Trivia Question: Where is the world’s most northerly permanent settlement? Answer: Ny Ålesund in the North West of the island of Spitbergen - 78.9°N

Just 600 miles from the North Pole lies the island group of Svalbard, of which Spitsbergen is the largest. Variously occupied and exploited by the Dutch, Russians and Norwegians, in 1920 it was decided by treaty that the Norwegians should administer it and the capitol, Longyearbyen, flies the Norwegian tricolour.

Trivia Question: Where is the world’s most northerly permanent settlement?
Answer: Ny Ålesund in the North West of the island of Spitbergen - 78.9°N

Just 600 miles from the North Pole lies the island group of Svalbard, of which Spitsbergen is the largest. Variously occupied and exploited by the Dutch, Russians and Norwegians, in 1920 it was decided by treaty that the Norwegians should administer it and the capitol, Longyearbyen, flies the Norwegian tricolour.

Personality Profile: Dan Wetzel - Arctic Guide

Man Made in Alaska

Dan Wetzel is the epitome of the modern frontiersman.

When Dan Wetzel first arrived in Alaska in 1967, he had just endured two years active service in Vietnam aboard the huge aircraft carrier, USS Constellation.

“I saw it all aboard that ship,” said Dan plainly, his eyes alluding to horrific tales he’d rather not share, “…in the middle of the night, in the middle of a bad war….”

By Thomas Keneally OA

I first went to Antarctica by plane as part of an American party in 1968.

After vapouring on to everyone for over three decades about how startling, how cleansing, how life-transforming a place it is, I seized at last a chance to go again as an Antarctic tourist on the chartered Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, which would succeed in taking us as far South into the ice as a ship can go.

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