July 12th – 20th, 2024
an arctic expedition for polar bears with
chris morgan, rinie van meurs & rickard berg
“The 2024 trip to our planet’s far north is going to be a very special one! Join me and other members of our WILD family as we record and film Arctic content for our podcasts and films to share with the world. Add to that, the best guides in the world, and a Svalbard experience among polar bears, whales, and birds that’ll leave you in total awe.”
Chris Morgan ~ world-renowned conservation ecologist + TV host
You are likely already a listener to Chris’s popular podcast ‘THE WILD with Chris Morgan’. Chris and his team at KUOW Public Radio craft each episode into an immersive audio documentary. Episodes have taken listeners all over the world from Siberian tigers, to sea otters, to burrowing owls, and of course bears. In it’s first season it quickly reached the top 1% of all podcasts. THE WILD is now in Season 4 and has become the heart of Chris’s conservation work, and a theme for our Svalbard expedition.
Chris supports the next generation of conservationists through his work on the ground, and through film and podcast productions. And we’re excited to announce that THE WILD podcast will be sponsoring a small number of emerging conservationists to join us on this life-changing expedition. And they will become a powerful part of the on-board excitement on a trip that is about igniting passion, and changing the world together.
This Polar Tracks departure in 2024 is an expedition like no other – a truly unique opportunity to learn about the polar bears’ fragile world from the people who know best, in an intimate and adventurous expeditionary setting, while enjoying a “front-row seat” to Chris’s award-winning filming and podcasting work in the field.
“Heading up the team are legendary guides and expedition leaders, Rinie Van Meurs and Rickard Berg. We could not be in more capable hands as we journey around Svalbard’s majestic islands.”
“The trip of a lifetime” is not an overstatement...
…not just because of the place, but the people too. Chris and Rinie designed this expedition with Polar Tracks to invite guests who want to take their bucket list that little bit further. It’s a chance to wonder at polar bears and their home, and also come away with a complete understanding of their world and what is needed to protect it.
Our route is determined by ice, bears, and a spontaneity only afforded by complete flexibility and freedom that comes with a small ship – in the hands of those who know and revere this place and its wildlife.
It’s also a place to laugh, to unwind hundreds of miles from “civilization”, and prepare yourself to come away a changed person.
“The Svalbard Archipelago in Europe’s far north is among my two favorite places on earth – like someone sliced off the Swiss Alps, dropped them in the Arctic ocean, and sprinkled polar bears on them.”
DATES: July 12th – 20th, 2024
SHIP: MV Polar Pioneer
RATES: All rates are per passenger based on shared cabins. If you prefer a suite to yourself, the rate is 1.8x the cost quoted below.
Triple cabin: 8575 USD
Twin Cabin with shared WC: 9575 USD
Twin Cabin with private WC: 10575 USD
Mini-Suite: 11975 USD
Owners Suite: 13975 USD
PASSENGERS: 51 (plus five expedition guides)
LANGUAGE: The official language of the tour will be English
MV Polar Pioneer
Guests will travel on board the newly refurbished ship, the MV Polar Pioneer, an excellent polar vessel that offers big ship capability in a small ship package.
This wonderful small ship is purpose-retrofit for custom groups like wildlife enthusiasts and photographers, having added a number of features to modernize the ship for the digital age as well as ensuring she is the most unique small ship option in Svalbard with only 51 guests and an Ice Class of 1A Super.
Built in Finland by the Soviet government in 1982 as one of a fleet of ten ‘scientific research vessels’, her original name was the Akademik Schuleykin. It has recently come to light that her “scientific research” was in fact spying during the Cold War as she was packed to the gills with interception equipment used to intercept the activities of the US Navy!
Not to mention, the bridge is always open.
THE (Arctic) WILD
Board the Polar Pioneer at 4pm from the dock in Longyearbyen and enjoy a welcome cocktail with the Captain.
While there is a carefully planned daily schedule based on distances between points of interest and the location of the ice in any given season, our timetable in Svalbard by nature must be flexible.
We usually begin by heading North towards the ice edge which is a great place to scout for polar bears, but that’s not the only goal. We’ll use our planned itinerary as a rough guide so that every day the conditions are maximized for the best wildlife watching opportunities, be they land or sea-based.
