Austfonna Ice Cap

Austfonna covers most of Nordaustlandet in Svalbard's northeast, an ice cap of around eight thousand square kilometres that is among the largest outside Greenland and Antarctica, and its southern edge meets the sea in a wall of ice running for tens of kilometres, one of the longest continuous calving fronts anywhere. In summer meltwater pours off the top in waterfalls that fall straight from the ice into the sea.

What you actually see

• The calving front - a wall of ice running for tens of kilometres along the coast.
• The scale - around eight thousand square kilometres of ice cap.
• The meltwater falls - summer water pouring straight off the ice into the sea.
• The Nordaustlandet setting - the ice covering most of Svalbard's second island.

When to go

July to September is when ships can reach the northeast. Sea ice closes the area in most other months and often in summer too. Meltwater falls run in the warmest weeks.

Honest expectations

Sea ice frequently prevents ships reaching Nordaustlandet at all, and voyages are rerouted regularly. There is no landing on the ice front. The area is far from any settlement.

Nearby

Moffen is west, and Longyearbyen is far southwest.