Expedition Spitsbergen | Challenges of a border crossing - Part I

A certain idea at the beginning

To cross Spitsbergen in its entirety: 700 km, 40 days on skis, 40 nights in a tent. And to document the journey on film. With 'End to End Svalbard', I made my first major expedition film. Of course, I prepared myself physically in the best possible way in the months leading up to the expedition - I could have saved myself that. On the very first day, the mental overload hit me with full force and the successful completion of the film felt more distant than ever. Here I tell you how I experienced and overcame this mental block.

A journey into the unknown

It's a cold morning in Longyearbyen. The sky is blue and it is quiet in this Arctic, almost surreal place. In a small, snow-covered lane near the shore, between typically Norwegian, colorful wooden houses, ten snowmobiles are waiting for us, ready to set off. The engines roar to life and probably wake up one or two of the local residents. We head leisurely towards the end of the village.

Apart from the fact that driving a snowmobile - apart from the brutal noise and the constant smell of exhaust fumes - is quite a lot of fun, my mind is elsewhere. I'm concentrating less on the five-hour journey ahead of us and more on what lies ahead in the month and a half that follows. Turning back now - and having to explain this to the sponsors - would be more difficult than getting through the next six weeks.

We are on Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago, roughly between Norway and the North Pole. My friend Jonas, myself and five Norwegian friends have been working towards this morning - or rather the next 40 days - for a good year and a half. Our goal: to cross the entire island from south to north on skis.

The first few days of my first expedition

Actually, I would recommend this to anyone - chasing through this vast, unreal glacier landscape on a snowmobile. At least that's one of the first feelings that comes to mind when I think of this expedition. But what are we actually doing there?

Jonas, with whom I had already shot many films, completed his training as an Arctic Nature Guide in 2022. As a kind of final project, a knighthood for himself, he wanted to cross the island lengthwise under his own steam. Why not make a movie about it, he thought - that would make it easier to finance.

I, of course Jonas' first choice as a filmmaker, had some experience of winter shoots and uncontrollable environments, but never for more than three days at a time. Now here I was, on Doktorbreen, a good 120 kilometers from the actual southern tip, which we had to walk to first before the traverse north could begin.

We would pass this place again in two weeks' time, so: bury some of the food, strap on the expedition skis and off we go - southwards for now. For me, the first steps on the thin, just 55 mm wide skis - normally I'm used to powder slats with a center width of over 10 cm. And at that moment, something unusual happened.

My preparation notebook says: "Start on Doktorbreen. Film as much as possible. IMPORTANT!" What did I do? I filmed just one picture: us running off. Thank God, that was actually important for the movie. Otherwise, I felt overwhelmed - something I wasn't used to.

It was all new: the landscape, the movement, the 65-kilo Pulka behind me. I wanted to shoot a lot, but I couldn't. This feeling runs deep.

It needs a routine

I will never forget the feeling of the first evening.
We reached the site for our camp, it was getting dusk. While the others set up tents, I did nothing. I didn't know what to do. I knew I had a lot to do: Tent, batteries, data, sleeping place, filming. But without a routine, it all felt overwhelming. I stood there like an extra.

Everyone around me had their tasks, only I didn't know where to start. That very first evening, the feeling crept in: "How am I supposed to get through all of this?" A feeling of fear that I wouldn't be up to this project after all; that I would ruin the movie and possibly disappoint the others. I felt useless, and that does something to you.

You can imagine this in an arctic environment: the temperature is almost constantly below zero, so your body spends a lot of time warming up (temperatures above zero are actually worse here, as we found out days later). In addition, you're active all day, so you're physically exhausted all the time and in a kind of regeneration phase.

Setting up the tent, melting snow and boiling water, sorting equipment - these tasks sound easy, and at home they are. In an extreme situation like our Arctic expedition, they take you to the limits of human willpower.

As if that wasn't enough, now comes the component: Shooting a movie. Not just one or two nice pictures. Enough images to carry the movie for over an hour; finding a story that best reflects our 40-day journey. That's a difficult challenge even at home in a controlled environment. And in the Arctic? Let me put it this way: I was definitely not prepared for that.

The next morning I was miraculously fit again, pulled out the camera and was able to capture some really good footage. Lucky me - at least for the time being.

The next two weeks were trial and error: Opening the pulk, battery case, cable, hard disk, data, mat, sleeping bag, stove. While I still had to actively think about every step on the first few days, I had now internalized and automated every move (a tent partner like Jonas helps immensely, of course!). It took two weeks to work out a routine, and it was worth it. The routine gave me control in an uncontrolled environment, a sense of security. A huge mental burden fell away from me.

The moves were right, my head was finally clear again. But anyone who thinks that this made the expedition a sure-fire success is very much mistaken. Because while I was regaining my inner balance, the next test was already waiting outside: the route to the southern tip. In the next part, I'll tell you why the bad weather almost derailed my film project, why gray days in the Arctic are more dangerous for the psyche than any storm and how you can train your mental strength.