A Plymouth University student has taken part in a demanding polar expedition.
Sonia Evans, who is 20, joined a 28-strong team which spent two weeks training in the Arctic Circle before setting off on an eight day scientific expedition across the valleys of Svalbard, which is also known as Spitzbergen.
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. One of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas, it’s known for its rugged, remote terrain of glaciers and frozen tundra sheltering polar bears, Svalbard reindeer and Arctic foxes.
The expedition was an important challenge for Sonia, who has dreams of becoming a polar researcher.
Along with the rest of the team she set off skiing: two hours on and 15 minutes off for the whole day until they reached their camp for the night.
Sonia said: “Here it would be the routine of setting up camp, taking scientific measurements, and boiling snow water to rehydrate meals and fill flasks before settling in to get some much-needed sleep. A similar routine was set for mornings.
“Our route took us into polar bear territory, which meant we would have people on the lookout at all times. During the day we would all keep an eye out while skiing, and at night polar bear watch was on a rota. We were each assigned around 2hrs 30min a night each to keep watch.
“My polar bear watches made up both my favourite and least favourite portions of the entire experience. Once woken, I would extract myself from my warm sleeping bag and as quietly as possible, so as to not wake my sleeping teammates, would dress into warm down outer clothing and attempt to exit the tent without stepping on anyone in the dark.
“Here I would meet the previous bear watcher and would exchange information on the surroundings, before being passed a flare gun, pen flares, the rota and a watch – before they would head off for some sleep.”
Thankfully the team did not encounter any polar bears during the expedition. Sarah said:
“We have informed the Norwegian Polar institute that there were no polar bear sightings on our route – this will contribute towards their ongoing studies of polar bear distribution.
Sonia said that the team experienced drastic temperature fluctuations during the week, ranging from completely calm days to extremely windy days and whiteouts. The coldest recorded temperature was -25 degrees Centigrade and the warmest around 0 degrees Centigrade.
She added: “Other days were calm and the sky was filled with stars, satellites and on occasion, the Northern Lights would come out for us. The weather did fluctuate far more greatly than expected – something which is becoming more frequent as predicted by science due to increasing green-house gases in our atmosphere and resultant climate change.
“Overall it was a testing week with a real sense of achievement upon completion. There were many learnings across the week. For me, appreciating the practical difficulties of collecting simple sets data in extreme environments was a big one. The team are all looking forward to the next big scientific expedition.
“A massive thank you to everyone who has supported me on this expedition, it really has helped to make it all possible!”
Sonia, who is studying marine biology and oceanography at Plymouth University heard about the expedition from a friend, applied online and was selected after a weekend of demanding tests and challenges on Dartmoor.
The expedition was the brainchild of Princetown-based Jim McNeill, one of the world’s most experienced and respected explorers, who has clocked up over 35 years of exploring the world’s most remote and harshest environments.
Over 20 years ago Jim conceived the ‘Ice Warrior’ project with the idea of bringing the reality of global climate change to audiences around the globe.
Since then, he has trained over 400 people, conducted seven major expeditions and been cited in many scientific papers and leading publications.
