Walking Tour Oscar 2 Land Exiting Backcountry Walking-trips.

Oscar 2 Land is a mountain area Northwest of Longyearbyen. To get in Oscar 2 land you have to get on a boat to cross the big and deep water of Isfjorden. During the summer a regular touristboat goes to Oscar 2 Land to visit the fascinating glacierfront of the Esmarkglacier. This glacier ends in the fjord. We will also use this boat. This boat will bring us to our starting point and will pick us up at the end of our walking-tour.
Oscar 2 Land is a special mountain area on Spitsbergen. The mountains are not high but they are steep and are surrounded by many small glaciers. When you reach the top of a mountain here, it looks like that the glaciers are the roads and the mountains are the houses.
From the top of every mountainpeak you can enjoy an enormous breathtaking view!


The glacierfront of the Esmarkglacier (picture taken in august).

Mostly we will walk over glaciers and some days we do daytrips which goes over the ground/rocks. This trip has maxium 11 fielddays, including 1 extra/spare day. If we need more spare days, then one or more daytrips will be cancelled. This is a 2 weeks trip, so 11 fielddays is the maxium. We will transport our heavy luggage (much food and camping equipment) in a pulk (sledge) behind us. Walking with the pulk on the glacier is easy. All the participants will get instructions how to walk with the pulk and how to walk on the ice. Sometimes we walk with our shoes on the ice, sometimes we put crampons under our shoes. On this trip we will use ski's during 3-4 days. You do not have to have any glacier-ice or ski-walking experience for this. The part what we will do on ski is mostly flat.

For more information about walking with a sledge on a glacier see: Walking & skiing with a pulk (sledge) over the Spitsbergen glaciers.
The glaciers where we walk on are easy glaciers and not steep.


Campsite on a small mountainhill in Oscar 2 Land with a nice view.
Allthough the whole day program might change a little bit due to weather and glacier conditions and other circumstances, this could be the day program:

Sun. july 26th	:	Arriving with the airplane in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen. The first 2 overnights are in Longyearbyen in a comfortable guesthouse where you sleep on a bed.
Mo. july 27th	:	Checking the equipment, Packing all our equipment into the sledges and backpacks, Sightseeing in Longyearbyen.
Tu. july 28th	:	We bring all our luggage on board of the ship in the harbour of Longyearbyen. After a boattrip from ± 2,5 hours we reached the front of the Esmark glacier. a Zodiac boat will bring us to to the shore, close at the glacier. From here we walk up the glacier to our first camp at 250 meters a.s.l..From here we can look over several glaciers and we have a open view to the fjord.
We. july 29th	:	We walk up to camp 2. Camp 2 will be at a small pass between the Esmarkglacier and the Nansenglacier at ± 450 meters a.s.l. It might happen that we reach camp 2 with our ski's under our mountainboots. The snowline on the glaciers is here lower then on the glaciers more inlands.
Thu. july 30th	:	Today we reach the top of the Esmarkglaciers and we will continue further to the North. We are skiing (for sure we have our ski's under here) now on a big glacier plateau. This plateau has connections to 5 glaciers. Depending on the temperature this glaciers plateau has places with wet snow and places with much water. It is much better to cross these wet snow places on ski's. We pitch our tent on this glacier plateau on a dry place. Walking up the last meters to the mountaintop.
Fri. july 31th	:	Today we make a day trip. We leave our pulks at the campsite and we go further north and at the end at this glacier plateau we walk up an easy mountain to enjoy a beautiful view. From this mountainpeak you can look down to Sankt Jonsfjorden in the North.
Sat. aug. 1st	:	We brake up our camp and we ski to the south to a smaller glacier plateau between the Esmarkglacier and the Venernglacier. From this campsite (camp 4) we can do an easy walk up to a mountain. Although this mountain is not high, the view from here is awesome. You can look in every direction and look over many glaciers with many different mountains.
Sun. aug. 2nd	:	We brake up our camp and going south and put up camp 5 at a lower part on the glacier on ice. Althought we are lower now on the glacier, the mountains here are higher. The highest and steepest mountains of Oscar 2 Land are in the South-west. The views here are great.
Mo. aug. 3rd	:	Today we can make a long daytrip. Depending were we are (the place of camp 5) and how many spare days we have left, we can do 2 daytrips or a 2 days walk. Both walks will bring us arounds arounds the high nountains Lexjellet and Protektorfjellet. These mountains have steep glaciers on the northside and steep rock on the southside. On the southside we walk at the coastline of Isfjorden. Both walks are going mostly over ground/rocks and moraines. It is something difference after all the snow and nice. The walk along the fjord give some new and specials views!! During the 2 days walk we take only the necessary camping equipment in our backpack with us. We will camp then at a nice place at the fjord. We will organise a bearwatch during that night. Protectorfjellet from the seaside.
Tu. aug. 4th	:	We go out for a second daywalk or we have our second day of the 2 days walk. See the day here above. In the evening we will be back at camp 5.
We. aug. 5th	:	We brake up camp 5 and walk back to the front of the Esmarkglacier. Halfway we can enjoy the view of a very colourful mountain.
Thu. aug. 6th	:	Around 12 noon the boat will pick us up. The rest of the day we are on this boat. This boat stops at Barentsburg, a Russian coalmine settlement, the people on the boat have here a 1,5 hours excursion which you can join. When the boat is sailing from Barentsburg to Longyearbyen you can enjoy some nice views of steep colourful mountainhills who goes all the way down to the fjord. It might happen that we have some spare days left. We can use these days for a small tour, or a daytrip around the mountains at Longyearbyen. This day could also be Friday august 7th.
Sat. aug 8th	:	Unpack, cleaning and drying from all our used equipment. Sightseeing in Longyearbyen. Enjoy the luxury of streaming water, a shower, the toilet, a bed etc... Preparing a big last dinner together and enjoying the first pictures on the labtop.
Sun. aug 9th	:	Departure with airplane from Longyearbyen. The last 2 overnights are in Longyearbyen in a comfortable guesthouse where you sleep on a bed.