Every morning your Expedition Leader will work with the bridge officers to make decisions about the day, taking into account ice situation and the weather, looking at whether Plan A makes the most sense or if Plan B, C, or D will be better for us. If we come across something amazing, we would never just pull the plug because we have something else “scheduled” for the afternoon. While the captain has final say on all decisions made, we will always check in with the group and take into account your wishes.
Svalbard has a little bit of everything, including massive scenic fjords from which artfully sculpted glaciers emerge to meet the sea, up to the high snowcapped peaks, and all the way down to Arctic tundra covered in colourful vegetation such as mosses and lichens that the Svalbard reindeer love to feed on. It’s not uncommon to find seals or walruses resting on ice floes at the mouths of these fjords, and if we’re lucky, we’ll spot a whale or two as we sail up the west coast.
We’ll plan to stop in at the world’s northernmost civilian settlement, the research village of Ny Ålesund, which also boasts the world’s northernmost post office. At the height of the summer season, there are about 120 inhabitants working amongst the 15 permanent research stations.
It’s from here that Amundsen and Nobile initiated their courageous attempts to reach the North Pole by airship, and there are a couple of monuments dedicated to their efforts that are worth visiting.
From there we’ll continue heading north, poking into other landing sites and fjords of interest, getting out into the two zodiacs to make landings where we’ll plan hikes to stretch our legs and optimize our chances for excellent wildlife opportunities.
We’ll be constantly scouting for these beautiful Arctic bears – Ursus maritimus in Latin – and if we find them, get as close as we can without disturbing them or putting passengers at any risk. Again, getting out into the inflatable zodiacs is an excellent way to safely observe the wildlife from proximity.
Weather and ice conditions permitting, we’ll sail into Hinlopen Strait and plan to visit Alkefjellet (‘Bird Mountain’), a series of otherworldly basalt cliffs stretching a number of kilometres in length and in some places, up to 100 meters high (click on the underlined text to see an amazing video!) on which we’ll find thousands of nesting birds and the occasional Arctic fox hunting nearby.
Nordauslandet, Bråsvellbreen, Barentsøya, and Edgeøya are all locations that we may also explore, weather and ice permitting, and offer magnificent scenery with vast tundra which hold the prospect of continued incredible landscapes and wildlife sighting opportunities.
During the entire expedition, we’ll be on the lookout for polar bears, which can be spotted on land just as often as on the sea ice. There are an estimated 3000-4000 animals in the region and the population is considered to be stable. This powerful animal is amazing to behold in the wild, with males weighing up to 700kg when they are at their healthiest.
Click on the images from our 2019 expedition below to expand and scroll through
Ecologist, Conservationist, Adventurer, Author, + TV Host
Ecologist Chris Morgan is no stranger to adventure. Over the last 25+ years he has worked as a wildlife researcher, wilderness guide, and environmental educator on every continent where bears exist. From icy polar bear country at 81° North to tropical Andean bear forests on the equator, Chris has sought adventure among the focus animals of his life – the bears of the world. Carnivore work has also taken him to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Scotland, the Pakistani Himalayas, northern Spain, Turkey, Borneo, Siberia, and Alaska – destinations where his infectious enthusiasm for wild places and people has rubbed off on others.
In 2019 Chris partnered with KUOW in Seattle to produce and host ‘THE WILD with Chris Morgan’, a podcast series that takes listeners on immersive adventures into the wild to discover incredible species and conservationists through exquisitely told stories. During its first season the production hit the top 1% of all podcasts and is now at the core of much of his work.
Chris has regularly hosted TV productions for PBS, National Geographic Television, BBC, Discovery Channel, and has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. He is a familiar host and voice of the world-renowned television series PBS NATURE having narrated over twenty films since 2011 on topics ranging from lions to pelicans; the Australian outback to the Arctic tundra.
