The year 2015 began in Spits­ber­gen the way it finis­hed, with a dead­ly snow ava­lan­che. A young man died buried under mas­ses of snow. He had not been at home when desas­ter struck, but on his snow mobi­le, riding steep slo­pes.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

I was in the Ross Sea. Could hard­ly have been fur­ther away. A long, long sea jour­nes, rich in impres­si­ons and expe­ri­en­ces of all sorts. After having done this trips alre­a­dy once in 2013, I had three secret wis­hes for this one: a Ross seal, clear views of Mount Ere­bus and Cape Ada­re. I got all of it. Strike home!

A litt­le view back on a year in high lati­tu­des. Some of my own expe­ri­en­ces from the Arc­tic and Ant­ar­c­tic and some events from Spits­ber­gen that caught many peo­p­les’ atten­ti­on made this year an inte­res­t­ing one. Not that other years have been bor­ing. But this one was quite spe­cial inde­ed.

Every day, litt­le post vie­w­ing a month or two will be pos­ted here, of cour­se with a rich sel­ec­tion of pho­tos.