Two women spent most of the last two years living in a tiny cabin on a remote Arctic island in Norway.
“It’s an old trapper station built for beluga hunting. It’s no running water, no electricity. It’s even uninsulated,” says Hilde Fålun Strøm. “It was a couple of very cold winters staying there,”
She and Sunniva Sorby are explorers who are passionate about protecting the Arctic, the fastest-warming region on Earth.
While living there, they collected data that will be used by climate scientists. They took ice core samples, operated drones to measure sea surface temperatures, and documented wildlife sightings.
Sorby relished the opportunity to live so close to nature.
“To go to a place like the Arctic, which looks so frozen and so forbidding, and to feel so at home was a really powerful feeling,” she says.
And she wanted to share it with others. From the cabin, Sorby and Strøm connected with students around the world using satellite video.
“And they’re all on camera and they’re lit up because they get to explore without leaving their seat,” Sorby says.
The women hope to help inspire a new generation to fall in love with the Arctic, and work to protect it.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media