2015 saw Chris host 4 episodes of PBS Nature – ‘The Last Orangutan Eden‘ (produced by his Emmy-winning Wildlife Media partner Joe Pontecorvo), and the three part series ‘Animal Homes‘ (produced by Emmy-winning producer Ann Prum) which saw Chris travel the globe in search of the most fascinating animal architecture. Chris won ‘Best Host Gold World Medal’ from the 2016 New York Festivals International TV & Film Awards.
In 2013, Chris teamed up with the creators and cameramen from Frozen Planet and Planet Earth in ‘Great Bear Stakeout’, a two-hour special co-produced by BBC and Discovery. Morgan is host, contributor, and bear guide in this unprecedented and visually stunning film about Alaskan grizzly bears.
Chris hosts and narrates the film ‘Siberian Tiger Quest’ (Emmy nominated), which premiered as PBS Nature’s 2012/2013 season-opener. In this film, Chris embarks on a challenge to fulfill a lifelong dream – to find and film a Siberian tiger living wild and free in the forests of the far eastern Russian frontier. He was awarded “Best Host” by the International Wildlife Film Festival for his work. Chris received this same “Best Host” award a year earlier for his role in ‘Bears of the Last Frontier’, a PBS NATURE special he helped create. Chris is the featured character, host and narrator in this major three-hour mini-series that follows his 3,000-mile journey across Alaska by motorcycle in search of black, grizzly, and polar bears. Chris authored an accompanying book of the same title – a large format publication that showcases the experience, the bears, and behind-the-scenes insight and stunning photos from the production of the film. Chris hosted ‘Grizzlies of Alaska‘ on BBC Two’s flagship wildlife series ‘Natural World’, and considered it a huge honor (Chris’s passion for wildlife was ignited when he was about 3 years old, in part part by Sir David Attenborough who has hosted and narrated countless episodes of the Natural World).
Chris is executive director and co-founder of Wildlife Media – a non-profit 501(c)(3) conservation organization that produced ‘BEARTREK’, a global campaign and independent feature documentary for bear conservation. This epic, big-screen film about a global natural history adventure brings untold stories of bears and colorful cultures in Borneo, Peru, Alaska, and the Arctic. In addition to documenting Chris’s motorcycle conservation quest across three continents, ‘BEARTREK’ is a giant experiment that brings a new approach to raising awareness and funding for conservation through a high-end feature-length film, and a campaign (so far Wildlife Media has donated over $200,000 in kind and in-cash), changing hearts and minds along the way. BEARTREK proudly premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2018, and is now available on Amazon Prime.
Chris owns an ecology and environmental education organization in Bellingham, Washington State and is the co-founder of the acclaimed Grizzly Bear Outreach Project (GBOP). GBOP, now called Western Wildlife Outreach, which has been praised as a model for effective education outreach in the North Cascades and Selkirk mountains, and has taken great steps to engage rural communities in grizzly and black bear information dissemination since 2002. The approach has been expanded to include cougar and wolf education needs.
Chris is an accomplished and engaging public speaker and presenter having given hundreds of talks around the world – from the corporate keynote setting to the classroom. He spent several years as a frequent lecturer at Western Washington University’s Huxley College of Environmental Science in Bellingham. He has a Higher National Diploma in Conservation Management (Farnborough, UK), a B.S. in Applied Ecology (East London, UK) and an M.S. in Advanced Ecology (Durham, UK.) In 2003 the Environmental Education Association of Washington honored Chris as Outstanding Environmental Educator of the year. In 2008 his contributions to grizzly bear conservation in the USA were honored with an award from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, a government panel responsible for recovery of the great bear.
Chris guides expeditions to many locations around the world to introduce people firsthand to the wonders of wild places – often among grizzly bears and polar bears. He knows that conservation depends on people and if people don’t see the connection between their own well-being and wildlife, then nothing will change. You will often hear Chris say, “What’s good for bears is good for people.” Chris has an acute sense of the power of media to bring hearts, minds, and resources towards conservation. As one of the most gregarious, personable, and good hearted larger-than-life scientists you’ll ever meet, the response to his on-camera appearances has brought him incredible opportunities to promote the value of conservation for us all.
Chris spends much of his work, and playtime in the North Cascades mountains one hour from his home. Despite his varied activities within the realm of wildlife conservation, Chris says that he is never happier than when immersed in bear country – “the real world” as he calls it.
