SPITSBERGEN

Our ship the Professor Molchanov which is an ice class vessel rather than an ice breaker. Ice breakers have rounded hulls and are very rough sailing. Most ice class vessels were built by Russia and the three we've been on were originally research ships. Note the crane bringing in a zodiac.

Bearded Seal

Foam off of water which blows around and looks like cotton - I've never seen this before

The thing I most hoped to see was a Walrus and we were fortunate enough to spend over two hours with this guy. We were in the Zodiacs and very close.

These pretty guys are Ivory Gulls

Black Guillemots

Navigating the pack ice. Unlike ice bergs, pack ice is salt water and is formed when the body of water freezes.

Brünnich's Guillemots

Baby Brünnich's Guillemots. The babies are pushed off the cliffs by their parents and only the father takes care of them in the water.

This is a barren country with only 10% of the islands having vegetation

Walri

Polar Bear poop which is old and bleached by the sun.

Fox trap . . . the first photo shows the trap after it's been triggered. In the second picture you can see two sticks locked together which are separated by a third longer one that collapses the board which is covered with heavy rocks thereby crushing the fox. A Ptarmigan is tied in the trap as bait. This trap is probably over 100 years old.

Polar Bear paw prints.

We had an inordinate amount of fog throughout the trip which severely hampered our ability to find Polar Bears on the ice floes. However, it did make for some spectacular photo opportunities.

The very rare Giant Arctic Blue Bird . . . it's hard to believe it was over 95° back home.

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