New Delhi, June 12 -- I almost abandoned my Arctic adventure before it even started. Friends and family heaved a sigh of relief. Many thought my decision to swerve off to Svalbard, one of the northernmost permanently inhabited places on the planet, instead of attending a conference in Oslo, was unwise. At my age (I am only 67!), careening off alone in winter on a snowmobile, looking for the most dangerous land mammal. crazy-or so they thought.

That's not why I nearly did not go. Isfjord Radio Hotel in Spitsbergen (the old name for Svalbard), where I had planned to stay after I flew into the Arctic Circle from Oslo, was inaccessible. It had lost all its snow in the third week of April, long before it should have. There are very few roads ...