Baffin Babes

Expedition "Jenter på Langs "
In 2006, Vera, Kristin and Ingebjørg crossed Spitsbergen, the lagest island on Svalbard, on skis. The girls started the 10th of april at Sørkapp, the southernmost point of Spitsbergen, and finished one month later at Verlegenhuken in the north. It was a 550 km long journey with hard weather conditions and difficult crevasse-areas to cross. It was also a trip with beautiful sunny days in the unspoiled arctic environment, including close meetings with polar bears.

Visit jenterpalangs.com to read more about the expedition

 Order the book from the trip "Jenter på langs - på ski over Svalbard" at most norwegian bookstores, or at www.eksponert.no

(The book is only avaliable in Norwegian/Swedish).  

 
Watch Kristin talk to CNN's Becky Anderson about the expedition in the programme The Spirit of Adventure.

Spirit of Adventure, part two 

In April 2007 Vera, Emma and Jerker Nivfors, skied along the Swedish and Norwegian border from Vuoggatjålme to Tromsö. The trip lasted for 33 days and they enjoyed lots of sunshine and beautiful scenery, but also some stormy days which ended up with a broken ski. After the 600km long journey they reached Tromsö, but felt like they wanted to continue with the feeling of freedom from living outdoors, so Vera and Emma raised the  idea of doing a new ski expedition.

 Endless mountains in Padjelanta

During three weeks in may/june 2007, Kristin and her friend Oddmund Rønning skied 250 km between the peaky mountains of West-Spitsbergen. Oddmund and Kristin were companied by two Greenland dogs, Inuq and Bruno. The quartet made their way from Ymerbukta to Sallyhamna, via the inhabited scientific town Ny-Ålesund. The expedition was blessed with mostly good weather and good skiing conditions. The exception was bad sea-ice which Oddmund got to experience when he fell through the ice well equipped with a rifle on his back, (there had just been a polarbear passing!) his skies on his feet, and the ski poles well wrapped around his wrists. It was a cold and scary experience, but after being pulled up from the ice-cold water by Kristin, Oddmund defrosted and the team could continue.

Beach skiing. Oddmund Rønning searches for snow on the way to Ny-Ålesund

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From the 29th of April to the 10th of May 2007, Ingebjoerg guided a ski trip in Atomfjella, an alpine area in the northern part of Spitsbergen. Together with two guests from The Netherlands and two greenlandic dogs, Ingebjoerg spent 12 days crossing big glaciers beneath steep mountains, also climbing two peaks. One of these was Newtontoppen, the highest mountain on Spitsbergen. The group crossed frozen fjords, spotted seals on the ice and saw several fresh tracks made by polarbears. With the sun burning for 24 hours a day at this latitude at approximately 79 degrees north, one task was to avoid serious sunburns.  Heavy sleighs, white-out and strong winds were other challenges on this beautiful trip.

 
Sunshine camp at Gallerbreen