Arctic Travel Forum

By one of my virtual voyages i found a site with cruises to the northpole.

It looks verry interesting, but somewhat i do not understand:
They offer a trip to the northpole (90 degrees north) with the ship. I think the area around the northpole is massive ice and not passable by ship.

Am i wrong, or do i have unterstand somwhat wrong?

http://www.seereisen-online.de/Kreuzfahrten-3.htm (only in german)

Thanks, Regina

Hi Regina,

I am sure you are right - it is covered with ice. But...
Look here -
http://www.tour-land.ru/extr/ship/eng/program_np.shtml

They are going really on the icebraker!!!!

on your link I found list of 9 icebrakers (Russian, Norwegian and British) from wich you can choose.

Thanks, Pablos
thats unbelievably for me.
That means that the icebreakers can passing massive ice without water below? Verry interesting!
I think when i gain in the lottery i would go and look that by myself (15'000 Euro)

Or is this just the "touristic northpole" and nobody knows? :-))

I think it is serious. Look:
"The Arctic Ocean reaching 5,5 km depth covers the most part of the Arctic zone. Its water area is covered with ice-floes up to 3-4 meters thick, and its ice-hummocks - towering ice-floe wreckages - reach 10-15 meters height."

Underwater part of atomic icebreaker "Jamal" (one of the modern ones -1992) is 11 m:

http://www.tour-land.ru/extr/ship/eng/specif_ya.shtml

Do i have understand right:
The arctic is just a huge floating mass of ice? No rocks below?

Exactly!

Nice to know, thanks!

And the antarctic?
I mean to kow that there is a rocky underground and the ice can be thick up to several kilometer.

Antarctic is a continent - so there is land under ice.

I think it is great trip to the pole on a icebreaker... But $15000 is gently expensive to me... LOL! next time

Yes, i also think so.
But who knows, perhaps one day the russian rouble goes 1:1 with the $, so that would be a bit cheaper....

If the rouble was 1:1 with the dollar or Euro, it would be more expensive! It hovers between 20-35 Roubles to a Euro.......if it went 1:1, it would be 30x more expensive!

Ob das Rouble 1:1 mit dem Dollar/Euro war, alles wirt teuerer! Jetzt ist er etwa 20-35 Roubles zu einem Euro.......ob es 1:1 war, alles werden 30x teuerer!

Wo habt Ihr $15.000 gefundet? An deinem Website (www.seereisen-online.de), gibt es Fahrten ab 2000 Euro!

Sorry, $15000 is a cabin for two. But this does not make it significantly lower.

I think 2000 Euro - is just Norden Tours - to the Franz-Josef Land and back.
( http://www.tour-land.ru/extr/ship/eng/ceny_zfi.shtml )
the same exact tour on Kapitan Dranikin I've found in your link.

Joe_Puntoni:
I meant if he had to pay only 15'000 Roubles it would be cheaper.
The tour for 2000 Euro is Spitzbergen.
They have a few interesting tours, par example from Grönland above the america continent to Alaska. (13'000 Euro)

Regina

hei there...if u are planning a trip up this year you have to go late august-september, the ice is very thick this year so don't think there will be any trips any time soon, and yes its very expensive, but way not take a small cruise around spitsbergen, its expensive, but not as those to the pole, spitsbegen its fantastic and beautiful..have been here 3 years myself...

You are absolutely right.