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→ May, 2025
Monthly Archives: May 2025 − News & Stories
Isfjord: Trygghamna, Ymerbukta, Borebukta
Sat
31 May
2025
A wonderful morning in Trygghamna, with lots of snow and ice and a glacier lagoon under a blue sky.
In the afternoon, more great scenery in the neighbouring bays of Ymerbukta and Borebukta. A little windy.
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Forlandsund
Sat
31 May
2025
A beautiful day on the west coast of Spitsbergen, in Forlandsund. It was good to see the sun again.
Forlandsund is known for walruses. That’s what we were after, and they were at home ☺️
We went for a short hike in St. Jonsfjord. A bit of exercise did us good, and the views over the landscape, fell and fjord, snow and ice … marvellous!
Then it was time to get away from the west coast. It was going to be quite stormy there over the next few days. But that shouldn’t bother us too much in Isfjord. So off we went!
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Sysselmester cuts back on field inspectors
The layman is amazed, the expert is astonished: just now, when newly introduced new rules are causing confusion for many, the system manager is cutting back on field inspectors. Yet this year in particular there is probably a lot to check and probably a few parking tickets to hand out.
Normally, the Sysselmester has three teams in the field during the main season, each consisting of a police officer and a scientist, such as a biologist. These teams are stationed in Isfjord (Trygghamna), Kongsfjord and north-west Spitsbergen (Magdalenefjord-Woodfjord) and are there to keep an eye on tourists, document the condition of cultural monuments, count birds and things like that.
You would have to be a field inspector at the Sysselmester! This is how you would be accommodated in Magdalenefjord before you move to Mushamna.
This year, however, there will only be the northern team, which will initially be stationed in Magdalenefjord and later move to Mushamna in Woodfjord. The teams in Kongsfjord and Isfjord have been cancelled for budget reasons, as Svalbardposten wrote.
Northwest Spitsbergen
Fri
30 May
2025
A day in the north-west of Spitsbergen. Starting in the beautiful Hamiltonbukta in Raudfjord, reindeer and arctic foxes said good morning to each other under a large birdcliff. Later, we met an almost curious bearded seal.
The large Svitjodbreen glacier in Fuglefjord was a little grey, but this made it appear even wilder and more powerful.
Some friendly harbour seals on the coast of Danskøya rounded off this eventful, beautiful day.
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With SV Meander from Longyearbyen to the ice
Thu
29 May
2025
‘Cast off’ was the motto on Monday on the Meander in Longyearbyen, off and away into this time that lies somewhere between Arctic winter and summer. With lots of snow and ice, but without snowmobiles and without the extremely cold temperatures that could make being outside a few weeks ago a bit of a challenge.
So the Arctic summer is well on its way to Spitsbergen, and in co-operation with a hefty dose of climate change, this hot duo is in the process of moving the drift ice northwards away from the coast of Spitsbergen. As we wanted to get a glimpse of the drift ice, we made sure to get there with a stopover in Ny-Ålesund before it was completely out of reach. ‘Normally’, let’s say 20 years ago, the drift ice edge would perhaps have been found in the Amsterdamøya area on the coast at the end of May. Today it lies at 80 degrees north. And that’s where – and a few miles further – we were on the third day of the trip to experience the beautiful world of ice. Rounded off by a lovely little evening landing in Sallyhamna.
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Longyearbyen Photo Club with SV Meander in Isfjord
Mon
26 May
2025
A short trip with SV Meander in Isfjord. Just 1.5 days, and yet it was really worth it – especially as nobody flew in, the participants were all local members of the Longyearbyen Photo Club (fotoklubb).
It’s unbelievable what you can do and see in such a short time if you’re lucky with the weather! A few impressions, from Trygghamna to Borebukta and Colesbukta:
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Amundsen’s first North Pole expedition from Ny-Ålesund 100 years ago
It was exactly 100 years ago today that Roald Amundsen took off with two flying boats (seaplanes) from Ny-Ålesund in Kongsfjord. It was his first attempt to fly to the North Pole. The attempt was not successful: shortly before 88 degrees north, both aeroplanes had to land in the ice, and it was only with unspeakable difficulty that they managed to take off again after 25 days. One of the two planes had to be left behind, the six members of the expedition reached Nordaustland in the other plane and were rescued there by a Norwegian sealing vessel that happened to be nearby.
The famous expeditions with Nobile and the airships Norge (1926) and Italia (1928) followed in the years that followed. As is well known, the Italia was wrecked and part of the crew disappeared without a trace. Nobile and the remaining crew were rescued. Amundsen had set off in search of Nobile, but died in the process. His exact fate is still unknown today.
Roald Amundsen in Ny-Ålesund.
The two Dornier-Wal aircraft N24 and N25 took off on 21 May 1925 – exactly 100 years ago today – marking the start of this last, famous and dramatic chapter in Amundsen’s life as an explorer, characterised by flying expeditions to the North Pole.
The Fram Museum in Oslo is dedicating a new exhibition to this expedition.
Poster “Svalbardhytter” available again
It was out of print for a long time, but now it’s back in a revised form 🙂 the Svalbardhytter poster. beautifully illustrates the diversity of Spitsbergen’s many huts. 60 small manifestations of old Arctic adventures in wall format (70×100 cm)!
Poster Svalbardhytter, second edition.
The font colour has been improved compared to the first edition so that the lettering is easier to read.
The new font colour improves readability.
The accompanying booklet Svalbardhytter provides the information that turns the pictures into small, exciting Spitsbergen stories.
