A Real Arctic Expedition. No Experience Needed.
On the ice 28 March to 1 April 2027. Nine days with the coaching built around it, learning polar travel with someone walking the road to the South Pole. If you have ever wondered what it would take to stand on the ice, to challenge yourself and grow in the process, this is where you find out. Maximum ten guests, and the expedition runs from six. General fitness and a positive outlook will do the rest.
Book Your Placeim·mer·sionnoun
1. Complete involvement in a place, until the place starts working on you.
2. A small group, a wild landscape, and the mental fitness work woven through every day. Not a tour. Not a retreat. A shift.
3. Setting out to immerse yourself in a place. Ending up immersed in yourself.
My own road started exactly here. A polar primer in 2024, in Svalbard, where I learned the basics you cannot skip. Navigation, camp work, cold, hauling a sled. Two years later I crossed Greenland. Now I am taking a small group onto the ice the same way, with the coaching wrapped around it. This is more than a tour. It is an expedition that will introduce you to yourself.
Nine days, built in three parts.
Two full days before we step onto the ice. Coaching first, so you arrive prepared in your head, not just your kit. Then the practical work: tents, stoves, sleds, skis, food. By the time we leave town you know your systems.
Five days living the expedition rhythm. Break camp, ski, rest, ski, camp again. Frozen valleys, glaciers, mountains. Distance is not the goal. Competence is.
A debrief day when we come off the ice, two sessions of two hours with time to explore Longyearbyen between them. What you found out about yourself out there deserves more than a flight home and a photo album. We work it into something you keep.
Arrive in Longyearbyen. Settle in, meet the group. We start that evening with the first coaching session. Who you are, why you are here, what you want from the ice.
Two coaching sessions, two hours each. The frameworks I use on every expedition. How to handle discomfort. How to keep moving when you want to stop. How to be a good teammate at minus twenty. Between sessions you have time to explore Longyearbyen, the northernmost town in the world. Late afternoon we do the gear check at the warehouse.
Prep day. Tent pitching, stove lighting, sled packing, food, ski practice. Everything gets touched before it matters.
A shuttle to the edge of town, skis on, and we go. Five days and four nights moving through frozen valleys and over glaciers. Depending on what the season gives us, the last nights may be camped in one place with a glacier day trip on light sleds, and on the final day we ski back to the edge of Longyearbyen. Conditions decide the extras. Past years have meant ice caves. Some years it means roped glacier travel. The ice decides, which is part of the lesson and the experience.
Two coaching sessions, two hours each. We take what happened out there, the hard hours, the small wins, the things that surprised you, and turn it into tools you take home. The rest of the day is yours in Longyearbyen. That evening we celebrate properly.
Fly home on 3 April.
One thing first. On any expedition, nature has the final say. What follows is the framework, not a promise, and flexibility and patience are part of the skill set. We adapt, and we go from there.
The alarm goes at six. First job is the stove, warmth and water for breakfast and the thermoses. Camp comes down fast because moving is warmer than standing still. A short meeting on the day's plan, then skis on by half past eight.
We ski for about an hour, then rest for ten. Then again. Lunch is half an hour, sitting on the sleds. You will not go hungry. Then more sessions through the afternoon. We start at around four hours a day and build toward seven or eight as the group finds its legs.
At the end of the day we make camp, secure the tents, rig the bear perimeter, light the stoves, eat, and sleep a full eight hours. Then we do it again. That repetition is the whole point. Somewhere in the middle of it you stop fighting the routine and start belonging to it.
Pitch a tent in wind. Run a stove in a small space. Melt snow for water. Build a camp that keeps you alive and comfortable.
Layers, moisture, movement. How to stay warm at minus twenty five, and what to do when you are not.
Hauling a sled, pacing yourself, eating and drinking on the move, and getting up to do it again tomorrow. You also spend a lot of the day inside your own head, which is exciting and scary at the same time. That is the point, and it is exactly what the mindset tools are for.
The same frameworks I used across Greenland, worked on before the ice and made real by it. These come home with you. That is the point of the whole thing.
Mardi Philips. IPGA polar expedition guide.
Mardi has been heading into wild places since her first trip to Antarctica at the age of ten. A skier, climber and white water kayaker with a degree in Outdoor Education and a Master of Applied Learning and Teaching, she has guided polar expeditions in Svalbard, across Greenland and all the way to the South Pole. I have shared the ice with her, and she does not just guide the experience. She is part of what makes it.
Gerry van der Walt. Co-host and mental fitness coach.
I have spent 25 years leading people into wild places and have been going to Svalbard since 2013. In May 2026 I crossed the Greenland ice cap, 553 kilometres, unsupported, as part of a team, and I am on a five year road to the South Pole, solo and unsupported, in 2030. This Immersion is a leg of that road. Mardi and I carry the week together, her ice craft and my coaching woven into one experience.
