Trollsteinen (16.02.2011)  

Fantastic trip up Trollsteinen with Robert, Mari and a bunch of other friends from Svalbard to see the sun come back out from behind the mountains. It was a very cold (-20) day down in town, and I had some reservations over whether my Scarpa Charmoz boots would be much good in keeping my toes warm for several hours out hiking in the snow, but I kept with them anyway and crossed my fingers that they wouldn't get too cold.

I met up with the other students at about 8.30 at the barracks, and from there we took the usual way up Larsbreen toward Trollsteinen. Plenty of other locals and students out today too, so it was by no means a quiet day out. It was a great atmosphere though. Everyone was super happy about the terrific weather and views, and we were all super excited about the prospect of seeing the sun again. For some of the students who'd stayed over the autumn and winter, they hadn't seen the sun for four months. Now that is a very long time!

I was very impressed by the snow condition on Larsbreen. Quite in contrast to the very first time I'd been up here, the snow was hard and well consolidated. Perfect for hiking, and probably rubbish for the skiers. Anyway, it helped us get up to the top of Trollsteinen in very efficient time, and I think it must have only been about 11.15 or 11.30 by the time we got to the top. Eventually the summit started to fill up with about 40 other people before the sun showed up - we could see it shining down over the other people on top of Nordenskiold, and then across to Lars Hiertafjellet.

But it seemed like it was never going to come to us on Trollsteinen and some of us got pretty cold waiting around for it! I lent my Rab down jacket to Mari because she had no other clothes to put on, and I think she appreciated it quite a lot; I wasn't doing too bad, but I could definitely feel my toes starting to suffer......

Finally at 12.15 the sun came out onto the summit of Trollsteinen and we were all overjoyed! The warmth was pretty amazing. It felt like proper warmth! But once it dipped below the mountains again we headed straight back down to warm up again. I somehow got offered a lift into town in a nice warm van once we reached Nybyen and I was quite glad to have it.