Our next and final site was Polhem, built under the leadership of the Swedish scientist-explorer AE Nordensköld in 1872.
Our final day at the Sorgfjorden station site
17 July 2017 | Dag Avango, Lize-Marie van der Watt, Camilla Winqvist![](https://polarforskningsportalen.se/imagecache/c46ec0c93964388a94a47e9014f0cef8/1400/852.jpg?source=http%3A%2F%2Fportalen.polar.se%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2Fsorgfjordenprojektet-dag-avango-image-11.jpg)
This Monday was our final day at the Sorgfjorden station site and therefore a day to finish up with all remaining documentation tasks there.
Working extra hard
16 July 2017 | Dag Avango, Camilla Winqvist, Lize-Marie van der Watt![](https://polarforskningsportalen.se/imagecache/3101cf0abc2fb8d39c6600bf1e89828f/1400/852.jpg?source=http%3A%2F%2Fportalen.polar.se%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2Fsorgfjordenprojektet-dag-avango-image-9.jpg)
Finally, the sun popped out and the Saturday turned into one of the best days of the entire expedition in terms of weather.
Deteriorating weather conditions
14 July 2017 | Dag Avango, Lize-Marie van der Watt, Camilla Winqvist![](https://polarforskningsportalen.se/imagecache/3e23ec48866e44e56d9f3b4535f3212a/1400/852.jpg?source=http%3A%2F%2Fportalen.polar.se%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2Fsorgfjordenprojektet-dag-avango-image-8.jpg)
Our first full workday consisted of us working in three teams – one team doing qualitative descriptions of the features, and one team doing measurements with a total station and photo descriptions.
Our first research task
11 July 2017 | Dag Avango, Lize-Marie van der Watt, Camilla Winqvist![](https://polarforskningsportalen.se/imagecache/2628c9b00f9cd5c927e154575d16969f/1400/852.jpg?source=http%3A%2F%2Fportalen.polar.se%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2Fsorgfjordenprojektet-dag-avango-image-4.jpg)
In the morning hours it was time for our first research task – to survey a site called Bjørnhamna, consisting of a former claim- and hunters hut on a cape at the northwestern corner of Spitsbergen.
Challenging ice conditions
10 July 2017 | Dag Avango, Lize-Marie van der Watt, Camilla Winqvist![](https://polarforskningsportalen.se/imagecache/19e34b79f3d27f55af4ab914a6fec954/1400/852.jpg?source=http%3A%2F%2Fportalen.polar.se%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2Fsorgfjordenprojektet-dag-avango-image-1.jpg)
Most of the expedition team arrived in Longyearbyen on Saturday 8 July and met for dinner. Our discussion over the dinner table was not the most encouraging talk to have at the beginning of an expedition.