from logs. That’s where they hang the fish to dry it, for three months. Right now the racks are empty, since the fish has been taken down and shipped to Italy.

The stockfish export from this remote island to Venice in Italy, and how it all started in the 15th century, is interesting history. I’ll tell you the story later.

I am already missing the islands and mountains in the north. That’s why I’m listening to Mother North right now, a black metal classic by Satyricon. Here’s the link to the video on youtube: Mother North (video)

The video is somewhat controversial. If you don’t like that kind of stuff, you can listen to this cool version, live with the broadcasting orchestra: Mother North (live)

Perfect summer day for skiing

Today we had a perfect day at the glacier.

Last night temperatures fell below the freezing point in the mountains. So today the surface of the glacier was hard ans solid. Around noon the uppermost surface had softened a little bit, to make perfect skiing conditions.

Weather was nice, and no wind.

In the picture you can see the kids playground with the big jumps in the foreground and snowy mountains and other glaciers in the background. In fact, the landscape is entirely shaped by glacier through thousands and millions of years.

Most glaciers are not suited for skiing, due to dangerous crevasses. The glacier we're skiing on is special in that sense; it has almost no crevasses, just a few small ones in the upper part. The crevasses are less than a feet wide and only 10 feet deep, so they are no risk for the skiing.

Now we're back on the camping down in the valley. We have two cabins, with a total of eight beds. Little boy and I, and another ski-dad stay in one cabin. Six teenage boys sleeps in the other, in the most incredible mess. There are piles of cloths, helmets, back-protection plates, goggles and ski boots. In a mysterious way they are able to dig up the right stuff every morning before we drive up to the glacier.

We make the cooking very simple; there are two items on the dinner menu. If weather is bad, we eat pizza. If weather is good, we BBQ outside the cabin. Today, like yesterday, we BBQ'ed >:)

Summer at the glacier

Yesterday was our first day on the glacier. From the camping down in the valley up to the glacier is a 40 minutes drive, with 1500m, almost a mile, of vertical ascent.

Weather was mostly cloudy. On the way up to the glacier, we passed through the lower clouds, almost like an air plane climbing after take off. Throughout the day we had both warming glimpses of sun and cold gusts of snowfall. The skiing was like summer skiing often is, on the soft and slushy glacier surface.

It’s interesting to study the glacier front. The characteristic layering that you can see in the picture is due to many years of alternating snowfall in winter and surface melting in summer. The bluish core of the glacier can be hundreds or thousands of years old.

The science of glaciers is called glaciology, and is a Hell of a fun and cool subject (literally spoken hehe). There are two main types of glaciers; polar glaciers and temperate glaciers.

Polar glaciers are found only in arctic areas, like the ice caps on Greenland and in Antarctica. The polar glaciers are frozen to the ground, which makes them do fantastic things like surge.

Temperate glaciers are “warm”, in the sense that the base is always at the melting point, and water is flowing underneath. The glaciers in the Alps, on Iceland, and in Winterland are temperate glaciers, including the one we are skiing on these days.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is superb, and I will try to take a nice picture to show you >:)

Ready for summer skiing

The school's summer vacation is starting next week. As usual, we go skiing the first week of the vacation, on a glacier on the top of Winterland. This has become a nice tradition.

Every morning, we drive up to the glacier, and ski all day. Anyone who forget the sun protection will regret it badly in the end of the day.

In the afternoon, we go back to the camping down in the valley. We BBQ, play soccer and volleyball, jump on trampoline and walk on a slackline. If the weather is nice and warm the kids go swimming in the river. It's ice cold; only greenish melting water from the glacier. I prefer to just watch them from the river bank.

It's gonna be my boys, of course, and five or six of their friends, and I will be the "baby sitter" for the wild bunch. We're looking forward to it, both the kids and I >:)

Here's a little video from June last year. Put on your headphones if you like Italian opera: