Climb Ev'ry Mountain

How to Spitsbergen*, an Illustrated Tutorial:

Step one: Fly north. All the way north. 78 degrees latitude north.

Step two: Visit town of Svalbard

Step three: Climb aboard boat**

 Step four: See fjords and glaciers

 Step five: See lots of wildlife that did not show up on camera, including whales, seals, polar bears, and puffins***

Step six: Promise people it looked like this in the binoculars****

 Step seven: See abandoned coal-mining town of Pyramiden

 Step eight: Pull the blackout curtains to sleep.*****

 Step nine: Go dogsledding!

 Step ten: Get ridiculous (in warmth and look) gear to go dogsledding in******

 Step eleven: Have the COOLEST time ever and even drive the sled*******

 Step twelve: Take it back to camp. You have Spitsberged.

*Country Point 143!!!
**Bonus points if yours also includes the boat captain in most casual driving pose ever.
***According to our guides, we saw more animals in one trip than they usually see in weeks combined. I wouldn't have believed them except they were all taking pictures as well.
****It kinda did, though.
*****This picture is from 12:30am, 30 minutes after "sunset." "Sunrise" was at 1am. This is the land of the midnight sun and there won't be night again until August. From mid-October to mid-February, they never see the sun. #SAD
******In this outfit I thought, "I could live in Boston again!"
*******Real talk. When our guide was first telling us how to drive the sled, I thought, "why is she telling me this information I don't need?" When she then said we would all take turns driving, I thought, "why doesn't she value her life more?" When I was actually driving the sled, I thought, "THIS IS SO AWESOME AND FUN!"