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Frozen Five + 1: Young students to ski across Spitzbergen
06:08 am CDT Oct 23, 2006
(ThePoles.com) A group of young geo-sciences students will attempt to cross Spitzbergen, (the largest island in Svalbard Archipelago) from south to north, starting mid March 2007. The guys’ studies eventually brought them to Longyearbyen - there they met, became friends and the idea of the journey was born. The trip is expected to last two months and will cover circa 1000 km.
An adventurous bunch
Original members were Czech (NZ resident) Kim Senger, German Hella Garny, French Lucas Girard, Swede Mats Björkman, and Czech Jirka Lichteneger.
Kim is a world traveler and adventurer, Hella rode her bike along 4000km – she and Kim also did a training trip in August by crossing Tasman glacier (New Zealand’s longest); Lucas has previously taken part in a scientific North Pole expedition; Jirka is a seasoned climber who opened some new routes in Svalbard the first time he traveled there; Mats has crossed Sweden in winter and is making his skis himself.
Make it "Frozen Six"
Recently a new member has joined the team: Ulli Neumann, a Master’s student of glaciology at the University of Svalbard. Ulli has spent the best part of the last 3 years living, studying and working on Svalbard, visiting its most remote corners. He firstly worked with the team testing the expedition’s tracer unit - but soon decided to join the gang across the island.
“The only concern about Ulli joining us is the fact that our name no longer works,” the team wrote. From now on, they will have to be the Frozen Six. Other than that they are all positive on what they need to succeed with the project: “Success depends on cooperation, tolerance and fun,” they assured.
Two months in bear-land
As for the trip itself, the team will begin skiing south, passing dangerous crevasses on the way to Sorkapp, the southernmost point of the island. At this stage, some 2-3 weeks into their adventure, they will change direction and head north along the East Coast to Verlegenhuken, an isolated promontory past 80°N.
Main danger on the way will be the large number of polar bears inhabiting the area. The final stage will be a race against the snowmelt, towards the abandoned mining town of Pyramiden and subsequently Longyearbyen.
A visit to Vagabond crew
“Our route will pass the site of the over-wintering spot of the sailors of the Vagabond scientific expedition – the visit to the boat will give us the only time to rest during the trip,” the team reported. “Otherwise we will move along every day.”
Vagabond is at Ny-Alesund since 1st September, used as a base camp for DAMOCLES in Storfjord, East Spitzbergen.
Frozen Five (now Six) team comprises of young European students who will attempt to cross Spitzbergen, from south to north, starting mid March 2007.
Situated 1000km south of the North Pole, in the Norwegian-governed Arctic, Spitzbergen is a mountainous, ice-blanketed island. Spitzbergen is the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. Access to the region is facilitated by a regular airlink with northern Norway. With less than 3000 inhabitants on an area more than twice the size of Belgium, Spitzbergen is a true desert. The “towns” of Longyearbyen (Norwegian) and Barentsburg (Russian/Ukrainian) are the only human settlements on the island, otherwise inhabited by over 5000 polar bears.
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