Pinga in Fall colours

When the fall arrives the ban on unleashed dogs disappears and Pinga thrives.

Gisløya in Øksnes

Hiked through Grunnfjorden Nature Reserve and reached the sailing light at Gisløya. This is another pearl of Vesterålen. After a short wait the sun came down below the clouds on the horizon and gave me a magnificently lit landscape.

Bleik in Vesterålen

At 69°16′13″N 15°57′26″Ø the small village Bleik is situated on the sheltered side of Andøya in Vesterålen, Northern Norway. The 500 inhabitants can enjoy this paradise at all times of the year - in different light and in various conditions. The beaches here are magnificent and the bird island off shore is full of puffins and other seabirds. The great White Tailed Eagle is numerous here.

The images are all a variation of Bleiksøya - the Bleik Island.

Beluga Boats

On a recent visit in Fleur de Lyshamna in Van Keulenfjorden in Spitsbergen we visited the site of what once was a Beluga fishery adventure. These fisheries were ecologically insustainable and luckily it ended before the population of this magnificent High Arctic whale were were depleted. Today you can experience Beluga in the fjords of Spitsbergen. They come swimming in groups along the shores. If you're lucky they twist their head (unique feature for the species) and takes a look at you.

Salt & Pepper Bear Cubs

These two guys live in Polar Zoo in Troms in Northern Norway. Salt & Pepper are 10 weeks old. Visited them yesterday, you can follow them on THIS live stream.

Kicksled

A perfectly functional vehicle in Tromsø in wintertime. In Norwegian its name is Spark.

1949

The year my father was born. Tromsø had about 10000 inhabitants. A 60 years old iron gate.

A Roald Amundsen day in Tromsø

Today, we had typical Tromsø winter weather. Snow dumped down in mild temperatures. This makes most people wet and miserable (unless you are a skier, or a long gone legendary polar explorer in bronze).

Landing across the ice at 80° N

Amongst my favorite moments in expedition cruising is when the conditions are such that you don't have to use other landing crafts than you own two feet. This is from Chermsideøya high north in the Svalbard archipelago.

What the future brings the Polar Bears?

An important meeting with the signatory parties of the Polar Bear Agreement is taking place in Tromsø between 17th and 19th March 2009.

In 1973 the countries with a polar bear population (Russia, Denmark/Greenland, Norway, USA and Canada) managed to agree on the protection regime for polar bears. Only traditional hunting would be allowed. In Spitsbergen the polar bears are not hunted at all by indigenous peoples - hence the local population is functioning as a reference.

However, the Norwegian Minister of Environment, Erik Solheim is pointing at excessive tourism as a potential threat towards this population (in addition to sea ice reduction and long-transported pollutants that bio-magnify in the food-web and ends up in high concentrations in top-predators). He is off course right, excessive and irresponsible tourism is a threat - but not the only.

Over the years, I have conducted about 60 sea-born expeditions with tourists to the areas of Svalbard with the highest concentrations of polar bears - the eastern parts of the archipelago. Once, I have flown with helicopter over some of the same areas.

Obvious to me; My one helicopter ride caused more stressed polar bears than all my 60 expeditions combined (by far).

Tourism flights with helicopters are prohibited in Svalbard. Tourism and conservation in Polar Regions are highly compatible and should be used for what it's worth to advocate the polar bear cause.

The pictures below are calm and easy going polar bears, on the east side of Svalbard.

Chinstrap Penguins at Baily Head, Antarctica

This picture is taken very early in the morning. I was guiding a group of hikers across from Baily Head, Deception Island, Antarctica to Whalers Bay. This is a fantastic hike that takes you through one of the largest chinstrap penguin colonies in the Antarctic Peninsula.

BAS Twin Otters

Fascination for polar aviation? These British Antarctic Survey planes are stationed in the Falkland Islands where I took this picture. They stand out even better in an all white Antarctic environment.

Hammerfest

Travelled through Hammerfest a while ago with Hurtigruten. What a city! Quite colorful and thriving on the natural gas taken ashore on the nearby Melkøya, where there is a plant that is, essentially, a giant 10 billion $ fridge that makes it liquid and transfers it to Liquid Natural Gas vessels that takes it to the markets.




A few hours further north, before you arrive the port of Havøysund, you witness another method of luring energy out of nature. The giant windmills dot the spectacular cliff in an intriguing way.

Skiing; somewhere 20 minutes from Tromsø

This was a couple of weekends ago, at the darkest of polar night... My best outdoor experience so far this year :-)

Nisse

You can notice it from the little nisse-men ducking up from nowhere - x-mas is close. Here is the nisse-man aboard MS Lofoten, a beautiful vintage vessel sailing along the coast of Norway.

Fast ferry to Harstad

I took Hurtigruten from Harstad to Tromsø on friday. On our way we met the fast ferry going in the opposite direction in fantastic winter light.

Raudtind in Tromsø

Dark season skiing in Tromsø is great. Not too much light, but enough to have a great time on the mountain.

Polar Bear Stuff

Tromsø is the un-disputed polar bear capital of Norway. No, they are not roaming the streets like in the old days, when trappers brought with them live cubs from Svalbard. Some of the trappers handled them like dogs, walked them in a leach and tied them up outside bars and shops. Anyhow, today, it's the capital of stuffed polar bears, and I have a goal of documenting as many as possible of them. This is the first, from the hall of Norwegian Polar Institute.

Hunting the Light

Sailed from Tromsø to Bergen this week. Fantastic light - forget the midnight sun and all those things we've seen a million times.

Spitsbergen in October

The tourist season is over in Spitsbergen and the community of Longyearbyen has geared down. The day is getting about 15 minutes shorter in each end, every day and the light is fantastic. At night you can get lucky and have clear skies with aurora borealis like we did on our hike to a cabin outside town...