In September 2024, beneath brilliantly blue skies and among the vivid colors of autumn, m/v Ortelius sailed into the magnificent Scoresby Sund on an 8-night voyage focusing specifically on giving guests the chance to 'long hike'. This trip, with its focus on long hikes, not only delivered a unique Arctic hiking experience; it connected guests with nature in ways they hadn't before thought possible and grounded them once more in the vast world that for millennia, we as a species called home on a much deeper level.
"Being here feels like you're in that magical book you read as a child." - Greg Roliardi, Long Hiker
Hikers with Oceanwide Expeditions spent entire days away from the ship, venturing into rolling tundra and to the top of rocky, snow-dusted outcrops, beneath beautiful blue skies and in the shadow of snow-capped peaks and immense glaciers. Across three days, hikers explored the slopes of Milne Land at Ikasakajip Nua, ventured deep into the autumnal tundra between Harefjord and Rypefjord, and traversed the undulating desolate plains of Jameson Land.
The long hike experience with Oceanwide Expeditions
On all Oceanwide Expeditions trips, guests can get ground beneath their feet and explore the landscapes of the polar regions through walks, hikes, and perimeter landings of varying distances and sizes. In the Arctic, hiking away from landing sites is possible more frequently than in Antarctica, where glaciated terrain and unscalable inclines often limit to what extent guests can explore.
Usually, beach walks and slightly longer hikes in short loops can be expected. These hikes gain elevation and offer the opportunity to encounter wildlife and explore beyond the boundaries of the ship and Zodiacs. Whatever the length, these foot excursions are always led by guides in pre-scouted areas and return to the same landing zone.
Photo by Marco Rosso
In Scoresby Sund, guests experienced something different. Along with their guides, they spent as much time away from the ship as possible, hiking from the landing site into challenging terrain and finishing the route at a different location. This meant that guests who took part in the long hikes were immersed in their surroundings for an entire day instead of shorter periods. This concept was a huge draw for Greg Roliardi, an Oceanwide Expedition guest from Wisconsin, USA.
"It's been a huge highlight to not only sail past and see the immense vastness of this area but also get to go out and experience it," he says. "You know, running into over 60 musk ox and knowing that it's likely a new experience for them to see us, as it is for us to see them, just blows me away. It feels like this place is being explored for the first time."
Reconnecting on a human level: true Arctic immersion
Three long hikes were completed during the trip, each giving guests a different taste of Scoresby Sund's varied Arctic landscapes. This area is of immense scale and far more significant than at first glance. From Ortelius' deck, the mountains are impressive, and the glaciers appear huge. However, It isn't until you are away from the ship, high on a rolling hillside, or overlooking a fjord in the shadow of a mountain that the sheer enormity of the wilderness around you can be truly appreciated.
It is one thing to gaze upon spectacular scenery from the deck of Ortelius, or aboard a Zodiac. Finding yourself among an ancient landscape is another thing, with nothing but wilderness visible in any direction. On a long hike, you regain a link to our innate human connection with the natural world - there is no link to modernity beyond the group's cameras. You are truly part of the environment once the ship is out of sight behind a summit or hillside.
Photo by Marco Rosso
This feeling touched many of the hikers, including Greg. "I think it's the most true wilderness I've ever experienced," he says. "Here, I don't see any sign of humans except glimpses of the ship - there's not even any sign of a plane above. Here, I can walk around, see no garbage, hear no background noise, and see no sign of human activity besides the hiking group. It's amazing."
Beauty in the details, inspiration in the wilderness
With the three long hikes of the trip lasting between 5 and 6 hours, guests had plenty of opportunity to soak in the variation in landscapes, from the broad, iceberg-filled Øfjord, Harefjord, Rypefjord, and Rodefjord to the expansive, tumbling, colorful tundra carpeting Cape Hofmann Halvø and the soaring, jagged peaks enclosing all against a brilliantly blue sky.
"Being out there, in the vast tundra, sharing that space with the musk ox, it's just so wonderful," says Charlotte Taplin, Expedition Guide with Oceanwide Expeditions. "You know, you're part of that environment for a time; the wildlife we see could move away or stay with you, and that element of the unknown just makes the longer periods away from the ship so special." For some, the most extraordinary beauty lay in the details, from swirling geological formations to the tiny bursts of life in every inch of tundra. "During the hikes, I'm always in the back, not because I'm slow, but because I'm looking at the plants and flowers, examining the petals, and how things grow," Greg adds. "It's these details that just add an extra layer to it all, and often, I just had to stand and stare, just to take it all in."
