Today we escaped! We finally managed to leave the vicinity of Longyearbyen town and venture out into the wilderness, much to the relief of all the team.
The dawn broke with slightly cloudy skies, but with no wind so we were able to safely break camp and head off. To make the process slightly easier we had arranged with our local “fixer” called Trond to transport the pulks as far as possible by road (we had no choice - pulling the pulks along the gritted ice road sides ruins their metal running tracks) and then we skied to that same point to pick up the pulks and pitch camp. We are now camping at approximately 8km from Longyearbyen town but have not quite been able to escape civilisation as on the mountain ridge behind us there is a large coal mine, which looks a bit like a bond villain's lair looming above us, and there are a few local cabins scattered around.
Our trek here was made alongside the road which is not very inspiring but it was great to get some distance on skis under our belts and everyone seemed to cope very well (although it will be interesting to see how achy we are in the morning due to our heavy pulks!).
The plan is to progress up the Adventdalen Valley before heading up one of the valleys which join this one. However, this completely depends upon the weather.
The forecast tomorrow is for strong winds and snow which could stop us in our tracks. Hopefully it will be wrong and we will make some progress. It will be great to get to a place where we can see no artificial lights and are not interrupted by snowmobiles.
Thanks to Marcus Liddiard for this post
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