Helicopter ride

I joined the expedition late, so I was helicoptered out to the Lance. It was very exciting.

The beast:
Taking off felt really strange because the helicopter tips forward
Out over isfjorden, which is one of the largest fjords in Svalbard:

A big glacier:
Mud flats below a glacier:
The second half of the ride was above the clouds, but I got this picture just before we passed over the clouds:
We decended through the clouds once we approached the Lance. The cloud base was only 200-300 meters above sea level (lower than the mountains), so the pilots had to use radar to find a fjord to descend into. I took this picture just as we broke through the clouds:
The clouds were at the same level as snow on the mountains:
At last, the Lance:

We flew up the valley a ways to try to spot a polar bear that was near the ship the day before. No luck, though.

On deck: There was a crew filming a documentary for Norwegian television on board for the whole cruise.