Polar Expedition Leader & Author
After a formal education in Forestry and Nature Conservation, Rinie started to travel around the world in search of wildlife and in particularly birds. However he was already attracted by the polar regions since he was a boy. After he finished his study, he went in the early eighties on private trips to Iceland and Northern Scandinavia; this was as Arctic as he could afford. However he knew, further north the pack ice in the high Arctic Ocean that was his goal. To explore one day the sea ice, as the early explorers did, that was something he could only dream of.
Until 1989, he managed to find a job on board of the “old” Plancius as a potato peeler for his first season in Spitsbergen. After he came back he knew he was definitely hooked on the high latitudes. Rinie became one of the industry’s first expedition leaders and a pioneer in exploring new landing sites in Spitsbergen and the Antarctic. Only around Spitsbergen he has made more than 200 expedition cruises. He knows Spitsbergen better than his own backyard!
Since ’89 then he has logged in his sea man’s book a total of over 300 expedition cruises including; East- and West Greenland, the Canadian high Arctic, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Norwegian Fjords, Geographical North Pole, Antarctica, South Georgia, the Falklands, the sub Antarctic Islands of New Zealand, and many islands along the Atlantic Ridge.
During these years, spending so much time exploring the Arctic and having the opportunity to encounter so many Polar Bears in the ice, he has become absolutely passionate about these magnificent animals. Give him a ship with the right ice class and Rinie will take you to the Polar Bears. He has become an expert in leading Polar Bear trips. He is also leading every fall Polar Bear trips on the Hudson Bay. He has published four photo books on the Polar Regions of which one was about the Polar Bears of Spitsbergen. Currently, Rinie is working on his new book “On Melting Ice, the Fate of the Arctic Ecosystem”.
Polar Expedition Leader, Dog Musher, + Kayak Guide
Rickard is a seasoned Expedition Leader from Sweden. He began his professional guiding career when he was hired by a kennel in Svalbard in the Norwegian high Arctic. He worked four winter seasons there as a dog musher and ice cave guide, followed by two seasons as a dogsled instructor for the British Army in their winter adventure training in Canada‘s Rocky Mountains.
He is one of a small number of mushers who have traversed Svalbard by dogsled (with 5 guests in tow and 55 dogs) multiple times. Rickard’s passion for tough adventures has also led him to work as a kayak guide for long expeditions along Greenland’s northwest coast. Furthermore he’s had the privilege of standing on the North Pole 5 times.
Rickard is educated as a ships officer and professional wilderness guide, and has spent the last decade working on expedition ships in Norway, Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and Antarctica.
His love of polar history and his enthusiasm for storytelling mean that there is rarely a dull moment when on expedition with Rickard.
Passport – Your passport must be valid for at least six months from the date of travel and you are responsible for any visa required to enter Norway/the Schengen Zone. If you are unsure whether you need a visa to travel to Norway/the Schengen zone (which is required to access Svalbard), please check this website as a starting point.
Health requirements – you must be in reasonable health and have a reasonable level of mobility in order to join the expedition. All guests must be fully vaccinated against covid-19 and carry with them proof of vaccination. The voyage is on board a ship and at times, the sea may be rough. This requires a degree of balance and agility so that you may safely move around the vessel. Also keep in mind that at times, we may offer a hike on land (which will always be optional).
Insurance Requirements – These days, comprehensive travel insurance is essential. It’ll give you the peace of mind that should covid-19 interfere, you’ll get everything refunded – from your flights to the cost of your trip on the Polar Pioneer. As the nature of our expedition involves both the reality of a ‘covid world’ as well as visiting the remote Arctic wilderness, we require all passengers to take out appropriate trip interruption/cancellation and medical evacuation insurance.
What to bring – Based on our combined years of experience braving the wilds of Svalbard, we’ve created a handy PDF packing list that you can download here. Please note that rubber boots (which you’ll get on loan from the ship) along with waterproof pants + a waterproof jacket are all required to participate in landings in Svalbard.
Simple! Take our short polar quiz to narrow down what options will best suit your travel style + budget.
