Pho­to trip Spits­ber­gen March 2016

Pho­to trip 13-19 March, 2016: The light of the arc­tic win­ter!

Pho­to impres­si­ons by Alex­an­der Lembke

During this exclu­si­ve pho­to expe­di­ti­on, you will have the pos­si­bi­li­ty to expe­ri­ence Spits­ber­gen during one of the best times of the year and you will get end­less oppor­tu­ni­ties to dis­co­ver new frames and moti­ves. The light keeps chan­ging every hour and the sun is dancing on snow-cover­ed moun­tain tops at the same time as the gla­ciers are dipped in that spe­cial light you can see only at this time of the year and only in in the high arc­tic.

Fro­zen gla­cier fronts: exci­ting trips in win­ter­bound Spits­ber­gen.

Win­ter tou­rism in Spits­ber­gen usual­ly means put­ting tog­e­ther a cou­ple of days trips, often more or less at ran­dom choice. As an alter­na­ti­ve, we have come up with an ela­bo­ra­te pro­gram­me of a week’s dura­ti­on: expe­ri­ence the most impres­si­ve land­scapes ima­gi­nable, con­stant­ly chan­ging through the dai­ly move into a new area. A small group (maxi­mum 10 per­sons) is accom­pa­nied by 3 expe­ri­en­ced Spits­ber­gen gui­des to allow the best pos­si­ble itin­era­ry. We will under­ta­ke exten­si­ve excur­si­ons into the arc­tic wil­der­ness with motor-sleds, start­ing out from the main Nor­we­gi­an town of Lon­gye­ar­by­en and the Rus­si­an mining sett­le­ment of Barents­burg. This will offer you the unpar­al­le­led chan­ce of expe­ri­en­cing a varie­ty of arc­tic win­ter land­scapes, with the peace and time to tru­ly enjoy the magni­fi­cent natu­re. The con­cept of having two ful­ly sepa­ra­ted base camps for the group enables us to ful­ly exploit the pos­si­bi­li­ties of the enorm­ously varied sce­n­ery; having rela­tively short trips and thus more time on loca­ti­on the­re, whe­re we want to be. Out the­re in the arc­tic natu­re.

The favoura­ble ratio of gui­des to par­ti­ci­pan­ts will enable the rea­li­sa­ti­on of indi­vi­du­al wis­hes.

Chan­ces to see the Nor­t­hern Lights are good in mid March.

The Pro­gram­me

It goes wit­hout say­ing that we will adapt the pro­gram­me to the pre­vai­ling wea­ther on site. We will remain ful­ly fle­xi­ble and will react to the con­di­ti­ons we encoun­ter on the day – and also, of cour­se, to the wis­hes of our guests.

Day 1: Arri­val in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, pick-up at the air­port. The first chan­ce of explo­ring and shoo­ting pho­tos by way of get­ting used to the con­di­ti­ons. We will get to know one ano­ther in the rela­xed atmo­sphe­re of the evening meal. Over­night stay in Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Day 2: Explo­re Lon­gye­ar­by­en, indi­vi­du­al­ly or with one of your gui­des. Indi­vi­du­al lunch. In the after­noon, we visit a gla­cial ice cave in Lon­gye­ar­breen (-gla­cier), thus ente­ring a com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent, but utter­ly beau­tiful world. We spend the night in Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Day 3: First­ly, we prepa­re our­sel­ves for the excur­si­ons into the arc­tic win­ter: Ins­truc­tion in hand­ling the motor-sleds, clot­hing, safe­ty infor­ma­ti­on. The first trip with the motor-sleds leads us to Grønfjord, spe­ci­fi­cal­ly to Barents­burg. On the way we will take a few diver­si­ons and stop of for some pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, mea­ning that the trip will effec­tively take up the who­le day. In Barents­burg we will move into the aptly named “Hotel Barents­burg”.

