Der Überhammer - scooter trip to Kaffiøyra 1.-2. april

Monday evening I was at Doro's farewell party, and Jeff mentioned that he had been invited to a scooter trip to Ny-Ålesund by his friend Martin but could not go since he had to cover the domes of the observatory. I did not really have time to go either, but I could not let the opportunity pass... It was a dream to go to Ny-Ålesund, and the weather was gorgeous, so I wrote Martin an SMS to hear if he still needed company. That was at about at 12pm from Karlsberger... and the next morning at about 9 we two were on our way :D

My scooter is ready to go :p

My sledge with luggage - not exactly a lot... 4 Jerrycans, 1 rifle and a bag with some clothing and food

We drove from Longyear through Adventdalen, took a powder snow short cut to avoid Eskerdalen and most of Sassendalen and via Fredheim across Tempelfjorden.

Map I: GPS log from Longyear to Tempelfjorden

However, already in Adventdalen Martin's sledge broke down. I remember thinking: Oh dear, with this luck we'll not get far. Luckily though we fixed the sledge within 20 minutes and had not scooter or sledge trouble at all after that :D

The boat in Tempelfjorden

From Tempelfjorden we continued straight on to Nordenskjoldbreen and Billefjorden.

Map part II: GPS log from Tempelfjorde to Rudmosepynten

Nordenskjoldbreen. We had a hot chocolate break on the ice with a great view of the glacier scarp.

Nordenskjoldbreen

After a short break we continued over the ice of Billefjorden, passed Pyramiden and continued via Horbyedalen onto Horbyebreen, Hoelbreen into Hugindalen and on the ice of Dicksonfjorden towards Kapp Smith.

Map III: GPS log from Rudmosepynten to Kapp Smith

View of the Tarantella from Horbyebreen

"Lykten" in the northern end of Dicksonfjorden

Map IV: GPS log from Kapp Smith onto the huge moraine of Holmströmbreen (also called the "Mars moraine" by Martin and me because of the red sand and surreal landscape.

Tolmodryggen (driving around it from Dicksonfjorden into Ekmanfjorden)

We decided to refuel my scooter and eat lunch on a viewpoint on Blomesletta before driving on the ice of Ekmanfjorden. For the first time we tried self-warming food. We did not really expect the stuff to work, but even in below -20 degrees it got quite hot. Amazing and very practical since you don't have to start the multifuel burner... After a short break and a good lunch we went on towards the Mars moraine.

My scooter enjoying a small break

At the viewpoint

View from the "Mars moraine" back towards Blomesletta where we had eaten lunch

Map V: GPS log from the Mars moraine across Holmströmbreen towards the three crowns

The "Mars moraine" was really impressive. Impossible to catch on photographs, but simply huge!! The sand/soil was bright red and it was a labyrinth of small hills and piles of soil. We climbed one of the hills to get a view of the moraine.

In the Mars moraine

From the moraine we could for the first time see the three crowns at the end of Holmströmbreen :D (Holmströmbreen is HUGE... it is at least four time as long as it is wide - although you can't really see that from the picture.

View of the three crowns and Holmströmbreen

The view of the neighbouring mountains from Holmströmbreen

Approaching the three crowns :D

We had already passed the three crowns as we decided to try something new and drive up in between two of the crowns (the middle and most northern one). We did not have any track for this, but Martin knew someone who apparently had done it before... But since we were still on a glacier, no matter how nice it looked, and it is known that glaciers are most likely to have crevasses when they curve up or down we drove at great speed and hoped for the best :p I guess we both had a bit of "hjertebank" when we reached the pass.

Testing the area for crevasses with an avalanche probe before jumping off the scooter

Slowly we probed our way up towards the northern most crown

Me inbetween the crowns

The view of Kronerbreen and the west coast from in between the crowns (Ny-Ålesund is just outside the picture on the left hand side)

The view back over Holmströmbreen from in between the two crowns. Amazing ;-)


The middle crown

After our little detour we continued our way. We had already decided that since the both of us had been to the city of Ny-Ålesund before we'd try something new and drive to the west coast and the polish research station Kaffiøyra.

Map VI: GPS log from the three crowns to Kaffiøyra

Martin overlooking Kongsvegen

A very fast flowing glacier (Uversbreen, moves about 2m a day!)


