Ice, ice baby

An early start is always the best indicator that your going to do something exciting. Today that meant walking to the Svartisen Glacier. It promised to be adventurous, dangeroius and possibly cold. We were true explorers!


We caught a little ferry to our destination peering out the sides searching for a glimpse of the promised block of ice. When the boat pulled up at the dock however we still hadn't seen it. We set out on the one hour 'walk' that would take us to our prize.
So quickly the stroll that we had expected blew out to a grand hike over rugged terrain. Half an hour later, after clambering and hoiking ourselves over massive rocks we had become well aware of our folly, coming to the realisation that sketchers and converse are not appropriate footwear for mountain climbing. Around the same time however, the glacier came into view and we were drawn to it like moths to a flame.

We climbed in, on and around this massive white, blue and sometimes dirty ice. It was cold to touch but so satisfying when you could smash a large block of fallen glacier to smitherins by throwing it into the very solid ice still attached to the glacier. After many photos and being drenched by glacial water it was time to being the hike back to the ferry. Slower this time as we were not in a hurry and could stop to marvel at the view of water, ice, mountainous and rapids gushing by.

Unlike some in our group, we did not stop to swim in the lake at the foot of the glacier. We were quite happy to take his word that the water was cold - or as he put it, "like jumping into a slushie". We instead concentrated on keeping our footing on the rocky path, in order to avoid joining him.

Every now and again we like to include some educational material in our blog - historical facts, statistics and so forth. So on the ferry ride back we sought out the information sheets to get some background on the walk we had just completed and the glacier we had climbed. We didnt have any paper, so everything we learnt and wished to remember was written on the back of a packet of gum. Like the fact that the glacier, known as the Austerdalsvatnet ice flow, was the biggest glacier in the Svartisen region - a region which is encompassed by the second largest expanse of ice in Norway. We ran out of room at this point, however the warning (written in bold at the bottom of the page) is something that we will remember for a long long time.

Clearly we should have studiedn these fact sheets before arriving at the glacier as we learnt that it is the most dangerous glacier in the Svartisen region. It is melting at such a rapid rate that a river formed at its base in a matter of just a few short years and has been expanding now since the late 80's. It is notorious for huge chunks of ice breaking off and they can cause waves up to 5metres to form in the lake. As a result we were being warned not to touch the ice at all, and infact to stay 15metres away from the galcier and lake at all times. Oops. Is that what the danger signs leading to the glacier were eluding to?

The remainer of the day was spent sleeping on the bus as we made our way passed the latitude of 66degrees and 33minutes North. We had officially made it to the artic circle! One more snow fight later (really we couldn't resist) we were off to the campsite. We were treated to dinner in a resturant (yay! we haven't previously mentioned it, but the prison rations we have been living off leave much to be desired) and played pool into the night.
P.S: Don't know how it happened but Megan was a major factor in winning a game of pool against people who could actually play. Will wonders never cease here in Norway?