Early in the season, there is often a lot of pack ice around Svalbard’s northernmost islands.
As the season progresses and the weather gets warmer, the pack ice retreats north, and eventually leaves the islands all together.
Ships often have to sail for several hours to reach the edges of the pack ice, before pushing through into the ice in search of polar bears.
The starting point for any trip to see polar bears in Svalbard, Longyearbyen is located more or less in the middle of the main island. Originally called Longyear City, the town was founded by John Longyear in 1906, and renamed Longyearbyen in 1926. With around 2300 inhabitants, the population of Longyearbyen is steadily growing as tourism to Svalbard gains popularity.
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Roughly translated as ‘Bird Mountain’, Alkefjellet is one of the most spectacular bird cliffs in Svalbard. Home to approximately 60,000 Brunnich’s guillemots that nest right on the towering cliff face, Alkefjellet is a magnificent sight. The cliff face itself is made up of basaltic pillars which rise vertically from the waters of the Hinlopen Strait, between Spitsbergen and Nordauslandet, in places over 100 metres high. These sheer rock faces are home to thousands of nesting birds, often circled by Glaucous gulls looking for a meal, and Arctic foxes hunting nearby. Easily accessible from the sea, the steep walls are safe to navigate via Zodiac, and it’s easy to spend several hours just meandering along the cliffs watching the birds. The water adjacent to the cliffs is deep enough that ships can get very close to the cliff face too which is great for those wishing to stay on board.
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Kvitøya, also known as White Island, is the most remote island of the Svalbard archipelago. The island is almost completely covered in an ice cap, with just a few small areas that are ice free, with these patches of land being rocky and barren.
Kraemerpynten is the easternmost part of Norway, and from here, it’s approximately 40 nautical miles to Victoria Island, Russia. Kvitøya is almost always surrounded by thick pack ice, so it’s rare that people ever set foot on this remote island, although with climate change in recent years, it is occasionally possible towards the end of the summer season when the pack ice has retreated further north.
Apart from wildlife, the main attractions of Nordaustlandet are the icecaps, Austfonna and Vestfonna – in the east and northwest respectively. Austfonna is the most visited, and the seventh largest in the world. Nordaustlandet is the second largest island in the Svalbard archipelago, the name translates to North East Land. As suggested by the name, the island lies northeast of Spitsbergen, separated by the Hinlopen Strait. Completely uninhabited, the island is largely made up of sizable icecaps and tundra and lies entirely within the Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve.
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Ny Alesund is a research town where several nations run their stations under Norwegian administration and coordination. Previously a mining society, coal was mined until 1962 when it was closed after several serious accidents. One of the northernmost year-round communities, Ny Alsund now has a permanent population of about 30-35, although numbers in the summer can reach 120. The town boasts the world’s northernmost post office, and there are now a couple of hotels, plus a small café and souvenir shop.
Ny Alesunds claim to fame is historical – as the launching point for North Pole Expeditions pioneered by Amundsen and Nobile. In 1925, Amundsen tried to reach the North Pole with the seaplanes N24 and N25 but succeeded with the airship Norge in 1926. A monument to this successful crossing still exists in Ny Alesund today.
Sjuøyane, or the Seven Islands, are located at the far north of the Svalbard archipelago. As the name implies, this is a group of seven islands: Phippsøya, Martensøya, Parryøya, Nelsonøya, Waldenøya, Tavleøya, and Rossøya.
When the ice breaks up around the spring (April – May) the islands start to wake up with the return of the seabirds. With huge numbers of little auks being the most common, it’s also possible to see nesting colonies of common and Brunnich’s guillemots, and smaller colonies of Atlantic puffins. Phippsøya is home to one of the few remaining colonies of ivory gulls, which are dwindling in numbers and are now considered to be near threatened.Rossøya is the smallest and northernmost of the islands, making it the northernmost land of Norway. All of the islands have bizarre hat-shaped mountains, which make ideal breeding grounds for seabirds, and were named for members of the English North Pole expeditions, led by the explorers Phipps and Parry.
