Trans Spitsbergen expedition

Trans Spitsbergen expedition 2004

Åshild Tomassen, the dog Balto and me spent one month skiing Svalbard from north to south in the spring of 2004.

We were not familiar with this kind of skiing, and started late in the season at the 20th of April, so chances were big for us being stopped by the spring.

We experienced all kinds of conditions, from good cold weather in midnight sun, to splashing through rivers of melting snow and fighting violent snow storms. We finished the journey just in time after fighting our way through bad weather the last week,

Poli Arctici did a good job transporting us to North Cape. We skied to South Cape and returned to Van Keulen fjord, where we were picked up outside the South Spitsbergen National Park. A total distance of 650 kilometres.

We experienced beautiful nature and med lots of animals, like seals, Svalbard reindeer, Polar fox, birds and six polar bears. One of them came closed than appreciated, when trying to steal Balto's food outside the tent.

Spitsbergen is the biggest island of Svalbard. Route indicated.



Trans Spitsbergen expedition 2004 Åshild Tomassen, the dog Balto and me spent one month skiing Svalbard from north to south in the spring of 2004. We were not familiar with this kind of skiing, and started late in the season at the 20th of April, so chances were big for us being stopped by the spring. We experienced all kinds of conditions, from good cold weather in midnight sun, to splashing through rivers of melting snow and fighting violent snow storms. We finished the journey just in time after fighting our way through bad weather the last week, after skiing 650 kilometres. Poli Arctici did a good job transporting us to North Cape. We skied to South Cape and returned to Van Keulen fjord, where we were picked up outside the South Spitsbergen National Park. We experienced beautiful nature and med lots of animals, like seals, Svalbard reindeer, Polar fox, birds and six polar bears. One of them came closed than appreciated, when trying to steal Balto's food outside the tent.