THE BIG THAW

Picture of the week: Longyearbyen's airport in the distance was closed most of this week. 

Longyearbyen was a wet slippery mess for most of this week affecting everyones mood.

While weather is a fairly generic topic to start out with, it dominated this week’s activities, events, and the mood of the community.  While the rest of Europe is in a deep freeze, almost the entire week here was above zero, with high winds, and rain, Longyearbyen was subject to multiple airport closures, avalanches, rescues, and very slippery roads!  The avalanches struck on Monday.  First was one in the side valley along Longyearbyen that took out the bridge we regularly take to the school and sports hall.  Luckily it happened at 1 in the morning, so no one was hurt.  The second was along the road to the airport, closing it for much of the day, stranding the passengers at the airport and delaying the outbound flight (this was one of the few days the airport was open as the ice on the runway was completely melted).  These were slush avalanches, with a tremendous amount of mass behind them and bringing rocks and stones down the gullies.  There was so much melting and rain, that the river in town and the river in Aventdalen were flowing again.  This prevented snowmobiles from crossing over the valley.  The conditions also closed the road up the valley for 3 days and put snowmobiling to a halt (although some still tried… see picture below).  This is the time of year that people can get out of town and explore on snowmobiles and dog sedges.  The weather has changed those anticipated plans and you can see that many of the people in town are not in the best of moods.  Even the seasoned veterans of Svalbard have told me this is one of the worst stretches of weather they have seen.

A slush avalanch took out the bride heading up to the school and sports hall early Monday morning.

Clearing the slush avalanche from the airport road, which was closed for almost a day.

Some still tried to snowmobile around town, but didn't get too far!

On Friday, I went to a concert as part of the annual Polar Jazz series.  I saw a classic Norwegian band called deLillos.  An interesting cross in my opinion between U2, Rush, the Allman Brothers, the Stray Cats, and Bob Dylan.  They rocked the house until late and really got the crowd of 3-400 going.  After being here for over 6 months, it was interesting to be able to identify “townies” and “tourists”. 

deLillos during one of their jams.

deLillos rocks the house with demands for more!

Last night we had some friends over for Mexican food (burritos, tacos, and fajitas). Great tastes, company and the boys had a good time playing.

Anders mounding chocolate syrup on his ice cream at last night's dinner.

Jason at UNIS working on his new coding passion and a little Minecraft.

Students are back at UNIS, so are the shoes and the added scent in the entrance!

Panorama of the walk down the hill to UNIS.  The light was really evident this week after the storms blew through.

With the stormy conditions, we were not able to see the increasing light, until a brief period today.  There is a blue glow from 10 until 2:30 that is lighting up the surrounding mountains and the range across the fjord.  Today was also the first day I have seen the glacier since November. 

Contrast with a blue background.

Light across the fjord.

Still dark on the horizon.