back in Iceland

the closest i get to top Gun;0)
this is my ride back home, here we are at Keflavik ariport after 1 hr 20 min from Mestersvig. i have never flown that fast from Greenland to Iceland before!

everything went very well, anna picked me up at the airport, had some food at home and then we went to the swimming-pool and the hot pots;0)
the weather was excellent yeasterday, sunny and new snow in the mountains. today it's raining...

i put out some more pictures on my pictures

this blog will end now, untill i'm back in Greenland or doing something Greenland related...

you can all follow my life at the icelandic blog www.bjarki-iceland.blogspot.com

thanks for all the comments:0)

sketch of Mestersvig

This is a modified sketch of Mestersvig and the surounding mountains with distance and height;0)

clearing the runway

Yeasterday we took out the snowblower and the snow-plow and started clearing the runway. it was first time for Raymund to do this so I spent some time teaching him how to do it right.
when we where almost finished with the apron the snowblower broke down, probably due to some electrical problems. luckily we got it back to the garage and it's possible to land a plane;0)

internet was down all day, due to solar solstice (storms) interference...

then i have to clean up my things and say good bye to Nyhavn and hopefully there will be a jet for me tomorrow, taking me back to Iceland...

a time to remember...

Today was the time to remember, remember our two colleagues Dan and Martin who went trhough the ice at Noret, this day 10 years ago.

Raymund and i put the flag at half mast and drove out to the two crosses that stand close to the place the accident occured. we brought two candles that we lit and held a minute of silence to remember and honour our colleagues and also those who serve with the armed forces around the world.

the dogs where with us, so the whole station was present in this memory.

then we drove out to Hamna and had a cup of hot chocolate and some crakcers. the weather has been absolutely magnificent, and the dogs are a bit tired after some 25 km of running...

tomorrow we have to start clearing the runway to be ready for tuesday, when i leave mestersvig, once again;0)

more pictures out there!

new plans...

this picture was taken at 0815 this morning, it might look like the gate to hell or a massive magma flow from a volcano...

today i got a new phone call from Denmark, "new plans, bjarki" the air-force is sending a jet on tuesday to pick you up;0)

after changing a lot of light bulbs out-doors on the station and doing service on one of the generators, we took the scooters and drove up to Minebyen. large parts of the road has been flushed away since i was there last year...

i taught Raymund where to drive and how to not flip over or how to save it when it has already happened, twice;0)

news from the outer world...

well well, it seems that my departure will be delayed. today i got a phone call telling me that there isn't enough space on the plane so i have to wait for the next plane. the next plane will be on the 27th, if weather permits. i really hope so, because i have to be at a conference in southern iceland on the 29th...

this is the way the arctic works, there is nothing to do about the weather, space on planes and break downs. no need to cry because it doesn't help.
the positive thing is more pay for longer time and bigger chance of seeing the big white fellow again and visit nce places...

see you when i see you

last week in Arctic Paradise...

Picture of my fathers boat, Jytte in Nyhavn. As you can see the fjord ice has started to freeze. it is a mixture of pack-ice and new-ice. last night we got a few cm of snow and the day before a few mm of snow...
if the weather gets a bit better today, we will go on our scooters to minebyen:0)
the end of my stay is near, on wednesday i will leave this wonderfull place again. 7 weeks have passed on quickly as always... but it will also be good to see Anna again and being able to get fresh fruit, milk, youghurt etc...

wonderfull ski trips

For the last couple of days i have been out skiing. the weather has been wonderful, a little bit of wind, sunny, no clouds and temp. around -8 degrees. on my ski trip today i came across polar bear tracks, so good thing i am armed in this place. even though the tracks are old, the bear is probably around, as there is no fjord ice it can escape over.

Since yeasterday a great deal of more ice has moved into the fjord, so if this continues we will soon have an ice cover in the fjord! jippiiii

life keep getting better...

