Welcome to the Arctic and the northernmost town Longyearbyen! Once you have arrived in Longyearbyen, we’ll take you to our expedition centre for briefing. We’ll go through the gear, safety and logistics ensuring every sled and ski is ready, checking up on the equipment list, ensure everyone is properly prepared, and make any necessary last-minute purchases. Finally, we pack the sleds and urge you to get a good night sleep before we start our crossing tomorrow morning. 

OBS: Accommodation, meals and transfer is not included for the first night.
We can help arrange this. 

Start your day with a good breakfast and send a message home as we will now go offgrid and start our big adventure. The guide will greet you at your hotel and then we will start the day with a gear check and a briefing. We will travel with snowmobiles approx 120 km East into the valley to our starting point at Agardhdalen. This journey itself offers breathtakning views of glaciers, mountains and even the wild Svalbard reindeers looking for food underneath the snow.

After a few hours we reach our starting point. We unload, harness our sleds, click into our skis and take the first steps westward into the Arctic wilderness. 

From here it will go uphill towards Passbreen. This is just a magnificent Arctic experience with spectacular scenery with glaciers. When we arrive at our first camp spot it's established and here we will help each other with setting up tents, boiling water, and establishing a routine. After our dinner we will take turn being a polar bear watch in the night under the midnight sun. When you crawl into the sleeping bag you will feel calm and tired.

It's important to start the day with a solid breakfast to get fuel for the journey.  The silence is complete. There will be time to consider the balance of body and mind as we go more downhill towards Kjellstömdalen. We might pass wildlife as we move on. When we reach our campspot for the night we will start the preparations for dinner and have a bear watch. The experience can be used as a form of recreation and for being offgrid you can probably start to feel that you are "in the moment", enjoying the silence and surrroundings.

We are near Kjellströmdalen which is the border between Nordenskiöld Land, Heer Land and Sabine Land. The valley is approx. 27 kilometers long. Camp is set up. Normally the landscape will start to be more flat for the next couple of days.

Svea is located at the head of Van Mijenfjorden. It was a former mining settlement in Svalbard that closed in 2020 and which has now being dismantled. We will not be visiting but here we might see a cabin in the distance and get a feeling of human civilization.

Today is a long and steady day across the frozen fjord system. From Svea we move out onto the sea ice of Van Mijenfjorden, heading west toward Blåhuken.

The terrain is mostly flat, but Arctic sea ice is never completely predictable. Pressure ridges, wind-shaped snow formations and subtle tidal movements remind us that we are travelling across a living surface. With wide horizons and surrounding mountain silhouettes, this stage gives a true feeling of Svalbard’s scale and exposure.

Kaldbukta (Cold Bay) on Svalbard is a vast, shallow, 11.5 km-wide bay at the mouth of the large Reindalen valley in Van Mijenfjorden. It is known to be the place where the bigger rivers like Reindalselva, Semmeldalselva and Kalvdalselva meets the fjord, creating wide and icy tidal flats. It’s a place of geological significance and a key feature of Nordenskiöld Land’s landscape, offering a sense of Svalbard's vast, cold wilderness. The landscape will gradually change.

We will reach Fridjofbreen. From here it will be uphill. Fridtjofbreen is a roughly 30 km² glacier and about 10 km long, flowing from Grønfjord glacier into Van Mijenfjorden, making it the largest glacier in Nordenskiöld Land. It's known for its dramatic ice formations and wildlife viewing opportunities.

Today our movement will be more calm as we go along near Grønfjordbreane. Grønfjordbreane is the common name for Vestre Grønfjordbreen and Austre Grønfjordbreen, two glaciers with a combined area of 20 km². The area is notable for the mining settlement of Barentsburg on the fjord's eastern shore.

We are still far from civilizaion and in the Svalbard wilderness and the plan is to end our trip at Isfjorden in Barentsburg. This is a fascinating Russian mining town. It is close to the outermost part of Isfjorden, approximately 60 km from Longyearbyen. Here is a hotel and a restaurant where we will spend our last night and have a dinner in town after crossing Svalbard on skis sharing our best memories of this tour.

This morning we will go with snowmobile back to Longyearbyen. Once back in town, we return the equipment, check into the hotel, and enjoy a well-earned shower. A flexible day to relax, unwind, and let the adventure sink in. If the weather was challenging earlier, this day serves as a buffer for adjustments. For those with energy left, we recommend a gentle walk or sightseeing tour to explore Longyearbyen (and this is possible to prebook through us as well). 

OBS: Accomodation, meals and transfer in Longyearbyen is not included for this night

We recommend having 2 extra days / 1 night after return to Longyearbyen from the expedition. Flexible days to relax, unwind, and let the adventure sink in.

If the weather was challenging during the expedition, this day serves as a buffer for adjustments.

For those with energy left, we can help create an itinerary for staying in the northernmost town. 

The next day it will then be time to say goodbye to the Arctic.

Note: Accomodation, meals and transfer in Longyearbyen is not included for pre- and post arrangements