British-Led Team Completes First Winter Ski Traverse of Spitsbergen as Glacial Retreat Accelerates

15 October 2026

A British expedition led by Paul Walker achieved a landmark ski crossing of Spitsbergen, while newer glacier research shows Svalbard’s ice is shrinking rapidly.

In 2001, a British team led by Paul Walker made history as the first Britons to ski the length of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. Facing some of the most challenging polar conditions ever encountered, the expedition was a feat of endurance and navigation that pushed human limits.

The 2001 expedition, known as the Polestar Expedition, was a six-week traverse undertaken by a four-strong team in the deathly cold and merciless landscape of Spitsbergen. The team, including Starbuck, Johnson and Morris, set off on March 17 with a 600-km route on foot or skis, taking 40 days of food and fuel. The route encompassed multiple firsts: the first longitudinal crossing by a British contingent, the first traversal of Spitsbergen via the high mountain route and the full traverse of South Spitsbergen National Park.

The expedition endured extreme weather, with nighttime lows of -40°C and daytime highs only reaching -27°C. The team was forced to airlift Dave Johnson out after frostbite and a foot infection slowed progress. Nonetheless, those who continued completed the journey two days ahead of schedule, down to their final rations, a testament to superhuman stamina, mental toughness and route-finding skills.

The crossing cemented Spitsbergen's role as the largest and most diverse island in the challenging Svalbard archipelago, an unforgiving high Arctic arena where ice cover has guided skiers to venture for decades. Today, full traverse or full-length traverse is widely used to describe the bold Svalbard-skiing feat some adventure guides offer, wrapping a 570-km journey over icy terrain into a bundled itinerary of about 30-34 days. The Polestar Expedition laid the template for these expedition products.

But as visitors dream of epic ski-lap narratives to sell, reality bites back in the glacier record. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Glaciology finds that Aldegondabreen, a central Spitsbergen glacier, experienced the most negative mass balance ever during 2019–2024—an extraordinary weight loss it links to global warming, emphasizing spikes in 2024, its most deglacial year.

The study warns that Aldegondabreen is now over 50% shrunk since recording began around 80 years ago and losing ice cover so rapidly that current rates may surpass those of the last 4000 years. This is Svalbard, island of boom-town growth, where a warming global climate is changing the nature of the skiing and popular expedition options for all visitors, from the global celebrity guided groups to the independent tourer.

The expedition's achievements underscore that Spitsbergen presents an Arctic challenge of ice and weather conditions that are not for the faint-hearted. While guided skiing ventures offer a full traverse in the 550-600 kilometer range, taking 30–34 days, modern tourists should be aware of a backdrop of accelerating climate-driven glacier shrinkage. Some glaciers in the archipelago are reported to be losing over 50% of their area in around 80 years, with the impacts now felt as the most negative mass balance in the record.

For those prepared for a true adventure, dedicated to pushing their limits and driven by the calling of unparalleled natural wilderness, a ski crossing of Spitsbergen features a list of elements no substitutions can replicate. But as the climatic degradation of the polar regions simultaneously opens up access, other factors are more concerning, not least anticipated impacts to the very landscape skier-tourists are so drawn to witness.