fire in the hole... or how to blow up the river bed...

today we went up to the tunnelelv river to blow a path through the snow and ice. it had to be done now, before there will be too much melt water. by doing so we hope to make a kanal towards the fjord, so that the water want run towards the station and the runway.

we made around 35 holes and put charges in the. i put some pictures out on my page.

it was nice and warm, only -3 in the sun!

the deer hunter...

today I went out hunting. not for deer but it was the best title I could come up with ;0)
after walking up and down some small hills I found loads of ptarmigans. I managed to shot 10 of them and left a whole lot more for another day. on my way home I met two hare, but I left them too. no need to shot more than you can eat!
some of the birds fell down from the hills i was walking around on, so i had to walk up and down several places. that should make it the exercise of the day for me! when our neighbours come back from their trip we will have a ptarmigans dinner!

more snow clearing

today I cleared the runway of snow, while Hansi was exercising the dogs. it took around 4 hours to do so. then everything is ready if a plane suddenly appears out of no where...hehe
I visisted Lapstun and Co in nyhavn. it's quite cozy at their place. nice and warm, though some snow has melted and is now dripping in the hall way and in the kitchen. if the weather is good tomorrow they will start on their ski expedition to Malmbjerget...

it has been a beautifull day with lots of sunshine!

visitors from denmark

yeasterday morning we got a scheduled jet plane from the danish air force. it came from denmark with 8 people. 2 of them from our office in denmark. the others where from the special forces. they were here to see if they could use the facilities for winter and summer training in the future. everything went quite well.

we have some lack of sleep, due to giving weather reports at 02, 03, 04 and 0630 bothe yeasterday and this morning. ahh

the weather was cloudy when the plane arrived and it started snowing a bit. the visibility started to be a bit bad, with white out. after a presentation and lunch the plane flew to iceland and stayed there over night.

we had a good evening with lots of good food and some red wine!

after breakfast at 07 we waited for the plane. the weather was bad,with poor visibility and white out conditions. the pilots managed the job very well and gt the plane down on the runway.

there after they took off for denmark with refueling on iceland.

we got 3 cm of snow this night, so tomorrow we will have to clear the runway again...

i got a nap in my bed most of the day...

skiing around...

today we finished digging snow aeay from the bridges. Hansi went on a short sledge trip and I went skiing with Devil to Nyhavn. this picture is from there. it's my old house from 1975-78 and a whole lot of snow...

the weather is great

Hansi shot 4 ptarmigans, so we will have fresh meat for dinner...mmmm

Lapstun and Co are moving from Washburns to Nyhavn, due to rising water in Tunnelelv. they will be heading out for a ski trip for the next 14 days, so it would be easier to move their stuff now.

sunshine

today it feels like the midnight sun is here. it's 22.28 and still day light. the sun is behind the mountains and it's all so quiet. the midnight sun will be here on the 9th of May. to day the sun set at 2225 and will rise at 0430. most of that time I will be asleep...

we tried to get the bulldozer to run, but noo. after fixing and mending for some hours we gave up. the little starter engine is quite sick, so now we have 15 tons of iron and steel in our garage instead of a formiddable snow plow!

we took out the tractor and the pisten bully and continued our work of removing snow from the bridges, so that the water can run freely below the bridge when it all starts melting. a few more hours and we will have cleared the first out of two bridges.

have a nice night

another day in the park

today we drove for a 110 km trip on snow scooters.
it was a bit cloudy but during the day it cleared up and the sun was shining.
we drove to the old trappers cabine at kap petersens then to the sirius cabine at kirschdalen, before crossing the fjord. from kongeborgen to holms Bugt the trip was a bit bumpy and enoying due to the hard surface. at sporvognen cabine we got some hot chocolate, before heading back home. the trip didn't take more than little over 4 hours. it wasn't like in the "old" days when I was sleding. then it would have taken 3-4 days...

another day with beautifull weather...

this morning we went out to the water lake and got 4000 litres of water for the tower. we had to make two runs out there to get it all.
then I did some finish on one of the inner doors in the tower. it needed some new mouldings.
since the weather was so good we decided to take 6 of the dogs fore a sledge trip. we drove via Nyhavn to Hamna and back to the station via Noret. upon arrival at the station Pablo, one of the dogs collapsed, probably due to too much work in the warm weather. after 5 min he was up and running again.