On a viewpoint overlooking the gigantic glacier areas of Løvenskjoldfonna and others

Løvenskjoldfonna and Aavatsmarkbreen which we'd proceed on to get to the coast

After a loooong day of driving we finally drove down Aavatsmarkbreen and reached the west coast. This was a totally new area for Martin too, and by this time we had stopped to try and put what we saw into words. That was how we came up with a single word we'd repeat quite often: Überhammer! So far, the tour had just gotten better and better for each and every mountain we drove past and each and every new glacier we passed. There are simply no words or pictures who will ever be able to explain this trip...

Map VII: GPS log around Kaffiøyra/Dahlsbreen and Prins Karls Forland

The scarp of Aavatsmarkbreen in the evening sun

Martin

Me

View of Prins Karls Forland

Pancake ice

After we arrived at the coast we drove on to the polish station at Kaffiøyra. The station itself was open, but nobody was there. We decided anyways not to sleep in the station but rather drive a bit of our long way home.

The sauna

Our scooters in the sunset at Kaffiøyra with Prins Karls Forland in the background

Martin took his Master degree (which he finished just a couple of weeks ago) on Dahlsbreen which is very close to Kaffiøyra, so we decided to take a last detour to see "his" glacier.

Towards Dahlbreen

Dahlbreen in surreal, pink light

We took a very last hot chocolate break at Dahlbreen and enjoyed the sunset. I could not even stand or walk properly anymore and both Martin and my back hurt quite a lot. We had already driven 300 km on one day, and the amount of impressions I had gotten throughout the day was just huge.

The sunset

On our way "home" from Dahlbreen back to Aavatsmarkbreen along the coast in the sunset


More beautiful sunset as we drove back on Aavatsmarkbreen

Somewhere on Intantfonna we decided that it was about time to call it a day and started to put up the tent. I was cold and tired, and putting up the tent and bringing in the stuff was incredibly exhausting. I tried to get warm laying in my sleeping bag as Martin cooked some dinner but constantly kept falling asleep since I was exhausted and cold. We managed to eat a great warm meal (and yes Martin, the sauce was delicious ;-) ) and fell asleep. My seeping mat which is supposed to work to -40 degrees did for some reason deflate about every second hour so I got quite cold and had to re inflate it... There are not pictures from the evening - we were just too tired. We did not even bother to put up the tripwire against polar bears - but as far as we were on the glacier we figured we'd be ok with a loaded rifle in the tent. It must have been cold that night, because it was not able to leave any parts of the face uncovered by sleeping bag.

The next morning I woke up as the sun was shining on our tent. It was still really cold, but I slept incredible well and was warm (except 4 of my toes which unfortunately got a small frost injury).

In the tent: "kuldegropa", and some of our equipment, my loaded rifle to the right

Rise and shine in -30 degrees :D

Somewhere inside all this is Martin... still sleeping tight

But hey - what better view can you have waking up????

Starting the burner to make some hot chocolate...

and defrost some "Nutellabread"

Our camp

View out the "front door"

Since the weather forecast had predicted clouds later that day we packet our stuff quite quickly as we saw clouds coming in. Our scooters started - but they struggeled a bit initially which made us realize how cold the night must have been. From our camp we started taking the same way home as we'd come the day before

Martin and his scooter

Driving over Holmströmbreen

Some rock formations on Homströmbreen

Our "two crowns" in front of the middle & northern most crown


On Holmströmbreen


Towards the "Mars moraine"

As we had come back to Ekmanfjorden we decided to try and find a way to the scarp of Sveabreen which we can see in good weather from Longyearbyen. After a bit of back and forth driving in powder snow however we gave up and drove on towards Longyear. We saw afterwards that we would not have been able to drive along the coast anyways due to deep canyons.

Bardebreen with a nasty meltwater channel

From Ekmanfjorden we drove the way we came into Dicksonfjorden but then decided that we'd take yet another detour (as indicated in Map III) through Nathorstdalen and onto the Mittag-Lefflerbreen and Nordenskjoldbreen on our way home. That way I got to see Austfjorden and Atomfjellet :D

View of Atomfjellet

The tarantella seen from the other side - not quite as impressive but still cool

Austfjorden as seen from Mittag-Lefflerbreen

The mountainregion east of Austfjorden with Atomfjella and amongst others Newtontoppen

On our way over Nordenskjoldbreen

Pyramiden (somewhere across the fjord ;-)

Finally when we crossed Tempelfjorden we decided that we rather take the Flower pass and Tellbreen back home than driving the "highway" via Sassendalen and Adventdalen (see map

On the Flower pass

In total, we drove 600 km on two days in incredible weather, great driving conditions, with no scooter trouble whatsoever :D I could not have asked for any more... When we came back to Longyear we went to Kroa for the mandatory "Tur Burger".

Map VIII: GPS log of the entire trip