Safe and Successful 2025 Expedition

It’s great to report the successful completion of the ARG 2025 expedition to Tempelfjord, Svalbard, following the safe return of all expedition members to their homes and families, whilst also celebrating the successes of the fieldwork completed during the expedition. 

Images courtesy of Joe Cox The expedition members, all volunteers, worked with great enthusiasm and passion on all the projects, and fully committed to getting the most, and giving the most, that they could.

Expedition Leader Mike Haynes commented “The teamwork in the field was amazing to witness as everyone pulled together and pushed themselves hard to get things done. Immediately after we arrived and had established a toehold at Kapp Schoultz, within hours a team was taken out to the Von Postbreen to take the first samples for one of the projects”.

The amount of work that was achieved in what was a relatively short expedition is impressive.  The research locations were spread around all points of Tempelfjord, and required lots of boat journeys to get to the Von Postbreen, the Burnmurdochbreen, the Brucebreen, Gipsdalen and Sassendalen, with most locations needing to be visited on more than one occasion. 

With such a demanding schedule, the success of the expedition was reliant on there being good weather and thankfully, in the main, this was what prevailed.  Whilst there were some windy days, some tricky boat journeys, some rain showers and some very cold winds off the Fimbulisen ice cap, the Von Postbreen and the Tunabreen, there were extended periods of time with fair weather, blue skies and sunshine.  Temperatures were not in any way extreme and never dipped below freezing. We were grateful not to be visited by Polar Bear this year and the team did really well in only accidentally tripping the bear scarer alarm wires once in the whole expedition. 

Mike went on to comment “There were marked visible changes that were evident since my first time in Tempelfjord 42 years ago, as the glaciers have receded, the outwash rivers appear significantly more treacherous, and there just didn’t seem to be as much wildlife about”. 

Thanks go to all the supporters and all those involved in the expedition, particularly the families and close friends of the expedition members.

The tasks on returning home are to compile and assess the collected data, to get the samples and gathered information to the researchers, organise the images and videos, write up the reports and then disseminate the information to the scientific community. It is work that will take several months to complete.

You will perhaps not be surprised to read that even before the flight home, plans of when we will be able to return to Svalbard were being discussed.