Under sails to Spitsbergen’s glaciers
September 15-25, 2015 with SV Antigua
With the beautiful three mast sailing vessel Antigua, we went into the fjords on Spitsbergen’s west and north coast, up to Moffen on 80 degrees, to mention one of this trip’s highlights straightaway in the first sentence. This trip was dedicated to Spitsbergen’s glaciers, meaning that we offered the chance to do several hikes on these frozen rivers of the arctic for those who were interested, from an introduction to walking on ice with crampons to roping down into a crevasse for a brave volunteer towards the end of the trip.
Of course we did not just focus on glaciers, but we turned out attention to the whole scenic spectrum of arctic landscapes that Spitsbergen has, to keep the level of enthusiasm high throughout the trip. And what you want in these latitudes in mid september is this glorious warm light of the low sun. We were to get plenty of it! Of course you have to expect any kind of weather in the high arctic, and we did get our share of wind and snow, but not too much and it did not bother us too much while we were waiting it out quite comfortably in a sheltered bay.
We made a number of beautiful wildlife observations that some may have found surprisingly large: we saw both polar bears and walrusses more than once. The highlights for many were the amazing walrus encounter on Moffen and the polar bear in Kongsfjord, not to mention the Finn whale in Krossfjord.
In short: it was a great trip! By the way, we will be back in Spitsbergen in September 2016 with Antigua. No glacier hikes, but we’ll be more than happy to land on Moffen again if the weather is on our side …
Click here to download the Triplog (German).
These galleries give some impressions from the various sections of the trips.
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Video
Under sails to Spitsbergen’s glaciers, September 15-25, 2015 with SV Antigua
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last modification: 2019-10-31 ·
copyright: Rolf Stange