We were all packed and ready to go in the morning but overnight winds became stronger (17-20 m/s) and all the flights to Longyearbyen were cancelled. Hence, we must stay another night in Ny-Ålesund! Kings Bay staff still welcomes us, and we have pretty much all that you could wish for in an environment as hostile as this one. So another windy but clear night don’t seem so bad after all considering the fact that we are spending it in the world’s northernmost community. We mostly stayed indoors processing the valuable data we had acquired, working on technical reports, playing foosball, cards, doing laundry, skyping and overall keeping our spirits up!
Things got even better during the evening when massive auroras lit up the sky alongside the almost ever-present LIDAR laser beam, which seemed to shoot straight in the aurora. The scenery was simply amazing! Hiking in such perfect settings seemed like the perfect way to end another full rich day in Ny Ålesund so leaving in the morning seemed such a drag, but we all knew we had to get back to Longyearbyen sometime this year!
