Ingress
Some years ago, a friend told me about an island far north of Norway: Svalbard.
At that time, I had already been living in northern Norway for several years and was working as a dogsledding guide. When he talked about his journey, he didn’t describe it like you’d describe a vacation on a beach in Italy. Instead, he spoke as if a dream had come true to him. His eyes were smiling when he described the blue ice of the calving glaciers, the sound of thousands of birds nesting on steep cliffs, and the graceful movement of polar bears searching for food on the pack ice. It sounded like a different world – perfect fuel for my dreaming mind.
During the following weeks, I devoured every book about Svalbard that I could get my hands on. A Woman in the Arctic by Christiane Ritter turned out to be my favorite. My head was filled with unseen pictures, and eventually I decided to apply for a one-year program in Longyearbyen, Svalbard’s “capital”, to become an Arctic nature guide. I wanted to see this nature with my own eyes. More than that, I wanted to guide people in this environment.
A year later I was accepted. When my plane landed in Longyearbyen in August 2022 I was ready to absorb as much information as possible. Within ten months, I learned a great deal about this fascinating Arctic environment. We studied the wildlife, glaciers, history, skiing, and glacier travel and had a lot of fun along the way. There was only one problem: I never really left Isfjorden, the main fjord next to Longyearbyen. All the places I had read about—the glaciers, trapper cabins, bird cliffs, and remote fjords— remained just names and pictures in my head. I knew the stories, but I had never experienced them myself. I had to do something about that.
Please note: Depending on the lens used for a photo or video shot an animal may appear to be closer than it is. We always follow strict wildlife guidelines to ensure that we do not cause any disturbance.
