I opened the Barneo Ice Camp website today, and for the first time since the camp was launched in the early 1990s, the home page was in Chinese. My Mandarin skills are questionable at best, but I could still gather the gist: This year, the North Pole is going to have a Chinese vibe.
In a way, it’s understandable. Unlike Americans and Europeans, the Chinese aren’t afraid of being taken for spies and added to Russia’s “exchange fund” — a handy collection of foreigners to arrest and use a bargaining chips to trade for their own agents captured in the West. The Chinese also have the money for what’s being marketed as the Adventure of the Century. After an eight-year closure, the North Pole has become an even more exclusive experience.
The route to Camp Barneo, 2025. Photo campbarneo.com
We didn’t used to have heated toilets
I remember the old days, when insurance policies didn’t come with a price tag that looked like a down payment on a house, when we didn’t have giant Antonovs swooping in with their short-runway capabilities, and when there were no luxury toilet facilities at 89 degrees north.
People flew in on the old AN-2s, refueling along the way. Those planes are probably still out there somewhere, parked in a snowdrift, waiting for the moment they can step in when the AN-74s inevitably run into trouble again — as in 2019 when the whole Barneo season got canceled because a Ukrainian-owned AN-74 wasn’t allowed to land. That was back when the geopolitical nightmare at the Pole was just warming up.
Soviet Drifting Ice Station in 1990. Photo: Galya Morrell
Can you get to the North Pole without Russia? No.
Some people have asked if they can get to Barneo without traveling through Russia. Theoretically, sure — Canada is right there, and you don’t need Russian airspace clearance to fly from Resolute Bay to the Pole.
But practically? No. Kenn Borek Air, the local charter airline, doesn’t offer that service anymore. And even if they did, you’d still need permission to land at Swiss-owned Barneo, which is somehow under Russian jurisdiction. No way around that unless you’re planning a surprise arrival, which I wouldn’t recommend.
Swiss-owned but Russian-operated Barneo in 2018, the last year it operated. Photo: Galya Morrell
Last year, the season fell apart just as tourists were gathering in Krasnoyarsk. Officially, Camp Barneo and some of the polar guides blamed bad weather and an irreparably broken ice floe. But nevertheless, three Russian parachutists, Mikhail Korniyenko, Alexander Lynnik, and Denis Yefremov, threw themselves from an Ilyushin-76 plane from the Earth’s stratosphere to the North Pole and were enthusiastically welcomed at Barneo.
The Transglobal Car Expedition also used Barneo’s services. In their Instagram blog, they mentioned that the real reason wasn’t the ice or the weather. It was that foreigners weren’t getting clearance to pass through Russia’s top-secret Arctic.
The Transglobal Car Expedition receives supplies from Barneo in 2024. Photo: Transglobal Car Expedition/Instagram
“In late March, Barneo began deploying its station, dropping equipment on the ice near the North Pole, including our cargo,” the Transglobal Car Expedition wrote. “We waited, delays stretched on, and eventually, we learned that Barneo hadn’t coordinated with border guards. Foreigners weren’t allowed to land in Khatanga.
“We realized this wasn’t going to be solved anytime soon, so we decided to just take our package…By then, the station was shutting down for the year. We realized how close we had come to disaster. No fuel, no food, and no good backup plan.”
People in the industry recently told me there was some major drama between Swedish billionaire Frederick Paulsen, who owns Barneo, and his ambitious competitors in Krasnoyarsk. Apparently, it played a role in the shutdown. Dirty games? Maybe.
This year, Paulsen seems to have won, meaning that he gets the tourists, while those Krasnoyarsk competitors get the science expeditions. It remains unclear what this actually means or whether things won’t change when Barneo opens. In Russia, things often remain what Winston Churchill called a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Glaciologists after a long day at Barneo in 2016. Photo: Galya Morrell
The cost of being an explorer in 2025
A Last Degree Expedition in 2016. Photo: Galya Morrell
So, how much will this year’s North Pole cost you?
For $58,000, you can sign up for the North Pole Double Degree trip (April 1–18). That covers your journey from Krasnoyarsk to Krasnoyarsk and skiing from 88˚ to the North Pole. Visas, flights, hotels, and accommodations in Khatanga are extra.
Khatanga’s Hotel Mammoth Inn — also owned by Paulsen — is already fully booked from April 1 to May 9. But if you’re lucky (and “approved” by Camp Barneo), you might still get a room. It seems that the adventure now requires medical evacuation coverage, while search-and-rescue insurance is optional. Which Western insurance company is offering coverage in Russian territory? That too in unclear.
With a lower budget, you can opt for the North Pole Last Degree Ski Adventure (April 1–14) for a cool $52,000. Risk level: “Very low.” Which is funny, because right below that, the travel company strongly recommends trip cancellation insurance due to the ever-present possibility of weather disasters, ice breakage, political issues, labor strikes, wars, revolutions, or terrorism.
An AN-74 pilot approaches the Barneo runway. Photo from the previous season: Galya Morrell
The ultimate polar tourist experience
Barneo’s main square. Photo from a previous season: Galya Morrell
And for the champagne tourists, there’s the Ultimate North Pole Tour ($31,000). The description reads like a fever dream of excess:
“North Pole Deluxe takes you to the top of the world in style and comfort. Four jet flights, two helicopter flights, two nights in a hotel, and a night at Barneo Ice Camp give you the deluxe version of North Pole travel.”
The itinerary includes:
- April 4, 2025: Arrive in Krasnoyarsk.
- April 5: Fly to Khatanga (3.5 hours) and check into the Mammoth Inn.
- April 6: Sightseeing at the Mammoth Ice Museum and something called the Fold Art Center (I have no idea what that is).
- April 7: A five-hour flight to Barneo, stopping to refuel at Cape Baranova. Transfer to heated accommodations before taking a helicopter to the North Pole.
The North Pole Marathon: cheap at just $25,000
Finish line of the North Pole Marathon in 2018. Photo: Galya Morrell
And then there’s the North Pole Marathon — because why not run a race on a frozen ocean? Runbuk is trying to make it happen again, despite last year’s disaster when their clients never made it out of Krasnoyarsk due to permit issues.
But if they do pull it off, it’s the best deal in town. Sticking to the budget-friendly tradition started by Richard Donovan in the early 2000s, Runbuk is offering the full package for a mere $25,000.
Meanwhile, American polar adventurer Eric Larsen is still promoting his Ellesmere Island to North Pole expedition, set to begin on February 20. The only question is: will Barneo (on which their pickup depends) even exist?
When the Arctic wasn’t a luxury destination
Richard Weber and Misha Malakhov. Photo: weberarctic.com
Thirty years ago, skiing to the North Pole was a different beast. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Richard Weber and Misha Malakhov’s 1995 roundtrip ski from Ward Hunt Island to the Pole and back. No helicopters, no resupplies, no $50,000 insurance policies. No sled dogs, no guides.
On February 13, 1995, they left Ward Hunt Island. Eighty-one days later, on May 12, they arrived at the Pole. By June 15, after 108 days on the ice, they were back at Ward Hunt. Since historians now accept that the original claimants, Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, never reached the North Pole, Weber and Malakhov’s journey is the only one to the Pole and back. Ever.
But that was another era. Now, the North Pole is less about survival and more about a five-star experience. But given all the problems in recent years, uncertainty still reigns.
