SPITSBERGEN SOUTH TO NORTH 2026
CLARE, HANNE, LISA MAIKEN, MEDEA, RALF, SATISH & CAROLINE
FOLLOW THE THEM HERE:
POSTSCRIPT FROM CAROLINE
The first full crossing of Svalbard will remain a deeply human journey before being a polar achievement. I had the privilege to be surrounded by Clare, Lisa, Ralph, Satish, Hanne, and Medea across this demanding archipelago, from south to north, over 35 days of continuous effort. Together, we brought to life the very first edition of Ousland Colliard Explorers.
What carried them through was not just endurance or preparation, but a rare kind of team chemistry forged in hard conditions. Whiteouts often erased our horizon, immersing us in a world without contrast, while the terrain constantly forced us to adapt. And yet, every challenge strengthened their unity. Day after day, I watched this group evolve into a true team moving forward with trust, even when all sense of direction seemed to vanish.
The constant daylight, both day and night, wrapped the entire journey in an almost unreal feeling. As if those 35 days had been a single, stretched-out moment of us passing through the North.
Upon reaching Verlegenhuken, we gathered one last time. There, facing the vastness, each of us shared what had marked, changed, and sometimes deeply moved ourselves. I saw a united team, shaped by an experience that goes beyond words. Together, they completed one of the most remarkable routes in the polar world and in doing so, they left a quiet but lasting trace across these pristine landscapes.
DAY 1: TO THE STARTING POINT & WE ARE GO!
Oh yes! Now the adventure just got real since we got to the drop point close to the south national park border. Snow machines are not allowed there.
The first steps were to do some depots on our way to drop some food and fuel we’ll take back in around 2 weeks. After the preparation in Longerbyen that took us 4 days, we are finally on the skiS and the pressure is off! We left nothing behind. Good news! The team that drove us here were so kind, we will see them again at Verlegehuken. The most northern point of Svalbard!!
We skied only 3k today but have seen so much. We are in a labyrinth of moraine. We need a good sleep now before polar watch start.
day 2, camp at N 77.367160° E 16.341197°
What a lovely day we woke up to this morning! Blue sky, sunshine, snow and ice as far as we could see and barely some wind. With good vibes and a will to finally start with the first proper kilometers of our journey we started skiing with our pulkas.
With decreasing temperatures (from -15° to -21°C) and some light breeze the day got colder and colder: Whenever we wanted to document the beauty of the landscape we were walking through our phone, batteries died. Whatever, we worked hard for the few pictures we took! The cold brings other issues with it like barely sticking skins, short brakes and little margins but we are extremely happy for our big and cozy down jackets and a hot drink.
The day ended like it started: with beautiful pastel colors and in the sky and a warm sleeping bag.
Day 3: N 77.258220° E 16.675551°
We were able to reach 14 k today after a good, stready climb to 400m above sealevel. It’s still all new for us to ski from the morning to the evening so the body is happy when we arrive to camp. We enjoyed the beautiful and large Nathorsbreen but tomorrow we will enter another glacier that is narrow. We camp just at his feet. It’s called Besshøbreen. You should see the view. The only thing is that we made camp in the shadow of a mountain so it’s quite cold at the moment. Have a nice day everyone! We keep you updated tomorrow.
(Photos tomorrow)
Day 4: N 77.109486° E 16.877768°
The sun is shining and we enjoy our Svalbard life to the fullest! 18km today and a very happy and proud group is the conclusion of today. Snow conditions were very good and we had perfect glide the whole day. After a steep climb on the first hill we enjoyed the rest of the day the view towards Flatbreen and the mountains in the surroundings. Temperatures are still low but the sun keeps us warm and some were even walking in mesh, whereas others preferred to wear and walk with their down-pants.
