Expedition Arctic Ocean 2026, blog post 1: Boarding Oden
On Monday evening, we arrived in Longyearbyen and boarded I/B Oden to start our six-week journey into the Arctic. We got to the ship in the evening, around 21:00, tired after travelling all the way to Svalbard (some of us from Sweden, some all the way from Canada), but you probably couldn’t tell. The energy in the group was bubbling; I was giddy with excitement about finally getting to start the expedition!
Image 1: I/B Oden, anchored outside Longyearbyen, Svalbard.
When I was younger, I really enjoyed going to camps. I went to a number of band camps as a child, playing the flute. As I grew older I got into athletics and went to a few training camps abroad as a teenager. There is something so special about sharing a trip with a large group of peers, being confined together, often without access to the things that we might normally entertain ourselves with at home. Camp is a place for making up special rules for card games during rainy days, ping-pong tournaments, and late-night conversations with people you might not normally hang out with: making something fun out of whatever is available.
Image 2: All luggage is brought from the shore using a small boat and one of Oden's cranes.
But camp is a place for the young. I remember thinking at some point in my teens, “I need to hurry up and go to more camps so I can have more of this fun before I grow too old and it’s too late”. I was actually almost stressed about this. Now I know how very wrong I was. The feeling in the group of early career researchers as we started exploring Oden the first evening when we arrived was very similar to what I experienced as a child. We are on one of the biggest adventures of our lives. Most of us did not know each other before meeting up at the airport in Oslo on Monday, but sharing such an exciting experience really builds a feeling of connection within the group.
Image 3: A view of the mountains of Svalbard as we head out to sea; the last land we will see in weeks.
I look very much forward to spending the next month getting to know the other researchers better. I am of course very excited about experiencing the very spectacular environment in the high Arctic and learning a lot about Arctic research, but I also look forward to once again experiencing the joy of card games, ping-pong and late-night conversations.
/Linnea (2026-08-14)
Full 2026 Arctic Expedition blog archive:
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Last updated: 2026-08-18
Source: MISU