This week at Davis — a weekend away.

Visit to the Sørsdal Glacier

The Sørsdal Glacier is approximately 11km south of the station and forms the boundary of our operational area. It runs along the edge of the Crooked Fjord with fantastic peaks and cracks all the way along. The colours of the ice change as the light changes with time. Cloud cover makes for a spectacular landscape, good photo opportunities and a great location to go for a quad ride.

Adamson Bay is a little further to the East and on this particular trip we didn’t quite make it into the bay due to all the rafted ice in the fjord. During the summer when the fjord melts out it becomes open water which allows new and old ice to flow in and out of the fjord with the tide. Then comes the winter freeze and the broken ice gets locked in at different heights and levels making traversing a challenge.

Red quad bike parked on the sea ice with the enormous glacier wall in the background
Standing on the sea ice looking east along the glacier edge
The glacier has wrapped itself around a small land mass as it slowly makes it way to the coast
Quad bikes manoeuvering their way through the rafted ice
The face of the glacier where it finally meets the ocean with open water in front of the Glacier
Four quad bikes on the sea ice with the majestic Sørsdal Glacier in the background

Ride to Crooked Lake

We are fortunate to have the opportunity to explore this great place and a favourite destination of many is Crooked Lake and the surrounding area. Once again, all traversing is done on frozen sea ice, until we get to the top end of Ellis Fjord where we cross one of the five land bridges onto Lake Druzhby. We only traverse on ice or snow, there is no vehicle travel allowed on land in the Vestfold Hills except for the five designated land bridges.

Once over the land bridge the traveling surface changes to frozen fresh water lakes which are just magnificent. The crack lines, air bubbles and colour of the ice are incredible and everywhere you look is a photo opportunity. To get on to Crooked Lake we travel up the frozen creek and then cross the second land bridge of the trip onto more fresh water ice. In the south east corner of Crooked Lake is Grimmia Gorge which boasts a waterfall which flows from the plateau feeding Crooked Lake but as you would suspect it is frozen this time of the year. It is only a short walk to the lake along the frozen creek to Grimmia Gorge Falls which are locked in time for now.

Quad bike parked on the frozen fresh water lake
Attempting to get a photo of the bottom of the lake through the frozen water
Taking a photo of the frozen water with my winter boots in the picture
Cracks in the frozen fresh water lake lead of in many directions
Three expeditioners riding their quad bikes along the frozen creek
The water which would normally be cascading over the rocks has frozen in time with a layer of ice covering the rocks
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