Another day in the books - looking forward to tomorrow (and soon our dinner🤭) 🥳
Day 5 N 77.109486° E 16.877768°
What a day and what an adventure: we set off this morning before our set time and even got some storytelling about Wanny Woldstad and her trapper-life in Hornsund as we were in the proximities. Good glide on the snow allowed us to ski with a steady pace so why not make a food depot to ski even lighter - so did we! Before lunchtime we needed to try something new: walking in a ropeteam! This was the first experience for several of us - beside the flipping pulkas on an inclined section in a valley we enjoyed and learned all something new. This evening we changed tentmates, and it is all about getting to know and work better together. We are a team and stick together!
Day 6: A rollercoaster day! 🎢
Camp at N 76.766850° E 17.005270°
We set off this morning not really knowing the time 🙃 - our digital clocks were 1hour ahead of our analogue ones, well well - it didn’t really matter since time out here is relative - as long as we get our 10min breaks after a 50min long walk 🫢🤪.
After a smooth downhill of Tromsøbreen we started walking on sea ice over Isbukta. The first kilometers were smooth until we met more and more pressure ice. Our pulks started to flip and got tangled in ice chunks - quite irritating, but with some “well done team”, “yeahhh” or “good job”, our mood stayed high during the day. - Not to mention all the chocolate we had in our pockets today - it all helped as well, keeping us energized and smiling.
We really wanted to cross the whole Isbukrs and camp on land, so after 12h on the go, we now really look forward to a good dinner and a warm sleeping bag.
Day 7: CHILL AND CAMP AT N 76.641935° E 16.760154°
«This is going to be an easy day,» said several team members when they heard we would “only” be skiing 16km today.
Well, it turned out to be a more chill day compared to yesterday, routines are starting to settle, and the long uphill on Sørkappfonna turned out to be flatter than we expected. Awesome!
Svalbard wouldn’t be Svalbard without wind… This means that even though we had a lovely day, the wind was still present, and without any movement, we were getting cold quite quickly.
After lunch, we were mostly navigating on a bearing (and some of Caro’s intuition) as we were not really able to see the surrounding mountains but only the sun, our team, and the blowing wind…anyway, we found a spot to pitch our tents, and the wind will be with us all day and night long.
Tomorrow is a big day for all of us, we are planning to reach Sørneset which will be the turning point and the big start for our whole trip. More of that tomorrow 🤭🥳
Day 8: SØRKAPPNESET
The team left 1 tent and equipment up on the glacier and went for broke. Down the glacier and put to the very southernmost tip of Spitsbergen. Greet joy!
After the photos, they turned around and headed back. In the early evening, they were back at the camp they had left this morning. What an effort. AND that was also the first leg of the South-to-North journey.
Tomorrow looks like a weather day with snow and strong winds, so probably a deserved rest.
Day 8 - Sørkapp & back up to N 76.641955° E 16.759965°
Sørneset!!!!!!!!! Wohooooo, well done team!!
It was a cloudy and windy day we woke up to this morning, the team was feeling good and ready for a 5km descent to the moraine of Mathiasbreen.
After that we had a long and flat walk next to the shore until we reached all together the southern point of Svalbard - Sørneset! Wow, we are really proud of everybody and so happy about our first 8 long days together. Now we started our big trip for real as from this point we are just heading north. What an adventure!
The wind is going to be quite tricky in the next days so we are going to take one step at a time, assessing the situation and will take the necessary precautions for weather, wind and safety of our team - again, all together. Will see what is to come - for now our tents are pitched well and we are soon heading into our sleeping bags.
Day 9, BACK TO N 76.719096° E 16.869442°
Stuck! Weatherstuck… it was no surprise to us that we might be stuck today - we had tiny hopes of still moving today, but when snow started to fall around midnight, winds increased and the view got worse and worse until we had a difficult time seeing from one tent to the other, it was the right decision to take a brake and a day off.
Looking back to what we have been through, all the cold weather, the good progress, long days, heavy sleds and long days the team was more than happy to have a chill and social day to reload our own batteries. We were sleeping in, listening to podcasts, music, audiobooks, reading books and doing our daily duties as of shoveling of snow from the tents and making sure the mood stays high and everyone is safe inside the tent as well.
