Day 213: More Stuff

So Saturday we went to Barentsburg. On Sunday some people (and I) went up to the ice cave near the top of the Longyearbyen glacier.

The general path up the glacier:



We had to walk around for a bit trying to find it once we were up there...



But then we did.



Unfortunately, once I had a look at it I didn't think I could make it down with my foot. It wasn't especially trecherous, but I can't afford slipping at all.



So I decided to stay behind with the scooters and Olgeir (one of the Icelanders I live with) and the rifle.



Everyone else started suiting up in crampons and caving helmets:







One of our fearless leaders went first to check it out:





And then everyone else followed her. Olgeir and I just kind of hung out getting cold and taking photos of this phenomenal view of Longyearbyen:



The ice cave was strange to think about - makes you wonder how much snow and ice you're actually standing on. And why some crazy person decided to climb down a mysterious huge hole in the snow in the first place.



I don't know why I have a photo of this, but here's my rock-hard frozen chocolate:



In this photo you can see the buildings of Nybyen at the bottom of the mountain and the old coal mine above my barrack up the hill:



And then everyone made it out of the cave alive!



Sorry I don't have photos from the inside of the cave...apparently it wasn't super huge, and they had to crawl to get through parts of it.

Here's the moon instead?