Alaska, nature in all its excess

Kruzof and Baranof Islands, Lake Becharof, Chelikov Strait… The northernmost of the American states is studded with Russian toponyms.

In 1724, Tsar Peter the Great entrusted Vitus Bering with the ambitious mission of mapping the eastern limits of his empire.

The Danish navigator explored Kamchatka on a first voyage, then passed the Aleutian Islands on a second expedition, before arriving at the jagged shores of Alaska in 1741.

After years of criss-crossing the sea that now bears his name, Bering, at the end of his tether, stayed only three days on the North American continent.

What does it matter!

His feat remains etched in legend, along with those of Fernand de Magellan, Christopher Columbus and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

The latter is the great ice cream hero.

Its name therefore logically imposed itself on the Norwegian company Hurtigruten to baptize the new flagship of its fleet.

We owe him the discovery of the mythical Northwest Passage, the conquest of the South Pole as well as that of the North Pole.

Just that !

Designed for expeditions in the polar environment, the MS Roald Amundsen is a hybrid propulsion ship, at the cutting edge of technology and comfort.

It is also one of the very few cruise ships to venture into the freezing mists of the Bering Sea.

Departing from Nome, in the far west of America, it embarks five hundred passengers for an extraordinary journey, to discover the Aleutian Islands, the Gulf of Alaska and the Inside Passage which ends in Vancouver.

The Cradle of the Winds

Hurtigruten expedition cruises are distinguished by their scientific and educational dimensions.

The first days of navigation in the Bering Sea are thus an opportunity to attend conferences on the environment and the history of the region.

Alaska specialist Bernard Derhy tells French-speaking passengers how a century of Russian domination has upset the Aleutians: “The survivors of the Bering expedition praised in Russia the extraordinary abundance of fur-bearing animals in these islands.

Following them, hordes of Siberian trappers landed, decimating the sea otters and seals as well as the natives.

Related to the Eskimo people, the Aleuts numbered around 25,000 when Bering arrived.

They are now only 2,200 across the archipelago.

These three hundred volcanic islands and islets form an arc spanning 1,800 km, between the coasts of Alaska and those of Kamchatka.

The Aleuts call them the “Cradle of the Winds”.

And for good reason !

These primitive lands offer the spectacle of unleashed nature.

No need to worry about the weather when the MS Roald Amundsen gets there.

The archipelago enjoys invariably bad weather.

No tree there resists the fury of the winds.

And when the storms calm down, persistent fogs take over.

The archipelago has nonetheless become a haven for wildlife.

Now protected, millions of seabirds and thousands of sea lions compete for the beaches and cliffs of these true “Galapagos of the North”.

An emblematic fauna

Bursting with plankton, the Bering Sea feeds an astonishing diversity of animals, but also fishermen and packing plant workers who come to look for work in the country's two largest ports, Unalaska and Kodiak.

These stages of the MS Roald Amundsen offer passengers the opportunity to admire the bald eagle, always looking for a fish to pilfer on the deck of a trawler.

Like fur-bearing animals, this majestic raptor narrowly escaped extermination.

Chosen in 1782 as the emblem of the United States, it was paradoxically subject to systematic hunting, until total protection was granted to it in… 1940!

And while it recently dropped off the endangered species list, sea otters and seals have not yet.

Predatorless and relatively untouched by human activities, brown bears lead a more peaceful life in Katmai National Park.

A rare privilege: various zodiac outings are scheduled to contemplate the plantigrades in this very isolated area.

In summer, meetings are almost guaranteed, but always at a good distance.

Respect and caution are indeed required.

Because despite their good-natured appearance, grizzly bears are the largest terrestrial carnivores.

On Kodiak Island, where the rivers teem with salmon, these big gluttons have evolved into a subspecies that can weigh more than 800 kg and run at 55 km/h!

Nature in peril

As the first glaciers cut into Resurrection Bay, the MS Roald Amundsen then docked in Seward.

