Light win­ter in Spits­ber­gen

Thu
31 Mar
2022

… at its best. “Light win­ter”, does that actual­ly trans­la­te? “Licht­win­ter” is not a com­mon word in Ger­man eit­her, but a won­derful one. Not “win­ter light” in terms of a less pro­no­un­ced cold sea­son, but a win­ter com­bi­ned with beau­tiful light. And that is exact­ly what you can get in Spits­ber­gen in late March. Unless the wea­ther is as it was around mid March this year. Quite ter­ri­ble at times. But then, win­ter came back with force, with tem­pe­ra­tu­es well below -20 degrees cen­ti­gra­de 🙂 ever­y­bo­dy who cares for out­door life in the Arc­tic could have a sple­ndid time.

Wind-car­ved snow sur­face in Nor­dens­ki­öld Land.

And so did we. Beau­tiful arc­tic win­ter impres­si­ons. March can pro­du­ce won­derful light: during night­ti­me, it still gets more or less dark – alt­hough it is get­ting a bit thin on the ground with regards to nor­t­hern lights – so long sun­sets cast stun­ning light over the sno­wy land­scape. After the spring equin­ox, this year on March 20, the dark­ness of the night beg­ins to give way to the light of the mid­night sun. An won­derful time for anyo­ne who app­re­cia­tes poten­ti­al­ly fan­ta­stic light situa­tions, just as the late sum­mer.

The light of the low sun and sea fog over Advent­fjord on a cold day,
with the air­port in the back­ground.

We made good use of the­se stun­ning days. Here are some impres­si­ons of the light win­ter in Spits­ber­gen in the second half of March bet­ween east coast, Advent­fjord and Van Mijenfjord:

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

Do you agree that spitsbergen-svalbard.com is a gre­at re­source for any arc­tic enthu­si­ast?

Ever­y­thing is available for free, no pay­wall, no regis­tra­ti­on, no paid adver­ti­sing, and all this in spi­te of con­stant cos­ts and effort. Plea­se help us to keep it that way, wit­hout pay­wall and paid ads, and sup­port us through Ste­ady!