The Snowmobile Trip from Hell

March 21

Today we took an all day trip out into the wilderness of Svalbard. Since it was the first time either of us had ever been on a snowmobile I will a tad skeptical of the length, but we are both cross country skiers so how hard could it be.

Well it was both hard and unpleasant. As driver I was repeatedly harassed by one of the guides and belittled for not driving as fast as the guide wanted. Here is the reality.

A competent guide guide should have excluded us from this trip in the first place. There were other shorter trips that were a better match to our level of experience
Despite being an all day trip it left late in the day. That made getting home more time critical.
During the safety briefing we were told to maintain a speed of 30-50 kph. I was averaging 40 and yet still felt the wrath of the guides
An accident (not involving me) occurred during the trip. Instead of turning around they pressed on for another 45 minutes
We tipped the snowmobile twice. Fortunately we were stopped both times.
Yelling at someone who is scared already is going to have two outcomes; they will become more scared or mad.

This final point showed the ultimate incompetence of the guide.

Panorama of entrance to hotel	Everyone assembled at first stop	On the trail	Fredheim
	At lunch stop near glacier		Templejorden glacier
Where we flipped (twice)	Mar 22 Departure from a windy Svalbard (Seed Vault on hill)

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