Svalbard 2023 Expedition Recap
I didn’t have this website or blog when I visited Svalbard in June of 2023 so instead I just posted on FB. Here’s my attempt to gather and make sense of those posts in one place and to share some shots that have never been seen before
No more sleeps! The next time my head will hit the pillow it'll be in Svalbard!
So now it's time to get off FB and finish up the last minute packing and head to the airport. I'm told that there won't be any internet connectivity on board the ship so I likely won't post any pictures until I return in a couple of weeks.
But if you want to follow along as I cruise around Svalbard check out this site, it gives real time location of ships around the world. If it doesn't load I'll be on the the MV Polar Pioneer
CruiseMapper showing the Polar Pioneer docked in Longyearbyen
My happy place, the international terminal and waiting to board flight 1
About 14 hours later
“On the ground in Oslo, now to clear passport control and on to my next flight”
And after clearing immigration control and making it to my gate for flight 2
“It’s a very different crowd gathering at the gate for Longyearbyen. Hiking shoes, big packs and rugged looks”
And off to Longyearbyen, or so I thought. Turns out that since Svalbard is outside the Schengen area and is not included in the Schengen agreement, you need to land in Tromso to clear immigration.
On the ground in Tromso. You get off the plane with all your luggage enter the airpot go through immigration and then re board the aircraft to fly to Longyearbyen
Phone shots from the approach to Longyearbyen
Absolutely beautiful here, snow topped mountains in every direction and perfect weather. So perfect in fact that the shuttle bus driver said the only problem with today’s weather is it can only get worse than today
The view of Adventfjorden from right outside my hotel for the night
from the hill looking towards Adventfjorden
On the flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen I met a couple John and Cathy that were going on the same cruise as I and we met up for dinner.
The smoked trio starter, whale, reindeer and seal
The trio, despite being smoked the seal was very mild, the reindeer had a bit of gaminess but it went very well with the smoke. The whale was delicious with a smokey and rich flavor.
After the starter I had a reindeer steak, surprisingly not gamey at all, it was a perfectly prepared medium rare and oh so good with the mashed potatoes. I would gladly have any of these again but the reindeer steak and smoked whale were my favorites. Unfortunately I devoured the steak without getting a photo.
Waiting to board the Polar Pioneer
As we waited I thought a selfie was in order
We met all our guides and then the next couple hours were a whirlwind. After boarding we all found our cabins and I met my cabin mate Dan for the first time. After that there were safety briefings, a life-vest / lifeboat drill and then a trip overview in the ships lounge. Several hour later we settled into our cabin
The view from the porthole in our cabin as we made our way deep into Billefjorden
That first evening we were rewarded with calm waters and incedible reflections
The view from the bow of the ship that evening were incredible and I went to bed very late this first night, still in disbelief that I was on a cruise in the arctic. But before going to bed we were treated with one more spectacular view
A Parhelic circle, double sun halo, sun dogs and a faint pillar all reflected in the calm water of Billiefforden, Svalbard
The next morning after breakfast we went on our first Zodiac excursion ( on an excursion you stay in the zodiac vrs a landing). This excursion was about birds watching and we saw our first glacier.
After returning to the ship we had lunch and headed past Pyramidian for our first landing
Pyramidian, a mostly abandoned Russian mining village. Before the Ukraine invasion ships would dock there and you’d have the chance to explore the town.
Our first landing.
A few shots from deck that first night.
Overnight we headed back out to sea and south toward South Spitsbergen National Park and we made our morning landing at Gnålodden on the north side of Hornsund
That afternoon we relocated did a quick excursion and saw our first seal
The next morning was a landing near a glacier, with beautiful bergy bits(bergy bit is actually the official name for a medium to large fragment of ice, greater than 3 feet but less than 16 feet tall) close to the shore. On the way back to the ship we saw our first Walruses.
In the afternoon we made a landing near a bird cliff with a large breeding colony of little auk, and love was in the air.
Back on the ship during our evening briefing, after dinner, they told us that our plans had changed. We had originally planned to sail south and then east around the southern tip of Spitsbergen and into the ice between Spitsbergen and Edge Island to look for Polar Bears. But updated weather forecasts indicated that the path of an incoming storm had shifted and heading southeast would put us in the middle of BIG weather. This is a good time to point out the difference between a cruise and expedition.
A cruise is a voyage for leisure and relaxation, with a planned itinerary of activities, often involving large ships with various amenities and entertainment. An expedition, is a voyage focused on exploration and discovery, typically in remote or natural areas, often involving smaller ships, specialized equipment, and guided activities.
So while the organizers of the trip had a general idea of what we wanted to do they met daily with the ships guides and Captain to update our plans. And so this change in the weather changed our plans and as we decision was made that we would head north and sail through the night to put some distance between our ship and the storm coming our way.
A view of the coast as we sailed north
Day 4 - Saturday, June 10th, 2023
We woke up this morning to an announcement over the ships PA, from the ships captain, telling us that there was a mechanical problem over night and that we were back in the harbor near Longyearbyen. And asking us to join him in the lounge for a trip update. This was unusual and not planned, we still had 7 days of our planned expedition, and the chatter was concerning. What was going on?
That first update wasn’t good. The ships engine developed troubles as we headed north over the night and the decision was made to return to port.
Update 2 - They were trying to find an engineer to repair the ship and unfortunately there wasn’t one in Longyearbyen. They would need to find one and have them flown in from the mainland, but it was Saturday so hopefully they could do so today since there wasn’t a flight scheduled Sunday. So it may not be Monday until we have an engineer to look at and hopefully repair the engine.
