Another amazing trip during the Polar Summer where the sun never sets, this time to the opposite pole, the Arctic--the North Pole! (well almost). I was very fortunate to join Steve Hoffman, my close friend and photographer on our shared quest to find polar bears! Follow our journey on the map by the numbers.
26 Aug 2025 - Day 1 - Longyearbyen #1
After a short flight from Oslo, Norway, to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, we had a bus and walking tour of the town. Longyearbyen is the northernmost town in the world, requires no VISA, and has 24 hour sunshine in the summer. Especially interesting is that Svalbard is one of 1750 gene banks in more than 100 countries that contain more than 7.4 million seed samples! Longyearbyen was also our first sighting of reindeer, a whale, puffins!, arctic terns, and guides with rifles (in case we cross paths with a polar bear!). Svalbard is also one of the only places you cannot be born or die due to lack of hospitals and the fact that bodies do not decompose. It does hold title to the Northernmost cemetery though (before the laws changed to no burials allowed). On the bus tour we saw the kennels holding the huskies when they are not working, Finally, our Atlas ship "World Traveler" was ready for us to board!
27 Aug 2025 - Day 2 - Ny-Alesund (the great boot fiasco) and Lilliehookbreen (one of largest glaciers in Svalbard). 40-43 F #2 and #3
Today we visited Ny-Alesund, a former mining town that is now an international research community. We had fun walking through the small town until the big boot fiasco. To go into the little store, you had to take off your boots and leave them in the lobby. After buying a few things, we went out to put our boots on. Steve commented his boots felt really tight. We discovered he had women's boots on! I had to sit on the ground and help him pull them off they were on so tight. So then when we tried to find his boots, we found a gal whose boots those were but we couldn't find his boots. So they had us grab someone else's boots! He never did get his original boots back, but he was kind of happy with the substitutes. Later on the ship, they scheduled a boot fix rendezvous for those whose boots had been swapped. I received my postcard to self from the North Pole and before I even had a chance to scan it, Ziggy managed to eat most of it--at least the postmark survived!
Next stop was Lilliehookbreen to see a majestic glacier stretching over seven miles with towering ice cliffs and sparkling blue icebergs drifting into the fjord. Our first Zodiac ride proved to be amazing with the landscapes that were absolutely stunning! Wildlife included more puffins and a bearded seal!
28 Aug 2025 - Day 3 - Ice Edge - #4 - First Polar Bear sightings, seals, floating ice and seabirds - 44-46 F
This turned out to be one of the best days of the adventure. We set out heading to our highest point north, crossing over the 82nd Parallel North which is 82 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. This is where the open ocean meets the drifting sea ice and is one of the Arctic's richest feeding grounds. It's a thrill to find a polar bear swimming amongst thousands of pieces of ice and icebergs, and even more thrilling to watch him crawl up onto an iceberg. These were shot with my Sony FE 200-600 lense at 600mm from the ship. One of many calls from the bridge for polar bear port or starboard and we jump from the breakfast table (they had the restaurant keep it open so we all could enjoy the experience). And if the floating bear weren't enough, we then saw a bear hunt a seal (sad I know). Interesting to watch the bear after the kill, he lazily hangs out and as the pictures show he almost looks like that was too much, I have a headache now. We watched the second bear for quite a while until the fog rolled in. Saw several fogbows (white rainbow in fog).
29 Aug 2025 - Day 4 - Alpinoya and Albertinibukta & the Polar Plunge! #5 & #6 - 46-47F
Alpinoya has a rugged landscape shaped by glaciers, sea ice and icebergs. Albertinibukta is a striking bay framed by steep mountains and glacial valleys with towering cliffs, seabird colonies and raw landscapes. A perfect place for a polar plunge! Wildlife included bearded seal mom and baby and birds.
30 Aug 2025 - Day 5 - Storoya and Kvitoya - 5 Polar Bears! Walruses! #7 and #8
Storoya means "Big Island" mostly covered by an ice cap but ice-free on the northern part. Very barren with arctic terns and sabine's gull breeding here. Kvitoya "White Island" is the remotest island of the Svalbard archipelago at 80 degrees North and only 40 miles to Russia! Here we saw bears far off in the distance, a bear and cubs and one near the water's edge. It was a challenge to even spot them. Yet one more bear played peek-a-boo over a ridge with us (we were very far away but the long lens helps).
31 Aug 2025 - Day 6 - Isispynten and Brassvelbreen - waterfalls, walrus and seal - 42-46F - #9 and #10
Isispynten is surrounded by drifting pack ice and sweeping Arctic seascapes. Brassvelbreen is one of Svalbard's most spectacular glaciers and is famous for its immense ice cliffs stretching for miles along the coast. Fog tends to show up rather quickly in the arctic so was especially fun when the ship took off and pretended to leave us tooting their horn as they sped by. Brassvelbreen ice cap is known for its beautiful waterfalls spilling over the glacier from the zodiac, the bow of the boat and our balcony! Mama and baby walrus and a seal on floating ice.
1 Sep 2025 - Day 7 - Alkefjellet and Torellneset - arctic fox and walrus - 42-46F - #11 and #12
Alkefjellet has towering cliffs with thousands of nesting seabirds with sheer vertical rock walls plunging into the icy sea. Torellneset is know for its walrus haul-out and sweeping ice landscapes. We were fortunate to see arctic foxes! They are difficult to spot and track. Can you find a fox in four of the pictures below?
2 Sep 2025 - Day 8 - Sundneset and Kapp Lee - Polar Bear, reindeer, walruses and shorebirds - 55-71 - #12 #13
We landed at Sundneset where we saw reindeer on the rolling tundra and scattered bones. Wildlife included a huddle of walruses along the Kapp Lee coastline and breeding sandpipers. Can you spot the polar bear? For all landings, we have multiple sentries carrying rifles posted in all directions.
3 Sep 2025 - Day 9 - Wibebreen, Burgerbukta and Samarinbreen - 39-42F #14, #15, #16
Widebreen is a striking glacier flowing into Burgerbukta, a sheltered bay surround by steep cliffs and dramatic ice formations. Calving... Samarinbreen is a tidewater glacier in Hornsund known for towering ice wall and frequent calving activity. We had fun racing away as a tidal wave chased us from one of the calvings. Wildlife included many birds: arctic skua, puffins, seals and gulls.
