Day 1 Arrival Longyearbyen, briefing and preparations.

Good planning, nice tour mates and careful preparations are half the trip! It is therefore important that all the participants are in place in Longyearbyen during the afternoon. The guide will pick you up at your choice of accommodation at 4 pm. During the afternoon, you have the opportunity to get acquainted with the other participants and to make sure you brought the necessary equipment. The guide will brief you on the planned route and give you an updated weather forecast. We will pack and prepare the pulkas for the next day before we end the meeting. Those who have a need to supplement their equipment will have time to do so before the sporting goods stores close.

Day 2: Boat trip to Esmark Glacier – our starting point.

Your tour leader will pick you up at the hotel for transport to the harbour, where the pulkas await, ready to be loaded onboard the boat. The boat trip takes approx 3 hours.  On arrival in Ymerbukta, we will be set off on the ice edge, after which we will continue towards the glacier front of the Esmark glacier. We will wave goodbye to the boat and to civilisation for the next 7 days. At last, we will begin our adventurous journey to the north!  On this first day, our main goal is to reach the first plateau on the glacier, 350 meters above sea level. This makes a perfect site for our tents, as we will get a good view over the fjord.  The distance of this journey is 7 -8 km, depending on the ice conditions on the fjord.

Day 3 to 7: Skiing northbound in the arctic wilderness

During day 3, we should be able to mentally abandon the mundane thoughts and worries from the civil world as we glide into the arctic atmosphere of untouched nature, silence, changing weather and physical challenges. We will enter tour-mode with set routines, good work sessions in front of the pulkas and cosy nights with our new tour mates. We will spend the whole day out skiing: We will start in the morning, have a nice lunch break, and establish camp approximately 6 pm.

We will ski everyday approximately 15 to 20 kilometres, and each stretch will vary depending on terrain, weather, snow conditions and the composition of the group. We will plan the route in easy terrain, mainly on glaciers with a mild gradient, encircled by mountain ridges. We will be safely linked together by ropes when we travel over areas with crevasses.

The route will vary some from year to year, but roughly the route will be northbound over Esmark Glacier and into Trollheimen. In this fairytale area, the nature truly matches its name. Our journey through Trollheimen will go over Nansenpasset and down onto Bore Glacier. With good snow conditions, we will follow the Bore Glacier all the way till we reach Vintervegen, which we will follow down to St. Jons Fjord. After breathing in some fresh sea air, we will turn back into the inland again, over Osborn Glacier and up on the majestic mountain plateau where Kongsvegen starts. On the north side of Kongsvegen Glacier, we will get a magnificent view of Svalbard’s “monarchs”. If the weather is fine and the progress good we will have the opportunity to enjoy the sight of Kingsbay from the very summit of Nora, and then from there slide down to Ekmannfjorden.

Day 8: The ski trip finale down to Ekmannfjorden.

The last stretch will take us through the sloping glacier all the way down to the fjord. Ekmannfjorden is one of our favourites, with its characteristic red sandstone mountains and rich bird and mammal life. If we are lucky we might spot some seals and maybe even a polar bear. The boat will pick us up in the afternoon. The boat trip back to Longyearbyen lasts for approximately 2 hours, and we expect to arrive during late afternoon.

In Longyearbyen, we will eat dinner together and get to spend time in the fellowship of our tour mates, to take in and process our experiences and memories from the days on the glacier.