Heavy winds are forecasted for the night and we are going to take turns to check in on our mates - otherwise the mood is good and we have hopes to move tomorrow afternoon.
Day 10- big day, camp at N 76.859128° E 17.011428°
The sun is shining and we are ready to move! We woke up to a beautiful blue sky this morning and are very excited to get going again; but first we needed to dig out our pulkas and the pegs of our tents as they had been buried up to 1m beneath the snow. This was quite a reality check to what we had been through the past 24h to be honest - and especially what a really well anchored tent and hourly check-ins and maintenance means!
With good teamwork we managed to dig out everything quite fast and soon we were on our way towards Isbukta again. Awesome glide helped us to gain several kilometers over Sørkappfonna and we even managed to cross Isbukta! Yeah, good job team!
Isbukta was very kind to us this time: no pack ice on our way and only smooth gliding - this was very much needed after the memoirs of our last crossing which felt like an eternity! During the afternoon clouds covered the sky again but the view stayed with us so we could see the stunning blue glaciers raging into the sea ice - a wonderful and memorable view of today.
Day 11 whiteout galore / N 77.001146° E 16.967933°
Imagine walking in a room filled with smoke with your compass in front of you and only hearing: “Follow the bearing of 3-1-6”; “A bit more to the left”, “more to the right”, “yes, this is okay”
…Well this is what our day kind of looked like; only with skis on our feet, dragging our pulk behind us and being outside feeling the elements compared to inside and a room with smoke.
This morning started quite easily walking along the shore towards Tromsøbreen before we skinned up with long skins and soon found ourselves in the middle of a whiteout on Hedgehogfonna. From there we started walking on a bearing for the whole afternoon until we sat camp - it was a long afternoon. Whiteout and walking on a bearing is a hard skill that needs to be trained and for some members of the team this was a totally new and adventurous experience in itself. Slow walking, breaking trail through new snow, checking the compass every now and then to make sure we are walking straight - and fuel ourselves with snacks. No wonder we were tired this evening and fell straight into our sleeping bags.
Day 12 - Hornsund area
From the Homebase: The team is doing well! The bad weather that passed through the area resulted in a weather / rest day, but all in all they have kept up a relentless progress, using the day and the terrain to the full.
We have to remember that not only are they doing long days on skis, dealing with camp work, foodmaking, and melting, they also have to step outside with the gun to do the bear watch at night. This is mandatory for all teams like ours, - but not for private individuals 🤔.
The team is a bit low on battery as solar charging has not been very good lately. But they say the pictures and the blog will be back tomorrow.
What happened yesterday was that they passed the narrowest sound on the route, Hornbreen, which is part of one of Svalbard’s most dramatically spectacular areas, Honsund. Going down there, they stayed close to the mountain walls to avoid crevasses and had good progress. Later in the day, they reached and dug up the depot they had left at Flatbreen, before progressing a bit further to camp.
All is strong and doing well. Sunday will be very cold, but they will head into 3 nice days before another change in the weather.
Stay tuned!
Day 13 - paularbreen
From the Homebase: After another brutally cold night, efficiency was up getting on the skies and getting moving. As the sun rose, the temperatures rose, and it turned out to be a beautiful day.
They had camped right under Siggerudfjella and are now a short day away from the main depot they put down at the very start. There, they will find 22 days of food and fuel + clean underwear 😉
Stay tuned!
Day 14 - THE DEPOT
From the Homebase: The team reached and found the depot yesterday afternoon. It was there, and luckily untouched (not eaten 🥳). They dug it up, and it seems it became a cleaning feast.
Now the journey starts with a first stop in Svea, then past Longyearbyen before heading up the northern part towards Verlegenhuken.
After some very cold and testing periods, they were happy for the temperature to rise quite a bit. But with warmer temperatures, the clouds have moved in, and there will be a lot more in the coming 10 days. But that does not seem to have dampened the spirit. Now they have completed the return journey in the southern national park. No motorized travel is allowed here. That is why they used the snow scooters down from Longyerbyen, which were dropped off before the park, and after reaching the very southern tip, are back up again.
