It has been a few weeks now since I returned from the Arctic but to be honest, this is the first chance I have had to blog about it and what a fantastic trip it was! I have seen and walked upon some of the most beautiful landscapes this earth has to offer this summer and it would be impossible to write about every single adventure and experience from the trip, so here is a selection of a few of my favourite pictures from Svalbard, 2012... Enjoy!
Not the usual welcome at an airport arrivals hall! This large adult male polar bear greets all newcomers to Svalbard; a reminder of the diverse and potentially lethal nature of the area.
Suited up! These are the watertight survival suits that we wore whenever travelling by boat. They are designed to give anybody an extra 24 hours of life in an emergency situation. They were great fun to try on and jump into the Arctic sea, but hopefully something we will never have to use for real!
On the second evening, we wandered up towards Longyearbreen, a glacier at the head of the valley that Longyearbyen sits in. On our way, we met this deer; Arctic deer have shorter legs than deer in any other part of the world.
This is path down to the University Centre in Svalbard, with it's extraordinary surroundings, it is probably one of the more picturesque walks to university.
We spent a lot of time constructing and monitoring these hydrological stations. This particular one, was used for interpreting the flow paths and subglacial dynamics of Von Postbreen, Templefjörden.
These are the boats we used to travel to the further away valleys such as Templefjörden and Grönfjörden... On calmer days such as this, they were a pleasant way of moving around. On the windier days, you would hold on for your life and just hope that you would get to your destination in one piece!
Crossing the Crevasses: in some cases, where finding alternate routes was an unfeasible option, a 'leap of faith' was the path of choice. In this picture, my jump was made all the more risky, with a heavy rifle strapped to my front, and an ice coring kit to my back!
This is a picture from 3am in the morning whilst on 'bear-watch' - probably one of the worst nights we had for weather, and we ended up delaying our departure from the camp, due to the boats being unable to come anywhere near. The importance of bear-watch however, means that weather conditions must be endured; a stark reminder is the fact that an English school-boy was killed about 50ft from this area last year when a polar bear entered an unguarded camp.
So, after the exciting weeks in the Arctic, I continued my journey through Oslo, Voss and Bergen before finally returning to the UK.
Voss was one of the most beautiful places I have seen, though going from the Arctic to temperatures in the low 30s was a bit of a dramatic change, and something the three of us hadn't really packed for!
On our return to the UK, it was on with the field report! I chose to look at the hydrology of Von Postbreen glacier, making use of the measurements from the hydrological monitoring station and spot measurement collected as we explored the glacier during the field camp in Templefjörden. I really enjoyed this project, and it made me think that I would enjoy conducting further research into this area... Hopefully some PhD studentships pop up over the next year in related areas.
After the field report, it was back to the thesis that I had admittedly neglected for several weeks. It was strange, and quite difficult to try and get back into a project that I hadn't looked at for a while, but after some refreshing, I managed to continue with the outstanding sections, and several late nights and many energy drinks later, it was finished! And that was it... Masters complete!
With the thesis submitted, the four years of University education, and the thirteen years of school and sixth form before that have drawn to a close (for now...)
I'm staying in Sheffield and will continue to work for BSkyB as a service advisor for the broadband and talk technical team. I have a nice new apartment, not far from the city centre and will live here whilst I build up a bit of money from working full time. My next plans are to apply for a PhD, hopefully for 2013 entry, and the hunt is well and truly underway!
What happens next... Who knows! I'll keep you posted....
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