Instructor Howard Crompton’s Artic Expedition
9 Dec 2010
In March of this year I received an email telling me about a job with the British Schools Exploring Society. This was no ordinary job, this was the chance to be a powerboat driver on their expedition to Svalbard in the Arctic. Within 20 minutes I had put in my application.
A couple of days later and with my request for leave from Aberdovey granted, I was offered the job.
As most people were packing their winter kit away and getting their sun cream, swim shorts and surfboards ready. I was sharpening the crampons, cleaning my down jacket and sleeping bag, and packing the thermals for temperatures that would, at times, be below zero.
The expedition would take place in Oscar 2 Land, Spitsbergen, Svalbard which is a far flung snowy archipelago of islands located deep in the Arctic Circle, between 74º and 81ºN and 10º and 35ºE. Svalbard is made up of a few large and many small islands, which cover a total area of approx 62,000 sq.km. With the exception of some coastal lowlands, the landscape is mountainous and 60% of Svalbard is covered by glaciers and ice sheets.
There would be in excess of 60 people on the expedition, the majority of which were students and various staff. I would work alongside Colin to drive the society’s power boats, transferring kit, ferrying students and resupplying the expedition along the coastline where we would be based for five weeks. We were to stay at the edge of the Sveabreen Glacier in tents for the entire duration.
During those first few days when there was a rumble of the glacier carving and the face of the wall was collapsing it was incredible sight, yet before long it was just another noise of the Arctic! Being in 24 hour daylight took some getting used to; to this day I’m still unsure as to why I took my head torch!
Our day would involve moving the students further north as this would save them a couple of days walking or we would resupply groups who were already out in the field. At base camp we would also have some retake photography to complete. In the late 1800s and early 1900s a Swedish photographer, De Geer, took photos of the area and our task was to replicate them. It’s incredible to see how things have changed and to see how far the glaciers have retreated in these 100 years.
On days off we spent our time exploring the hills and glaciers that were close by. With no real footpaths around we could wander quite freely. Each time we stepped out of the base camp area we had to take a rifle with us. The threat of polar bears was a daily occurrence, even though we never saw one we saw plenty of evidence that they had been there. Their paw prints are huge – my two feet didn’t fit inside one paw!
Driving around in the fjords was a constant battle – hidden patches of ice that you couldn’t see until it was too late and house-sized icebergs with their threat collapsing meant that you constantly had to be aware of your surroundings.
The times spent traversing and biviing out on the glaciers, ice climbing and walking are truly hard to beat. It took a while to get used to such incredible surroundings when at “night time” the only sound you could hear was from my colleagues snoring or the glacier carving and nothing else.
A five week expedition on paper sounds a long time, yet it doesn’t take long for it to come to an end. After an amazing time spent in 24 hour daylight, sunshine, snow, cloud, cold temperatures, experiencing great views, epics and adventures, the expedition came to a close.
On my arrival back to the UK with a new niece and a face full of beard, I was greeted with the bizarre sight that they call night! It took a while to settle back into the summer in Aberdovey.
Now that the skies are dropping snow again, the crampons and axes weren’t tucked away for long and they’re being used just as much as they were in the Arctic.
Howard Crompton is a senior instructor at The Trust’s Aberdovey Centre.
