Ski touring in Svalbard by boat: explore the Arctic differently

After presenting in issue 62 a trip to Svalbard “without a boat” around Longyearbyen, this time we set out to explore the archipelago in navigation mode. This article is therefore intended to be complementary, with another way of approaching these unique polar lands.
The Svalbard offers such a change of scenery for a ski tourer that it deserves a few lines of introduction.
Svalbard is an archipelago administered by Norway and located in the Greenland Sea, in the Arctic Ocean. Located between 74° and 81° north latitude, it is the northernmost land of Norway, 1300 km from the North Pole.
Newtontoppen (1713 m) is the highest point of Spitsbergen, the main island of the archipelago. It is also in Spitsbergen that the only real town, Longyearbyen, is located, with 2950 inhabitants.