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Blog Tundra Stories: An island with two mountains
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Stolb. photo: Max Heikenfeld, Alfred Wegener InstituteNext door to our island is an island that consists almost exclusively of a large mountain called Stolb - a Russian word for pillar. A rather apt name when one sees the silhouette in the horizon from Samoylov. And this is actually common here, for the other islands on the Delta also stand out more than a few meters from the water level.
A climb to the top would probably provide a magnificent panorama, which is why "Stolb" makes a perfect destination for Sunday, our day off here on the island. Despite the day off there are always some colleagues who still work a little bit in the laboratory on samples or want to keep the data logger program running, but mostly it works quite well to convince everybody that day off from an extensive scientific research is only good.
Waldemar Schneider, our logistician, took us with a "Kasanka", which is a metal boat for five people, to our destination. The boat ride was again an opportunity to look at our island, Samoylov, again from a different perspective from the water.
Arriving to the stony beach of Stolb raised the first question, "How are we going to climb up there?". A brief search around the island revealed that the best way up was right where we had went ashore. The climb was still quite difficult, which may well have to do with the fact that some of us had somewhat flabby legs after a long night the day before.
Our Group, photo: Manuel HelbigFrom the top, as expected, we had a magnificent view over the adjacent islands of the delta and the meandering river channels of the Lena. In addition, among hundreds of colorful blooming flowers, we found a large wooden beacon and flat stone with a Russian inscription. As we pushed aside the cover plate, all kinds of little treasures came to light; cigarettes, a ring in frog form, a broken camera. A very special place - each of us could make a wish. It made us wonder what the people, who had hidden these things, had wished for.
The many mosquitoes in the area, however, did not let us in peace even here at the top. I, for one, was looking at the view quite relaxed when I was suddenly startled by a prick on my upper lip!
There was still some time to shoot some group photos before we noticed a small metal boat appearing on the horizon next to our home island. We found a way down to the beach and jumped from the last steep part of the descent in perfectly right time as our water taxi slid to the stony beach.
Greetings,
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Stolb. photo: Max Heikenfeld, Alfred Wegener InstituteNext door to our island is an island that consists almost exclusively of a large mountain called Stolb - a Russian word for pillar. A rather apt name when one sees the silhouette in the horizon from Samoylov. And this is actually common here, for the other islands on the Delta also stand out more than a few meters from the water level.A climb to the top would probably provide a magnificent panorama, which is why "Stolb" makes a perfect destination for Sunday, our day off here on the island. Despite the day off there are always some colleagues who still work a little bit in the laboratory on samples or want to keep the data logger program running, but mostly it works quite well to convince everybody that day off from an extensive scientific research is only good.
Waldemar Schneider, our logistician, took us with a "Kasanka", which is a metal boat for five people, to our destination. The boat ride was again an opportunity to look at our island, Samoylov, again from a different perspective from the water.
Arriving to the stony beach of Stolb raised the first question, "How are we going to climb up there?". A brief search around the island revealed that the best way up was right where we had went ashore. The climb was still quite difficult, which may well have to do with the fact that some of us had somewhat flabby legs after a long night the day before.
Our Group, photo: Manuel HelbigFrom the top, as expected, we had a magnificent view over the adjacent islands of the delta and the meandering river channels of the Lena. In addition, among hundreds of colorful blooming flowers, we found a large wooden beacon and flat stone with a Russian inscription. As we pushed aside the cover plate, all kinds of little treasures came to light; cigarettes, a ring in frog form, a broken camera. A very special place - each of us could make a wish. It made us wonder what the people, who had hidden these things, had wished for.The many mosquitoes in the area, however, did not let us in peace even here at the top. I, for one, was looking at the view quite relaxed when I was suddenly startled by a prick on my upper lip!
There was still some time to shoot some group photos before we noticed a small metal boat appearing on the horizon next to our home island. We found a way down to the beach and jumped from the last steep part of the descent in perfectly right time as our water taxi slid to the stony beach.
Greetings,
Max
______________________________________
Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original blog in German: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories