Spitsbergen up-and-down

Trollsteinen is the mountain that sticks through the Larsbreen glacier behind my barrack. Every winter, residents of Svalbard compete in the Spitsbergen up-and-down, which is a race up and down Trollsteinen. It is 7.5 km round trip with 800m of elevation gain.

I bought a new pair of AT skis this week. They cost about 1-term's worth of tuition money, but I'm going to make it worth it by going out as often as I can. (For my ski bum friends: Dynafit Vertical ST bindings, Dynafit Zzero4 CF boots, Black Diamond Joule skis. For my non-ski bum friends: they're pretty, fast, and light). I figured that racing up a mountain was a good way to try out the new gear. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Most Norwegians are born with skis already on their feet. They also work out at least 50x per day. I was totally and completely in over my head. I realized this about 30 seconds in. Despite my relative skiing inability, the views were jaw-dropping. The stars and moon were spectacular (I kept getting distracted by finding new constellations). Skiing down was a bit of an adventure because my quads were totally shot and I could barely make the turns. The snow is pretty bad right now, so the combination of darkness, extremely steep slopes, -20C temps, wind-blown ice, and a dead body was quite... epic. At one point when I was about to sit down on the snow and start crying for mommy because my legs hurt so much, the song "Yellow" by Coldplay started playing on my iPod ("Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do"). I'm not normally a Coldplay fan, but in that moment those words gave me the strength to keep chugging up the hill.

Got back to the main event's tent in time for the awards-- I won an award for being in last place! I'm not sure how they introduced the award (it was in Norwegian) but I imagine that the guy said something to the effect of: "this award is for the bravest new skier here. She was so slow that our polar bear guards had already come back to the tent by the time she was skiing down. We're going to give her a flare gun holster and suggest she buy a flare gun for future trips, just in case she's the last one on the mountain again."

All in all a grand adventure. I believe I was the only female UNIS student to finish the race (two other started but couldn't finish). I LOVE my new gear, and I'm sore beyond belief today, so I went on another ski trip this morning. Mistake? Maybe. But totally worth it. Sorry legs.

Photo credit: Jussi. Water break on Longyearbreen glacier this morning.