In Barents­burg the arc­tic natu­re and the Rus­si­an influen­ced civi­li­sa­ti­on col­l­i­de in a visual­ly very exo­tic way; the town in its­elf sends out a chal­len­ging invi­ta­ti­on to exten­si­ve­ly explo­re and take pho­tos, and it should be noted that the light in the evening and by night is pro­ba­b­ly most attrac­ti­ve, making the most of the dis­creet arti­fi­ci­al light­ing. During the day we will devo­te our atten­ti­on in the main to the beau­tiful arc­tic natu­re in the exten­ded vici­ni­ty of Barents­burg.

Day 4: We take an exten­ded trip into the arc­tic wil­der­ness in the wider neigh­bour­hood of Barents­burg. In the area of the Grønfjord­brea­ne (-gla­ciers) we can, for exam­p­le, take advan­ta­ge of an impres­si­ve­ly struc­tu­red land­scape for­med by moun­ta­ins, gla­ciers and fro­zen lagoons. Sce­n­ery like this offers – and demands – that we take our time to ful­ly exploit the oppor­tu­ni­ty. In the cour­se of the trip we will expe­ri­ence sub­jects which would never even occur to the ever­y­day Barents­burg visi­tor in his limi­t­ed time frame. Once again, we spend the night in Barents­burg and spend the evening as we plea­se, loo­king for more impres­si­ons and images or dis­cus­sing the pho­to­gra­phic haul so far.

Day 5: Our excur­si­on today takes us to the west coast, to Isfjord Radio/Kapp Lin­né. The litt­le out­post was respon­si­ble for the com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on bet­ween Nor­way and Spits­ber­gen as of 1933. Today, the sta­ti­on of Isfjord Radio is run as a small hotel in the wil­der­ness under the name of Kapp (Cape) Lin­né. During a good two-cour­se lunch we will get to know the char­ming for­mer trans­mis­si­on sta­ti­on a litt­le bet­ter and then devo­te our time to the uni­que sce­n­ery bet­ween the moun­tai­nous Grønfjord and the wide open west coast. We will spend the night in Barents­burg.

Day 6: We plan to lea­ve Barents­burg via a dif­fe­rent rou­te to the one we came in on, to maxi­mi­ze the varie­ty of our expe­ri­ence. In the evening, we will enjoy a deli­cious fare­well meal in Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Day 7: Break­fast, trans­fer to the air­port and depar­tu­re.

Ice cave.

The tour lea­ders

• Alex­an­der Lembke is pro­fes­sio­nal pho­to­grapher who has done work for GEO Sai­son Maga­zin (ger­man), Mare and ZDF/3Sat. He is also tea­ching as a Pro­fes­sor at the BTK Hoch­schu­le für Gestal­tung in Ham­burg.
• Doreen Lam­pe is a pro­fes­sio­nal Gui­de and has been working and living in Spitz­ber­gen sin­ce 2009. She is an aut­ho­ri­zed and trai­ned snow­mo­bi­le gui­de who also is spe­cia­li­zed in res­cue and safe­ty ope­ra­ti­ons. Her long expe­ri­ence will ensu­re a safe and smooth snow mobi­le ope­ra­ti­on.
• Rolf Stan­ge will be known to most of the visi­tors to our web site as a lea­ding gui­de in the Arc­tic and Ant­ar­c­tic or as an aut­hor. The­re is more about me here and anyo­ne who wants to know what I do, only has to click a litt­le through the pages of this site.

alex doreen rolf (gal­lery):

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

Alex Lembke

Doré­en Lam­pe

Rolf Stan­ge

Fur­ther Ques­ti­ons? Reser­va­tions or Boo­kings?

Should you have any fur­ther ques­ti­ons as to the tour, feel free to get in touch with Spits­ber­gen Adven­tures or with Rolf Stan­ge (cont­act). For spe­cia­list pho­to­gra­phic queries, Alex­an­der Lembke (photo@alexanderlembke.de) is the right man to get in touch with. To reser­ve or book your places, get in touch with Spits­ber­gen Adven­tures Cont­act:

Spitz­ber­gen Adven­tures
Post­boks 489
N-9171 Lon­gye­ar­by­en
Mobil: + 47 480 61 091
Email: info@spitzbergen-adventures.com
Web­sei­te: www.spitzbergen-adventures.com

Motor-sled in the evening light near­by Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Pri­ces, fur­ther details and small print

