The Expedition Sets Sail

After over 24 hours of flying, I arrived in Longyearbyen around 1:30am. Disembarking the plane via an outside staircase, I was hit with a strong, cold gust of wind. Already bundled up in my layers, I groggily made my way to baggage claim where I had to wait quite some time for my bag. For a small airport with only one baggage claim, it’s amazing how many people disembarked. As we drove along the colorful houses of Longyearbyen on the way to the hotel, we passed the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. In Longyearbyen, there are only approximately 25 miles of road and there are no roads connecting different settlements. To get out of Longyearbyen and into the Arctic wilderness, you have to travel by boat during summer and snowmobile or dog sled during the winter. By the time I actually went to bed with jet lag and the 24-hour daylight, it was almost time to wake up and start my day. 

My hotel in Longyearbyen-- old trapper lodge style. 

While the morning could be spent at leisure, there was no way the snow would stop me from exploring! After a little retail therapy in the shops, I headed off to an old coal mine to photograph. 

Exploring around Longyearbyen.

On the way back, I also stopped on a bridge, laying down on the pedestrian overpass to photograph a small stream running through town.

Longyearbyen landscape.

In the early afternoon, it was finally time to board the expedition boat. The M/S Stockholm was built in 1953 for the Swedish maritime administration as a working vessel in the Baltic Sea. In 1998, the ship was totally refitted and started carrying passengers as a polar passenger ship. Carrying only a maximum of 12 passengers, the ship stands at 40 meters long. Since we had to do basic briefings on safety and excursions, we didn’t do much today, though we did photograph the landscape from the outside decks.

Snow-capped mountain sailing out of Longyearbyen.

Photographing landscapes from the ship.

The following morning at a little after midnight, we heard knocks on our cabin doors… We had spotted our first wildlife! I leapt out of bed, grabbed my coat and cameras, and went to the bow of the ship where we could see a group of nearly 20, maybe more, walrus laying on the shore. The scientific name for a walrus is Odobenus Rosmarus, which is Latin for “tooth-walking sea-horse.” These funny looking creatures looked like they were in complete bliss. After photographing them for nearly an hour, I went back to sleep to prepare for the day ahead.

After breakfast, we began navigating around a glacier. We were outside photographing for hours, and were treated to the glacier actually calving! First there was a little piece that calved off, followed by a medium piece a few minutes later and then a huge chunk. Even though we were 300 meters away, the third calving triggered a huge wave that sent us running to grab on to the railing. Here we also saw another walrus, hauled out on the ice.

Calving glacier.

Dramatic lighting on the glacier.

Bird flying across the glaciers.  

The polar regions are great for experimentation in photography. As I was studying icebergs drifting by, I noticed beautiful patterns that looked like something out of this world. Instead of shooting wide, I grabbed the telephoto and started focusing on abstracting these patterns.

Close up of the iceberg.

In the afternoon, we took a short zodiac cruise where we saw 10-15 harbor seals balancing on rocks. 

After an hour of photographing them, we made a landing to go on a 2 mile hike. When we disembarked the zodiacs, we saw blubber oil ovens where people would boil blubber for use in other countries (as mentioned previously with the lighting, use of baleen for corsets, etc). As the snow fell, the wind picked up. We trudged through thick snow, at times falling deeper into the snow. At one point, there was a beautiful frozen lake with gorgeous snow-capped mountains in the background. Seeing an opportunity, I grabbed my graduation gown and had our photography leader take some pics!

Eventually, we continued our loop and walked back to the zodiacs along the shore. Suddenly, one of our two guides told everyone to stop walking… two walrus were hauled out along the beach! He briefed us on how we should proceed. Walk in a straight line, side-by-side. Walk at the same pace. If the guides stop, you stop. Don’t make noise. Don’t make sudden movements. Ok, let’s go. As we approached the walrus, it was apparent that these two were extremely skittish. Normally, you can get a lot closer to walrus on land but these two waddled off into the water quite quickly, watching us from the choppy waters.

Walrus hauled out on the beach.

Watching us from the water.

Our ship, the Stockholm, in the snowy Arctic.

When we headed back to the ship, I went outside on the decks for some more landscape photography. Later in the evening, the water was calmer and provided beautiful reflections.

Thanks for reading about my Arctic adventures... Stay tuned for more and be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts! As always, follow my instagram @elissatitle for more pics.