Ice
Norway · March to May for snow with daylight
Svalbard
Polar bears, glaciers to the sea and four months without a sunset
Adventures · Into the ice by ship, snowmobile or dog sled, where the light and the money behave differently
Polar voyage
A polar voyage is a trip where the daylight is a variable, the cold is a wind and the boat, the sled or the plane is at the mercy of the weather. Svalbard, Greenland and the Antarctic Peninsula in three budgets.
The polar realm is the one where the calendar is a physics problem. At 78 degrees north the sun does not set for four months and does not rise for another four, and the weeks between change the day by hours. The ships, sleds and snowmobiles that get you into the ice all depend on wind, fog and sea ice, and the plan that works has a spare day at each end and a budget that read the page before booking.
What it asks of the body
Little. The operators do the work; you sit on a snowmobile, stand in a Zodiac or walk on a shore. The cold is the effort, and the rented clothing is the answer. The Drake Passage asks something of the stomach and the medication answers most of it.
What it asks of the calendar
Two Arctic seasons, light winter and boat summer, and one Antarctic season from November to March. The Daylight Simulator shows what the date does to the day; the Monte Carlo run shows how many days the weather takes. Ships book a year ahead, Svalbard guesthouses a few months.
What it costs
Svalbard on a guesthouse and two guided days sits in the mid band. Greenland costs Scandinavia plus freight. The Antarctic Peninsula is the most expensive place on this site and the one with the lowest regret rate; the Budget Simulator shows the cabin bands.
Essentials
- Rented expedition clothing: the suits, boots and gloves that the operators supply
- Base layers of wool, a windproof shell, a balaclava and sunglasses for the glare
- Seasickness medication taken before the swell, not after
- An eye mask for the midnight sun and a head torch for the polar night
- A buffer day at each end of the trip for fog, wind and ice
Risks
- ▲▲Cold and windFrostbite on a moving snowmobile at minus fifteen within minutes of exposed skin; the rented suits and the guide’s checks are the prevention.
- ▲▲Sea stateThe Drake Passage and the Greenland fjords in wind; medication, stabilisers and patience.
- ▲▲IceBergs roll and calve, sea ice breaks; distance is the rule on the water and the shore.
- ▲▲BearsIn Svalbard, nobody leaves the settlement without a rifle; the rule is absolute.
Questions people ask
Which polar trip first?
Svalbard: a daily flight from Oslo, a town with hotels, guided days out. Greenland is the next step; Antarctica is a fortnight and a serious budget.
How cold is it really?
In the visiting seasons, minus fifteen in the Svalbard spring, five to twelve in Ilulissat in July, around zero on the Antarctic coast in summer. Wind is the cold.
What is the midnight sun like?
Disorienting and wonderful. Nobody sleeps properly; bring an eye mask and stop fighting it.
Places for this adventure
Ice
Norway · March to May for snow with daylight
Svalbard
Polar bears, glaciers to the sea and four months without a sunset
Ice
Greenland · June to September for boats and the midnight sun
Ilulissat Icefjord
A fjord full of icebergs the size of cathedrals, calved from the fastest glacier on earth
Ice
Antarctica · November to March
Antarctic Peninsula
Two days across the Drake Passage to the only continent that belongs to nobody
The Simulation Brief
One place, one simulator, one honest number. Every second Sunday.
No newsletter theatre. A short e-mail with the place we modelled, what the model said and what the ground said back.