The on-ice programme runs with Icetrek, the polar expedition company of veteran polar guide Eric Philips.
You do not need to be an expeditioner. You do not even need to be an athlete.
You need to be curious about what you are capable of, reasonably fit, and ready to be uncomfortable in the best way. If you want to experience the Arctic in the most intimate way possible, this is it. Not from a ship. Not through a window. On the ice, hauling your own sled, melting your own water, earning every kilometre. Physically and mentally, in every way that counts, you will change. Some people come because the ice is calling them. Some come because they want to test themselves somewhere real, with structure and safety around them. Both are right.
This Immersion is a leg of something larger. I am on a five year road to the South Pole, solo and unsupported, in 2030. The same ice that is training me can train you. That is what makes this different from every other trip out there.
- All coaching, before, on and after the ice
- The pre-trip prep programme
- Five nights of accommodation in Longyearbyen
- Expedition guiding by Icetrek's polar team
- All group gear: tents, pulks, stoves, safety comms
- All food on the ice
- The final night celebration dinner
- Flights to and from Longyearbyen
- Travel and evacuation insurance (required)
- Personal clothing and boots (full gear list provided in the prep programme)
- Meals in town
€4,750 per person
Everything on the ground is included, from the night you land to the morning you fly home.
Ten places, and the expedition runs from six. The form below is a booking, not an interest list. When you send it, you are telling me you are in. Invoices only go out, and payment is only required, once we have the minimum number to run the expedition. Until then, not a cent moves.
This is the founding year. The Immersion becomes an annual departure, and this price will not come around again.
How Booking Works
Send the form to show your intent to book. I reply within 48 hours.
A short call to confirm the details and make sure this is right for you.
After the call I send your booking link and you confirm your place. Invoices and payment only happen once the minimum number is reached.
Once the group is set we prep together: group Zoom calls, training guidance and kit support in the months before we fly, getting ready for a mind bending, life changing adventure.
Payment is only ever asked for once the expedition is guaranteed to run. Until then, your booking costs you nothing.
Coming as a group? Four or more people booking together get a group rate, and eight of you should talk to me about making the whole expedition yours.
No. When I did my first polar primer three years ago, I had never been on skis in my life. Many people on this programme are the same. We train you on the ice at a manageable pace. If you can walk, you can learn this.
Anywhere from minus 5 to minus 35. The extremes do not happen often, but they are possible at that time of year, and cold management is one of the core skills you come to learn.
35 to 40 kilograms. It sounds like a lot. On skis, on snow, with the right harness and rhythm, it moves. Getting comfortable in the harness is exactly what this trip is for.
Distance is not the goal. We start at around four hours a day, skiing for about an hour and resting for ten, with half an hour for lunch. As the group finds its legs we build toward seven or eight hours.
Reasonably fit, not superhuman. If you can commit to a few months of consistent training and handle long days on your feet, you are in range. Training guidance is part of the prep programme.
We take this very seriously and follow every regulation. Camps are protected by a perimeter alarm system, the guides carry flare guns and firearms as required by law in Svalbard, and we run a polar bear watch rotation at night, which turns out to be one of the more unique experiences of the trip. Sightings on foot at this time of year are rare. Preparation is not optional.
Hilleberg expedition tents, two people per tent, with sleeping systems rated to minus 40. We rotate tent partners through the week to keep it interesting. You get a minimum of eight hours of sleep every night. Recovery is part of the programme, not a luxury.
You do. Melting snow and running the stove is expedition life, and we train you on it before you need it.
Outside, quickly, with a system you learn on day one. Everyone wants to ask this and nobody does. The honest answer is that it becomes normal faster than you think.
Most people do. You arrive solo and leave with a handful of people who watched you do something hard while sharing an experience none of you will forget.
All technical equipment is provided. You bring personal clothing and footwear, and the full kit list comes with your booking. I will help you get it right without overspending.
Yes. Travel insurance with evacuation cover is mandatory, and details come with your booking pack.
Arrive in Longyearbyen by the afternoon of 25 March 2027. We start that evening. Book your flight home for 3 April.
The expedition runs from six guests. If we are not there by 1 December 2026, you choose: a full refund of everything you have paid, a recalculated price for the smaller group with the small difference added to your payment, or your place rolled to the 2028 departure. No fine print.
Everything is costed and charged in euros.
Yes, absolutely. Book a free 30 minute call and we can talk through any questions or concerns about the expedition. Just a conversation.
Book Your Place.
Ten places. When they are gone, they are gone. Enquire below.