Franz Josef Land, Arctic Circle

Franz Josef Land is a scattered archipelago deep in the Arctic Ocean, not far from the North Pole.

It is a Russian territory made up of nearly 200 islands, most of which are blanketed in ice and completely uninhabited. Towering glacial cliffs, jagged coastlines, and endless snowfields cover the landscape. Over 85% of the land is covered in ice caps, making it feel more like a frozen frontier than anything remotely hospitable. There’s little in the way of vegetation, aside from hardy mosses, lichens, and the odd Arctic plant, but it’s teeming with wildlife from polar bears and walruses to seabirds like guillemots and ivory gulls. Sometimes, whales can be spotted offshore.

The archipelago was discovered in 1873 by Austro-Hungarian explorers Julius Payer and Karl Weyprecht when their ship Tegetthoff became trapped in ice and drifted toward an unknow archipelago, which they named after the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. After months of being locked in, they abandoned ship and set out with their crew and dog sledges. On one occasion, one of the crew and his dogs fell through a crevasse. Fortunately, they had an experienced alpinist who climbed down and helped the crew members, including the dogs, out safely. Their exploration of the archipelago helped map a large portion of it. Eventually, they were rescued by a Russian fishing vessel and returned home.

One of the most famous journeys was Fridtjof Nansen’s 1893-1896 expedition, initially aimed at reaching the North Pole. The plan was to drift with the Arctic currents in the ship Fram, but after 18 months of drifting in the ice, the ship eventually got trapped. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Nansen and his companion, Hjalmar Johansen, set out on skis, determined to push further north. However, conditions worsened, and they made the difficult decision to turn around. After battling harsh icy conditions and even surviving a polar bear attack, the two explorers reached Franz Josef Land in August 1895. There, they built a hut to spend the winter, relying on hunting for food and supplies. After three years of silence, they were presumed dead until, by sheer chance, they encountered Frederick Jackson’s expedition, which had arrived to explore the archipelago. Although they never reached the North Pole, their journey provided valuable scientific insights. Nansen became a renowned humanitarian and won the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize.