Monacobreen

Mona­co­b­reen is loca­ted in inner­most Lief­defjord.

The lar­ge gla­cier Mona­co­b­reen is loca­ted in inner­most Lief­defjord, next to Seli­ger­breen, ano­ther impres­si­ve gla­cier. Both of them shared a huge gla­cier front until ca. 2015, when they had retrea­ted so far that the sea rea­ched the moun­tain Stortingspre­si­den­ten bet­ween the two gla­ciers, thus sepa­ra­ting the gla­cier front into two (see pho­to gal­lery at the bot­tom of this page).

Nevert­hel­ess, both Mona­co­b­reen and Seli­ger­breen still are very impres­si­ve gla­ciers and they are among­st the high­lights of many Spits­ber­gen crui­ses. Many pho­tos that are sup­po­sed to show Mona­co­b­reen actual­ly show Seli­ger­breen, by the way 🙂

Pan­ora­ma 1: the advan­ce of the eas­tern part of Mona­co­b­reen

Next to the cal­ving ice front, Mona­co­b­reen is wild­ly crev­as­sed. As of 2023 and 2024, the gla­cier is advan­ving on its eas­tern side, whe­re the­se pan­ora­mas were taken.

Pan­ora­ma 2: the advan­ce of the eas­tern part of Mona­co­b­reen

Simi­lar to the first image, just a bit fur­ther away from the gla­cier front.

Pan­ora­mas 3 and 4

Two more pan­ora­mas from the bird per­spec­ti­ve, quite simi­lar to the two first ones. I just took the oppor­tu­ni­ties as they came, even though results may be simi­lar, apart from some snow cove­ring the land­scapes. The­se two pan­ora­mas (3 and 4) are from Sep­tem­ber 2023 and thus a year older than the two first ones.

Pan­ora­ma 5

And final­ly a pan­ora­ma from 2022, a bit fur­ther to the west and thus clo­ser to Stortingspre­si­den­ten (the moun­tain) and the neigh­bou­ring gla­cier Seli­ger­breen. Somehow I didn’t have an oppor­tu­ni­ty for years to take this kind of image of Mona­co­b­reen. The­re was always some­thing – lack of oppor­tu­ni­ty, no time, wea­ther or wha­te­ver – so I was hap­py when I fina­ly got the oppor­tu­ni­ty for the first time. I thought I might loo­se the oppor­tu­ni­ty altog­e­ther, kno­wing stric­ter rules were in the making, making dro­ne flights in the natio­nal parks (which includes Lief­defjord) impos­si­ble. It would have been a shame to miss the lar­ge, ama­zing Mona­co­b­reen, wouldn’t it?

Pho­to gal­lery Mona­co­b­reen

To start with, some gene­ral impres­si­ons of Mona­co­b­reen from the years 2006 to 2024, cove­ring the sea­sons from spring (June) to autumn (Octo­ber).

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

Pho­to gal­lery: the boun­da­ry bet­ween Mona­co­b­reen and Seli­ger­breen

And final­ly some images illus­t­ra­ting the tran­si­ti­on bet­ween the gla­ciers Mona­co­b­reen (the eas­tern one, thus on the left side in the­se pho­tos) and Seli­ger­breen. As men­tio­ned, both gla­ciers shared a gla­cier front until 2015 when they had retrea­ted so far that the moun­tain Stortingspre­si­den­ten rea­ched the shore and sepa­ra­ted the two gla­ciers. The pho­tos in this gal­lery were taken in the years 2005 to 2022.

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

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