Geology and scenery

Part 2 of the Svalbard Adventure, here are pictures of the AWESOME scenery. And I mean awesome in the way that it originally meant as in full of awe, not like 'Awesome, dude!' I only hope the blues and the colors come out on your monitor, I've noticed that the colors can vary wildly from monitor to monitor and I also think that maybe Blogger sort of dulls out the color a bit?

Iceberglets in the sunlight.From a certain angle they looked like angels.

Blue sky water and ice. It was actually surprisingly warm, like, 5-6C.

This is a meadow at Ebbadalen. There was a stunt reindeer, I swear he stood around and posed just for us. And he always managed to be in a very photogenic spot, though maybe every spot was photogenic there? This was a very nice, easy hike. Ah. My kinda hiking.

View of the boat and surrounding mountains from the meadow.

"Sexy" geology. Huge folded rock strata (go on correct me on the terminology, I am not a geologist, just a fan of them!) on a mountainside, this is a view from the boat. I don't think I can express the sheer scale of it.

A cairn built in honor of a geologist who died in the mountains. Geology ain't for pussies.

Blue iceberglets and black and white mountains.

This is one of my favorite pictures from our first, vertiginous, hike at Storvolla. I had no idea the colors would come out that beautifully. I love the juxtaposition of the drab lunar landscape and the blue, violet and turquoise sky and mountains.

Me on top of Storvolla. Damn that was a hike. And no, the camera was not held crooked, it was actually that steep! The hard hat is not an accessory I care to continue wearing. Just not my style, you know?

Per, one of our amazing guides/guards/manly men, looking out for polar bears.

The hikes I did were to Storvolla, Ebbadalen and Pyramiden. Ok, so the last two weren't hikes, they were saunters. But that first one? Definitely a hike/climb. I was sore for 4 days afterwards, and I still have bruises. The hike the next day (was supposed to start at 8am after a day of hiking and night of drinking that lasted til 4am) was up the mountain, below.

See that tiny little dark line on the mountain on the upper middle of the picture? Those are GEOLOGISTS up there. Studly amazing geologists, for whom even a hangover wouldn't stop their research efforts. (Though the head geologist, Erling, did take pity on everyone and started the hike closer to 11am.)
THAT was the hike the second day. 4 people (including me) decided against going due to the pain from the day before (hangover and muscles!), and this was BEFORE we saw how high they climbed. 4 more quit early as the heights were too much for them. It was so steep that the remainder of them, to get down, sort of skied down the ravine you can see in front of them on their feet! I was just so glad I didn't go, I get clumsy when I am tired and I would have tumbled head over heels down that mountain. Much better to take pictures of them that climbed it! Rock stars, literally.