In order to get to the glacier, we have to hike up the side of the valley for a ways in order to bypass a very large meltwater stream. We may have overestimated the necessary climbing height and so had a bit of an adventure in the screen. Of course, Fjord managed to find some Svalbard poppies while we were hiking.
We finally got down to the glacier and hiked around it a bit, exploring the area. We found some ablation stakes from the Norwegian Polar Institute, measuring the amount the glacier gains or loses in a given year. We also found a pretty cool medial moraine where we had lunch.
Unfortunately, we came to the conclusion that based on the amount of snow that had already melted this year, Austre Brøggerbreen isn’t really a good place to do our spectral measurements. Lots of slush and nothing that Midtre Lovénbreen doesn’t have. Adventure had, lesson learned.
On the hike back we checked out this huge meltwater stream some more. See photo and video below. The majority of the stream actually emerges from the middle of the glacier, forced up out of a tunnel through the glacier rather that at its edge. You can see some of the water bubbling up and the torrent which flows out later. Jon wants to come back with a kayak and try riding it…
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