There are patches of snow but most of the landscape is bare rock. The arctic is considered a desert meaning it gets less than 9 inches of precipitation a year. By this time of the summer most of the snow has melted.
The surface of the land is covered with gravel or broken rock indicating that in recent times it was entirely glacier covered.
Continuously frozen permafrost is not far beneath the surface so there are no trees or large plants. In fact the only places where there is any vegetation are the areas fertilized by the abundance of nesting birds. Over 200 species inhabit the arctic. Because they are ground nesters, they migrate here to avoid preditors and also to take advantage of the abundant food supply in the sea that results from 24 hours of sunshine.
The ship anchored near the shore so passengers could go ashore by zodiac and hike the 2 1/2 miles to the face of the glacier near an area called Stefan's garden. We hiked in groups of 10 to 15 - each group accompanied by a naturalist who was equipped with a radio, a flare gun and a 30-06 rifle. It looked a bit like a prison work crew excerpt we had no interest in escaping from our guards.
Above us on the hillside were tens of thousands of nesting kittihawks, skuas, arctic terns, guillimonts, puffins and numerous other species. At one point six grazing reindeer passed high up on the steep hillside. Under our feet there were numerous flowers including beautiful purple mosscampions and several varieties of pink to white saxifrage. See more Pictures
The temperature was in the mid-forties with continuous rainfall which our guide said was unusual for this normally dry climate.
We returned to the ship tired, cold, wet & hungry but fortunately just in time for dinner.
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