Time to get on the glacier surface. We spent the day yesterday opening up a safe route to our field site. After months of starring at high-resolution satellite images and mapping out loads of moulins and crevasses, we roped up and made our way. Planning pays off and we managed to find a safe route. It took us five hours to get to our lake, arriving there in the late evening. There is a very nice and cozy cabin up there (the size of a dog house), fully equipped with sleeping and cooking facilities for two persons. It was very tempting to just stay there over night. But as we are doing science, we are not allowed to use the cabin. It’s only allowed to be used for leisure trips, with the next users probably coming up next year during the snowmobile season. Did I ever mention Norwegian bureaucracy? So we ended up staying 45 minutes up there before making our way back. A long hike back, followed by some hectic at our anchor site affected by heavy calving and strong wind from the wrong direction. And of course a bumpy and splashy ride home in the early morning or late night, depending on your perspective. A proper Svalbard field day.