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FinalAnnReport 2004 _artwork - Hugha.co.uk

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Tunabreen glacier<br />

The mountaineering activities were led by Philip West. Here is a brief extract<br />

from Philip’s report on his work with Geomorphology Fire.<br />

"Our intention had been to make an adventurous journey and to take<br />

advantage of whatever the area had to offer for exploration. Although the<br />

mountain Panoramaberget was only 18 km from BC, the journey was<br />

challenging in terms of both terrain and weather/visibility. Fourteen<br />

individuals with varying levels of experience of living outdoors quickly gelled<br />

into a team, and I was pleased to see the high morale and the enthusiasm that<br />

<strong>co</strong>ntinued throughout the period, in spite of sometimes adverse <strong>co</strong>nditions and<br />

resulting frustration. Naturally, mistakes were made and lessons learned but we<br />

were a happy fire, and the drama of the stunning views that we saw, albeit<br />

briefly, was the icing on the cake. Thanks, guys!’"<br />

I was enthusiastic for at least one fire to undertake the walk out from<br />

Base-camp to Longyearbyen, and so I was pleased that Perception Fire were<br />

determined to give it a go. The major obstacle was the river which runs through<br />

Sassendalen. There were two ways to circumnavigate this; one was to trek well<br />

inland, and the other was to portage using the Zodiacs. We opted for the<br />

latter, but even so the group had some tricky moments as they crossed one of<br />

the other rivers on the route.<br />

One of our major <strong>co</strong>ncerns at Base-camp was the ice-floes as they moved<br />

across the bay. The glacier opposite our camp was particularly active and with<br />

the wind in a certain direction the entire length of the shore at Base-camp<br />

would be<strong>co</strong>me clogged with huge ice-floes. Several times we had a real<br />

challenge in getting the Zodiacs into open water. Consequently I decided to<br />

move our Base-camp several kilometres west to escape the ice and ensure the<br />

charter boat, the Lang Oysund, would be able to retrieve us all at the end of<br />

the expedition.<br />

SAFETY<br />

The risk-assessment study we did before the expedition proved to be relevant<br />

and <strong>co</strong>mplete. Expeditions necessarily involve some risks and although we<br />

Loading equipment onto the Lang Oysund Establishing Base Camp<br />

SVALBARD | <strong>2004</strong><br />

‘manage’ them we do not preclude them. An expedition without risk is one<br />

without any adventurous element. We were fortunate in that we had an<br />

adventure-packed expedition, but without incident.<br />

Keith Maslen, our Deputy Chief Leader, had also agreed to be our Safety Officer<br />

and several times his wise <strong>co</strong>unsel prevailed. This almost certainly <strong>co</strong>ntributed<br />

to our doctor remaining largely unemployed (apart, that is, from his other<br />

self-appointed job of repairing stoves). One useful exercise that he and I<br />

undertook early in the expedition when all the fires had deserted us, involved<br />

working our way through various ‘what-if’ scenarios in order to reinforce our<br />

<strong>co</strong>ntingency plans.<br />

A major <strong>co</strong>ncern was the possibility of a close en<strong>co</strong>unter with the local Polar<br />

Bears. The closest we came to one, however, was finding a large and fairly fresh<br />

footprint. At night we surrounded Base-camp with trip wires and miniexplosives,<br />

and carried rifles and flares, and on occasions we even mounted a<br />

night-time bear-watch.<br />

By the end of the expedition we <strong>co</strong>ncluded that the trip wire was of limited use.<br />

On waking we found on more than one occasion that the explosives had gone<br />

off, but we had failed to hear them for the noise of the wind flapping our tents.<br />

We <strong>co</strong>uld have been devoured as we slept!<br />

Finally on the matter of preventing bear-attacks I should mention our ‘bear<br />

dogs’. Before leaving Longyearbyen we were offered a <strong>co</strong>uple of dogs in return<br />

for feeding them. Meteorological Fire opted to take one along with them and<br />

though it was great having it around as a pet, I have yet to be persuaded<br />

that it was an effective deterrent against bears. Then again it was never<br />

really tested.<br />

FIELD WORK PROJECTS<br />

At the time of writing the fieldwork results are still being worked up. I am able<br />

to report, however, that the field work was <strong>co</strong>mpleted successfully and ranged<br />

from geomorphology projects under Dave Youren, to re<strong>co</strong>rding data on the<br />

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