Booming laughter, that is always with me. For Chris.

First encounter — exploring darkness

It is mid-November, 11 AM and it is pitch dark and cold. We are picking up fat bikes at a friend’s premises and ready to roll in Adventdalen valley for couple of hours. It is the fat bike day, and our friend Thomas, who runs his small tourist company, organizes the trip for anyone interested. But one arrives on his own fat bike, it is orange, and seems to be a bit more advanced. This guy is Chris, Associate Professor at Department of Geophysics at UNIS, we met briefly before, but do not know each other well yet. And yes, we are in Svalbard.

We leave our small town lit by the artificial lights and start cycling in the darkness. Fat bikes take small boulders surprisingly well, it is fun to ride them. We cut the darkness with strong LEDs, and feel ourselves as real explorers. The world is ours, we confidently cruise through this somewhat hostile (or just cold, dark and deprived of the humans) environment. We stop in a couple of kilometers by the Old Aurora station, Chris suggests switching off the lights for a moment: dark blue sky, many stars, vibrant blue stripe at the horizon on the East-South. We realize how beautiful it is without the lights. We continue to Vinkestsjon ved Endalen (“Turning station at the Valley number one”) and after that turning back towards the town.

Chris

Chris always looked (and I am totally sure that he was) busy. Pencil behind his ear, and fast pace of walking in the corridors. His “how are you” was more like “what’s up”, and that included a real interest in what is going on with you — that was how I felt it. It is hard to say how the real interest between people emerges. We were both probably in the same boat with some years of our early career and life behind us, and new career challenges just in front, and probably somehow low levels of “predefined” respect to the surrounding world (something similar that serves the basis for punk rock, I would say).

Mid-summer cruise

It is mind summer, or most precisely late June, we are on an afternoon cruise Longyearbyen-Barentsburg-Longyearbyen. Organized by the students at UNIS, the cruise includes two 80-foot boats, music on the upper deck. And I trust that there was an improvised bar with almost free drinks too. The sea is flat, it is sunny as it could be, we are still in light down jackets (we are in the Arctic, baby). After talking about this and that, we dive into the topics of not that recent but significant life experiences. A lot to share eventually: my relatively recent divorce and life after that, and Chris tells about his life while being in collage — he learned a lot (in different perspectives 😎) during those years, … and I learned a lot for myself from Chris in that hour🙂. You definitely want to live with double energy after such talks. Can’t remember if we got on shore in Barentsburg, I feel that we were not supposed to, neither of us remembered what we did on the way back. This is, however, not a big surprise on trips to this Russian town.

Glorious spring

It is spring, the second half of it. The sun is high, snow pack is still thick, the air is moderately warm. Everyone and everything (scooters, birds, other types of the wild life) moves — top tour and camping trips, snow scooter rides to the favorite slopes, cabin trips, dog mushers.

I guess it is Saturday, late morning or noon, I am heading down the stairs in my building to get to the grocery store. On the second floor (I lived on the third) I encounter Chris and his (best?) buddy (his name is probably, “Tim”) who is visiting Chris. They are, kind of in a rush, or are quite determined to find an apartment where they were invited for a brunch/very late breakfast (just kidding)/ mid-day party/, or a lunch. Choose yourself. In any case, their eyes sparkle, plastic bags in their hands are filled with snacks (probably) and booze (definitely, you can hear it). We greet each other (pretty quickly 😅), and go apart. On the first floor I meet two (very) nice girls carrying bags with food upstairs, yes one of them lives there. I would be excited too.

Dinners with friends

Several times I went to Chris’s for dinners. They were filled with friends, many of us had different occupations (I met several people for the first time at Chris’s place), and the atmosphere was always great - a lot of laughter, direct (but considering) communication, and anything in between. On one of these evenings I met Tim, best friend of Chris who came to visit him from far abroad. They were quite alike: intelligent, smart, strong, very sociable. People one may trust.

