Ice University aboard the Nanook

Depending on your arrival time in Longyearbyen, you’ll be able to enjoy some free time in town or be invited to board the ship upon arrival. To begin our adventure, we’ll navigate through Isfjorden, close to the Russian enclave of Barentsburg, the second-largest settlement in the archipelago.

We’ll journey along Dei Sju Isfjella—once named The Coast of the Seven Icebergs by whalers—where a breathtaking glacier front extends over seven kilometers. Magdalenefjorden unveils an impressive setting of majestic mountains and glaciers, with scree slopes that are home to thousands of birds. The extended graveyard and remains of blubber ovens set in the Gravneset Peninsula bear testimony to the many whalers who used to find shelter in the fjord. Nowadays, the land welcomes a growing number of walruses.

We’ll navigate among the well-preserved ice floes in search of polar bears on the north coast. Monacobreen is a glacier reaching down into Liefdefjorden, whose landscapes and icebergs provide some of the most spectacular views in the whole archipelago. Tonight, we'll travel towards the island of Moffen where whales, walruses, and bears like to dwell, before proceeding beyond the 80th parallel north.

We’ll reach Murchisonfjorden, as famous for its buildings from the 1958 International Geophysical Year research expedition as it is for its walrus colonies. One of the largest and most remarkable bird colonies on the archipelago is nestled among the steep cliffs made up of dark basaltic rock and bright limestone. Ice permitting, we’ll resume our search for polar bears as we continue northeast.

These four days will be spent navigating around Nordaustlandet, a 15,000 km² island lying almost entirely under thick ice caps. The area is brimming with unique sights such as Austfonna and Vegafonna—two ice caps forming a colossal glacier front—and Kvitøya, a majestic island covered by an ice cap with an hourglass-shaped dome. This polar desert offers a distinctive ecoregion where large glaciers, snow, and bare rock form a harshly cold environment that allows colonies of walruses and bears to thrive due to the melting of ice in the summer. This area inspired the bravest explorers and was witness to several tragically famous exploits such as Andrée's Arctic balloon and the Royal Navy’s first polar expeditions, as well as General Umberto Nobile’s flight aboard the Italia airship, which crashed approximately 120 km northeast of Nordaustlandet. This section of Svalbard is also home to Karl XII-øya and Storøya, the least-explored islands in the whole archipelago. Ice permitting, we’ll navigate through Wijdefjorden and catch a glimpse of its highest peaks and former trapper stations before moving on to Sorgfjorden. Also known as the “Bay of Sorrow”, it has been the scene of armed conflicts between different whaling nations as far back as 1693.

If the pack ice is too dense to navigate back to Longyearbyen via the east, we will either circle back through the south, passing the Freemansundet sound—a famous stop to witness polar bear migrations—and the spectacular Hornsund and Bellsund fjords, or travel through the north via Sjuøyane, the Seven Islands archipelago, Raudfjorden, Smeerenburgfjorden, and Kongsfjorden.

Once home to a busy whaling station and a starting point for major Arctic expeditions, this legendary fjord—where glaciers form a spectacular ice front against the sea—has now been claimed by wildlife. Walruses and seals are a likely sight, as bears wander about the slopes of steep, rugged mountains with beautiful ice-sculpted tops. We’ll discover rarely explored bays and impressive little auk colonies, the most populous bird species in Svalbard.

You’ll disembark in Longyearbyen. This is the end of your adventure with Grand Espaces, and we wish you a pleasant journey home.