This is a panorama picture taken from 800 m a.s.l. at Hesteskoen, from here you can see 100 km in each direction. GREAT VIEW

DLRH or Washburns Hus on the way to Minebyen. i said it before but this house has the best view in Mestersvig;0) Thanks to the Washburn family who got the house built in 1952 (i think).

finally we managed to get across the river, Tunnelelv. we drove snow scooters while our 3 dogs ran, wish i was in as good shape as them! First we went to the house and had some wamr chocholate, snickers and some crackers and enjoyed the view. then i got the idea that we should try and drive up on top of Hesteskoen (1118 m), even though there wasn't that much snow. we got to 851 m and then it got too steep, both due my problem with heigths, Raymunds first scootertrip and no more snow.

it was a fantastic day and we could see the whole fjord from kap simpson to Ymers Ø, and even getting paid for this:0)

the ice has started to form in the fjord, so i guess that in some weeks it will cover the whole fjord...

more pictures on my page!

another great day

Most of the morning we spent trying to figure out why we don't get enough heating in the garage. this is done by the generators producing a lot of surplus heat, this is put through pipes which then goes to some fans in the generator house and then over to the garage. the problem is that we don't get the amount of warmt over to the garage, which is anoying as we know there is enough of surplus heat! we tried some different combinations of opening and closing some valves ( many options) and changing the pressure in a pressure tank. suddenly we got some more warm water over to the garage. it's a start but not enough. next face is to wait for some insulation for the pipes, this will probably give us at least 5-10 degrees of warmer water;0).

then we finished insulating the roof that we cut a whole in, the other day, put up a shelf and redecorated the room.
i needed to put some glue on the screws in my ski bindings as they where all coming out and then i went for a ski trip with the dogs. then the other ski binding started to come off, so i have some more mending to do tomorrow;0)

the my evening project is working on my poster so it can be presentable in a good way, so i can go to this conference when i come back to Iceland...

a beautiful day for skiing...

after lunsj i decided to take the dogs, and go skiing. it was cold and calm weather and the sun was warming me up. i walked down to Noret and then up on Langdyssen and the a bit around. the dogs were running around, chasing the local wild-life while i was enjoying the fresh air and the excersise...

More school work...late evening

This evening a made a 3D model of my little glacier and finished my first draft for a poster i have to show at a conference in Høfn, Iceland in the end of October.

hopefully it will be good enough, though I might expect some corections as it's my first poster ever!

what did you learn in "school" today???

this is a map i made of my little glacier today. it's made in GIS and it's an aerial photo where i have drawn in moraines and the different size of the glacier through time.

this was made after we had been out working and freezing of fingers and toes. we decided to get some more space in the garage, so in the middle of the winter, -10 and 15 knots of wind, we opened up the roof, cut the chimney in three pieces and then we had to mend the hole and finished off with putting new tare sheets on the roof. a nice big and warm cup of tea was needed afterwards. but nice to have done a good days work and gotten some more space...

scooter trip

Yeasterday Raymund and i drove our scooters to the hills around Nyhavn. we brought a shot-gun and walked a bit around to look for some food, but we didn't find anything... good thing the freezer is full!
there is still a need for some more snow, but it was ok to get around in the terrain. Tunnelelv is still full of water, more than 50 cm of water flowing, so we can't get over to Minebyen and Washburns hus!

Polar Bear

This morning when we were having breakfast a polar bear came walking in to our station. i grabbed my camera and started taking pictures and video.

our dogs didn't notice anything, even when i started shooting flares out of the window... thanks dogs!
the first picture is taken at Noret, a bit of new ice has started to form, but it's not strong enough so we didn't go out there. the bear broke through the ice several times. this was when we scared it away.


this picture is taken from the window of the tower, with the polar-bear 20-30 meters away:

isn't life in the arctic great?

a normal evening in mestersvig

After eating 3 hot dogs for dinner i decided to jump on my scooter and drive out on a small hill, Langdyssen to take some pictures of the station. it was almost fullmoon, .6 and some wind. the place i choose to drive up had a lack of snow and in the middle of everything i ended up in a gun-figth with a muskox;0). well it was only flares due to it's close presence to me. luckily it ran away and i could take my pictures. now i'm just getting warm again after some fresh air watching the scenery...

work work work

today we had to refuel some of the buildings. this was done by laying out a 100m fuelhose out to the buildings. then we turned on the fuelpump and waited, until it started coming smoke out of the pump. the fuel pump broke down so we had to abort the whole operation...
in some weeks we will have to use the old way, the fuel-waggon, which is also faster;0)

then we had to do alot of administrative work, sending orders for the christmas drop to the office, fuel statistics for the last month and phone records for the month. it will be exciting to see how much i have been calling for...

it's another great day, - 4, sun and almost wind. now i'm stuck indoors with my school work...
tomorrow i need to go skiing!!!!

internet working again! tried out my skis

After having some days without internet, due to all kind of technicl problems with the equipment, we finally managed to repare it today:0)

for some days now we have had a lot of wind and another 10 cm of snow. this is looking good...

