Hiking in Svalbard was actually exceptionally pleasant, because everyone was so happy to be there and relaxed about it all. The weather was amazing, which helps. The guides made it very clear that we are not on an exercise walk, we aren’t in a race, and we do NOT want to sweat. When you sweat, then you stop, you cool down and freeze. So we wandered along, looked at the view, appreciated everything thoroughly, ogled the reindeer who in turn were ogling us… Making our way across the river, along the permafrost, and up to the cliffs. The scree slope was very steep, the less agile of us struggled to get up, and eventually we were using ropes like climbers.
The snow comes in an amazing variety of textures, such large grains to such small powder- if you fall over in the snow, you will draw blood!
On the way back we went via the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which was incredibly exciting even if we weren’t able to go in
For those that are interested here is a little about the seed vault from Wikipedea
“The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure seed bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole.[4] Conservationist Cary Fowler, in association with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),[5] started the vault to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds that are duplicate samples, or “spare” copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault is an attempt to insure against the loss of seeds in other genebanks during large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).[
The Norwegian government entirely funded the vault’s approximately NOK 45 million (US$9 million) construction.[7] Storing seeds in the vault is free to end users, with Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust paying for operational costs. Primary funding for the Trust comes from organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and from various governments worldwide”
“Mission
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s mission is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks. While the popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event of a major regional or global catastrophe, it will be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, and natural disasters. These events occur with some regularity. War and civil strife have a history of destroying some genebanks. The national seed bank of the Philippines was damaged by flooding and later destroyed by a fire; the seed banks of Afghanistan and Iraq have been lost completely.[18] According to The Economist, “the Svalbard vault is a backup for the world’s 1,750 seed banks, storehouses of agricultural biodiversity.”[18] By the request of Norwegian government, no genetically modified seeds are stored at the vault”
Next – Trek to Saracophagen