Where is Svalbard?

Svalbard is an archipelago located between 76 and 81 degres of lattitude north. Covering 400 kilometers by 300 (about the size of Switzerland), Svalbard is currently inhabitated by 1500 persons, 2400 polar bears and a very various fauna.

Where is Olav V Land?

Spitsbergen is the main Island of the archipelago, and Olav V Land, covered by an icecap, is located on the aeastern part of it. No settlements exists in the area, and the basecamp is Longyearbyen, the village where the main airport is located.

Where have we been?

One of the ulitmate spot for polar bears is the Eastern coast of Svalbard. Therefore, we left Longyearbyen by skidoo to the upper of Von Post Breen, 80 kilometers aways, with one skier per skidoo (cost aroun 7'000 NOK). Three hours later, we were dropped 80 kilometers away, just below a pass, the door to Olav V Land. We made the choice of being dropped there to save 3 days of uninteresting ski (in snow machines tracks). The whole area XXXXX Dalen, SassenDalen and Tempelfjorden is continuously crossed by engines, so don't expect a quiet minute there.
The red line was our planned journey, and the green one the effective one. We changed our plans to spend time on the frozen sea,to spot polar bears. On the sea, we covered very small daily distances (around 15 kilometers), spending all our time spotting bears.
Leaving from the frozen sea coast (we may get there either by ski or skidoos), we'll ski through the moutains of Sabine Land (as we've already did in 96) to reach Olav V. From there, we will more or less follow the coast til Kapp Payer, the eastern point of Spisbergen. The total distance on ski will aproximatively be 200 kilometers.