Page 12 - 2019 AMA Summer

AMAHQ
ANOTHER VISIT TO THE
LYNGEN ALPS IN 2018,
SORT OF...
By Meryon Bridges
Martin South’s article on ski touring in the Lyngen Alps prompted me to record another visit to that
peninsula by an AMA member (me) in 2018. But I went there in a 36ft yacht at the end of an amazing trip to 80 degrees of latitude North, (850 miles north of the Arctic Circle) and just 600 miles from the North Pole.
This piece might be considered an initial recce report for anyone interested in climbing in Spitzbergen. Anyway, in July /August 2018 three ex Sappers; myself, Bob Hedicott, and Giles McCallum, sailed Bob’s Rustler 36 some 2000 miles from Tromso north to Bjornoya (Bear Island) and Spitzbergen, the western island of the Svalbard archipelago, and back again.
Spitzbergen is dramatic, remote, and still relatively unspoilt. It is a land of mountains and glaciers – and not much else beyond the wild life (dolphins, whales, walruses, many sea birds, reindeer and bears (the white sort)). There’s a lot of historical heritage remains there too from early trans-polar flights, and the beer in Long- yearbyen is excellent and duty free (ie. cheap).
Spitzbergen is also very accessible, with daily flights into Longyearbyen, and there’s a fleet of “adventure yachts” which operate out of there on charter. Our passage up there was in mixed weather, often cold and foggy, but in the five weeks we had we explored the whole of the west coast, which is about 200 miles long. The attached photos are representative of this coast.
The capital, Longyearbyen is just off a huge fjord, Isfjiorden, that runs in
about a third of the way up the coast. It is a modern town of 2000 people, with a good supermarket and nice restaurants and cafes.
From Isfjord we sailed north past a walrus colony (they’re huge when you have one in the water right alongside the boat) to Ny Alesund on Kongsfjorden. At 79 degrees north, this is the most northerly
12 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER