Hornsund, Southwestern Spitsbergen, Svalbard
Our first night in Svalbard was spent sailing south from Longyearbyen, in Isfjord, to Hornsund, a large ice-carved gash into the southwestern coast of Spitsbergen. Here numerous glaciers descend from the mountains to reach the water of the sound. There they calve icebergs of all description: white ice, blue ice; dirty ice (bearing remnants of moraines carrying rock from the mountains into the sea); fresh, angular ice and ice melted and eroded into myriad shapes and forms. Many explored these using our fleet of yellow kayaks, while others cruised aboard our Zodiacs.
We landed beneath a tall massif of marble that was home to hordes of breeding kittiwakes and thick-billed murres. Nutrients brought from the sea by birds support a lush growth of tundra plants, beautiful flowers in miniature. We imagined the lonely life of a Norwegian polar bear trapper living in a driftwood hut beneath the cliff, and paused to reflect upon the remains of a hut built by Russian trappers in a much earlier time.
Hornsund and its attendant glaciers forms a highway through the mountains for polar bears moving between the west and east sides of Spitsbergen. Hence it was a prime spot for trappers and a good place for us to search for a sighting. Sure enough, the bear shown above was the first of our trip and, for most of us, our first encounter with this monarch of the ice in its natural habitat. Polar bears are powerful swimmers. Their hollow fur and thick blubber make them buoyant and keep them warm in the cold Arctic water. Their large feet are effective paddles. This bear, seemingly curious about us, climbed up on a small piece of ice for a careful look and then returned to the water to continue its swim across the fjord.
Our first night in Svalbard was spent sailing south from Longyearbyen, in Isfjord, to Hornsund, a large ice-carved gash into the southwestern coast of Spitsbergen. Here numerous glaciers descend from the mountains to reach the water of the sound. There they calve icebergs of all description: white ice, blue ice; dirty ice (bearing remnants of moraines carrying rock from the mountains into the sea); fresh, angular ice and ice melted and eroded into myriad shapes and forms. Many explored these using our fleet of yellow kayaks, while others cruised aboard our Zodiacs.
We landed beneath a tall massif of marble that was home to hordes of breeding kittiwakes and thick-billed murres. Nutrients brought from the sea by birds support a lush growth of tundra plants, beautiful flowers in miniature. We imagined the lonely life of a Norwegian polar bear trapper living in a driftwood hut beneath the cliff, and paused to reflect upon the remains of a hut built by Russian trappers in a much earlier time.
Hornsund and its attendant glaciers forms a highway through the mountains for polar bears moving between the west and east sides of Spitsbergen. Hence it was a prime spot for trappers and a good place for us to search for a sighting. Sure enough, the bear shown above was the first of our trip and, for most of us, our first encounter with this monarch of the ice in its natural habitat. Polar bears are powerful swimmers. Their hollow fur and thick blubber make them buoyant and keep them warm in the cold Arctic water. Their large feet are effective paddles. This bear, seemingly curious about us, climbed up on a small piece of ice for a careful look and then returned to the water to continue its swim across the fjord.