inbetween some bad weather there was a oppen window of good weather, so i managed to go out skiing. it's still some rocks under the snow, but it's getting much better. the picture is from Saturday.

we still don't have any ice in the fjord, which gives us all this warm weather. we had temp. between -9 and +5. today we are at +1!

i put some more pictures on my page;0)

from my short trip with scooter

this is me over-looking King Oscars Fjord. still no sign of fjord ice...

more pictures out there

i'm not perfect ;0)

an other big day in my little kingdom. making more clones of myselves and working hard, cleaning the garages and lifting too heavy stuff...
now i'm of for a short scooter trip around Langdyssen to make a ski-track and then i'm off to the sauna to loosen up my stiff and frozen limbs.
also my turn to be the cook, so i will make us some t-bone steaks;0)

cloneing in Greenland

due to a busy day at the office, i had to clone myselves. thereby being more effective in my work;0)
the wonders what you can do about lasso-tools and photoshop...

out hunting in the sun...

this is the only animals my dog Lola and me saw yeasterday, the rest had disappeared, but i had a nice trip anyway. the weather was very good and there was a lot of snow. next time i have to bring skis...

today we painted a lot of floors on the station. it was a sticky business, as the paint was a two component. it's like super-glue. say no more!

we also put up covers for the bridges on the station, thereby hopefully being able to stop some of the snow, from drifting under the bridges and making a cathastrophe in the spring.

new side bar

i added a new side bar today, it's the one with a satellite picture.
by pushing the picture you will get a link to almost live satelite pictures of Greenland, where it's possible to see the amount of sea ice and snow cover on the tertain...
enjoy

winter wonder land

this is not today, but two days ago. if you want to see today you have to look at my pictures;0)

today it's snowing again, we probably got another 10 cm, so we had to clear some of the roads of snow with the snow plow. a bit early...

i fixed a broken door in the cafeteria and raymund finished the 3 fllors we have been working on this week. all that is left i painting them with an epoxy paint...

have a very nice week-end:0)
maybe i will try my skis???

16 cm of snow today..

Bjarki the "farmer" walking in the snow.

yeasterday and today we got 16 cm of snow at the station. we had to save our little boat and moved around on some equipment that shouldn't be buried in the snow...

i put out some more pictures!

this afternoon the weather cleared up and now it's the most beautiful scenery, not possible to pay for a view like this;0)

i even tried out the scooters on the road. veiiiii funny

finally snowing...

yeasterday we had some snow in the mountains, but when i woke up this morning it was snowing and more came along during the day. the temperature is only around zero, so it's not very cold. we more or less finished the big things outdoors, so now we spend our time with redecorating the workshop, painting floors and putting cement on the floors.

then i spend some time working on my thesis...

put some pictures out there!

let it snow let it snow...

this morning it had been snowing, down to 100 m a.s.l and temperature around +1.
Raymund helped my the whole day with fixing Jytte and now we only need 10 min more work and then it's ready for the winter.

now i'm ready for lots of snow, going on some trips and sailing our RIB around before the ice hits us...

enjouy summer back home;0)

mestersvig time-lapse tower

the sun sets at hrs 1935... look at the shadow

Mestersvig time-lapse

this is made up by 514 pictures taken by 10 sec interval from 2200 hrs to 2300 hrs, from the top of my tower towards the north

a day of painting

after some social time with the people from the sailboat, they left today for Scoresbysund.
a cruise-ship with some russians left the fjord yeasterday and an other ship left the fjord today. it must be crawling with tourists in the fjords...

today we have painted the first layer in Syndicatet ( the timber work-shop), so now it's time for some relaxation and some school work...

an other great day in Mestersvig.
which hopefully will be open forever!

a new week...

the first week here has been quite good, working a lot, trying to finish all outdoor activities before winter sets. temperature has dropped from around + 5 to zero. most of the time we have had calm weather and sun, but the last 2 days have been foggy.
we have moved a fuel tank behind the cantina and to the front, putting up new fuel pipes, cleaning up in different houses and garages, walking with our 3 dogs, basically getting the station ready for winter.

to day a dutch ship hailed us on the VHF and asked us if we wanted to come onboard. we got coffee and lunch and now they are coming here on the station for a social visit...
the boat is a one masted steel boat of 67 feet. onboard are one british, two norwegian and the rest are dutch. one of the norwegians even know who my father is. what a small world this is.

i was just on the radio with a russian cruise boat trying to "escape" our sharp ears and eyes, on his way out of the fjord..

