The harsh, cold but gripping beauty of the Arctic is shared by seven nations with a common thread in customs, food, people and landscapes: Canada, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the United States. The Arctic is not a desolate wasteland but a beautiful and powerful place, alive with wildlife, striking landscapes and Eskimo culture. In winter, when the weather is good and the skies clear, moonbeams dance across the snow and the Northern Lights flower overhead. In summer, when the snow melts and tiny flowers bloom, a rush of bird life replaces the chilly silence of winter.
Anchorage, Alaska
Half-an-hour from the wilderness, Anchorage is Arctic's soft-option destination. The city centre bustles with office workers, fine restaurants and upmarket shops. Modern towers fill the skyline against an immense landscape of forest, mountains, rivers and rocky tundra. The Alaskan state capital teases the senses with the anticipation of the wintry gems that lie beyond this modern bastion of civilisation.
Chukotka, Russia
As little as 80km separate Alaska's Inupiat and Yupik Eskimo communities from their Russian counterparts in Chukotka, but for decades they could have been in different galaxies. Now, long after the end of the Cold War, the populations either side of the Bering Strait are thawing the 'ice curtain' and becoming re-acquainted. Travel across the strait was once as common for people as for roving polar bears, and families spread themselves on both sides of the water. After all, only 4km stand between Alaska's Little Diomede Island and Russia's Big Diomede Island. One Eskimo dialect, Siberian Yup'ik, thrives in both Alaska and Chukotka, a testimony to a common past.