South Spitsbergen National Park

South Spitsbergen National Park covers about 13,300 square kilometres, some 5,000 of them land across the island's southern third and the rest sea, one of the largest protected areas in Svalbard, running from Hornsund down to Sørkapp and taking in glaciers, tundra plain, bird cliffs and the mountain country between. The tundra at Sørkapp is unusually rich by Svalbard standards and holds one of the archipelago's better concentrations of Svalbard reindeer. Much of the land is under permanent ice, and the bird reserves inside the park hold large colonies of Brunnich's guillemots and kittiwakes. The park was established on 1 June 1973, in the same round of designations that protected most of the archipelago's coastline, and it has been extended since.

The landscape

• The scale - around 13,300 square kilometres of land and sea, Svalbard's largest park.
• The Sørkapp tundra - unusually rich vegetation for this latitude.
• The Svalbard reindeer - the endemic subspecies concentrated on the southern plains.
• The bird cliffs - the seabird colonies along the western coast.

When to go

June to September is the practical window. Sea ice affects the southern coast into early summer. Winter access is for expeditions only.

What to expect

There is no infrastructure of any kind; this is expedition country. Polar bear protection is mandatory outside settlements. Weather and ice govern all access.

Nearby

Hornsund is within the park, and Longyearbyen is far north.

Key facts