Svalbard By Boat – May 2014

I distinctly remember waking up on the flight from Tromso to Longyearbyen with a lot of commotion.I thought for a minute there was some sort of emergency onboard,but it was the few skiers who were jumping about trying to snap as many pictures of possible of an endless alpine mountain range interwoven with huge flat glaciers.Now i was really getting excited.

Svalbard to me and many others was made famous by Jeremy Jones in the movie Further.Having already been to Antarctica,Haines,Japan and of course Chamonix where I recently moved to,I seem to continue my journey of following the great man around the planet being constantly inspired by his energy.
Although this time unlike JJ I took a boat trip with Ice Axe Expeditions to explore the fjords looking for good skiing.Doug Stoup started this trip 4 years ago and they run 2 itineraries every year end of May and beginning of June – http://www.iceaxe.tv
Our home for 8 days – Artica 2 – http://arcticaexpeditions.com

Within an hour of sailing out of the capital Lonyearbyen we were greeted with this sort of thing

Our first few days where socked in and snowy,it was still deep winter up here.We had no set agenda but to explore the fjords on the look out for Polar Bears and good Skiing.

Flare Guns and Rifles are mandatory safety equipment in these parts ,Johan Jonsson @jonsbert was Polar Bear ready

Up we go

First big couloir of the trip

As we sailed for better anchorage the light cleared a little to reveal a few tracks at the bottom

Walrus spotted but still on the look out for Polar Bears…

Another stormy day,another set of Couloirs

Walk the beach over a scooch anyday

Day 4 ,weather starts to clear and we head deep into a fjord in search of Polar Bears

The Glaciers here are stunning

Think we see something on the ice!!

Mother and 2 cubs sat being quite as she stalks a seal over a ice hole

With that boxed ticked and feeling super stoked to see a mother and 2 cubs we cracked on with looking for good terrain

Which is pretty easy to find in Svalbard

Quite literally everywhere you look

Our trusty captain Stein and Adam Clark @acpictures http://www.adamclarkphoto.com
as we pull into another beautiful bay of ice

One of our guides Jmack hauling the rifle around as we head out for a tour at 12am,of course here at this time of year its suns up all day and night

David Rosenbarger @american_dave gets after it

More lines

late night antics – Johan Jonsson

Looking out toward Greenland

What else can i say? Svalbard just keeps giving

Andrew Esienstark one of the Ice Axe guides who’s been on these trips everywhere for last 4 years

@american_dave

‘Find what you love and let it kill you’ ~ Bukowski

Naked Paddle board with rifle for extra bonus gnar points

Cheers guys,amazing trip,feel very lucky to have been able to experience this,peace,Gav