To the Washburn family. it was so nice to hear from you all. it's such a small world :0)

our neighbours in your house says hi!

spring is not coming...

today spring just stopped on coming... it was -27 and cold. we choose the wrong day to start the bulldozer. it has been frozen down since the summer. 15 tons of iron is quite cold!!!

we tried heating it up with stoves, electrical heaters and our air plane heater. the air plane heater wasn't working as it should be and the rest of our heating systems didn't give much.

while the heaters where on, we drove out to Hamna to see if the expedition had their papers in order. we stayed there for 4 hours talking to the people and enjoying the sun. the have 5 sledges and were 10 people.

when we came back home our neighbours from washburns had arrieved. they helped us look at the dozer and together we got the starting engine going, but for some reasone we havn't found out yet... it stopped working. probably something with the flow of fuel???

after dinner together they went up to washburns, and I'm off to sleep...

foggy day

yeasterday we were invited up to our neighbours in Washburnshus. the had created a 3 course dinner. foiegras as a starter, then a delicious duck, finally cheese and a cake. everything was enjoeyd with red wine and cognaq.... mmm a perfect evening with good freinds. after discussing the future, dream plans for Mestersvig as a tourist place with the 5 of us as park rangers , we headed back home around 2 in the morning...

this morning we drove by the trapper station "Hamna" to see if the tourists had passed it during the night. but no one was around.

the fog was heavy and I had to use the GPS on parts of the route.

Hansi was running up and down the runway after lunch, while I went up to Washburns with some papers. on my way back home I went by Nyhavn, where I met the tourists. they are 5 sledges and 10 people. tomorrow they are resting in a cabine 7 km away from us. we will pay them a visit, it's not every day we meet someone...

ps don't open the comment on my last entry, it might be some crap someone put on my blog...

Knag attacked by killer rabbit...

this evening my dog "Knag" was almost attacked by a giant killer rabbit. it walked around him for a long time, even when Hansi stood nearby. it sat down and ate his dog food and he didn't even care...

this morning we had light snow and cloudy weather. during the day the weather cleared up and we got nice and sunny weather with -4 degrees and no clouds.

we got our pisten bully, snow track up and running and we went on a short scooter trip to Vælddal to look for a tourist expedition. no one there!

air plane

today the weather was still the best.

at 1345 a TWO from Iceland landed. it brougth us somme much needed mail ( hardfiskur, opal, topas, hangikjøt og paskaegg hehe). we loaded 3 sledges on the plane and it went on to the research station of Zackenberg.

in the mean time Hansi and I went on a ski trip to Nuhavn bringing the dogs with us.
when we came home, Hans and Phelippe had come down from the mountain to get a shower and to write some e-mails.
on the way to Iceland it made and touch and go on the runway to drop of another package.

great day!

Scooter trip to Flemming Fjord

Today we went on another scooter expedition. this time we drove to flemming fjord via Antarctics Havn - Henrik Møllers Dal -Flexur Dal and Edderfugle Dal.

it was a 140 km trip. the weather was cloudy for the first time in almost 4 weeks. the driving conditions were quite good, some places the snow was to hard, most of the time it was great. we saw a lot of new things and had a great trip.

on coming back home I helped our neighbours to pick up some heavy stuff in Nyhavn.

afterwards I almost fell asleep in the armchair. obviously it's tyring to sit on a scooter for many hours...

I put out some more pictures

new neighbours...

two days ago -Hansi and I drove from Minebyen to Sorte Hjørne and home via Mestersvig. the weather was great and the snow conditions fantastic. the trip and the scenery was awsome...
yeasterday Hansi and on a long trip on all the nearby mountains. this was way too much for my problems with heights. instead I was showeling some snow and doing my tax calculations...

today we got an plane. it was an Twin Otter from station nord. it was on its way to Iceland.
Hans, Per and Phillippe the three men from the expedition "Norfra" are staying here for the next 2-3 months. it will be a lot of fun for us...

it hasn't been snowing since the 10th of March. which is incredible. high sun and calm winds all the time. spring is definately in the air.

stay happy

cheers

still great

the weather is still great and so are we!
yeasterday we went on our snow scooter to skeldalen and had a look on the huge valley and the 2 glaciers. spring has definately come. several palces the lakes were water filled and the river was running. it wasn't a problem to drive on the river banks. there was lots of space and snow.

today we went for a sledge trip with our dogs. it's great to be here...
on Friday we get visitors. it's hans lapstun adn 2 friends. they will be staying in one of the cottages 6 km away from us, for the next months.