Today we left Hyttevika at noon when the weather looked fine. The rain started again 10 minutes later… But only for 30 minutes.

We passed Werenhus and continued to Werenskioldbreen, another retreating glacier which was studied by Polish glaciologists for the past 40 years. To get to the sampling localities we have to cross it. Usually, this is not a problem at all, but after all rain the ice was almost like a mirror with some cracks. We abandoned the crossing after some hundreds of metres and went back. No samples for today, below the glacier the rivers are to large to cross and it is to muddy to walk. We looked at a couple of outcrops that recently were exposed by the retreating glacier, including one of the shear zone dividing the Eimfjellet/Isbjørnhamna groups rocks in the south from Sofiebogen Group rocks in the north.

Then we were invited for dinner at Werenhus before we walked back to Hyttevika. We also got a close observation of a brown fox that usually visits the hut. Back at Hyttevika we had a nice evening in sunshine and little wind, the first day ideal for washing and laundry. Nice to get the sweat off and fresh clothes on. 🙂

Stronger winds during night should calm down tomorrow morning according to the latest weather forecast. If this becomes true we will take the boat to Vimsodden and into Skoddebukta, to walk through a profile of Sofiebogen and Deilegga groups, see the rock units and get our samples there.

Henning Lorenz, Uppsala universitet