• The pri­ce for the trip is 45,000.00 NOK (Nor­we­gi­an Kro­ner), which curr­ent­ly cor­re­sponds to (Novem­ber 2015) 4,870 Euros. Included are: all over­night accom­mo­da­ti­on, all excur­si­ons with gui­des and equip­ment as lis­ted below. Inclu­si­ve meals are: Break­fast and lunch, evening meal in Barents­burg and in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Lunch con­sists of a simp­le warm meal and snacks in the field and at Kapp Lin­né lunch is ser­ved in a hotel. Not included are: Evening meal in Lon­gye­ar­by­en on day 2, flights to and from Lon­gye­ar­by­en, addi­tio­nal drinks, Sou­ve­nirs.
• The fol­lo­wing equip­ment will be pro­vi­ded for moto­ri­sed sled trips: Moto­ri­sed sleds, spe­cial suit, shoes and gloves, hel­met with visor and bala­cla­va.
• You should bring the fol­lo­wing equip­ment your­sel­ves, along with your per­so­nal and pho­to­gra­phic equip­ment: long, warm under­wear, e.g. Meri­no­wool, warm fleece pull­over, light and medi­um gloves, warm and wind resistant cap, ski­ing gog­gles. warm jacket (recom­men­ded: quil­ted down jacket) for walks in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Barents­burg. The tem­pe­ra­tures can fall to around -20°C, some­ti­mes even lower.
• Pho­to­gra­phic equip­ment: When tra­vel­ling by moto­ri­sed sled, the weight of the equip­ment is not par­ti­cu­lar­ly important so long as it fits into your own pho­to­gra­phic ruck­sack. (Tri­pods can be put on the trai­ler). We recom­mend: less is more, but good qua­li­ty is important. In the twi­light and dark­ness, an appro­pria­te­ly light (prime) sen­si­ti­ve lens, a tri­pod and may­be a flash are stap­les. Detail­ed infor­ma­ti­on from Rolf on pho­to equipmment can be obtai­ned here.
• The exact pro­gram­me is depen­dent on the wea­ther. In the unli­kely event that the wea­ther makes a par­ti­cu­lar excur­si­on dan­ge­rous, it could be that this sin­gle trip will be can­cel­led. Can­cel­la­ti­ons due to wea­ther con­di­ti­ons do not con­sti­tu­te grounds for a refund. In any event the best pos­si­ble achie­va­ble pro­gram­me will be orga­nis­ed on site.
• The lan­guage used within the groups and by the gui­des will be Eng­lish and/or Ger­man, depen­ding on the group.
• Dri­ving a motor-sled is tech­ni­cal­ly quite easy and you will quick­ly get a grasp after our intro­duc­tion. We (your gui­des) know the chal­lenges of the arc­tic ter­rain well and we will make sure that we will deal with them safe­ly and ade­qua­te­ly. You need a car dri­ving licence. The blood/alcohol limit in Nor­way is very strict­ly obser­ved at 0.2 per mil. A cer­tain level of endu­rance is requi­red for excur­si­ons in the arc­tic ter­rain, even when using moto­ri­sed vehic­les. Pregnan­cy and pro­blems with the back and lum­ber regi­on con­sti­tu­te grounds for exclu­si­on from excur­si­ons by motor-sled.
• The respon­si­ble tour ope­ra­tor is Spitz­ber­gen Adven­tures. The gene­ral terms and con­di­ti­ons of busi­ness of Spitz­ber­gen Adven­tures app­ly.
• Maxi­mum num­ber of par­ti­ci­pan­ts: 10 per­sons. Mini­mum num­ber of par­ti­ci­pan­ts: 8.
• As always, all infor­ma­ti­on con­tai­ned her­ein has been com­pi­led to the best of our know­ledge and abili­ty. We reser­ve the right to chan­ge the pro­gram­me. We are not lia­ble for fac­tu­al or infor­ma­ti­ve errors.

Pho­to gal­lery

A few impres­si­ons from the arc­tic win­ter, such as tho­se which we could encoun­ter in Spits­ber­gen in March 2016:

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

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