Arctic weather

On location on the east coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard

I have now just returned from an adventure to the far north. Spitsbergen is the biggest island of the Svalbard archipelago and is nothing less than a dream come true. As always the arctic gave us some real surprises and challenges. The plan was to go to the east coast and stay at a small cabin for the week. We packed up the snowmobile and sled and left from Longyearbyen in stunning weather and almost -30 degrees. After just a couple of minutes we ventures into a landscape of another planet. We headed east over frozen fjords and glaciers before starting the decent towards the coast. As we reached the cabin the weather changed and within minutes the arctic winter was howling on the small windows.

Due to high Polar Bear activity and bad visibility we were obliged to carry a gun even when taking a leak outside the cabin.

The next morning the wind was screaming outside, even pushing snow through the wall of the cabin. Our guide in the top bunk was almost totally snowed down. The cold and wind made it dangerous to go outside, but we managed to squeeze in a couple of photoshoots before we decided to evacuate to the west coast. Our next night was in an emergency cabin.

Calmer weather on the west coast gave some nice images of Reindeer.

To be continued…