Photo by Marco Rosso
At this time of year, the tundra is especially beautiful, with plants such as dwarf willow, birch, reindeer lichen, cottongrass, and various mosses carpeting the landscape in vivid color. Underfoot, dry leaves and branches crunch and crackle while springy moss flourishes amidst pools of water and icy recesses in the rock. This landscape was on full display during the second hike of the trip - a long traversal of Cape Hofmann Halvø, a peninsula between Harefjord and Rypefjord. "I'm just so happy that we got to do the hikes and that they happened frequently,” adds Greg. “At first, I thought it was only a one-day thing, so I was happy to be out there again on the second day, spending even more time away from the ship, getting down and seeing the details, reaching out and touching things. It's pretty special in the tundra."
These are ancient landscapes forged by incredible geological activity and the power of heat and ice. And it doesn't just look it; Scoresby Sund feels ancient. In the tundra, you feel transported into the world how it once was, and the realization that life here hasn't changed for millennia is sobering. "I thought about that often while out hiking," agrees Greg. "How often has a human touched, or even seen, these stones and rocks at my feet, or climbed or looked at that rock face? How often do those musk ox, or Arctic hares, get exposed to human life, especially in the modern world? Here, I could pick up a rock and very likely be the first human ever to make contact with it."
Leaving with unique memories of a unique world
For each hiker, the experience meant something different. For some, the absolute silence of the environment brought an incredible contrast with the modern world they had left behind. In contrast, others found the vivid orange, red, brown, and yellow hues of the autumnal tundra a sight beyond anything they had seen before. Others still found their imagination piqued by the relative emptiness of the land around them at this time of year.
Many birds have already migrated south ahead of the coming winter, and seals and polar bears await the coming of the sea ice and, with it, an abundance of food. On Jameson Land, the stark emptiness of the landscape was especially apparent, with only the lonely cries of the occasional raven above and the occasional scattered bones of muskox standing as reminders of life among the fields of cottongrass and marshy, boggy ground.
Across all three hikes, only the magnificent herds of musk ox, the flash of an Arctic hare, or the crouched form of an Arctic fox broke the stillness of the hiker's world, with the occasional cry of a seabird above or the frantic fluttering of a ptarmigan in the undergrowth ahead. As they found elevation on Milne Land, the wind blew in from Øfjord, but otherwise, the tapestry of icebergs, mountains, and rock lay silent, still, and enduring.
At Cape Hofmann Halvø, the day was crisp and still. Even the musk ox moved silently among the tundra, the only sounds being the crunch of leaves underfoot or the occasional rustle of a backpack strap. Lakes and fjords perfectly reflected the mountains and hills, their surfaces undisturbed by even the slightest hint of wind.
Others still found the most beauty in the wilderness in its truest form - the mountains rising; jagged, snow-capped, and imposing, most unnamed, the spiraling peak of Grundtvigskirken, which dominates Øfjord, a notable exception, hiding from view further expanses of glaciated wilderness. Tantalizing glimpses of this icy world lay in the deep clefts carved by glaciers as they snaked their way up and around the shoulders of the peaks above.
Below, glaciers calved into myriad fjords, creating great flotillas of icebergs, drifting slowly away from the vast slopes of ice pouring in from Greenland's icy core. Above all, as day falls and night comes, the stars illuminate this untouched world in their millions, brilliantly bright and unobscured by any form of modern intrusion or light pollution. On dark nights - every evening during this trip, the ethereal aurora dances high above the dark mountains, weaving fantastical tapestries of light into a sky unchanged for eons. On cold, clear winter days, those who experienced long hiking in Scoresby Sund will find themselves transported back to the silent slopes of the Arctic, lost in a dream of a world that is as it always has been and, perhaps, always will.
While an expedition cruise takes you to some of the most beautiful, inspiring, and life-changing locations on Earth, a long hike into the heart of such places transports you entirely into the polar landscape, like a small human dot in a vast wild world.