Now ready for part two. Stay tuned!
day 15: steenstrupbreen
Today we left our depot point and headed towards a high destination where we sleep today at 559 m ! We go tomorrow to Danzigdalen. We were looking for some good warm weather and here it is! Wow 🤩
Camp at N 77.628783° E 16.314719° right south of Skarvnosa
Day 17 - passing svea
Red glider?! Yes it is, no one saw that one coming last week when our only concern was to keep warm in -20°, but here we are and the glider absolutely saved our day (and our legs).
After a night with both rain and snow we set off this morning skiing almost right away with chunks of snow beneath our skis; not very pleasant but with some quick fix we had a solution to the problem -> red glider.
This glider turned everyone into a racing car and within 2h we had crossed Van Mijenfjorden and were walking past Svea… and of course we needed to take several pictures and document that we had walked past this old mining town.
For the afternoon we set a slower pace as we didn’t want to rush and have actually more than enough time to ski further north - this made it possible to enjoy the landscape even more and gave us the possibility to save some energy to dig a sitting pit for tonight’s dinner. What a lovely get together of the day! We sat all together, were chatting, having a great time and enjoying the view of Kjellströmdalen before we shortly after crawled into our sleeping bags.
Home office: Svea is a brilliant example of tidying up. Svea was a mining town with a lot of houses, mining dunes, and equipment. But, when it was decided to shut it down, the government also wanted to erase the ‘destruction’.
In record time and under budget, they took everything away, and today it is hard to believe it was once a thriving mining town. – It is a project to be very proud of!
Day 18 - N 78.045759° E 17.758884°
Mental & physical training, Kjellströmdalen, some overwater and a choir performance, what did this day not include?
We all know it is going to be a special day when you hear a fabulous choir performance by your teammates of “happy birthday” - and so it was!
Our special day started when we noticed that skiing turned into a proper workout. Luckily we have a red glider with us but we have a limited amount of it and chunks of snow were sticking to our skins no matter what we were doing. “Lift your feet and ski on” turned into reality - quite a mental training to be honest as lifting one foot was harder than running up a hill at the end of the day with our pulkas. The chunks of snow sticked until we reached some overwater and finally washed away all the chunks that had build up - you would think it was the opposite - this meant that we finally archived good glide and a chill pace to do some kilometers. After yesterdays speedrun of 27km we decided to take it more easily today: we ended up walking to the end of Kjellströmdalen and left the uphill for tomorrow - still we ended up skiing 20km taking one step at a time and enjoying the view, our brakes which always were a bit longer than 10min, our noodles, some knekkebrød or our beloved soup. What a special day - and we really hope our birthday kid enjoyed it as much as the rest of the team.
Day 19- THE BIG WHITEOUTDAY - N 78.043377° E 18.093946°
We wished we could have ordered a taxi today…but guess there is no road out here where cars could drive..that’s why we ended up using our own body and a pair of skis to move.
Not every day can be easy, neither can we have a paved road every day. This was one of those days: today was more of a type 2 fun day. 🤭🤪
Along our way we found several uphills but as well downhills and drops where we needed to take off our skis as they were so steep. We dragged one pulka at a time behind us, scouted the area without pulkas, found different routes, changed skins from short- to long- and back to short skins, took brakes when we needed them instead of following a system and accepted that pulkas were flipping all the time towards the end of the day as they had been though a lot as well. What a day!
We are happy about the progress today and do not really think about the kilometers we did - changing the focus really helps to appreciate our work of today and that we did not quit, but were trying as good as we could to keep the mood in the team high, lifting and caring about each other and again only taking one step at a time. This is a good reminder why we work in a team and are all in this together, no matter what. Awesome job all together!
