Some pictures from the Safety and Survival course

Thanks to Frank I have now some pictures from the Arctic Safety and Survival course that we all had to take in January. It may give you an impression of some of the topics we covered.

Glacier rescue:

Or: How to lower a person into a crevasse in order to get ice for the whiskey. Notice: from the Sea Ice part we already know that in order for the ice not to contain too much salt it will have to bee retrieved from the middle of the crevasse, not the lower or upper part.

belaying Frank

me in a "Crevasse"...

After the theory inside it was off to the practical exercise outside

Rifle shooting: (for some reason my favourite)

In order to protect yourself from the polar bear, it may be useful to know how to operate a rifle. Alternatively, bringing a camera (you never see a bear when you actually have you camera with you) or simply always making sure the person you are together with runs slower than you (one person will keep the bear happy and not hungry for a while) are two well known methods that may work for you.

The rifle range


our rifles



walking to the targets (ca. 35m distance)

yeah, not bad!

First aid

Always useful... Apparently I was so flabby when playing unconscious they needed two persons to get me in a stable lateral position :)

Mouth-to-mouth

Pyro :D

Jørg was teaching us how to get a multifuel burner going and how to put up a trip wire

getting the multifuel burner to work

setting up tripwire

And of course setting up a trip wire had to be tried outside, too

Emergency boxes

Emergency boxes contain everything you need to put up an emergency camp for a couple of days (in case of bad weather or an accident etc.)

Rescue on sea ice (if you really believe you have a chance..)


With the ice pick shown below you are in theory able to drag yourself out of the water. In practice you may throw me in 5 crevasses before you let me drive into the fjord on a scooter... With all the gear soaking you don't stand a chance unless you are REALLY quick, and again, with all the gear on?... doubtful...

And finally two images taken from the day at the glacier when the Super Puma came to give me a spin...

Super Puma approaching to where I was laying

Hard to see, but at that time Sten was putting me on the gurney