It’s a bit shaky (understandable given the cameraman’s cold hands and the fact that the narwhal dove under the kayak!), but I think it really captures something essential about the one-on-whale encounter!

Kayaking with Narwhal from Brüdder on Vimeo.

The June/July issue of Men’s Journal is out, with their special spread on Canada for Adrenaline Junkies. Arctic Kingdom is listed for the #1 activity, Dive With Whales. The article states,

In summer, the Arctic sea is dotted with sun-sculpted icebergs and populated with monsters: beluga whales and narwhals, walrus, seals, Greenland sharks and polar bears. The best way to see the beasts is to don a wetsuit and dive right in: Whales, congregating along the floe edge, will swim beside you, eye to gigantic eye.

As the article goes on to note, the wildlife isn’t the only attraction. There’s the shocking blue of the ice, the water alive with microscopic creatures, and kayaking in sunlight at two AM, when “the sun casts long shadows and the glowing ice makes for a surreal experience.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

John will be leading balloon-centered Arctic Kingdom expeditions next year. Consider this a preview!

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Facebook | Arctic Kingdom’s Photos – Diving against an iceberg.

Diverse marine life makes the waters surrounding pond inlet ideal for diving.

The scenery's pretty spectacular, too.

For the latest expedition updates, follow Arctic Kingdom Field akexpeditions on Twitter.

I have to admit a weakness for hot air balloon travel — there’s something so elegant, so magical about it, it really takes air travel away from mere utilitarian transport and into a realm of wonder.

Of course, up at the North Pole, this is more than just a balloon ride. Of his 3,130 km trip from Spitzbergen to Siberia, 65-year old French explorer Jean-Louis Etienne notes,

It was much harder than I imagined it to be. Yesterday I made contact with France and for a press conference, they asked me, if it took me five days. I would say I wouldn’t know. It was constant and non-stop… It was an extremely grueling voyage with sleep hours, well, that doesn’t exist- sleep hours, more like with some minutes of sleep. It was very very grueling.

Still, the video that balloon soaring over the snow is gorgeous. It reminds me of one of my favorite sets on our Flickr page, of a 2004 expedition utilizing a hot air balloon for filming!

Visit our Flickr page for more images, including our full array of airboat photos.

Well, the footage from that expedition — part of the series Desafio Extremo, or Extreme Challenge — is now online. And it’s pretty spectacular, capturing both the beauty and danger of diving beneath the Arctic ice.

Check out the videos online here, and if you read Spanish (or feel like cheating, as I did, with a free online translator) you can read Jesús Calleja’s account of the adventure on his blog, which really captures the adrenaline of piloting a snowmobile across the sea ice, as well as the combination of on-the-ice flexibility and strong infrastructure needed to pull off a filming expedition to the Arctic!

Here’s a teaser for the show. Visit the Desafino Extremo site for more photos and footage of the adventure!

Tom with the harpoon he found on a dive last year.

Divers beneath the ice.

A team prepares to dive.

Visit our Flickr page for photos of ice diving, dog sledding, ballooning and more. And if you’d like to read about how Tom found the harpoon in the top photo, that’s #8 on his Top Ten Floe Edge Moments from 2009!

I was reminded of this today when I read about  a recent record-breaking dive beneath a frozen lake in Slovakia. While the dive — a continuous 2120 meter dive utilizing rebreather units — is indisputably impressive, no lake dive can compare to diving beneath the Arctic ice. As evidenced by the footage below, taken on Arctic Kingdom dives:

Video by Louise Murray

Want to experience the world below the ice first hand? Start your adventure today on our Dive Adventures page, or visit our Adventure Travel page for news on the variety of expeditions we have coming up!