Welcome to Erik Malm’s and Arctic Adventures’ Wildlife Ice cruise. For those who arrive the 16th we start with a welcome dinner (optional) the 16th of May. It is nice with this extra night in town because to be sure that all participants and luggage have arrived before the «Freya» leaves Longyearbyen harbour around 17.00 on the 17th of May. The 17th is Norway’s national day and you can spend the day in town experiencing the celebration or you can spend it in the surroundings of town looking for arctic birds like King Eider, Phallarope, Ivory Gull and Svalbard Ptarmigan and Svalbard Reindeer and Arctic Fox. It is also possible to join activities like icecaving or dogsledding (optional).
Around 17.00 «Freya» will head out the Adventfjorden towards an amazing photo safari with fokus on wildlife in the ice and in snowy landscape. The «Freya», a swedish ship, is the sister ship of «Malmø» but unlike «Malmø» that is build for 12 passengers «Origo» where build for 24 passengers. This means that we can offer singel cabins without extra cost and since it is made for 24 passengers we have more space.
Every day the chef will serve warm lunch and a 2 course dinner. Coffee and tea is available free of cost all the time and there will also be some goodies in the afternoon. The bakery is all made fresh on the ship.
On the expedition the focus will of course be on the mammals but we also spend time with the arctic birds. Maybe we will anchor in the ice on a strategic place and wait to see what happens. We will also spend a lot of time in the 2 big zodiacs to get down on the surface of the sea and to get closer and to get another perspective/angel for photos of the wildlife. Since we are only 14 photographers on the trip there won’t be more than 7 photographers in each zodiac which makes it easier for everybody to get nice photo opportunities.
Sea ice and weather conditions will determine our course on this expedition. The route will be made on the go according to the conditions and we will go where we from experience think we will have the best chances of encounting wildlife.
After 8 nights on board the strong and charming «Origo», a lot of nice moments and photo opportunities we will disembark in Longyearbyen 9.00 AM on the 25th of May.
Flight to Longyearbyen should be no later than the 16th of May and flight out can be from noon on the 25th of May. If you would like to spend some days prior to the expedition or after we will be pleased to help you organising that.
Arctic Adventures AS is the responsible tour operator and Jens Abild, Founder and CEO of Arctic Adventures AS, will be the expedition leader on this «Wildlife In The Ice» Photo Safari.
Jens Abild has been an expedition leader in the Antarctic and Arctic since the early nineties. He has a bachelors degree in environmental management and 10 years as a safety officer and safety course instructor for The Norwegian Polarinstitute. Since the nineties he’s been working on Noorderlicht, Origo, Malmø, Polarstar, Nordstjernen, Bonitskiy as both guide and expeditionleader and on Lance as expedition leader for the Norwegian Polarinstitute. Look under for more information about Jens Abild.
Jens Abild
In 1993 Jens Abild (46) put his feet on Svalbard for the first time after half a year on an outdoor pursuit school in Lofoten, Norway. The purpose was a 12 days skiing trip but he ended up getting a job as handler/guide for a company specialized in expeditions with dogs summer and winter. During his studies in environmental management in Copenhagen he kept coming back to Svalbard as often as the studies would permit and after finishing his bachelor degree he finally moved to Svalbard permanently in 1998. The first years he worked as expedition leader on various winter and summer expeditions with skis, dogs, kayaks, skidoos and expedition cruise ships.
In 2002 he started his own company, Arctic Adventures AS, who specialized in small exclusive groups doing all kinds of trips. With his broad experience and skills he was able to deliver unique experiences to his guests requesting taylormade expeditions.
In 2004 he got employed by the Norwegian Polarinstitute and has here worked as an expedition leader and been responsible for the safety and logistic operations in The Antarctic and Arctic. He has also played a key role in developing and instructing field safety courses for scientist and technicians doing fieldwork in the Arctic and Antarctic. He is a glacier-, avalanche-, sea ice-, polar bear safety and shooting instructor. Jens is a part time instructor on the «Arctic Nature Guide» study that educates new expedition leaders at the University in Longyearbyen. He has also been a member of the local mountain rescue team since it was established in 2001.
During his work on Svalbard since 1993 he has gained a unique knowledge of the environment and wildlife.
Jens live in Longyearbyen with his wife and two girls (11 and 13).