Makes the thing complete: booklet Svalbardhytter.
Rabies detected again
The rabies virus has been detected in an arctic fox, according to a statement from the Sysselmester. The fox was killed last Monday (5 May) in Pyramiden after it had attracted attention due to its abnormal behaviour.
Polar fox.
Rabies occurs in Svalbard from time to time with breaks of several years, most recently in 2018. The virus probably comes to Svalbard with infected arctic foxes that migrate long distances over the ice, without being able to establish itself there permanently. The disease is also fatal for humans, so caution is advised with animal carcasses and also with live animals. Both should simply not be touched – one more good reason not to be bitten by polar bears.
The fox in Pyramiden is so far the only recent case in which the rabies virus has been detected.
Isfjord: Dicksonfjord, Longyearbyen
The last day was once again a crowning finale. However, it didn’t go quite as planned. We wanted to go ashore again and were standing on the shore at Kapp Wijk, but before everyone had even packed their life jackets into the famous orange bag, another polar bear appeared 😀 quite far away, on the fjord ice towards Blomesletta.
Nevertheless, we were picked up again straight away and went to see what was happening. And it was extraordinary and exciting. The bear went for a swim and tried to dive and grab one of the many fulmars that were sitting on the water. And it worked! I’d never seen a polar bear grab a bird sitting on the water from below before. Arctic nature is always good for a surprise!
It was quite far away, but with heavy photographic equipment it was still possible to take photos in which you can at least recognise the result. And later the bear actually came a little closer. Of course, 500 metres, of course. But with a high-quality focal length of 860 mm and 45 MP, you can do something.
We were able to cover the last few miles towards Longyearbyen under sail, and then Jan pulled out all the stops in the galley. All in all, it was a really well-rounded last day that ended in a great mood – I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making it such a wonderful trip: The crew of the Meander, the participants and of course Leguan Reisen as the organiser of this trip! It was great!
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Spitsbergen 10-18 July 2025 with SV Meander
That’s my ceterum censeo (the last words of every post) for the time being: We still have several places available on SV Meander in the most beautiful Arctic summer, 10-18 July (German speaking)! If you are interested, you can contact Uwe Maaß at the Geographische Reisegesellschaft directly, Leguan Reisen can also help. On all our trips, I will use high-quality camera technology to ensure the best possible pictures, which all participants will receive!
Isfjord: Colesbukta, Grumant, Borebukta, Dicksonfjord
Thu
8 May
2025
What a day! Starting with the fantastic weather. It couldn’t have been better.
We spent the morning in Colesbukta. In addition to this important part of Spitsbergen’s history, there were snow buntings, reindeer, silence, beautiful scenery and the odd group of snowmobilers, which seems quite unusual when you’re travelling by boat yourself.
To complete the story, we later made a passage near Grumantbyen. The two places belonged together.
In the afternoon we went to Borebukta. Simply marvellously beautiful! There were walruses everywhere on the ice floes of broken up fjord ice and numerous small icebergs drifting in the water next to them. And all this under a blue sky and with no wind at all!
We didn’t see more than a trace of the King of the Arctic … but that changed in Dicksonfjord, where we had actually only planned to go for a short evening walk. But then the polar bear came walking up and we discovered that you can have a wonderful experience and take beautiful photos even from the now legally prescribed distance of 500 metres. Good thing that I invested in a camera and lens again last autumn, which really scores points in a situation like this. By the way, everyone who is here on board with us on Meander will of course be provided with photos by me.
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Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that we still have several places available on Meander in the most beautiful Arctic summer, 10-18 July (German speaking)! If you are interested, just get in touch with Uwe Maaß at the Geographische Reisegesellschaft. On all our trips, I will use high-quality camera technology to ensure the best possible pictures, which all participants will receive!
Forlandsund: Sarstangen, Selvågen
Tue
6 May
2025
A marvellous day in Forlandsund! The walruses at Sarstangen were in a good mood. It’s unusual to see the landscape so wintry there, but it’s beautiful.
It was also really wintry on Prins Karls Forland, on a snowshoe tour in Selvågen.
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Drift ice
A day in the drift ice in the north-west of Spitsbergen. It was the perfect day, windless and increasingly sunny, unforgettably beautiful! The wind of the last few days had caused the ice to drift quite far southwards, we had encountered it south of Magdalenefjord.
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Krossfjord: Fjortende Julibukta, Lloyd Hotel
Mon
5 May
2025
A marvellous day in Krossfjord, at the glacier in Fjortende Julibukta and at Lloyd’s Hotel. The rest of the story is told by the pictures …
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Kongsfjord: Ny-Ålesund, Kronebreen
Mon
5 May
2025
In the morning, Ny-Ålesund in Kongsfjord was on the programme. Of the many visits to the northernmost settlement on Spitsbergen – or the world, depending on how you define ‘settlement’ – this was definitely one of the nicer ones for me, with a distinctly wintry character, sunshine and blue skies. Great!
A drift ice field had temporarily blocked the harbour, but Meander has a thick skin and a lot of steam in the boiler, so that wasn’t a problem.
To our surprise, the fast ice in inner Kongsfjord had already completely broken up and largely dissolved. That’s pretty unusual at the beginning of May.
Nevertheless, the situation allowed us to sail to the end of Kongsfjord and enjoy magnificent views of the many icebergs in front of Kronebreen under the sun and blue sky.
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News-Listing live generated at 2025/June/17 at 23:24:54 Uhr (GMT+1)
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