Svalbard Snowmobile Tour 

Following up on my previous post about Svalbard, here is #2 in the series. This time I will cover our adventure while out on a snowmobile tour. It was a short 3 hours tour. Unfortunately no polar bears spotted, but it was great ride, we had a lot of fun and we managed to do a proper speed test. :)

I don't know how many of you have every had the opportunity to ever ride a snowmobile, but if you ever get a chance I would seriously recommend it. Riding one is great fun! It is a very expensive "toy", although on Svalbard it is also a very practical way to get around, and in fact, there are more snowmobiles on the island than cars. 

Please enjoy this video:

I'm afraid I don't have any footage of the speed test. Going +70km/h it was not really safe to hold a camera with one hand and drive with the other... I tried to push it to the limit though. Giving it full throttle I managed to reach 110km/h. That was some feeling, I can tell you! 

Here lined up ready to ride. We were a group of 7 people including the guide.

It's me in the back with my arm raised. Ready to rock.

Back in town, snowmobiles parked everywhere. Here a fancy Ski-Doo.

My friend being completely exhausted... ;) Actually he fell backwards while recording and I was fast enough to reach for the camera. Notice the matching colors of the snowsuit and the snowmobile. haha...

History lesson 

The building is a leftover from the old mining industry. Everything on the island from before 1946 is now protected as part of the Svalbard environmental protection act. Even old junk, like a crashed airplane from the war, has to remain.

Video - Here some footage from a drive from Longyearbyen towards the airport:

The helicopter in the end of the 1st movie arrived in the town just as we finished our tour. It was a big rescue operation after an incident where 9 people had gone through the ice. It was a different group out on a snowmobile tour, at the same time as us, and we were only a few kilometers away from the incident. One in the group unfortunately died a few days later from the injuries. Click here for an English news article

Please comment and let me know if you have any questions.
See you around.

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