The small town bears the name of the American who negotiated, in 1867, the purchase of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska from Russia.

Long a "Territory", these wild immensities only became a "State" in 1959 with, as a flag, the proposal of a young orphan from Seward: the constellation of the Big Dipper, flanked by the North Star on a blue background.

Enormous bears, but also giant trees and huge peaks enveloped in glaciers that plunge into the sea where whales blow: the bay of Alaska brings together all that nature makes of grandiose.

It was at the foot of Mount Saint Elias and its glittering glaciers that Bering set foot in Alaska.

Approaching this colossus culminating at an altitude of 5,488 m, Julien Alex, glaciologist and cruise expedition leader, is keen to raise passengers' awareness of the region's environmental issues: "The polar areas are the first to be affected by the sudden increase in CO2 in the atmosphere.

In Alaska, average temperatures have increased by 1.5 degrees over the past fifty years.

The thermometer even climbed to 33 degrees in Anchorage in 2019!

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Permafrost thaw, changes in air and ocean currents… We still have difficulty measuring all the consequences of global warming.

But in the face of the upheavals to come, solutions may come from the Alaska Natives, who have always known how to adapt to violent weather phenomena.

green giants

The largest of the American states also remains the least accessible.

Symbol of this superb isolation, its administrative capital, Juneau, is not connected to any land route.

The site was chosen for its central position, between the immensities of the North and the Southeast of Alaska which adjoins British Columbia.

In the Inside Passage, which protects ships to Vancouver, the MS Roald Amundsen meets other passenger ships for the first time in the trip.

However, the return to civilization is not for now.

This sea route, which winds for 800 km in a maze of islands and fjords, crosses the largest temperate rain forest on the planet.

Populated with cedars, spruces and moss-dripping western redcedars, the Tongass National Forest contains more organic matter per hectare than a tropical jungle.

“Never had I been so struck by landscapes that so desperately challenged my ability to describe.

Naturalist John Muir, conservation pioneer and father of America's national parks, explored this lush part of Alaska.

The final stages of MS Roald Amundsen follow its adventures from Sitka, the former Russian capital, to Wrangell, the starting point of the Gold Rush.

Written at the end of the 19th century, his

celebrate “the song of the world”.

An ecological ode that eighteen days of expedition will have been enough to anchor in each of the passengers.

“We are in the mountain, and the mountain is in us, in each of our nerves […], and our body, then, becomes transparent like glass to the beauty that surrounds it.

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expedition cruise

Inaugurated in 2019, the MS Roald Amundsen is a hybrid ship whose electric propulsion reduces the carbon footprint by 20%.

With this technology, Hurtigruten's ambition is to pave the way towards a more sustainable practice of travel.

In Alaska, the “Inside Passage, Bears and Aleutian Islands” tour is also new to the Norwegian expedition cruise specialist.

As soon as they board, the passengers of the MS Roald Amundsen are immersed in an atmosphere conducive to discovery.

Deck 6 brings together a science center equipped with microscopes, interactive screens and abundant documentation, as well as conference rooms, reception, a shop and restaurants for which the company is renowned.

To avoid overcrowding, conferences can be followed live, in the privacy of the booths.

The latter, large and comfortable, all look like a suite.

However, the atmosphere on board remains very relaxed to favor the spirit of adventure.

Thanks to free Wi-Fi, an application allows you to keep informed of the daily program and to register for excursions, without wasting paper.

In the same spirit of sobriety, the Green Stay system allows each passenger to forgo daily room service.

For each cleaning saved, 5 cents are donated to the Hurtigruten Foundation, which finances projects to protect wildlife, fight against litter and support local communities.

To improve their models, scientists need large-scale data.

At the end of their expedition, interested travelers are therefore invited to contribute to citizen science projects, such as HappyWhale, which collects photographs of whale tails to identify their migratory routes.

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