Cruising the 55th Parallel by Patrick Kinney

Doesn’t everyone want to be an arctic explorer? To brave glacial winds with stoic indifference? If you’ve been wanting to organize an arctic expedition but don’t know where to start, or thought it was too expensive, here are a couple of ways to bask in the midnight sun without getting burned in the bank account.

The Alaska Marine Highway
Usually arctic explorers travel with skis and dog sleds, but if you’re a beginner, I would suggest starting with the ship option. The Alaska Marine Highway, while not technically an exploration within the Arctic Circle (the ship’s not even an ice breaker), can serve as a good primer if you’re a budding Amundsen. Plus it could be the first leg of a longer journey.

Boats leave from Bellingham, Washington once a week on Friday evenings and travel north through the Inside Passage to the town of Haines. The Inside Passage is a beautiful region of thick coastal forests, glaciers and mountain peaks steeped in Native American history.

The trip can be inexpensive if you bring your own sleeping bag and sleep on the deck. The top deck of the ship, called the "solarium," has astroturf to lie on, a view of the starry night sky, and overhead heaters. Be forewarned however that this area fills up quickly when boarding begins.

The ship makes numerous stops along the way and tickets can be bought for any portion of the trip allowing one to stop off, albeit for a week minimum, to explore the surrounding territory.

One of the most interesting places to stop is the town of Sitka situated on an island below an extinct volcano, Mt. Edgecombe. A Tlingit Indian village until the 1804 Battle of Sitka, the area subsequently became home to the Russian settlement of New Archangel. Sitka’s rich history is honored by the indigenous culture collection of the Sheldon Jackson Museum, the totem poles of the Sitka National Historical Park, and St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Accommodation can be found from June through October at the Sitka hostel for $7.00 a night; just remember to bring a sleeping bag and to reserve ahead of time.

Further north along the route lies Juneau, Alaska’s capitol and easily the most beautiful city in the state. Besides offering the common visitor gold rush era architecture, green parks and hilly streets to explore, the aspiring arctic explorer will find glaciers to sink their crampons into just minutes from the city center.

The boat ride offers an incredible experience all on its own, most immediately for the spectacular scenery. The boat passes close to land allowing views of eagles soaring over forested islands and serves as a fascinating portal through which to view the character of the Alaskans. As one of the most affordable and interesting ways of getting between Alaska and the "lower 48," the ship attracts a hodgepodge of people, some on vacation, others making a permanent move.

The Norwegian Coastal Steamer
For a true arctic adventure, head to the homeland of the great explorers Heyerdahl and Nansen. Norway’s coastline stretches deep into the Arctic Circle. Though sparsely populated, the coast is dotted with communities and the shipping route stays open year round. In winter, when the sun completely disappears for roughly nine weeks, a coastal steamer provides one of the only links between these towns and the rest of Norway.

When the steamer first began operating in 1893, it reduced the mail delivery time between the north and the south in winter from five months to just a few days. Today newer ships have been added to the route making it more of a luxury outing. However so-called "traditional" ships still make the seven day trip between Kirkenes near the Russian border, and the city of Bergen.

The Bergen Line, the shipping company that books the coastal steamer in the United States, offers the entire journey as a 6-12 day package with shipboard cabins and three meals a day starting at roughly $120 a day per person, not a bad deal considering the cost of travel in Norway. Even the most frugal would be hard pressed to budget less than $50 a day.

While the complete package is the best value for money, it is also possible to book a cabin without meals for a shorter period of time, or to travel without a cabin during the day. I recommend breaking up the trip in one of these ways to allow more time for visiting the coastal communities and environments. Norway has a thoroughly developed hostel network with numerous hostels along the ferry route. One could combine a portion of the coastal ferry with time spent hostelling for an incredible journey through one of the most breathtaking landscapes on earth.

The coastal steamer does not travel through the fjords. To experience the majesty of the most dramatic fjords, one should take one of the short ferry crossings that run in places such as the Geirangerfjord. The coastal steamer does however provide the best way of accessing the north of Norway in places like the Lofoten Islands, Tromso and Hammerfest.

The Lofoten Islands could keep one occupied the whole summer by themselves. These mountainous islands rise dramatically out of the Norwegian Sea like blunt incisors dwarfing the fishing communities perched on the lip of land between ocean and sky. The Lofotens contain eight hostels and a host of hiking trails.

As the steamer route continues toward North Cape, the northernmost point on the European continent, it enters the ancient land of the Sami. While widely known as Lapps, this indigenous people of Northern Europe call themselves Sami and consider "Lapp" a derogatory term. With a homeland divided between four countries, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, Sami culture has experienced a long period of persecution that has only lessened in recent decades. The museum in Tromso and the Samiland center in Hammerfest are two places to learn about this 8,000 year old culture.

While in Tromso, be sure to see the exhibition on Arctic exploration and don’t forget to pay homage to Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911. Amundsen’s statue stands in the harbor looking out across the Norwegian Sea toward Greenland, Spitsbergen and beyond. Take a moment to remember the names of Nordenskiold, Eriksson, Bering, Peary, Scott and Cook as you set your sights on the frontiers that beckon.