Update 3 - They found an engineer and he was on the flight from mainland Norway that would arrive later this afternoon.
Update 4 - The engineer arrived and resolved the problems and we were going to head north toward the ice (and hopefully Polar Bears)
Update 5 - The engineer decided to stay onboard for the rest of our trip just in case.
At dinner that night everyone was happy to see him, after all he saved our trip. The next day he fixed the sauna, since he wanted to use it after the planned polar plunge. And for the rest of the trip he joined us as a guest on our landings, excursions and in the lounge in the evenings.
Bubbles - during all ups and downs of the day we did one landing on the outskirts of Longyearbyen and a dull and muddy beach but I did manage to make one image I liked
The following morning when we woke we were still heading north, our goal was the North West point of Spitsbergen and the sea ice.
Around midday we did a landing on the shore of Smeerenburg at an old whaling station. We saw our second huddle of walrus and a pair of harbor seals
After our landing the ship was back to cruising north
That evening as we entered the sea ice, the bear watch began. The sea ice is most likely where we would see bears as this is the area the bears like to hunt for seals.
I stayed up late this night as we slowly headed north gliding through the sea ice looking for the “ice” bear. This was an experience like nothing else I’ve ever done. My expectation is that going through the ice would be crashing and loud as broke and pushed the ice to the side. In reality it was the exact opposite just a slow and steady power. With an occasional groan of the ships haul as it pushed against the ice and then the low crack as the ice would break and yield.
Our first indication that there were bears in the area. Around midnight I finally forced myself off the deck, to my cabin and into my bunk.
Attention fellow cruisers! crackled through the speaker in the corner of the cabin.
Wait why are they waking us, it can’t be morning, didn’t I just go to bed. After a moment I realized that yes I had only went to sleep about an hour ago.
But the announcement continued . . . they had spotted 3 bears on the Fast Ice and one was feeding on a seal off the bow of the boat.
The adrenaline hit! A bear, a bear! get dressed grab the camera and stumble out of the cabins and to the front of the ship. Some of us went to the bow, some went to the bridge and some went to the viewing platform above the bridge.
Were’s the bear?
One of the passengers that had been on the bridge when they spotted the feeding bear and was helping point it out to us. It was just a tiny dot way off in the distance(we estimated about a mile) and was quickly nicknamed the “pixel bear” since it was only a few pixels in size in our view finders.
Our “pixel bear” at approximate 800mm (shot at 400mm with a 1.4 teleconverter on a cropped sensor camera) it’s tiny but you can still see it’s a bear and it’s eating a seal.
After bit the bear moved away from the seal heading West and away from the ship. The crew advised us that with the seal still being there it would likely be back and that they would let us know if the bear came back.
So, I headed back to bed
During the night the ship was able to move closer to the seal and in the morning we were told that the bear had come back. You might wonder why we didn’t just break the ice and get really close but what we learned was while the ship is able to break through ice, they are not permitted to break the fast ice. Fast ice is sea ice that is still attached or fastened to the shore.
Our bear back to feeding on the seal along with some sea birds
Then something extraordinary happened, Portia a name one of the passengers gave our bear got curious and came to us
Then she hung around and gave us a show
And the Portia found a stick! It seems as if Polar bears are just big puppies.
After awhile Portia wondered off and we took a break for lunch. After linch we did a zodiac cruise and saw stranded icebergs and some other wildlife.
In the afternoon two of the bears hung out on the ice and at one point took a nap
We spent all day in this area. Around midnight we awoke to another announcement that there were four bears, one of them was right on the edge of the ice and the zodiacs were being launched to go see them up close. Sadly by the time we made it into the water the bear had moved away from the edge of the ice and it started to snow.
This was the last we saw of the bears and the next morning we were heading north again
A photo of one of the ships navigation systems showing that we made it to 80 degrees 10.074minutes north. This was at the edge of the pack ice and our northern most point. This is very close to the North Pole, less than 600 miles, which is at 90 degrees north. At this point we were further north than any permanent settlements and likely further north than all but a handful of people in the entire world.
Next came a real Polar Plunge, in 29 degree water. About half of the passengers and or hero the engineer that fixed the ship took place in the plunge. The rest of the passengers lined along the rail of the ship and cheered us all on. One at a time we made our way down the gang plank put on the harness (in case of sudden cardiac arrest, yes it can happen) and jumped in. After making out way back up the gang plank we were great with a warm dry towel and a shot of Russian vodka, Skol! and off to the sauna we would go. It was a really party atmosphere and a highlight of the trip
After the plunge we headed south a bit to Liefdefjord, considered one of the most beautiful in Svalbard. We saw a curious seal another glacier, Some King Eider ducks and some beautiful views
This next morning we did a zodiac cruise along the front of a glacier and saw the bluest ice I’ve ever seen.
That afternoon we did a landing to check out our third huddle of walrus
Lenticular clouds over a mountain in the distance
The light in the evening as we were making our way to our stop for the night
The following day was our last full day of the cruise, here’s some views from the ship
On our final stop we say an arctic fox, sadly I didn’t get any usable photos and more incredible ice.
And with that we started the long 14hour cruise back to port for disembarkment the following morning.
I’d bored my return flight at 2am Svalbard time for the 36 hour journey home. But that did give a few hours to grab some shots around Longyearbyen.
A collage of a few cellphone shots I took of Huskies Cafe
If you want more may I suggest two different YouTube videos
The first from my friend Neil, and one of our photography guides, that spent most of the trip taking video
The second from Thomas Heaton, who is the reason that I knew about this trip and had the chance to go