Accident in the Glaciology Course!!!

  None (Countryside), Norway
Thursday, February 26, 2004

This trip was one of the programmed excursions included into the Glaciology Course that we took in Svalbard. 

Sassenfjorden

What we did not know was that it was going to be such a cold day (only -27ºC, but with strong winds and the adition of the windchill due to the speed of the snowscooter). After a long ride on scooter together, Bea started to feel cold. Then we made a short stop (where Guillermo discovered he had started to develope frostbites, and solved the problem), and we set off again and entered the front of the frozen Tunabreen fjord, in order to approach the glacier front.

Tunabreen (3)

Once there, we left the snowscooters and went for a brief explanation of the dynamics of surging glaciers, where the teacher gathered us for some minutes. 

Tunabreen (4)

After that, we were left on our own, so we decided to make a short walk to approach the glacier front. There were some cracks on the ground, but we did not consider them dangerous.

Tunabreen (5)

Tunabreen (6)

We were very distracted with the nice landscape and the possibility to find a polar bear in the surroundings.

Tunabreen (1)

Tunabreen (2)

Tunabreen (3)

So as we were walking, we saw an ice slab more blue than usual, but we didn't think and tried to go on. Guillermo let Bea pass before him. Suddenly, Bea dissappeared. She had fallen into a water pool created by the fast advance of the surging glacier, and could not get out, or even swim because of the weight of the equipment (helmet included). Guillermo grabbed Bea from the snowsuit and pulled her up again onto the surface of the ice. Then he started to shout for help, because to be wet in these weather conditions can be extremely dangerous. So the Safety Chief at UNIS came and started to undress Bea, and with the help of some other students and Guillermo, put her in a warm and dry sleeping bag. She drank a hot beverage, and laid on the sledge pulled by a snowscooter. Luckily, she did not get injured by the cold, because the time into the water had been short, and she had wet only her socks.
The return was not bad. Bea almost got sleep, and the problems Guillermo had had to drive the snowscooter in the first part of the trip due to the lack of visibility caused by the ice formed in the goggles, disappeared partially when he took them off (a bit scared to do it for the frostbites). The landscape was so beautiful that we calmed down.

Sassenfjorden

Tempelfjorden

But perhaps, the most stunning event of the day was yet to happen: the discovery of the state of our bottle of water. Even being in the middle of our backpacks, it was completely frozen!

Iced bottle after Tunabreen Glacier...