A wilderness that will test you to your limit

With a population of about 2,000, the islands are 60 per cent ice and are a Norwegian protectorate following the First World War Svalbard treaty.

Student Alex Pilditch, aged 24, of Welland, near Malvern, knows both Svalbard’s beauty and its harsh environment, having spent 10 months studying at the university there.

“It is a challenging place to live,”

said the former Malvern College pupil. “When I was there, the temperature peaked at seven degrees Celsius while the coldest still air temperature was minus 40.

“Being inside the Arctic Circle you get what they call polar day and polar night, that’s 24-hour daylight and 24-hour darkness.”

For Alex, the challenge of just existing on Svalbard was one of the main attractions of the place.

“I was frustrated with what I was doing at home and needed a change, a new perspective,” he said.

“Svalbard really appealed to me.

It is one of the last genuine wildernesses out there. A beautiful place but a testing one too.

“It is a place that forces you to respect the environment, something we have forgotten in a lot of places, and there is something exciting about that, it is really living.

“Svalbard forces you to be selfreliant and your survival skills must be of the highest level. If you fall through the ice into the water or don’t manage yourself and sweat too much while you are hiking, your clothes will freeze – and that’s it, you’re in big trouble because it is not easy to warm up again.

“That is what is attractive about it. It is not the danger, it is testing yourself and proving you can be self-reliant. The rewards are amazing – you can ski for days and not see another soul and see land untouched by humans. That is something which is almost unique in the world today.

“But it is a harsh environment.

You must understand the risks and give total respect to the environment.”

The inherent dangers of being in an environment so detached from those that humans have crafted for themselves has been brought in to sharp focus recently following the death of student Horatio Chapple, killed by a polar bear while on a trip to Svalbard.

And Alex knows full well the dangers involved in heading out of the main town, Longyearbyen, on an expedition such as the one made by the school party.

“There is one person per 20 square kilometres on average on Svalbard and two polar bears for the same area – so you are outnumbered and in their territory,” he said.

“I had a reasonably close encounter with a bear three times while I was out there.

“Once, a friend and I were out on a skiing trek and realised a male bear was following us. I’m not certain of when it started tracking us but it followed us for at least 40 kilometres.

“On another occasion, a bear came to within about 400 metres of our camp and we just wanted to warn it off, so we fired a couple of rounds well above its head to scare it away.

“Shooting a bear is an absolute last resort. As soon as a bear is shot, it becomes a full police inquiry and if you are found to have shot a bear unnecessarily, you can even go to prison.

“The locals have a mantra that if a bear has to be shot, then something has been done wrong.

“At the university, all students have to take a compulsory winter and summer training course to be allowed to leave the town for things such as fieldwork projects.

“A key element of the winter training is being taught to load and fire a rifle. All the locals will own their own, the university hires them out to students or, like me, you buy your own for trips.

“You are also told about bear behaviour. So if a bear is standing on its back legs, it is probably just inquisitive.

“If they are behind you, they are probably hunting – but their behaviour can change very quickly.

“If you are confronted by a bear you should never turn your back or run as they think you are food and will chase.

“Given they can cover 50 metres in a couple of seconds, it wouldn’t be particularly fruitful anyway.”

The recent incident occurred while the party of schoolchildren slept in their camp of tents. Seemingly no one was woken, despite the use of trip wires around the site.

Alex said: “When setting up camps on our trips we would always have them set up at about knee height and connected to a little pen flare. The flare basically just makes a loud bang which should wake everyone up and if your are very lucky, it might scare off the bear.

“Best practice really is to always have someone doing a shift as a guard with a rifle. There should usually be enough of you on a trip to do this in reasonable stints.

There is no excuse not to be doing guard duties.”

The outdoor pursuits enthusiast, now completing his studies back in the UK, clearly has huge love and respect for Svalbard.

He recently gave a talk to the Royal Geographical Survey in London, speaking just before Michael Palin, and is keen to urge people not to write off the island in light of recent events.

He said: “Risk is something you always have to acknowledge. It is something that really annoys me in our society, that no one takes any responsibility for themselves.

“We have to be told, ‘Don’t drink that, it’s hot’, ‘Don’t drink too much’ or ‘Bears are dangerous’.

“It’s madness. I would never tell someone not to go to Svalbard, it is a magical place. We are adventurers and if you don’t test yourself and take no risks, well that to me just isn’t living.

“Prepare properly and respect the environment.”