Hello there reader, I believe when we last spoke I had one more day of the safety training left before the practical exercise. Well, on the friday we went out onto the sea ice (the Fjord at the bottom of the valley in which Longyearbyen is located is frozen over) and did various activities. We used axes to cut holes into the ice to check its thickness (it was 60cm thick) but apparently you can walk and ski on 10cm (4 inches), and use a snow mobile on 30cm (12 inches). I some how don't fancy walking over a Fjord on only 10cm of ice!

We then practiced what to do if someone falls into the water, which basically consisted of tying a rope to a gerry can and throwing it in their direction. Its surprisingly difficult to get any distance on your throw! we also practiced crawling along the ice using small metal picks, which we are supposed to use to get back on the ice if we fall in the water. it was difficult enough to crawl on them never mind lift yourself out of the water, although I guess if you're in that situation, you'll find the strength to use them!

the final part of the safety training was instruction on setting up an emergency camp (say if you are out in the field and one of the party gets injured and you have to set up a camp to wait for the emergency helicopter) which consisted of putting up tents (inside, so using duct tape instead of pegs!), setting up polar bear trip wires around the camp with flares to alert you of their presence and use of the emergency stove.

So, now it was time to put all the skills learnt to test out on Longyearbreen glacier. We met on saturday morning outside the barracks in Nybyen, and walked up to the terminal morraine (rocks and snow etc.) at the snout (end) of the glacier. we were split into three groups to rotate around the practical training. My group first did practical first aid and emergency camp, I helped set up a large 5 person tent (there was one 5 person and two 2 person tents) and set up a polar bear trip wire around it. Meanwhile the other half of the group tended to 4 'casualties', One unconscious, one broken arm, one broken leg and, I think, a neck injury. The broken arm and the unconscious guy were brought to my tent, which i was unluckily inside at the time, which made me the person responsible for them, along with a scottish guy who was part of the casualty evacuation team. The unconscious guy seemed a little annoyed that I hadn't talked to him, but we kept him warm and checked he was breathing, leaving him in the recovery position. It seemed more necessary to talk to the conscious patient (with the broken arm) to keep her spirits up until the hypothetical rescue helicopter arrived.

Next we practiced avalanche rescue, locating buried 'victims' from their emergency beacons or visible clues on the surface of the avalanche, probed the area with avalanche probes and dug them out with shovels. At least the digging kept us kind of warm! Then last station was crevasse rescue, where we rigged up a rope system to lower a person into a 'crevasse' (more down a steep slope really), to rescue a further casualty.

By this point my toes were freezing! I was wearing virtually everything I own, long sleeve thermals, long johns, thin fleece, thick fleecy coat, two pair of socks, boots, scarf, face mask, goggles (although they steamed up, so i had to take them off, at which point they froze!), hat, one or two pairs of gloves. I was glad to get off the glacier after 5 hours and get on the (kindly provided) bus back to UNIS. wiggling your toes is no replacement for getting to somewhere warm!

In UNIS we were given some time to eat our packed lunches, the pasta and sandwiches i had made had frozen, so i microwaved the sanwhiches, which were still cold in places, but warm and soggy in others, and also ate a bar of chocolate I'd bought from the reduced to clear bin in Coop. I didn't feel guilty about eating lots of chocolate because apparently we'd burn up to 4000 calories on the glacier. I also found that sharing chocolate around is a good way to make friends, especially after 5 hours at minus 30ish!

After lunch we did the written test which completes the safety course, followed by some beer and pizza provided by the logistics department and the friday gathering booze! then, a well earned lie in. I awoke the next day at seven, went back to sleep and got up at 11! Sunday was an uneventful day, about all worth mentioning is me and Colin's, pretty successful, attempt at making pancakes (although the American guy disagreed that they were actually pancakes!)

Its now monday and we've just had an introduction lecture to the upper polar atmosphere course, which is to be followed after lunch by a lecture about the other course, radar diagnostics of space plasma. In other news, apparently there has been a Polar bear sighting in the next Fjord over, but the Aurora are still conspicuous by their absence. It seems the Sun is very inactive at the moment. But my wide angle lense is constantly attached to my camera, on the tripod, set to manual with a reasonably long exposure and wide open aperture, just on the off chance!

well thats enough for now, its all lectures this week (i get a lie in tomorrow) so maybe I've told you all the interesting stuff for a while! Watch this space

Ash