After our indoctrination in learning how to ride our snow machines we left Longyearbyen on a 5 hour ride that first day. Part way through we stopped for lunch and explored an ice cave under a glacier. It was fascinating to be walking in a cave knowing you are under a glacier.
Our ultimate destination was an abandoned Russian mining town called Pyramiden. It was a the hotel in Pyramiden what we staged from every day as we searched for polar bears and other Arctic wildlife.
Longyearbyen and Pyramiden are circled to give you a big picture of our route
Driving the Snowmobiles daily
We had to cover plenty of ground in order to make it to Pyramiden that day. As we left Longyearbyen we followed in Aarons snowmobile tracks, with Jonathan bringing up the rear, and Roie helping coax us guests along. Even though to us guests it seemed like we were driving at breakneck speed, we were barely using the full power of these snow machines. This 30 second video gives you an idea of what we did many hours every day.
It was nice to take a break periodically and warm up with some hot coffee and hot chocolate
Speaking of chocolate, we never lacked for some good Norwegian chocolate at each stop. The guides knew to never run out of chocolate on our trip!
The Ice Caves
Our first stop on the way to Pyramiden was the ice cave under the glacier.
Longyearbyen is the lower circle on the left, the ice cave is the red circle above. Just to the left of the ice cave is the 23 kilometer long Tunabreen glacier, the glacier we were under.
