Svalbard

Your expedition begins with your arrival to Oslo airport, where our flight is ready to take you to the northernmost settlement on earth. Once at capital of Svalbard, Longyearbyen, we will transfer to your hotel. If you arrive early, make sure to explore this town and mingle with its friendly locals, before enjoying an overnight.

We will begin the tour with a briefing, pack our pulkas and complete our last preparations. We will also go through all the equipment, and receive an introduction on how to use the camp kitchen equipment, pulkas and tents.

We will set a course for Juva Cabin, about 30 kilometres from town. After that proceed to the North, towards Pyramiden, Fredheim and the beautiful glacier, Tunabreen, or explore the exciting mountainous areas between the Adventfjord and Sassenfjord

After a day out, with incredible views on all sides, we will come home to our warm and cosy cabin where great food and drinks await. There is also an outdoor sauna, which the guide will heat up whenever you like. The sauna is tube-formed, with a circular glass window at one end, so you can enjoy the dark blue night over the white mountains.

Today we will head to the east, with a goal of making our way up onto the massive glacier plateaus and down towards the sea ice on the east coast of Spitsbergen. Here we will stop to enjoy a hot lunch, and to keep an eye out for the King of the Arctic through our binoculars. If we are lucky, we may see a big bear out in its natural element, far away on the ice. The trip itself is the goal, and we will travel through a varied and powerful landscape. We will spend another night relaxing in the warm comfort of the cabin

Pyramiden was shut down and abandoned more or less over night by the Russians back in 1998. Since that day, time seems to have stood still. Children’s math books still sit on the desks in the classrooms, sheets of music on the piano and in the kitchen, a long forgotten saucepan holds the remains of old potatoes. With its broad streets and well-organised infrastructure, Pyramiden bears witness to the successful Soviet presence on the archipelago in the 1970s and 80s. In this town, everything was set up for effective mining, but it was also a desirable outpost where the workers’ wellbeing and family life was a priority. To reach this town in its picturesque location we must cross the Tempelfjord, drive through wide valleys, over glaciers and down onto the ice at the head of Billefjord, where we will pass the Nordenskiöld Glacier.

If we head towards Barentsburg instead, you can expect a landscape just as magnificent, with its long straight passages combined with more challenging areas. Barentsburg is a larger Russian settlement which is still very much alive, with views over the Grønfjord. Here you will see decorated buildings, children in the streets, and signs of the coal mine underneath. We will enjoy a guided tour through the town, and partake a Russian meal before returning to Longyearbyen for an overnight.

The adventure is over, unless we can tempt you to stay a little longer and experience more of Longyearbyen and its surrounds. Transfer to the airport for your departure to Oslo, and journey homewards. Thanks for joining us, and we hope to see you again soon!