I am norwegian doctor who worked as expedition doc on the Antarctic research station Troll for the summer season 2007-2008. NB: This blog is intended as a personal and ecological account from The Ice Planet - fully independent of the Norwegian Polar Institute, their official web page being: npweb.npolar.no

15 Feb 2008

More pictures, less talk



Atle and I had a day off, and decided to try for the summit of Buddhamagen - the Belly of Buddha. It's part of the vertical, almost overhanging cliff of Jutulhogget, 900m from bottom to top.



Snowmobiles parked by a small bay in the ice lake at the foot of the mountain.



Atle, ready to shoot, as we start climbing the seemingly endless scree slope. The structure in the background is formally called "Tommelen" (The Thumb). Before the names committee got their hands on it, it was known as "Jøtulkuken".
I'll leave that particular joke for the norwegians only.



Intelligent Design.



Scree giving way to the solid migmatite bedrock underneath.
You can tell it's migmatite from the thin, alternating, white and black stripes.



Approaching the summit. Severely weathered migmatite.
You can tell it's weathered from the reddish color (oxidized iron) and generally messy surface, caused by frost-thaw and wind erosion.



Never forget to give credit to the locals.
This is a patch of foliose black lichen. Mites often live off the detritus. Couldn't find any. (They're 0.1mm long)



View from the summit, according to the GPS quite exactly 2000 m high.  Stabben, our most prominent landmark, in the background.



Looking down the 900m cliff, with a very un-Buddha-like tremor in my legs.



Heading back down, after enjoying our (liquid and solid) chocolate on the summit.

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