Meet the woman who’s on a climate mission to the North Pole

Inside the Arctic cabin of Hilde Fålun Strøm — 19 months, 104 polar bears, and a call to save the planet

It isn’t every day someone casually mentions they are heading back to a cabin near the North Pole. Yet, that is exactly what 57-year-old Hilde Fålun Strøm, a citizen scientist based in Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost town, told me when we met last year in the frozen archipelago of Svalbard.

Norwegian by nationality, Strøm grew up outside Oslo in a family that spent long days outdoors. Her passion for the Arctic began in childhood and deepened after she moved to Svalbard in 1995, where she lives with her husband Steinar, who works for Statsbygg and oversees properties owned by the Longyearbyen government. The two have lovely grandchildren.

An explorer, polar ambassador and climate advocate, Strøm runs Svalbard Expeditions and is the co-founder, with Sunniva Sorby, of Hearts in the Ice, a pioneering citizen-science initiative. She advocates for Arctic protection through global platforms such as COP26 and contributes to projects like Arctic Call, an Inuit-led summit integrating traditional knowledge with modern climate monitoring. This year, it is slated for September 11-15.

When I visited the region, it was early spring, and Svalbard was buried under snow. The sun didn’t set at all, yet no trees grew. The starkness felt almost extraterrestrial, and yet inviting. No wonder it held Strøm so firmly.

Reindeers of Longyearbyen. | Photo Credit: Courtesy Hilde Fålun Strøm

“When I return from the cabin,” she told me, “it is never with stories of solitude or survival. It is always science, encounters with polar bears, and a kind of happiness I cannot quite describe.” Bamsebu, the cabin, is a 20 sq.m structure built in 1930 for summer beluga hunting. There is no insulation, electricity or plumbing. “No heating either, unless you count the wood stove,” she said. “I have been collecting driftwood for years.”