Secret Arctic Island Under the Clouds

Trip Start Aug 09, 2005
1
Trip End Aug 23, 2005


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Flag of Svalbard and Jan Mayen  ,
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Maybe I could be forgiven for having high expectations of this legendary place. I had traveled alone for what seemed like days, hauling a giant overpacked suitcase of brand new "arctic" gear and a fellow scientist's packer filled with pipettes, baggies, shovels, and heaven knows what else. I had taken every mode of transportation known to humanity, not the least of which was my own two tired feet. I had a one night layover in Oslo, a lovely city that looks a lot like Wisconsin and is now home to my friend Dave Root, formerly a postdoc at the Smithsonian in D.C., now a postdoc at the University of Oslo. After a few hours of sleep and a shower at his place, I was back on a plane, looking down at a blanket of clouds that was determined to keep me in suspense over what it means to be "in the Arctic".

Eventually the plane descended through the thick and darkening, but placid, stratus, revealing no sign of my secret island but holding a multilayered landscape of clouds formations. We descended through layer upon layer of cloud islands and cloud rivers and cloud springs, until, somewhere just outside the center of the Earth, the mists parted and afforded this, my first, glimpse of Svalbard.
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