DAY 20 – happy campers
Home office: After their quite alpine day yesterday, they descended into the Agar valley. This is very much polar bear country, so probably a good strategy to just descend, turn northwest, and head straight up Elfenbeinbreen ;-)
After the extreme cold start, it has been worryingly warm. So, to head up instead of following the valleys seems a very good choice. They were even blessed by some great sunshine after the whiteout spell.
Tonight, they are camped right under the Prospektryggen wall and will head up towards Nordmannsfonne and start heading north for real!
Day 20 - the real blog ;-)
Hidden bumps and flat light were our first issues this morning - and in addition it had snowed the whole night and breaking trail turned out to be a workout in itself: our faces turned instantly into red tomatoes. 🍅
The view got better after a while - we were seeing patches of blue sky and some sunrays in the horizon and started smiling - this day is looking good weatherwise! Yeah! But a bummer for gliding conditions… they had not improved.
Workout nr2 started: we lifted our feet for every step we took as chunks of snow (klabber) were back on our skins - and to save the red glider for a second moment we just coped with the situation. Frustrating for some of us.
Braking trail got easier when we met scooters on the way, we really appreciate that they can create paths we can ski on, although we love the peace and silence of Svalbard by avoiding any scooter-areas. Love hate relationship? Maybe.
Anyways, we got visits from town as well who felt a kind urge to say “hi” and several other scooter drivers waved at us, and we waved back. 🤩 Our day ended with gaining some altitude and the sun hiding behind the mountain while enjoying a beautiful view! At the same time we still managed to dry our sleeping bags and get some more battery life in our power banks and phones with the solar panels.
Day 21 - N 78.387119° Ø 17.974277°
“Today we are going to make some km”, we all heard this morning and started skiing.
Skiing is not the same every day here in paradise Svalbard: the landscape is beautifully made and there are several mountains, passes and glaciers to ski up or down, sometimes we ski through valleys and in general everything is manageable with a pulka and short skins, otherwise our long skins are always in reach.
For now we have reached the glaciersystem of Nordmannsfonna - we had a long day of walking up; further up; more up; a bit down and a bit more up. Although it was still exciting navigation wise as we needed to walk on a bearing all the time and make sure to not deviate by some degrees to avoid walking more km than needed.
The weather was quite varied as well: first out cloudy, then the sun came out and started warming us, shortly after some fog arrived and the view got worse, but luckily the sun was just around the corner and came back. Wohoo! Temperature wise we are happy about milder weather; -2°C and trying not to sweat (hard!) so we started to air our ski boots, sleeping bags, kartanks and every other thing that might get moist to still keep the good routines and taking care of our precious gear.
Day 22 N 78.571376° Ø 17.933657°
Smell of gasoline in the air, tracks after others, a mountain pass, unique landscapes, a bearing directed towards north and 14 skiis and pulka crossing a white landscape - that sounds like our day!
Nordmansfonna was already unique but the landscapes we skied through today were fantastic! Svalbard shows us again and again that it is not only a land covered by glaciers in the tundra, but has a landscape formed with history, erosion and time. The views are stunning! From a white endless glacier with some mountaintops in the distance, to more shaped and connecting mountain ranges. Yes, we entered the area of the Sassen-Bünsow Land Nationalpark! WOW!
At the same time, we are not alone anymore as there is a smell of gasoline in the air… scooters.
Other people want to explore and see this area as well, and we totally understand it! This national park needs to be seen with your own eyes🤩.
While we were setting up our camp for the night - of course with a wonderful view - three guys skied up to us. After some talking they decided to stay with us for the night and we got to share our duty of awake polarbear-watch - extremely kind of them!
Soon we are at the gate to the north, but more about that tomorrow. 🥳
Day 23 - N 78.571365° E 17.933807°
“Can we see your papers?” asked us a kind man in a yellow vest - Turned out we had met the inspectors of Sysselmesteren (the Governor of Svalbard) along they way. After a good conversation, approved papers, some laughs and a good wish of “enjoy your trip” we waved “goodbye” to them and skied on.
A long valley awaited us with quite some uphill to reach the gate of the north step by step. These steps were heavy and progress was hard - chunks of snow were sticking to our skins and the red glider came to use - helping some, but not everyone.
