Guides – Arcticography

Guides communicate through stories. Stories of old trappers, facts and shared experiences. For example: Spitsbergen has the greatest diversity of food crops in the world. Seeds from more than 860,000 food plants from all over the globe are preserved 120m deep in a mountain in a global seed vault, meaning Spitsbergen has the greatest diversity of food crops in the world. However, apart from willow trees with a maximum height of 30cm, no trees grow on the tundra. It is also a place where polar bears outnumber people, so inhabitants need to carry around guns outside for protection. Here you will encounter stories of guides, the adventures of old trappers and historical accounts of the whalers. Key locations include the research station of Ny-Ålesund, the old Russian mining town of Pyramiden and administrative center of Longyearbyen.

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Retreating glaciers make blank areas on maps

The Arctic is a very sensitive area in which minimum energy is used to survive

Opening of the waters gives way to longer sailing seasons and requires new travel routes by dog sledding

Sailing becomes easier due to the melting ice

Guides become more experienced and careful

Spitsbergen, Svalbard and Grumund – naming as a claim to resources

Whaling leaves traces in the landscape: yellow tundra, whaler graves, whale bones

Smeerenburg, the Dutch whaling station where the “right” kind of whale was nearly killed to extinction

Seal can be hunted during specific hunting seasons

A world of difference between nowadays and the experience of trapper in days gone by

Glacial retreats, Atlantic fish and starvation among reindeer

Discovering Spitsbergen is like a life project – “I will always remember that freedom out on the tundra”

Kristin

Captain Joachim

The complete Theta 360 ° photos can be found here