Snowmobile trip to East cost of Spitzbergen was chilly but wonderful

We embarked on a snowmobile trip to the East coast of Spitzbergen on a Better Moments tour to visit remote parts of the main island of Svalbard and hopefully see a Polar Bear on the sea ice where they hunt.

It was still a very cold -25C so we wore an extra padded layer under our polar suits and balaclava and facemask with the supplied helmets.

Our Australian drivers licences were valid up until the end of March after which they will no longer be accepted on Svalbard because apparently Australia has not yet signed the Vienna convention on motoring document.

After a briefing from our guide about using the snowmobiles, the route and safety (mind the bears!) we headed off in sunny clear conditions. 

Travelling up to 60 km/h added a lot of chill factor so it was hard to stay warm, particularly riding on the back. The heated grips on the front were better and the windshield provided better shelter.

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The views to surrounding peaks and ranges were impressive.

We stopped to check out this glacial ice.

After going up a narrow route through moraine we descended a long glacier.

We were met by Police and two governors representatives who checked our guides permit for the rifle and the rifle itself.  They were friendly and all was in order.

We then crossed sea ice to get to a nice vantage point where we had lunch and scanned the distant sea ice for polar bears.

The waters edge of the sea ice where the bears hunt was 20+ km out so we didn't see any. The tours don't seek bears out to avoid harassing and disturbing them.

We saw two Ptarmigan grazing close by.  On the return trip we detoured to visit raised glacial ice (a tongue) and a frozen waterfall.

Another stop for delicious black current tea was a welcome chance to warm up.

It was hectic and extremely cold riding on the back so I only managed to get a succession of still shots in the animation below. Its really handy to have gloves with mobile sensitive finger tips. 

This was an excellent tour with good company. It was a long day but well worth it.

Track log and trip details.

Longyearbyen and dog sledding with Green Dog

Matheo picked us up in the morning for a 4 hour dog sledding tour with Green Dog Svalbard. He drove us to their base about 10km from Longyearbyen.

On arrival I said a gentle hello to Power, a lovely old dog nestling on a jacket on a verandah. 

We then were kitted out with polar suits, boots, mittens and safety gear.  The suits went on top of our normal ski clothing.

Matheo came to us for a briefing on how to control the dogs and the sled. He sadly informed us that Power, a retired Husky that was his pet for a couple of years had just died. This was very sad.

Matheo helped us harness up the dogs and connect them to the sleds then we were off.

The dogs were really keen - barking and pulling like crazy. Matheo said to keep the brake on to make them work so the lead dogs would concentrate on running. The sleds required balancing when going downhill and across slopes.

The scenery was superb but it was very cold (-25C plus chill factor), particularly when I was sitting on the front of the sled while Roger was driving.

We did a circuit up the valley and back.  I didn't take photos of the sledding due to the extreme cold. 

On returning we helped take the dogs back to their kennels then had great coffee and waffles in a cabin.

After coffee we visited puppies with their mother to help socialise the dogs which was a lot of fun.

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Back in town we visited some gear shops and the Henningsen Transport & Guiding snowmobile shop then had dinner in the Stationen pub again.

A great day overall.