SAMS Students in the Arctic 2016/17

Hey everyone!

Ivan here for the first post of this wonderful spring semester at UNIS. The first few weeks have been a blur, so we’d inadvertently abandoned this poor blog. But now that lectures are getting more intense and the workload is picking up we’re probably going to be looking for new and wonderful ways to procrastinate. Like blogging! So you should hear about us more often from now on. In fact, I do believe Boo and Solene are also preparing posts which should be up soon (no pressure…) – stay tuned!
Now, I’m going to tell you all about our very thorough safety course. It’ll also be a good opportunity to remind myself of all the safety protocols that we learned.

It all started on Monday the 9^th of January, with a solid six or seven hours of lectures regarding general safety on Svalbard: where to (not) go, when to (not) go, what to wear, what wild animals are ok to approach and pet (hint: none, except maybe UNIS students), important emergency numbers, etc. Quite simply, the main lesson I took that from all the lectures was that, if ever left the town, I would probably die of a) the warm hug of a glacier as I slid down one of its crevasses, b) the loving kiss of refreshing seawater as the sea ice I thought could support my weight could, in fact, not, c) the thick natural blanket provided by an unexpected avalanche, or d) playing tag with a polar bear… and losing.

Ok, I’m just kidding, it wasn’t that bad – it just felt like they had decided to adopt shock therapy from the very first day to make sure we would be careful when planning any excursions. Which, considering our surroundings, I don’t blame them for.

Tuesday was the start of 5 days of intense hands-on learning. Learning both how to be safe in this Arctic environment and just how cold it can get when you are standing there listening to explanation. The words “Jesus, it’s freaking Baltic” were uttered more than a few times… But I digress. These are the various safety aspects we were taught about from Tuesday to Friday:

First aid. Basically, a very condensed first aid course (CPR, bandaging, etc.) with a “cold environment” twist to it: how to deal with deep and narrow cuts – like those you get from crampons -, how to safely remove a snowmobile helmet from someone found in a snowmobile accident, and how to wrap a victim in all the bags and layers to keep them warm and toasty once they’d been tended to.

Emergency camp equipment. This one was quite simply about how to set up an emergency camp for if we got caught out in bad conditions or were waiting for emergency services. It seems simpler enough, but matters get slightly more stressful when the instructor gives you a 10 minute time limit to set up a tent that wouldn’t budge in gale force winds…

Avalanche training. I had slight hopes (as did others) that this would involve a grizzled old mountaineer telling us how to look at snow and conditions, and tell whether it would be prone to avalanches. But this was not the case: instead, we were told to be as conservative as possible when planning trips, to check the avalanche forecast, and “if you don’t know, don’t go.” Which, honestly, is far better advice than what I’d hoped for. We also learned to use the gear used to find and save someone buried in an avalanche.

Sea ice training. This was definitely an experience to remember. Like all the other activities, we had a theoretical introduction – what dangers sea ice hides, how to avoid them, what thickness of sea ice can support what weight. But the only way to truly show us how it feels when you mess up and end up going through the ice is… well, to make us do it. So the Logistics department had cut a hole through the 40cm (or so) thick ice in a lake next to the city (unfortunately, there is no sea ice around here in January). And, you guessed it, we had to jump in the hole, swim across it, and haul ourselves out. Luckily, they provided us with warm snowmobile suits, so we warmed up rapidly.

Glacier training. The climber in me really liked this part of the safety course! It revolved around the multiple ways on how to get someone out of a crevasse that they had fallen into. This meant, of course setting up a system of ropes to lower a harness (and possibly rescuer) down into the crevasse. For some reason, I found it really cool to learn how the system was set up (and getting to use it).

Communications & navigation. This involved learning how to read a map and use a GPS, as well as use the different communication devices at our disposal to call for help (like a VHS radio and a satellite phone).

Administration. This was much less exciting: it was just hearing about administrative matters and going around the UNIS building to see all the emergency exits there were. But I won’t lie, it was nice to have a small break.

Polar bear safety. Us humans are, first and foremost, visitors on this beautiful archipelago. This means, that, sometimes there can be some very close and scary encounters with the animals who run this place: polar bears. So during this session we learned the best course of action on how to act when a polar bear is spotted. And what to do if it insists on getting a very close look at us… which unfortunately, is to shoot it. So we learned proper rifle handling techniques and had some practice shots (on a target!). 

Finally, on Saturday, we had the “grand finale” to the course: a whole morning and the beginning of an afternoon dedicated to putting us in realistic situations, so we could put most of what we had learnt into practice. After that, we had a demonstration of a helicopter evacuation by the local emergency services. But while we were all sitting on a hill, waiting for the helicopter to arrive, someone said “look up!”, and there were some Northern lights! Sure, the people that had been here in the autumn semester grumbled “those are some weak Northern lights, why even bother, tsss tourists” (you get the idea), but for most of us it was the first time seeing them. It was truly a fantastic way to end the week.

So that was the safety week. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot of really useful things, so all in all a success. Plus, there is no better icebreaker than checking to see if anyone is bleeding or had broken bones beneath all their layers of clothing. I don’t think there is any better way to meet people.

Ivan

Here's a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, the week was very busy, so we didn't really have the time (nor the mind) to take pictures. But there are much nicer pictures of much nicer things that have been taken since then, so you'll see those :)