Luckily we are a team and together we are stronger - we sat down the pace so everybody could follow and exchanged pulkas. This small detail meant so much and gave the whole group surplus to walk further and get the good conversations and laughs in the tent during our waterboiling sessions during the evening. Awesome!
Finally we skied through the gate of the north - in foggy conditions we spotted two higher mountains creating a gate. From now on we have more than 50km on this glacier system and a fun fact for all the coffee lovers out there: we passed a mountain called “Kaffikjelen” maybe it is the call you need to visit this special place? Looking forward to seeing you out here!
Day 24 - Lomonosovfonna
The weather has been very much up and down lately, with some very low visibility periods. But Day 24 was 100% whiteout. It was like skiing white-folded with balance, bearing, and elevation changes, testing the team to the full.
As if that wasn’t enough, the temperature rose to give some frost-sticky snow. The first broke trail and the others followed.
But 18km was a great result as it is some 175km to go!
Day 25
They ran out of battery, so diary will coma i bit later - but if pictures equal a thousand words, there below should tell a pretty complete story :-) BUT, we are not quite sure what day these ‘bluebird’ photos are from, as we now believe they had whiteout on day 25 :-•
Day 25 - N 78.848662° E 17.432234°
Repeat 1? Who pressed that button on the stereo?? - as today was (almost) a copy of what we had been through yesterday:
Starting the day in a whiteout, walking on different bearings, precipitation of snow/ice that just sticks to our gear with quite some wind, waving “hi” to passing by scooter drivers - that sounds like something we had been through already, but luckily there was some variation as well.
The whiteout disappeared after a while and we ended up seeing some shadows of high mountains in the background - no wonder, we are next to the highest mountains on Svalbard, found some fresh tracks of an arctic fox hopping around in the snow and saw as well one sea gull - little wildlife up north so far, compared to the area of Van Mijenfjorden!
In one of our brakes the boys got suddenly some reception and turned instantly into kids who got the allowance to play a game on the phone for 10 minutes 🤪 Luckily they understood quite quickly that our journey is more than 4G and we really appreciate the distance to news, politics and what influences ourselves each day and valuate the time we get to spend in this unique landscape and wild nature more than that at the moment. We live on in our little bubble of peace, goodness, appreciation and thankfulness for as long as we can - together🥹🤗.
Day 26 - N 79.256165° E 16.950166°
Did someone ask for visibility? And maybe a clear sky? Well, we got none of them and had a whiteout the third day in a row. Slowly, we start to get used to this routine: snow on our pulkas each morning we step out from our homes (tent), face mask and goggles to keep our face protected from the wind, a compass and a bearing we depend on to navigate, and a brake to snack here and there during the day.
After some skling, we suddenly heard a "unsure if we go further here, there might be bumps we do not see, but let's try for 500 more meters" in a lovely English with a French accent, so did we. These 500m turned out to be several kilometers until we enjoyed lunch with a "view". Well, this view was a "narrow" valley in between two mountain ranges we were supposed to pass. We had been looking at it during all our 20 minutes of lunch.
Once we were ready to go and ski through it, the whiteout erased it from our eyes, and it ended up being the turning point for the day - we set up camp.
Even though we got early to camp, we used the time wisely: skins got new glue, hair got braided, wholes were stuffed, and we got to enjoy our sleeping bags a bit longer. Just a perfect way to rest and enjoy the time together!
We are hopeful that our gate will clear out during the night so to be ready and ski through it tomorrow morning 🥳
Day 27 - N 79.299542° E 16.826591°
It feels like walking blindfolded, but instead of seeing black and nothing - we saw white and nothing. Guess, another morning and again a whiteout! - We know the routine: set the bearing, turn on our avalanche beacons and walk in a small ropeteam to ensure safety for the first one in the line for eventual drops or falls, ✅checked and ready to start.