I believe that Chris liked Mexican food. Most of the pictures on the walls were showing only two subjects — Chris and his dog. As we all know, all of Chris’s dogs were adopted from the shelters. Looking at one of the many pictures, Chris told us: “look at these eyes, how could one not to adopt him.” At one of those dinners we won a bidding for a snowmobile that Brittany got for herself. Of course, Brittany won it herself, but by saying “we” I mean that the whole crowd were providing extensive input (including technical considerations) on whether to raise the next bid or not. The Polaris we got was a great one: lightweight, strong, and two-stroke. A real thing, or an attribute of a best version of the Arctic life one could imagine. In a few weeks it took us up north, to the Polheim.

Beyond the mountains

It was Easter 2018 when we (Pål, Brittany, Chris and I) won a lottery to stay in the Polheim trapping station, a cultural heritage owned by the Governor. It is in the northern most area in Svalbard one is allowed to visit (the national parks further north are not open for the even local public). Two weeks of preparations, four scooters and four (heavily) loaded sledges, 12-hour drive to cover 246 km. We crossed fjords, drove several valleys and mountain ridges, climbed glacier fronts and moraines, drove glaciers with a meter of fresh powder on them.

Entrance to the cabin had to be dug out. The ocean by it felt serious and massive. Cabin was not really big. Chris brought his Jet boil with him, which was fantastic to have for coffee (“Anatoly, shall I start one for you?! Yes, please!”). We had many different supplies, among which some cigars (Chris), Glen garioch (Anatoly), blackberry saft (Pål), cacao (Brittany). All this made our stay there even better.

This area felt like a different country within Svalbard. Disconnected by mountain ridges and glaciers from the central part, and hardly visited by most of the locals. More “pointy” mountains, remains of bright blue glacier ice on their almost vertical slopes, regional climate with much more snow. Again, almost complete inaccessibility. Tall Russian wooden crosses installed by the Pomors few centuries ago on the coast. Huge families of reindeers. All together, this land felt as a pure wonderland. And of course, the lakes with Arctic char and glacier fronts falling into the lakes. Fairytale. We safely made it home after four days in Polheim. By the way, the only scooter that had made this trip without any issues was Chris’s “twelve hundred cubics” Lynx.

Tim

Tim came to visit Chris several times, I feel lucky that we happened to hanging out together several times during the last couple of visits of Tim. One of them was sometime spontaneously calling me (or other way around), and in a hour we were already having some food and/or drinks in town.

The laughter that is always with me

It is one of the “Friday gatherings” at the UNIS canteen (weekly Friday party where students and staff socialize in informal settings). It is early in evening, just few people had come so far. Chris, myself and a student sitting by the fireplace. We try to entertain her and ourselves by poking on the things around and on each other too. She asks me “Snakker du norsk?” ("Do you speak Norwegian?" I lived in Svalbard for 8 years by this time and was able to understand some Norwegian). I must admit that I was thinking about something else while she asking me her question. I am trying to catch up with what she was saying and rather asking again: “What, what do you mean? I don’t understand you.” Chris (and the lady) explode with laughter. Chris laughs for a minute. It is a laughter of a honest and a great guy. Great things are contagious. Since then, the bright and confident tones in my own laughter are from the Chris's. Chris's laughter will stay with me forever, as so his smile, agile blue eyes, and quick and robust "how are you?!"

Chris, Erkka, Pål, Marius. Friday beer at Funken bar.

Dinner at Marius's.

Dinner at Marius's.

Dinner at Marius's.

Chris and Tim at Nuga restarant, choosing sushi and schashime.

Chris and Tim at Nuga restarant, choosing shushi and schashime.

Departure to Polmeim.

Departure to Polheim.

Polheim.

Polheim.

On the way to Polheim, that glacier with tonn of powder.

On the way to Polheim, video on that glacier with tonn of snow.

Lake with a gracier front coming into it, close to Polheim.

Nothern coast of Svalbard.

Lake with a gracier front coming into it, close to Polheim.