Svalbard, Arctic Ski And Sail – Night Skiing
In late spring and summer in Svalbard, the sun is out for 24 hours a day. This presented some challenges early on, it prevented the snow from freezing at night, and melted anything with exposed rock fast. The positive flip side is that we could start and end a tour whenever we wanted, with minimal consequences. This includes starting a tour at midnight and coming back at 3:30.
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As we got up to the glacier, Angela offered me the front end of our rope team, which was a huge honor. I tried to set a good place and keep warm in the cold wind. As the wind blew, the conversation in the back became harder to hear and I had plenty of time alone with my thoughts, reading the tension of the rope as communication with the team. I observed the mountains in their strange form. While polar day never brings darkness, the mountains still seemed to undergo changes. The light was low and cast a deep blue across the glacier. Clouds behaved in wild and beautiful ways, dancing across the peaks, displaying flecks of yellow from where the sun hit them. The air was cold and humid as the wind blew in an ominous fog. Despite it being our shortest tour, I couldn’t shake the feeling we were on a grand adventure.
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As we skied out the glacier together and gathered on shore, I felt so disconnected from time. Were we just supposed to go to bed at 3am and wake up and do it again? Do we eat dinner or breakfast? Should we just stay out all night, it felt more like mid afternoon than bed time. We ended up sleeping till noon and skiing the adjacent peak after breakfast.