Svalbard. Newtontoppen / About
This is 12-13 day expedition to climb the highest mountain in Svalbard which is called Newtontoppen, 1713m. It will run from 6-19 August 2024 and will leave and return from Longyearbyen. Initially on the 6th August, the first day, we have a boat ride across the fjords to Adolfbukta. Here we manhandle all the pulks across the gravel shoreline for a few hundred metres to the efge of the glacier. The glacier at this point is bare ice and we must put crampons on and haul out equipment away from the shoreline and polar bear zone for the first night.
00. The boat trip from Longyearbyen to Adolfbukta, in blue, is a day each way and then the ski from Adolfsbukta to Newtontoppen, in turquoise, is about 6 days and the route shown is approximate.
We then pull our pulks up the ice for a day or so until the glacier gets a coating of snow. From here we can put our skis on and continue up the flacier for another 5-6 days until we reach the summit of Newtontoppen. Newtontoppem is a nunatak which pokes out of the vast ice sheet which covers much of this part of Svalbard (Spitsbergen). On the return we pretty much follow our route back to Adolfbukta depending on the judgement of the guide. At Adolfbukta we get picked up by the boat again and return to Longyearbyen on the 18 or 19th August.
00. The approximate route of the ski expedition from Adolfbukta to Newtontoppen and back again. The entire ski should take 10-11 days.
It is necessary to travel as a team as there are many potential hazards. Polar bears inhabit Svalbard and there are perhaps 300 on the archipelago with many more on the sea ice to the north of it and further east on Novaya Zemlya in Russia. As we will be passing through polar bear country the guide will have a rifle and we will all have to take turns to do bear watch during the night, where there is 24 hours of daylight. We will also be passing areas where there are some crevasses on the glacier, particularly where it changes speed or direction. Here we will have to be roped up for safety. In light of these hazards it is not possible to travel individually and the authorities would not allow it.
00. Looking NW from the sumit of Newtontoppen, the highest mountain in Svalbard
The expedition company I am going with is Norwegian and is called Ousland Explorers. It is arguably the most experienced Polar Expedition company in the world. It is run by Norwegians whose wealth of knowlege and involvement is second to none and headed up by world’s greatest polar explored, Borge Ousland. Details of the expedition from their company website can be found here
There is also a very good map of the entire Svalbard archipelago which can be found here . One great feature of this map is that you can zoom in really closely and then right click the mouse to get a very very detailed satelite picture of the terrain at that point.