Until midday it was white, but suddenly a shadow, some black lines which got more clear as time passed. Not people, but a mountainwall to our right, then more visibility to our left and a hill cleared up - as we were loosing more and more altitude after the pass we finally managed to see the whole valley 🤩
Finally, the long awaited view!!!
Navigating turned suddenly out to be so easy and we were not in need for our bearing any longer, what a relief to see again! We could even take off our skins and enjoy the shallow downhill, that must have been the highlight of the day!
While skiing we always keep our binoculars close by to originally spot wildlife - this time we spotted 10+ people walking in a straight line across a valley who all suddenly disappeared behind a snowhill, this ended up being the mysterious happening and the thing we talked about all evening long.
Day 28 - ZZzzzzzz
Today, they have had a very well-earned rest day. Having been on the move for a very long time, and the wind hammering the area, it was a perfect day off.
Tomorrow, they hope for the wind to ease off a bit so they can attack the last 73 km.
Stay tuned!
Day 29 - Back on the trail
After the rest day, the wind kept hammering the tent throughout the night. But as orning had settled in, the wind mellowed to 11-15ms, and they went for it. -15° and heading into a steady north-north-east was a very cold challenge. Later in the day, snow and whiteout joined it to see how resilient they were. They kept pushing till they had gained 16km and were very happy with that.
Now they have some 57km to go. It seems the weather has decided they have to earn this goal. It is expected to snow for 3 days, which will restrict visibility as they navigate off the Åsgardfonna glacier and onto the land stretching up to Verlegenhuken. The wind seems to graciously knock off 1ms pr day (🙄) – until Tuesday when 3 to 4 ms is expected.
Cross your fingers for them!
Day 30 - pushing hard north
Another testing day. They started off in -16°C and fierce headwind, meaning max protection. Luckily, the wind eased a bit after a few hours, and they could get some progress done. Tough, the snow is pretty deep, so everyone had to dig deep.
But they are now nearing the northern part of Åsgardfonna, and tomorrow should be descending down to the Polheim area.
Polhein is the most northern hunting hut on Svalbard, and probably the most northern place with someone living they year around.
Stay tuned
Day 31 - polheim!!!
Our team arrived at the Polheim hut late last evening after a long push from Åsgardfonna Glacier. They covered 23km and descended 750 meters onto the plateau around Moselbukta (bay).
This marks a major milestone in the journey, as they have reached the northernmost hut we have at Svalbard. It’s a historic place, made famous by the Swedish polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, who once planned his North Pole expedition from here. His attempt didn’t succeed—partly due to unexpected ice challenges, and partly that the reindeer he intended to use, escaped in a storm.
Nordenskiöld dropped his North Pole plan and instead explored Nordaustlandet, the second-largest island in Svalbard.
The name Polheim was also used by Roald Amundsen, as that was what he called his camp (the first ever) at the very Geographical South Pole. Polheim means Pole home.
Our friends faced a tough start to the day with difficult weather and whiteout, but conditions gradually improved, rewarding them with a beautiful finish. After reaching the Polheim hut, and having a peek inside, they retreated to their tents to prepare for the final stretch. On Monday, they will ski the last 20 kilometers to the northern tip of Spitsbergen, Verlegenhuken. That will be their final day on skis before camping out one last night and being picked up on Tuesday for the return to Longyearbyen—if all goes to plan.
day 32 - Verlegenhuken!
They reached their goal in the late afternoon. Reaching the northern point marks the end goal and Mission Completed!
From here, the Polar Ocean stretches all the way to the Geographical North Pole!
After photos and high fives, they backtracked a few kilimeters and set their last camp. The plan is that they will be picked up around 10:00 on Tuesday morning.
More to come!
Caroline wrote: The final day, when we opened the tent door, was under an overcast sky, with light snowfall softening the landscape. The weather felt almost intimate, inviting reflection. In quiet moments and shared thoughts, each person revisited the past month, suspended outside of time. I knew everyone would soon part ways. I felt the deep joy of reaching that final kilometer where the Arctic Ocean was everywhere in front of us.