I have visited the biggest wilderness in Europe – where it is illegal to go outside without the weapon and seal is on the menu

Unlikely, places of preservation and beautiful sinister, Svalbard is a natural film set – it is no wonder that parts of mission: impossible – the last settlement was filmed here.

The size of Ireland, the Norwegian archipelago is the biggest wilderness in Europe – just 400 miles from the North Pole. Most is rock and ice and only one island, Spitsbergen, is inhabited, the home of 2,600 souls in five small settlements.

I was here for a week – participating in a snowmobile expedition. Here is how it went …

Ultra Cold on Basic Camp Svalbard never thaws and is frozen to a depth of more than 330 ft (100m). The core of this icy world is Longyearbyen, a former Stadsmijnstad. In the spring the temperature floats at around -15c.

This is the world’s northernmost city, with the northernmost library, pub, schools and a handful of ‘Scandi Cool’ hotels. Seal functions on menus. Snow motorcycles are sold at the cooperative. Reindeer Patrol de Tundras.

It is illegal to leave Longyearbyen without weapons. “Polar bears can appear anywhere,” warns our guide, Elise, who wears a gun. The last week a group was stalked (luckily, without incidents).

They are usually 7ft-plus and can weigh more than 100 stone (630 kg). There are more than 3,000 in Svalbard. You can see hug bears anywhere in the city: at the airport, pub and even the church.

On the ice there are six in our group, each with a snowmobile. For eight hours we drive on frozen rivers, through IJs fields and further to glaciers, the temperature drops to -27c. We wear polar suits and the steering wheel is heated. For food we have freeze -dried curry.

John Gimlette visits Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole

The size of Ireland, the Norwegian archipelago is the biggest wilderness in Europe – and just 400 miles from the North Pole

Polar bears are 7ft-plus and can weigh more than 100 stone (630 kg). There are more than 3,000 in Svalbard

The size of Ireland, the Norwegian archipelago is the biggest wilderness in Europe – just 400 miles from the North Pole

After Longyearbyen we don’t see anyone else. It is an unforgettable ride, with mountains as white as clouds under a cobalt blue sky. Cliffs are created in the distance that look like piles of ice pink coins. On an occasion we enter a natural tunnel under the glacier at Horybreen. The silence is huge.

After 84 miles we reach the unlikely stylish Nordskiold Lodge, with leather armchairs, panoramic windows and even a sauna. Here we are cared for by a real Arctic couple: Trond, a former pedal, and his partner, Ragna, who served an excellent reindeer stew.

Sanitary is difficult in the tundra, so men have to pee outside. This means that an armed guard (Trond) is taken who monitors his .44 Magnum for polar bears.

Eight miles away is the Russian mining city of Pyramids. Under the Svalbard treaty of 1920, Moscow is allowed to extract coal, and the city is a remnant of the Soviet times.

Due to sanctions we do not visit, but we clear the sea ice around the city. It is a gloomy place of scabbing tower blocks and rusting cranes that was home to 900 miners during the heyday (1975-85). Now there are only 20 – plus a statue of Vladimir Lenin.

On our last day we walk over a frozen bay to the bottom of Nordskiold Glacier. Here are great columns with ice creams and collapse with a tree. From afar, the glacier wall looks like a stream of smelled skyscrapers. But close -up is it more like a ramparts made of turquoise marble. Late in the evening Ragna Brokken fall into our whiskeys from this prehistoric ice.

On Spitsbergen there are more huskies than people. Before snowmobiles, dogs were the only way to travel.

On our return I try what is known as Mushing, every sport driven by dogs.

On Spitsbergen there are more huskies than people. Before snowms, dogs were the only way to travel

A zodiac travels between the glaciers of Svalbard

With names such as Ravioli, Stinky and Twix, they are strong, affectionate and enthusiastic to please. Compared to zippers in a snowmobile, it goes slowly.

Not everyone survives Svalbard. Some missions turn out to be really impossible. The North Pole Museum in Longyearbyen is like a gallery with accidents. It’s all here: a chestnut brown suit of a kite, pieces of the plane from Roald Amundsen and the doomed Italia airship.

The City Museum also has a ‘catastrophe section’. One exhibition concerns the rifle of Trapper Georg Nilsen, who disappeared in 1921.

His skeleton was discovered in 1965, crunched by polar bears … his gun stuck.

John Gimlette is the author of the Gardens of Mars: Madagascar, an island story, published by Head of Zeus.