pictures out there too

leaving iceland

this is my plane in akureyri in northern iceland early yeasterday morning. i left reykjavik the same morning saying goodbye to my cute girlfriend, anna for seven weeks.
the trip with the twin otter took 2 hr 15 min to constable point in greenland and then an other 40 min to mestersvig where i will be staying until october 21st.

after arriving in mestersvig we got a visiting danish warship. we had to load the ship with more than 1 ton of flour and spare parts, all of it going to daneborg, head quarter of sirius.
after dinner onboard the ship we showed the crew the station and then we drove them back to the harbour.

today we had 9 visitors from daneborg in a twin otter, it was people from the office and the greenland command on their way back home. after showing them the station a c-130 from the danish airforce picked them up. the brought a new jeep as the old one was completely defect and brought the wreck back home.

after another twin otter that had to be loaded with 250 kg of goods we could finally relax and have some lunch...

the weather has been very good, sun, snow on the mountain tops and +5 degrees!

there are more pictures out there!!!

going back to Mestersvig...

Yes, it's true I can't stay away from the east-coast of Greenland, i got the bugg...
On September the 1st. i will fly from Iceland to Mestersvig, Greenland and stay at the station for 5-6 weeks, until the middle of October. I will have plenty of time for reading and writing on my thesis and at the same time get to experience my old kingdom again...

I really look forward to a good time there!

two former members of sirius on kite expedition in greenland

http://www.thepoles.com/news.php?id=18226
http://www.thuletilthule.dk/index.php?option=com_jumi&fileid=3&Itemid=114&rejseid=1
http://www.thuletilthule.dk/index.php?option=com_jumi&fileid=3&Itemid=114&rejseid=1

this is a link to expedition by two former members of the sirius sledge patrol. they have been using kites on their way in greenland.
but when they came to the northern part of the coast they where evacuated by helicopter from svalbard, due to an apendix. the worlds longest rescue by helicopter, 2250 km

http://www.svalbardposten.no/nyheter/redningsaksjon-til-gr%C3%B8nland
http://www.svalbardposten.no/nyheter/tilbake-fra-gr%C3%B8nland

SH7 in Danmarksfjord March 2007

http://forsvaret.dk/GLK/Nyt%20og%20Presse/Pages/Siriusforskole2update.aspx

http://forsvaret.dk/GLK/Nyt%20og%20Presse/Pages/Siriusforskole.aspx

En hyldest til Grønland, digt af Niels Underberg

En hyldest til Grønland, Digt af Niels Underbjerg
Har du aldrig set en Grønlandsk sommerdag forbløde i et farveorgie af gult og rødt
bag kanten af en isbelagt storcirkel, der var din tavse verdens yderste grænse. 
Har du aldrig fanget af disse vældige drivismasser hørt som en hviskende forbandelse,
når flagerne sukkede og peb, mens de drevet af en usynlig magt pressede din skude. 
Har du aldrig prøvet at svælge dig mæt i duften af det fattige lands livsaligheder, 
når dets blide åndepust fik kæruldens lyslokkede hoveder til at nikke. 
Har du aldrig hørt den rene og stille luft blive fyldt med kåd latter og lyden af åreplasken,
når den fyldte konebåd i skumringen roede forbi. 
Har du aldrig set en fjeldsø fyldes til randen af blinkende stjerner,
mens fjerne hundehyl og ekkoet af et råb fortalte, at du ikke var alene på jordens arrede ryg. 
Har du aldrig prøvet at brøle dig hæs og føle dig lille og bange, 
når iskantens blåhvide stålkæber i uvejret kom dig nær med skum og fråde i mundkrogene. 
Har du aldrig i en frostnat siddet tænderklaprende på en hundeslæde over tyndisen,
med dit dyrebare liv i den ene hånd,
og med den anden gennem foret i din bukselomme knuget din forfrosne tissemand. 
Har du aldrig jublet af glæde og lettelse, når en fare var overstået, og nymånens gyldne båd
sejlede natten i havn med nordlysenes flimrende bråd om boven. 
Har du aldrig følt trang til stille at hviske: ”Kære Vorherre! Stands sol og måne og lad tiden 
stå stille en stund, så jeg kan fastholde dette øjeblik; skulle forsinkelsen forstyrre for meget,
så træk blot fra i den sidste ende tiden, der tabtes på det livsløb, der blev mit” 
Hvis du ikke har prøvet noget af den slags, så har du aldrig oplevet Grønland,
som jeg har det, mens gode og lykkelige år fløj afsted som vinden.