Posts Tagged "arctic"

This last post took way more time to be written than anyone had expected. In case you are reaching this blog directly, I highly recommend reading the two previous posts about this trip: part 1: the northernmost inhabited place in the world part 2: our boat. The main reasons for me to travel to Svalbard are to see some polar bears and also capture the unique landscape of the arctic. The weather in the arctic changes quickly from the worst to the best in couple minutes. After returning from my previous trip, I learned that my favorite images from that trip were when it was cloudy, overcast, almost stormy. I don’t know why but the pictures taken in cloudy weather seems to reflect better my feelings about Svalbard, a hard place, a challenging place. This time...

After part one, you should now know where Svalbard is and how challenging life over there can be. Sailing can be dangerous but in most places, there is reasonable hope for help if something goes really bad. In Svalbard, you are on your own. The governor of Svalbard makes it really clear that help can take a long time to reach you and you should be prepared to help yourself. I’m not confident enough in my sailing skills so I chartered a boat with a crew. The boat is not a big one, it’s an Alubat Ovni 445, 45ft aluminum hull sailboat, made in France (in the Sables d’Olonnes). The boat was really confortable and spacious. We were 4 passengers and 2 crew members. The constant presence of sunlight really confused our internal clock. After a while we...

I went sailing in Svalbard last month for a week. It was the second time, I visited the small archipelago in the arctic zone. Last time I went camping and kayaking and while it was fun it did not allow me to travel long distances. This time, I chose a sailboat, first because it allowed us to travel quite a lot, secondly it was a lot more confortable, thirdly it was small enough we could get really close to any glacier. Where is the Svalbard? Svalbard (which means “cold coast” in Norwegian) is between 78 and 81 degrees north. The main town is Longyearbyen and is about 650 miles from the North Pole. That’s the northernmost inhabited place in the world. It’s not a big town, about 2000 people lives there year long. There is an hospital, roads, stores,...

Aurora borealis or Northern lights (for us in the northern hemisphere) is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow. The northern lights can range from a simple green faint flow over the horizon to a bright “curtain” of lights dancing above you (and bright enough to cast a shadow like full moon). I did not realize until recently that this is a bucket list item for many people, so in this post I’m going to share my experience chasing aurora. First to see the aurora, you need to have a clear, dark night. It implies being far away from civilization to avoid any light pollution. The dark night is a bit tricky since...