Walking with the pulk on the glacier with a colourful mountain at the background.

The whole walking/skiing distance is about 100 km. The 3 day walks, totally 45 km, are included in the 100 km. So we walk/ski about 55 km with the pulk behind us.

Visit also these pages: Winter- & Summertrips from Fjelltours on Spitsbergen ; here you will find much more important background information about these trips.

Startingdate 2009:   july 26th The price of this 15-days backcountry walking trip is € 1456,- p.p. Travelcode: SB09D   In this trip is included: 4 overnights in Longyearbyen in chambers with more people (2 overnights at the start and 2 at the end), 10 overnights in 2-3 persons wintertents. A travel insurance which also covers all the cost of an emergency rescue if necessary, during our 11-days fieldtrip on Spitsbergen. This insurance is an obligation when you go out on a long fieldtrip in Spitsbergen. The use of a 2-3 persons wintertent with an isolated foil for under the inner tent. The use of a sledge with pullingframe and harnass. The use of cooking equipment to make hot water, a petrol stove with all the fuel. The use of a snowshovel and a 2 persons bivouacsack (in case of emergency). Professional guide, the guide will carry all the necessarry and obligated equipment, which is needed to make a multi day backcountry glacier trip on Spitsbergen. Transport from/towards the airport to/from our overnight stay in Longyearbyen. Transport with a boat to the start of the trip and the pick up with a boat at the end of the trip. The participants will receive information and instructions about the necessary clothes (detailed packing list), about camping on Spitsbergen and about the safety aspects on Spitsbergen (Polarbear protection).   Not included: meals: It is possible to cook and have meals together durings the overnights in Longyearbyen. The participants will receive information which food (and how much) is handy to use during camping on Spitsbergen Cross country ski's for back country skiing (no randonnee ski's), the skins. It is possible to hire these equipment by Fjell Tours. The participants will receive information about this. For the summertrips we are using the ski's in very easy terrain. We will use a fixation on our ski's that we can use our normal mountain walking shoes when we use the ski's. This will save us the use (and tranportation weight) of another pair of boots. The flight to and from Spitsbergen.   The amount of Participants: min. 5, max. 8

The participants can hire specific equipment/clothes (like ski's, downjacket, extra sleepingbag, extra matrass, crampons etc.) by Fjell Tours, see for this:
Winter- & Summertrips from Fjelltours on Spitsbergen

To join this trip the participant must have:

1. Mountain walking experience in rough terrain, outside the track.
   
2. Camping experience in rough terrain.
   
3. a Good condition, although the walking distance is not long, this is a long trip with many fielddays (2 weeks)!!
4. Good experience with walking with 2 walking sticks, you need those sticks on Spitsbergen.
   
5. Patience, participants must be aware that it might happen that we have to wait 1 or more days inside the tents
   due to bad weather or other circumstances.
   
6. Flexibility, The plan for the day can change rapidly, or the daily schedule is changing.
   It might happen that we walk during the night.
   This makes no difference on Spitsbergen, There is no darkness in this time of the year.
   
   

The guide knows how and where to walk/ski save on these glaciers. Sometimes we can walk easily over the ice, sometimes it takes extra time if we have to cross wet area's on the glaciers.


View from a mountaintop to Isfjorden, camp 4 right under on the glacier.

     Back to Summertrips 2009.

Last update on february 1st 2009