Arctic Adventures - Define safety

The reality here seems different, or maybe I should say: reality here is different. And that’s refreshing. It feels like adventure is right around the corner and personal growth is just a heartbeat away.

After the days of safety training, the course which I came for, started: Biotelemetry methods. For the non-biology people, that means how to follow animals from a distance by putting a tag on them and measuring all sorts of things like where the animal goes, what kind of environment it lives in, how often it is diving, eating, resting etc. The women who coordinates the course is Prof. Dr. Kit Kovacs, a highly renowned scientist, known for her work with seals and whales in polar regions. I met her on Wednesday for the first lectures. Me and my classmates also met guest-lecturer Anja, who is a badass space scientist and taught us all about satellites. On Thursday, she took us to the Svalsat satellite station here on Svalbard. It was amazing to see the huge antennas and learn about all the things possible from space! I felt like a proper nerd and had many ´Big Bang Theory´ flashbacks. At a certain point I couldn´t help but laugh when we talked about the doppler effect, and the only thing I could remember was Sheldon dressing up like the doppler effect for Halloween… On Friday, we continued with lectures about animal ethics, laws and regulations and all sorts of positioning systems used for biotelemetry tracking. It was a super interesting start of the course. And then the weekend came

Some of my classmates were planning a trip to the ice-caves at the Larsbreen glacier, so of course I joined. ‘A walk’ in Norway should always be interpreted as ‘a hike’ for Dutch people. That means: bring extra clothes, extra warm socks, water, food, spikes to put under your shoes, windproof outer layers, and a can-do attitude. This was also not your standard Saturday jolly walk. That does not mean it wasn’t amazing and fun, but it means it was quite an effort. Walking up a mountain in the snow is not the same as walking on the Veluwe. My calf muscles were burning in no time, so lucky for me we made lots of little breaks. The view was absolutely amazing and after a few hours we reached the ice-caves. Backpacks were left outside, headlights were turned on, and we all squeezed through a small hole to enter the inside of the glacier (it was impressive that everybody joined in, as some people were quite claustrophobic, something I’ve never struggled with fortunately). The headlights made the ice sparkle and I have never seen anything like it, it was so beautiful. The layers of ice were perfectly visible at some points and to realize this has been building up for years and you get a little peek into history makes it extra special. We descended meters below the ice before our route was blocked by a steep descent, only possible with a rope and harness and we decided to turn back. I was the first one to climb out again and the first thing I did was a little look around for polar bears… even though polar bears hunt on the sea-ice and normally do not wonder around in the mountains in this time of year, no one is allowed to leave the town without a rifle for protection. During this hike, I also realized that in this environment ‘safety’ has a totally different meaning. We were walking along the edge of the mountain, and for the people that live in Norway or those that are used to this environment, that was no problem at all. Me and my English friend Leah thought it was kind of tricky. If your foot slips and you slide down the slope, you end up gliding off the mountain :S however, nobody seemed to think that was a serious risk, so we just followed. In the Netherlands, there would be a rope/bridge/stairs to make it more safe, and that was exactly what I enjoyed missing. You walk around a mountain in one of the most Northern places on Earth, you don’t want to see anything man-made here, it would spoil both the experience and the environment. But I realized the difference and I also realized how protected my mind has become by living in Europe. More than 600 people die each year in traffic in the Netherlands, and still I drive a car and go to the supermarket on my bike without a helmet. So, what is safety really? And how willing am I to give up being ‘safe’? Maybe taking risks and expending my comfort zone is bringing me more life than I ever realized before. I am not saying this hike was unsafe (everyone, including small children, do this little walk and it is by no means a big deal) but it did sprout an idea in my mind that spread to my heart and awoke my love for real adventure. The world is a big place and adventure is not just hidden in some far-away corners, it is everywhere your head says ‘I am uncomfortable, because I don’t know this, I am not in control’ but where the heart says ‘I want to know, I want to experience, I want to feel’.  I need to find me more of those places. My hunger for them is far from stilled.

I absolutely love this environment, the changes in weather within an hour, the magical white surroundings, the happy sun that tricks you in thinking it isn’t cold, the down-to-earth people, I love it much more than I expected!

Check out the photos in the album (named: Define safety) or on my facebook page.

Xoxo Elske